Payment scheme for season tickets

[Diamond]

my mate is a Saints season ticket holder. They offer two options

interest free over 6 months

or

1.5% over 8 months

are we being ripped off here??

Nope, RFC have just subbed the admin of sorting season tickets out to another company. So if anything Zebra are the one's offering the 8% interest payable rate over 10 months, take it or pay it whole in one go

but they outsource to a company called Premium Credit. for a £500 child/adult pair ticket with interest, they end up paying £507.50. Just £7.50 interest! He's gonna fax me over his form to read

[Wycombe Royal]

my mate is a Saints season ticket holder. They offer two options

interest free over 6 months

or

1.5% over 8 months

are we being ripped off here??

Nope, RFC have just subbed the admin of sorting season tickets out to another company. So if anything Zebra are the one's offering the 8% interest payable rate over 10 months, take it or pay it whole in one go

but they outsource to a company called Premium Credit. for a £500 child/adult pair ticket with interest, they end up paying £507.50. Just £7.50 interest! He's gonna fax me over his form to read

I would guess it is being subsidised by the club in an attempt to get more season tickets sales. Not something we need to do......yet.

[Diamond]

good point - didnt think of that

[The Mighty Finn]

Believe me this is not a good rate of interest. The reason it is 19.8% is and not 8% is that you are not waiting till the end of 10 months to pay the money back, you are paying back in installments.

If you take interest as £46 over the 10 months then this works out at £4.60 per month. Ok so paying £4.60/month doesn't look too bad when you owe the original £545 but, remember, when you have paid 5 installments you will have paid off half of the original capital loan - so you will owe £272.50. Now paying £4.60/month for this is getting expensive.

After you have paid 9 installments - you will only owe £54.50 but you will still pay £4.60/ month as interest (this equates to £55.20 per year so is over 100% interest)

In reality it doesn't work quite like this so the finance people just work out what the interest is over the whole period and compare this to the "average" amount owed and come up with an APR.

In this way all loans can be compared to each other.

[TFF]

This made BBCRB this morning. Some bloke rang in worried that his poor credit history would mean he couldn't finance his season ticket through the third party provider.

All the usual hand-wringing from Andrew Peach (how annoying that bloke is!), a message expressing concern from STAR and a bit of "couldn't care less" from Andy West at RFC.

Club didn't seem to be coming out of it very well but I had to go to work - anyone hear any more?

[M4 Junction 11]

perhaps a plan to make a few more seats available to those with a higher disposable income

[Behindu]

This made BBCRB this morning. Some bloke rang in worried that his poor credit history would mean he couldn't finance his season ticket through the third party provider.

All the usual hand-wringing from Andrew Peach (how annoying that bloke is!), a message expressing concern from STAR and a bit of "couldn't care less" from Andy West at RFC.

Club didn't seem to be coming out of it very well but I had to go to work - anyone hear any more?

You'd think the club could make a few tickets available for nothing for any fans with CCJ's against them making it hard to get finance....

[weybridgewanderer]

This made BBCRB this morning. Some bloke rang in worried that his poor credit history would mean he couldn't finance his season ticket through the third party provider.

All the usual hand-wringing from Andrew Peach (how annoying that bloke is!), a message expressing concern from STAR and a bit of "couldn't care less" from Andy West at RFC.

Club didn't seem to be coming out of it very well but I had to go to work - anyone hear any more?

If people have a poor credit history and can't get £545 finance then the club took a risk on providing them this facility in previous seasons. I would guess the club never checked peoples credit worthiness.

Arguably the club should be encouraging these individuals to buy on a game per game basis when they can afford it

[Behindu]

I know that there were a fair few people who took out the finance and then either never paid, or had to be chased very hard.

Makes sense for the club to factor that risk, although the extra interest and stricter checks could hit some of those for whom the cost of a ticket is already stretching their resources.

[Dirk Gently]

I don't think that the interest charge is particularly unreasonable - although as pointed out if people can get a credit card they can do this interest free.

But people with poor credit records are now effectively stuffed.

If they can't somehow find the cash in a lump sum between now and June 15th (and this may be for a family, not just for a single ST) they will be unable to renew their ST.

You can understand why the club are making this change, but it's a real shame for those people affected, and I wish there was some other way the club or another organisation could help.

[TFF]

There were many complaints earlier this season (and last IIRC) about RFC's handling of the installment plan. Late payments, over payments etc.

I can perfectly understand why RFC took the decision to out-source the finance.

Fortunately I am in a position where the issue does not affect me directly. My tickets are already renewed via Barclays premiership credit card.

I wonder if there is any way that STAR could act as a guarantor for these people. Should the ticketholder default on payment through the season it would not be difficult to re-sell the seat so the risk would seem minimal.

[STAR Voice]

I wonder if there is any way that STAR could act as a guarantor for these people. Should the ticketholder default on payment through the season it would not be difficult to re-sell the seat so the risk would seem minimal.

I have thought of that but it would suddenly make us a credit broker from a legal point of view and so there would be all sorts of legal registrations etc that we'd never get in time.

Some Supporters' Trusts have forged links with their local Credit Unions - since they are also mutual organisations (i.e. owned by their members), and I've been speaking to the people who are currently setting up a Credit Union in Reading.

They're not quite setup yet, but after 1st May there's a (very small) possibility of being able to do something along these lines.

But I am working on it, and as soon as I know more I'll let people know.

[Behindu]

I wonder if there is any way that STAR could act as a guarantor for these people. Should the ticketholder default on payment through the season it would not be difficult to re-sell the seat so the risk would seem minimal.

I think that would be asking for trouble !

Plenty of people tried it on last season and if they knew STAR were underwriting them they would do it again.

I also suspect it would be against STAR's constitution.

[cheeryoleary]

I did symathise with the chap on the radio who felt that he would not get credit from Zebra finance up to the point where he said that he spends up to 40 quid per game on extras at the game (programme, hot dog etc.) for him and his family.

19 home games per season times 40 quid equals 760 quid.

[Diddyroyal]

I applied straight away and got accepted no problems, first payment goes out in 30 days, Royalty points have already been added!