Price walking, or the loyalty penalty, is a form of price discrimination whereby longstanding, loyal customers of a service provider are charged higher prices for the same services compared to customers that have just switched to that provider.
The pricing strategy is common in the insurance and telecommunications industries. It is used to acquire new customers with artificially low rates or other incentives not available to existing clients, effectively using existing customers to subsidize the prices offered to new clients. [1]
In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned the practice for insurance policies effective 2021. [2] [3] [4] The move comes following a complaint by charitable organisation Citizens Advice, which described the practice as a "systemic scam". The FCA stated that "[i]nsurers will be required to offer renewing customers a price that is no higher than they would pay as a new customer." [5] [6]
In 2019, Ofcom announced agreements with several UK telecom providers to ensure out-of-contract customers could get the same deals for broadband service as are available for new customers, if they agree to a new service contract. [7]
In the United States, several northeastern states including Maine, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont have restricted the use of price optimization strategies that employ loyalty penalties in the insurance market. [8]
Telephone slamming is an illegal telecommunications practice, in which a subscriber's telephone service is changed without their consent. Slamming became a more visible issue after the deregulation of the telecommunications industry in the mid-1980s, especially after several price wars between the major telecommunications companies. The term slamming was coined by Mick Ahearn, who was a consumer marketing manager at AT&T in September 1987. The inspiration for the term came from the ease at which a competitor could switch a customer's service away from AT&T by falsely notifying a telephone company that an AT&T customer had elected to switch to their service. This process gave AT&T's competitors a "slam dunk" method for the unauthorized switching of a customer's long-distance service. The term slamming became an industry standard term for this practice.
Yield management is a variable pricing strategy, based on understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits from a fixed, time-limited resource. As a specific, inventory-focused branch of revenue management, yield management involves strategic control of inventory to sell the right product to the right customer at the right time for the right price. This process can result in price discrimination, in which customers consuming identical goods or services are charged different prices. Yield management is a large revenue generator for several major industries; Robert Crandall, former Chairman and CEO of American Airlines, gave yield management its name and has called it "the single most important technical development in transportation management since we entered deregulation."
The loyalty business model is a business model used in strategic management in which a company's resources are employed so as to increase the loyalty of customers and other stakeholders in the expectation that corporate objectives will be met or surpassed. A typical example of this type of model is where quality of product or service leads to customer satisfaction, which leads to customer loyalty, which leads to profitability.
KCOM Group is a UK communications and IT services provider. Its headquarters are in the city of Kingston upon Hull, and it serves local residents and businesses with Internet and telephony services. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange but is now privately owned by Macquarie Group.
Axa S.A. is a French multinational insurance company headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It also provides investment management and other financial services as part of its subsidiaries. As of 2023, it is the largest financial services company by revenue in France, and the 4th largest French company.
RSA Insurance Group Limited is a British multinational general insurance company headquartered in London, England. RSA has major operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scandinavia and Canada. It provides insurance products and services in more than 100 countries through a network of local partners. It has 9 million customers. RSA was formed by the merger of Sun Alliance and Royal Insurance in 1996.
An independent financial advisers (IFA) is a professional who offers independent advice on financial matters to their clients and recommends suitable financial products from the whole of the market. The term was developed to reflect a United Kingdom (UK) regulatory position and has a specific UK meaning, although it has been adopted in other parts of the world, such as Hong Kong.
Payment protection insurance (PPI), also known as credit insurance, credit protection insurance, or loan repayment insurance, is an insurance product that enables consumers to ensure repayment of credit if the borrower dies, becomes ill, disabled, loses a job, or faces other circumstances that may prevent them from earning income to service the debt. It is not to be confused with income protection insurance, which is not specific to a debt but covers any income. PPI was widely sold by banks and other credit providers as an add-on to the loan or overdraft product.
NFU Mutual is a UK insurance composite. As a mutual, its policyholder members own the business, and the executives and directors are accountable to them. The full name of the organisation is National Farmers' Union Mutual Insurance Society Limited.
Openreach Limited is a company wholly owned by BT Group plc, that maintain telephone cables, ducts, cabinets and exchanges that connect nearly all homes and businesses in the United Kingdom to various national broadband and telephone networks. They were established in 2006 following an agreement between BT and the UK's telecoms regulator, Ofcom, to implement certain undertakings, pursuant to the Enterprise Act 2002, to ensure that rival telecom operators have equality of access to BT's local network.
Customer attrition, also known as customer churn, customer turnover, or customer defection, is the loss of clients or customers.
Swinton Insurance is a UK insurance retailer that was established in 1957. The company offers a range of insurance products from a panel of UK insurers covering car, bike, home, commercial, taxi and caravan insurance.
Price optimization is the use of mathematical analysis by a company to determine how customers will respond to different prices for its products and services through different channels. It is also used to determine the prices that the company determines will best meet its objectives such as maximizing operating profit. The data used in price optimization can include survey data, operating costs, inventories, and historic prices and sales. Price optimization practice has been implemented in industries including retail, banking, airlines, casinos, hotels, car rental, cruise lines and insurance industries.
TalkTalk Telecom Group Limited is a British telecommunications company that provides pay television and Internet access services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 2003 as a subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse and was demerged as a standalone company in March 2010. Its headquarters are in Salford.
British United Provident Association Limited, trading as Bupa, is a British multinational health insurance and healthcare company with over 43 million customers worldwide.
UIA Mutual was a mutual insurance company in the United Kingdom, providing general insurance products to members of the trade union movement and other not-for-profit organisations. It was a member of the Association of British Insurers, authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. UIA Limited was a wholly owned subsidiary, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Comparethemarket is a UK price comparison website, founded in 2006, that is part of the BGL Group. The website also offers other on-line companies the ability to provide their customers with a co-branded or white labelled comparison service.
Tower is a New Zealand-based insurance company that provides car, home, contents, business, boat, pet, travel and other general insurance.
Peer-to-peer asset management is the practice of sharing investment strategies between unrelated individuals, or "peers", without going through a traditional financial intermediary such as a bank or other collective investment management vehicle.
Talanx is a German multinational financial services company headquartered in Hanover, Germany. Its core businesses include reinsurance, insurance and asset management. Talanx is Germany's third-largest insurance group and one of the major European insurance groups by premium income. The group operates in more than 150 countries.