Does anyone here use this PNS Christmas card and could contribute to how this works?
Or demonstrate if this is worth?
3.5% Bonus Earned Per $100 Loaded onto Christmas Club Card @ PAK'n SAVE
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pacman04 on 19/11/2023 - 17:49 paknsavechristmas.co.nz (272 clicks)
Last edited 20/11/2023 - 07:22 by 1 other user
Last edited 20/11/2023 - 07:22 by 1 other user
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Thanks for your contribution.
Countdown is way too expensive, PNS is where I could merely afford.
Yea countdown has been pretty pricey, wife goes to paknsave now.
Even after 5% discount countdown is still way more expensive than paknsave at full price on average
PnS is not conveniently located for me so I used to go to PnS something like once in 3 years. This year I tend to go once a month.
CD was my main supermarket but now New World is.
Had so many problems with CD this year. First they underweighed my online orders for several months a in a row. The quality of their fresh produce, which has never been great, is now terrible. Their bananas are so green that they take about 2 weeks to be edible. Their apples are frequently rotten. They used to be good with refunding poor quality produce, but this year I had an issue twice, submitted form online and they never responded. They often send me 'boost' offers but half of the time when I go online the offers are not there. A few months ago, they sent me an email 'spend $75 online or in-store in one transaction by [date 1] and we'll give you 700 points by [date 2]', I spent $100 and didn't get the bonus points. Then they sent me another offer 'shop online 5 times by [date] spending $80 or more and we’ll give you a bonus 6,000 Onecard points'. On the 5th purchase I ordered over $80 but one item was not supplied, making the order total under $80, hence not eligible for the bonus points. Their free fruit baskets for kids are usually full of green bananas and heavily bruised apples.
Does anyone have anything positive to say about CD these days??
Apparently this site is real if anyone was wondering if it was yet another scam
https://www.paknsave.co.nz/more/christmas-club/terms
Really not a fan of these marketing departments that don't bother to go through the motions of creating a proper subdomain or page on their existing site that would immediately help signal it's real.
I completely agree - it is such a technically inept thing to do compared to having a section on the main site (doesn't even have to be linked from the homepage) or a simple sub-domain.
Pns even made world news when their AI meal planner posted a recipe for chlorine gas…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/10/pak-n-save-sav…
Can't pay with credit card.
That's a shame, would have been handy if they accepted a CC payment.
Countdown use to accept credit card for Christmas club and you could buy on last day of November for 5% bonus. It was in paper vouchers though. New World might still accept credit card for Christmas club.
You can pay with credit card toward Christmas Club Card (PAK'n SAVE & New World) in store.
Can you. Ok I take that back. Countdown took away the option I believe. I might go join if this is the case.
this is like a chrisco for those who cant save during the year. you put your money into their account "Foodstuffs Christmas Club Limited." while they make interest off it.
"Your Account balance will not be refunded or exchanged for cash but can be redeemed instore""Christmas Club funds can be spent on goods instore at any time of the year, however, you will not be eligible for bonuses on any funds you spend before the end of the Christmas Club year. The Christmas Club year runs from 1 December of the first year to 30 November the following year. "
The supermarkets have offered it for decades - can remember my mum used to have a new world books that got stamped when contributed.
Foodstuffs will make some interest off it but i would say it is more about store lock it (i.e. you have to spend it there).
Used to deal with a credit union that offered a christmas savings fund to members - was a win win as members could save during the year through regular contributions and have less stress come November (not everyone is good savers, surprise!) while the credit union enjoyed the liquidity/cash flow.
Yes, essentially the supermarket can bank the interest on your money and then you are fixed into spending at their store.
Win win for them, a small bonus for you and some help to save towards xmas shop if you have issues with it.Pretty fair if you intend to shop there.
Yes one thing to remember is that while you can do it like the way people are suggesting just for the bonus, the idea is generally that people put money aside over the year as a way of 'protected'/'forced' saving for Christmas and help them resist the temptation to spend it on other things.
below interest rate
You might want to check the details of the post.
If you deposit money between 1 September to 30 November you will earn a 3.5% bonus for any spend from the 1st December.
Let's say you deposit $100 today and spend it in a month. You will have $103.5 to spend. If you extrapolated this out over a 12 month period (if it was possible - note: it's not), the $3.50 a month would total $42 giving you an annual return rate of 42%. That's better than any bank interest rate!
Assuming you only pay near the end of November and spend it all in December or frankly even January, this is probably better off than any interest rate you're likely to get. Remember interest rates are nearly always quoted PA so even if the rate is 6%, you're not going to get 6% in 2+ months
https://www.interest.co.nz/saving/term-deposits-1-to-9-month…
https://www.interest.co.nz/saving/term-deposits-1-to-5-yearsYet the interest rate is taxable. If you earn more than 70k per year the rate is 33% e.g. 6% comes down to 4.02% ?
PIE term deposit is 28%
Sure so it's even worse. Note that I'm not sure 6% is the best interest rate, you'd need to compare the others with compounding.
I mostly chose the 6% since it's a common headline rate I see and I wondered if the OP is confused because of that. They see 3.5% and think well 6% is better. Except it's not since one is per annum, the other is (assuming you pay near the end of November) over 2 months or so.
As Alan6984 mentioned below, in fact it's unlikely you're spending all the money only at the end of January so the average time for your gain is maybe 1 month or something so another way it's even better than if you just look at the extremes. So in the end, it doesn't matter much since the rates are so different. There's just no way you can get similar returns with a regular interest rate.
Only thing is you don't want to put much more than you're going to spend until the end of January. Also you need to have the cash to spare. If you put so much you then find you don't have enough for something else so you need to borrow with interest for something else, that's very likely a bad idea.
It's also tax free at 3.5% or equivalent to interest rates at 3.91%, 4.24%, 5.00%, 5.22% and 5.74% given marginal tax rates at 10.5%, 17.5%, 30%, 33% and 39%.
We've used these for years (mainly CD as it was more convenient in the past although now PNS is also convenient for us).
Even twenty years ago, I would start buying up the vouchers from Oct each year ($200 a week or whatever - I never asked for $1,000 in one go, as it was a hassle for the customer services counter), and accumulate to the point that I estimated we'd use them through Dec & Jan (you can still use them past 31 Jan, you just don't get the 5% bonus).
We got a 5% return on 'funds invested' for a maximum of, say, four months, which equates to 15% even if you just multiply up without bothering to do a compound calculation (actually works out better than that, as your average time invested will probably be more like two months, so more like 30% + return), with something close to a zero risk, since we would always spend them, and the chances of Woolworths going bust in the next few months is pretty low!
Yep been using this for years when interest rates were under 3%. Still worth it now but only if you load it as last minute as possible to get the bonus credit.
Sry, would like to know more.
If I load 1k on the 30th Nov when will I have the bonus on my credit?
Or
Do I need to spend 1k in a certain of time to gain that bonus?
On 1 December each year, they will credit and make available to your Account balance the applicable bonus earned in the immediately preceding Bonus Earning Period.
Example: Bonus earned on $1,000 loaded into your Account in period 1 September to 30 November is $35 or 3.5%.
The bonus rates are subject to change at their discretion at any time without notice. Please email [email protected] for the current rates.
Rates would need to be much much higher than 3% to stop this being worthwhile.
The 3% you are quoting is likely an annual rate, whereas the 3.5% / 5% being quoted here is more like a two month rate - if you are doing a straight comparison it is apples and oranges.
Yep it’s annual, hence it being worth it if you load it as late as you can to get the bonus credit.
I think you are missing the point, but loading it late, you will be fine :-)
You would have to verify this now. A few years back i was looking at xmas clubs and the great thing about the paknsave one is you have all year to spend it. Most others were a few months.
So you could use the paknsave xmas club just as a way of reducing your food costs. Actually I'll look into that again thinking about the cost of food. From memory paknsave was the only one you have all year to spend it. Others were limited to dec Jan Feb for exampleJust a note that you can purchase a prezzy card from Pak n Save with the Christmas club funds and spend elsewhere
Thanks! That's excellent
I could be wrong, but I think there are some pretty hefty fees associated with purchasing PrezzyCards?
I believe its around $11, but could be worth it to someone using this service as a savings account, or if you find yourself having credit near the end of January.
Any gift card can be purchased (EB Games, Xbox, Apple Store, Farmers, Uber eats etc with no fees)
Also wanted to add. Agree with previous comments. The reason paknsave compares it's prices to countdown in their adds on tv is because countdown is the most expensive. Though I'm sure some would disagree they are welcome to :)
Been using this for a few years now. Easy to set up and usually some great Christmas club deals around early December specific to card holders. Mrs usually comes back with some freebees during the main card shopping night and then we spend the rest of the club money of gift vouchers available instore (JB Hifi/Hunting and Fishing etc etc) as Christmas presents.
It looks like you could despoit money between now and 30 Nov, and then redeem after 1 Dec, with a 3.5% return.
Countdown have a 5% equivalent scheme, deposit before 30 Nov, then redeem a 5% bonus on that for purchases throughout Dec / Jan.