Brits Hold £1.3bn in Unclaimed Loyalty Card Savings
29th May 2014
95% of UK adults belong to a loyalty card scheme.
Average loyalty card balance is £28.60
£46.90 - average amount redeemed by shoppers in the last year from across all their loyalty schemes, representing £2.1bn worth of savings.
14% of loyalty scheme members haven't redeemed any points in the last year
Shoppers hold an estimated £1.3bn of savings in unclaimed loyalty points according to new research commissioned by Gocompare.com.
Most (95%) UK adults are members of at least one loyalty scheme and estimate the current value of their rewards to be £28.60. While more women (98%) than men (91%) participate in loyalty schemes, the survey found that men typically carry much higher balances on their reward cards than women - £35.90 compared with £22.60 for women.
The survey also revealed that in the last year Britons redeemed £2.1bn worth of loyalty card points. Those who cashed-in their rewards benefited from an average saving of £46.90, but 14% of loyalty scheme members surveyed said that they haven't redeemed any points in the last year.
Claire Peate, customer insight manager at Gocompare.com, commented: "Loyalty cards allow you to earn points and rewards on a wide range of goods and services - but unless you remember to redeem them, they are pointless. To avoid losing the benefits accrued through these schemes, make sure that you read the terms and conditions carefully, and in particular look for exclusions, expiry dates and ways in which you can get the maximum value from your points."
Claire Peate continued: “Retailers frequently run offers whereby you can earn extra loyalty rewards over a certain period of time or if you buy certain products, tempting us to spend more money. But, generally speaking, loyalty benefits represent a tiny discount and you often have to spend a significant amount to earn a few pounds' worth of rewards. As such, buying something solely on account of the loyalty points you receive could be a false economy if you could have bought the item for less money elsewhere.”
On 10th April 2014, Gocompare.com commissioned an online survey among 2,000 randomly selected British adults aged 18+ who are Springboard UK panelists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 2.2, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current social grade, age, gender and region data to ensure samples representative of the entire adult population of Great Britain. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to cell rounding.
*To calculate the total balance on/amount spent UK loyalty schemes: The average UK loyalty scheme balance is £28.60. 95% of Brits have a loyalty card. 95% of UK adult population (47.8m according to Experian's Demographic Summary) = 45.4m. The total balance on UK loyalty cards is 45.4m x £28.60 = £1,298,440,000 (rounded to £1.3bn) and the total amount spent in the last year is 45.4m x £46.90 = £2,129,260,000 (rounded to £2.1bn).
Gocompare.com is a comparison website that enables people to compare the costs and features of a wide variety of insurance policies, financial products and energy tariffs. Gocompare.com is free for consumers to use and it does not accept advertising or sponsored listings, so all product comparisons are unbiased. Gocompare.com makes its money through fees paid by the providers of products that appear on its various comparison services when a customer buys through the site. Gocompare.com does not sell its customers' data.
When it launched in 2006, it was the first comparison site to focus on displaying policy details, rather than just listing prices, with the aim of helping consumers to make better-informed decisions when buying their insurance. Gocompare.com has remained dedicated to helping people choose the most appropriate products rather than just the cheapest and has teamed up with Defaqto, the independent financial research organisation, to integrate additional product information into a number of its insurance comparison services, allowing its customers to compare up to an extra 30 features of cover.
Gocompare.com was founded by Hayley Parsons OBE, who has spent her entire career in the insurance industry. The company is based in Newport, South Wales, where it employs over 200 people.
esure Services Limited has a 50% shareholding in Gocompare.com Holdings Limited, the holding company of Gocompare.com Limited, and Gocompare.com maintains operational control and functions autonomously. The remainder of the shares are held by Hayley Parsons (23%), external shareholders, and staff.
Gocompare.com is the only price comparison site to be invited to join the British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
