The Captain's Blog ™

The January sales are a long established tradition, as are other sales at certain times of the year. In most cases, sales make obvious sense for both parties; consumers can understand why the items in question are “on sale” and we accept the associated trade-offs in return for a discounted price.

For example, we may buy Christmas cards at half price in the post-Christmas sales – the card retailers get to clear their shops and stock rooms and we get a bargain price in return for storing the cards at home for 11 months before we actually need them.

Similarly, fashion retailers need to get shot of unsold stock at the end of each season in order to make room for the new season’s lines. The sale discounts serve their purpose in attracting bargain hunters, who appreciate that the sale garments may need to be put in the wardrobe for a while before the temperatures they’re designed for come around again. Again, the sale concept basically makes sense to both parties.

Another logical example is electrical shops, who routinely need to sell off end-of-line and ex-demonstration products, as manufacturers release newer and better versions of televisions, cameras, household appliances, etc.

But does similar logic really apply to banks? Or are they basically trying to pull a fast one by piggybacking on the sale season?

NatWest, for instance, is currently approaching the end of its “Knock Down Sale” and HSBC has also been running a January sale.  This is the same NatWest that spent all of 2007 advertising that it offered “Another Way”, presumably including good value pricing.

What are we supposed to think, then, when banks run a “sale” in January?

I can’t personally see any logic to it – only marketing spin. That they can afford to offer discounts on various of their products serves only to highlight that they must be making more than enough money from us at their regular prices.

If the practice of banking sales persists, perhaps we should all stop taking out new financial products like loans, credit cards and more until January every year, because they’ll be much cheaper in the “sales”!

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