Conran Credit Card

...My eventual choice was the Conran Card offered by MBNA Europe Bank Limited.

THE CARD

This card is designed by Terence Conran (originally a furniture designer that has now expanded his company to include restaurants, The Conran Shop, books, amongst other things). It is the standard rectangular shaped card design which is accepted in all machines (no weird cut off corners that can cause your card to be swallowed up by ...
...Their actual wording is 'The Conran Card, the first to give you a share of all its profits.' You earn 5 shares of the Card's profits for every £100 spent at Conran (shops/retailers) and 1 share of the Card's profits for every £100 spent elsewhere. Currently each share is worth about 1% of every hundred pounds spent (so you get a pound for every hundred you spend). Although on your statement it says how many shares you have earned and what your shares ... more

I was a loyal Barclaycard customer for years, however as soon as they stopped rewarding Nectar points and abolished any kind of customer loyalty scheme I knew it was time to find myself a better deal!

I have to admit I used to play the whole balance transfer game when I'd run up a bit of debt - changing to 0% interest cards and moving my balance about every few months so the debt never cost me anything extra in interest. This was not a fun game to play, but it was worth doing to save myself any interest charges. I managed to clear all of that debt a couple of years back and ever since I've been playing the credit card companies by using their cards to pay for all my monthly expenditure where possible and paying the balance off in full each month. This way my money has been sat in my bank earning me interest whilst I've been using the credit card company's money to pay for things, I get rewarded for using their card (with Barclaycard it was Nectar points which soon added up) and they make no money from me as I pay the balance off in full each month! Yep, it is a bit of a dangerous game to play and you do have to be quite on top of your finances to make sure you don't actually spend more than you can afford to pay back each month - if you do then the interest they charge you just isn't worth the reward!

So, when Barclaycard wrote to me to say they would be abolishing the Nectar scheme for their credit card I immediately started looking to see what other options were out there. I used the best buy tables on various websites to see what other deals different credit card companies were offering. I liked the idea of a cash back reward scheme (where they give you percentage of the money you spend back each month) and as I pay my bill in full each month then this appeared to be the best option to me.

There are a few cards offering cash back schemes - the one at the top of most lists at the time seemed to be the AMEX card from American Express. However this card is not accepted as widely as VISA so I chose not to go with this card. My eventual choice was the Conran Card offered by MBNA Europe Bank Limited.

THE CARD

This card is designed by Terence Conran (originally a furniture designer that has now expanded his company to include restaurants, The Conran Shop, books, amongst other things). It is the standard rectangular shaped card design which is accepted in all machines (no weird cut off corners that can cause your card to be swallowed up by machines!). It has vertical blue stripes down the card which range in shades with a wobbly vertical red line - it looks different from a lot of cards, quite stylish and sophisticated, and I've received compliments on it when I've used it to pay!

CARD FEATURES

I haven't been completely accurate with saying this card offers a cash back scheme. Their actual wording is 'The Conran Card, the first to give you a share of all its profits.' You earn 5 shares of the Card's profits for every £100 spent at Conran (shops/retailers) and 1 share of the Card's profits for every £100 spent elsewhere. Currently each share is worth about 1% of every hundred pounds spent (so you get a pound for every hundred you spend). Although on your statement it says how many shares you have earned and what your shares balance is, ultimately this is how much cash back you've earned and your cash back balance. This balance is credited to your card annually each May and reads on your statement Conran profit share credit, so basically it is a cash back scheme! Hope that makes sense…

This is a basic breakdown summary of the card charges and rates:

The typical APR on this card is 15.9% (variable, 1.2408% monthly)
0% per annum on balance transfers for 9 months from account opening
15.9% AER on card purchases, balance transfers, and credit card cheques
22.9% per annum on cash transactions including money transfers
Up to 56 days interest free period on card purchases only if you pay your statement balance in full and on time every month
Balances of lower rates of interest will be paid before balances at higher rates of interest
Minimum payment is the lesser of 2.25% of your balance (minimum £5) or charges for Payment Protection Cover plus interest and fees plus £5, or the balance if this is less than £5
They choose your credit limit once you have applied and tell you what it is, the maximum is £50,000
No annual charge
2% handling fee (minimum £3) on credit card cheques and balance transfers
3% handling fee (minimum £3) on cash transactions (including money transfers)
2.75% commission on foreign currency transactions
£25 default charge for going over limit, making late payments and for returned payments

THE WEBSITE

You can apply for the Conran Credit Card online at www.conran.com/us/card/index.html This website is easy to use and the wording is user friendly.

The website for the actual running of the card online is through the MBNA website which is www.bankcardservices.co.uk You can enrol to access your card statement etc from this link too. This website is easy to use, but does have a slightly different format to other banks/credit card websites. It is secure and once you have used it a couple of times it is easy to use. You can change your PIN number and view it online too as well as checking previous statements and seeing your current balance etc.

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

I applied for this card back in August 2005; I used the online application form and was sent all the information quickly. I didn't have to speak to any customer services as the whole process ran smoothly, although it is probably worth mentioning that the customer services telephone number is a 24 hour one so you can always get hold of them if you need to. I started using the card at the beginning of September 2005.

The card is used just like any other credit card - you hand it over to pay for stuff type in your PIN number and your purchase is made! It's that easy!

You can pay however much of your balance off each month as you can afford although there will always be a minimum payment that has to be made and there are obviously charges if the full amount isn't paid. You can set up a direct debit to pay the bill each month (saves having those late payment charges going on the card too!) or you can pay at any bank, online, over the telephone, or by post.

I use this card to pay for our water rates, mobile phone bills, supermarket shopping, basically any purchase I make that allows me to use a credit card. I like the fact that I have a credit card that not many people have heard of (it's great when you go out for dinner and you all chuck your cards in the middle to split the bill - I can always tell straight away which card is mine!) I love the fact that I get money back on my spending (which by the way isn't all frivolous, a lot of it is basic monthly expenditures!) The best part of it all is feeling like you're getting your own back slightly on the companies that invariably rip a lot of us off one way or another!

I recommend this card to anyone who pays their bill off in full each month - for those of you that don't there'll definitely be a better credit card deal out there for you!

Thanks for reading my waffle - must point out I am only going by personal experience, I am not a financial advisor in any way, shape or form!
 

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