Does loyalty pay? As Nationwide axes its savings rewards and Tesco brings in paid-for Clubcards, we take a look

This is Money Podcast

This is Money

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.1 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2019

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What's the difference between loyalty and inertia? Do we get too little reward for the former and show too much of the latter when it comes to shopping and banking?

That's the question Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and host Georgie Frost tackle in the podcast this week.

It comes as Tesco – one of the original loyalty scheme pioneers – revealed its new paid-for Clubcard Plus, costing £7.99 per month.

Meanwhile, Nationwide Building Society has also announced it is scrapping its hugely popular loyalty savings accounts held by 1.6million people.

Which are the firms and organisations the team feel some loyalty too - and what are the ones they stick with out of sheer laziness?

And with another small energy firm going bust, should we in fact be staying 'loyal' to some of the established giants for peace of mind?

Elsewhere, we look at a study comparing the costs of buying and renting a home claiming the former could leave you £350,000 better off: do we finally have conclusive evidence?

Also, when you buy shares in a company, do you need to check what bosses of the business are up to? Are they themselves buying into their own company – and if not… why not?

We also run the rule over statistics showing how many cars there are with more than 250,000 miles on clock with a full MOT. The team reveal the best workhorse cars, the high-milers they've owned and ask listeners to tell us below: what is the biggest mileage you've racked up on a car?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to This Is Money. I'm Georgie Frost and alongside me and editor Simon Lambert is assistant editor Lee Boyce.
0:06.0	And today it's Simon and Lee's favourite subject. We're talking all about loyalty and loyalty schemes.
0:12.7	The original Tesco is back in the game while Nationwide is out. Are they worth it to us and to businesses though?
0:19.8	Also two for the price of one. How buying a home instead of renting could leave you over 350 grand richer over 30 years.
0:28.0	Plus, should you back shares where bosses have skin in the game and we take a look at Britain's best workhorse cars.
0:34.9	And don't forget, you can stay up to date with all the latest breaking money news.
0:38.2	Just go to this ismoney.co.uk or download the app.
0:42.6	But first, we've heard a lot of talk about loyalty recently,
0:46.1	particularly in regards to utility companies ripping off customers who stick with them rather than switching about.
0:52.7	And us, why Sages, of course, have been saying loyalty doesn't pay when it comes to business
0:57.6	for years.
0:59.5	Or does it?
1:00.5	Now, Tesco with the original loyalty scheme pioneers, then everybody jumped on the bandwagon,
1:05.3	and then everyone seemed to sort of jump off again, including Tesco, but lo, the supermarket
1:09.6	giant is back in the game with
1:11.4	the relaunched club card plus. Now, I know how much of a fan you guys are of loyalty cards,
1:20.3	particularly, yeah, yeah, they're not at all. I have many. But before we get carried away,
1:27.0	this week nationwide,
1:28.1	and it's not exactly a loyalty card,
1:29.7	but it's loyalty nonetheless,
1:31.4	loyalty and name, shall we say,
1:33.2	announced it was scrapping its hugely popular loyalty savings account.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from This is Money, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of This is Money and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.