ONLINE SHOPPERS ALERTED TO 'DISCOUNT CLUB' RISK
By clicking on a box, online shoppers could be hit by an unexpected monthly charge
By Holly Thomas, Deputy Personal Finance Editor
Many internet users are unaware they are agreeing to pay a subscription after placing online orders...
ONLINE shoppers are risking unwittingly signing up for a subscription to a discount club that costs almost £100 a year. Consumers booking with easyJet and Interflora, among a number of online retailers, are offered the chance of a money-off voucher for their next purchase, along with a 30-day trial of the club if they click on a “Yes” box.
What many do not realise is that by accepting the offer they are agreeing to pay a monthly £8 subscription to Shopper Discounts & Rewards.
The site pays cashback on purchases made from more than 450 retailers. It makes money from the businesses by directing people to their goods and a percentage of this is paid back to the shopper.
Crucially, the credit or debit card details entered to pay for an order with the retailer are often automatically transferred to Shopper Discounts & Rewards.
Many people claim to be unaware of this or that they had agreed to the subscription and had authorised monthly payments to be taken by the company.
Internet forums contain a host of complaints from people who say they have been caught out. Some have managed to cancel subscriptions and obtain refunds but others have not been so lucky.
Your Money reader Deanne Pearson said she got caught out when booking a flight with easyJet in February.
“A couple of months later, I noticed on my bank statement there was an £8 charge which I did not recognise,” said Deanne, from north London.
“I called my bank, NatWest, which explained it was a membership charge for Shopper Discounts & Rewards. I was also told it had taken lots of calls from other confused customers.
“I remember clicking on a box which offered me a money-off voucher but at no stage was it clear that my credit card details would be shared with a third party and that I was signing up for a subscription service.
“Shopper Discounts has since refunded me.”
Shopper Discounts & Rewards maintains it is perfectly clear for consumers. “We offer a free 30-day trial, after which we start charging,” the club said. “It is made very clear that we are a subscription service at the time of joining and we also follow up with five emails in total, confirming all the details of cost.
“We operate a whiter-than-white customer services policy. Shopper Discounts & Rewards makes every effort to be straightforward with its offer and this includes making it quick and easy for people to cancel their membership if they so desire. We will also consider refunds.”
A spokeswoman for easyJet confirmed the company had recently changed the process by which its customers could be signed up.
“Customer feedback led us to change the acceptance part of the process,” she said. “We now require people to retype their credit-card details if they want to take up the offer of the voucher, and they will be told during one of the stages that their acceptance means an £8-a-month charge.”
A spokesman for Interflora, which also offers membership of the club, said: “We reviewed the way this scheme was presented online and implemented changes, which went live in December 2007, to ensure communication of the offer was clearer to our customers.”
Shopper Discounts & Rewards said a list of partners was not publicly available. Club members received several “benefits”, including extended warranty protection for up to one additional full year and damage, theft and loss protection on all qualifying purchases.
But Teresa Fritz at consumer group Which? said: “Extended warranties are mostly not worth the paper they are written on and come with many exclusions. Possessions should be covered under your home contents insurance anyway, so the protection against damage, loss and theft may be pointless.”
There are many websites that just offer the cashback benefits and do not charge — indeed, they often pay members to join. Internetcashback.co.uk adds a £10 credit to each account on registration and Greasypalm.co.uk pays £2.50 to shoppers who sign up.
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