Park Christmas Savings Club - is it just a big rip-off?

This is the second year I have saved with them, last year there was a huge range of shops I could use the gift card (even then you still had to buy gifts you couldn't use the vouchers with) with for online shopping - this year it was reduced to about 7!! I am not using them again next year, you really are better off setting up a savings account and then buying anything you want/need for Christmas, without the restrictions

I have used it for several years and find it great. You can convert some of the L2S cards into vouchers eg Amazon and M&S. I sometimes get a cash card you can use anywhere (there is a small charge for that). It is a weight off my mind that Christmas and 2 birthdays are catered for by saving a bit each month separately.

I do it through work, they ‘keep’ whatever amount we ask them to each month (I go with £30.00) and pay us it back in November with an extra fiver on top. £10 if you ‘save’ £50.00 or more a month.

Some people find it very difficult to save. This way they cannot withdraw the money. I can see why it appeals to certain people.

Its better than the old provident vouchers. I remember the guy walking around the streets of town collecting the money for rip off vouchers.

But they’re a money making company - why should they give you your interest back?

I don’t do it because of the limit in vouchers.

It's just another way of managing money. I know people who use them to get the M&S vouchers for their Christmas food to order shop. They use the credit union for cash. The credit union does a separate Christmas saving account, which can't be touched. Whoever uses one of the alternative has decided that a savings account won't work for them. It isn't a scam or exploitation.

This

Or, to put it another way, would you write 'to whom it may concern' or 'to who it may concern

Neither.

For the attention of Whomsoever it should concern.

For some people, it's the best idea. All well and good saying just save it yourself, but not everyone can, does. If the money is held by a company, you can't just spend it on an emergency, so for some people enforced saving is best. Of course the company makes money, but I don't think they are taking advantage of people and the vouchers can be used with enough places that they work well for some folk

And yes I was also thinking "To Whom...." but, didnt want to push the point too far!

And I was just being a dick for the fun of it! Can you tell I dont like being called stupid?!

Two points.

Firstly, I take that you didnt actually imply that poor=stupid, others did that. For that I apologise for taking my annoyance out on you!

Secondly, I dont know if that particular poster thinks that being poor is shameful but, I am poor and I am not ashamed. I am poor because Covid killed my career and now I am a full time carer to my parent and it pays the princely sum of £73 a week. Less than a professional full time carer for a person with my parent's issues earns in a day........

But back to your original point, I use Park because, high or low earnings, I am shit with money. The more I have the more I spend, so I have used it to save for Xmas for years, I just saved more when I was earning more. It didnt cost me anything, in fact I would say that it has saved me because I would spend my savings and then have to pay for Xmas on top, whereas with the vouchers I couldnt spend them until I had them.

I absolutely love it! We go and do the Christmas food shop with the vouchers and we can sling in whatever we want in the trolley as it’s technically paid for already!

This year I added in vouchers for the kids we buy for as I knew with a newborn in the house we wouldn’t have much time to actually go shopping!!

Incidentally.....it's Who, not whom

But you didnt say "less well off" or even "people on lower incomes" you said "poor".

Others have been as equally derisive by saying "poor" in such a way as to imply lack of capacity or critical thinking.

I am, to use your own choice of word, poor. I feel no shame over this. The only people who should feel shame over people in the UK living in poverty are the employers who pay less than a living wage, successive governments who pay sick and disability pay/benefits at below sustenance level (if they are paid at all and only after appeals) and those same governments who realised that its costs them less to pay people like me £73 a week to be full time carers to their loved ones rather than provide care through social or medical services.

No one made the poverty/shame connection before you did. Which says more about you than us.

Can't believe how stuck up your replies are!

YANBU. If people would benefit from the structure of putting it away every month and not having access to tempt them to spend it earlier then a regular saver would be a better idea. I use a 12 month regular saver November-October payments, then get the money in November on the anniversary of starting it. Last year I got £44.30 interest in cash not vouchers. This year has a better interest rate so it will be a bit more.

I think losing £44 and getting vouchers instead of money is a bad financial decision and a really bad offer. It's not a huge loss but I see no benefit in the scheme.

So what is your point?

People on lower incomes tend to use savings schemes....as they have done for centuries. FFS one of the biggest soap opera stories in the 80's was Arthur Fowler spending the Xmas club money in Eastenders! So what?

A company has been set up to make a profit from this.....again, so what?

No one is being ripped off, no one is complaining except those smug enough to not want it. Its no different from you Grandmother buying a 50p stamp to stick in her savings book at Co-op towards Xmas 50 years ago, which was arguably a hell of a lot more restrictive than buying a couple of hundreds quids worth of amazon vouchers.

The only person making the connection that poor is shameful is you btw. But to imply that poor equals stupid is fucking insulting.