Reward Points, Clubcard, Air Miles and all sorts of other loyalty cards and points schemes. Aren't they wonderful. I recently got 80 pounds worth of vouchers for Marks & Spencers, from Goldfish. Now the only reason I bothered cashing them in, and I realise it was worthwhile, was because I was about to cancel the card. We get vouchers from Tesco and Homebase which can be useful. However, I feel the whole business is a pain in the arse. I recently started using a garage in Salisbury. As I do a long commute I have to fill up every day. It took almost two weeks before the staff stoped offering me a Nectar card. I bought a DVD in a local Electronic Games shop. They wanted to sign me up for their loyalty card. The whole thing is a bit of a con. Each point you collect is worth less than a tenth of a penny - often far less. For that you have to waste time giving them all sort os personal details about your life and lifestyle. You have to add a little time to each transaction every time you shop - and wait for the people in front to finish adding their points. And why do these companies feel so generous about giving you money in the form of spending vouchers or money off coupons. It's because the information you give them is worth a fortune - they know where you live and by using things like CACI, a system for matching post code and lifestyle, they can estimate your spending power and spending preferences. And don't worry if you think you're poor they still want as much of your money as they can get so they will tailor offers to your personal profile.

In some ways it could be a good thing to have offers tailored to your profile - the store's computer work out what you're likely to need and offer it to you at a price you can afford and also make sure that the local store has sufficient stocks. Except this isn't how it works. They will apply all sorts of clever marketing techniques to pressurise you into buying products you don't really need and possibly don't even want. Then they'll lend you the money to buy the latest 'must have'. Have you noticed that all of the big stores now offer loans and other banking services. It can't be because they want to give you a better service. It's the profit margin.

That's enough for today - who knows there might be more tomorrow.
Dave