StuRomseySaint

If you were even slightly ITK ( I am not ITK, just well connected ) you would know that Cortese is not the sort of Chairman to let his managers, subbys etc get on with the job as they see fit. He is very much an Italian Andy Oldknow. He is very much a "Do it the Cortese way or f*ck off" sort of person. And I don't believe that one of the most respected ticket office managers in the football world came up with the Season ticket selling policy of a one month window, no payment plan and tickets not on sale till June 1st... for a start his staff will have been sitting with their fingers up their @rse with nothing to do for the last month.

I think it's hilarious.

Your questions answered Granny.

It's not my scheme... it's Zebras and is out there in the market and dozens of clubs use it. Zebra and/or Premium both do the chasing and the agreement is between customer and Zebra/Premium, they make every effort to collect the defaulted payments, if there is no success then the club is informed who can then cancel the season ticket. Zebra would not pay the club the full amount unless the installments were in the form of an unsecured loan. In which case you would have the same problems about adverse credit etc There is not risk the way they proposed to me to do it. They chase up defaulter initially and only pass it back to the club once it becomes more than 1 month in arrears. I don't know why the defaulter argument comes up so often, it's not like a gym membership for example, where you buy in to an installment plan ( in exactly the same way ) and might get bored and cancel your DD, SFC is a football club and anyone who has a season ticket does so because they want to watch SFC every week, and are going to try harder than other payments to make sure the money is there.

I am not too bothered about the booking fee... it's a bit p!ss takey when we are not having a sponsor this season " because we don't need the money " but its no real hassle as generally most people buy at least a few tickets, so probably ends up only a quid or so each extra.

Charging you a reasonable 'base price' and then adding on fees and charges for bookings as well as ripping you off once you are inside and reliant on the things they offer such as food, beer etc. And before you say food and beer is no essential... it is. :-) If they were charging £5 a pint in St Marys, people would still buy it at half time because they want a pint and that's the only choice they have got, other than leave the stadium. I do also think that is the sort of business model that Cortese is trying to build.

Constructive... well done brave man.

Southampton FC introduce 1300 premium payers to Zebra, Zebra charge an administration fee for collecting these premiums, and SFC agree to be paid the premiums on a monthly basis as opposed to having the lot up front. Nobody bears the risk... it is premium collection, Zebra collect the money on a monthly then pass it on to SFC, if Zebra cannoy collect the money they attempt to recover it. If they can't recover it then it's up to SFC what they do... but nobody is out of pocket because the money was passing from Customer > Zebra > SFC on a monthly basis.

I don't honestly believe that only 1,300 signed up for it, I would imagine it to be a larger number, but I guess we will have to go with what the club says. As for costs... I have detailed them all in the other thread. They made a loss last season because they ran their own installment facility. I would also like to know if you use gold plated paper? £10,000 in costs for sending a dozen letters out it bloody expensive!

I am the expert, because I am the only one who has taken the time to speak to them! You have looked on a website, which in all honesty, is only there to give them a online presence as their customers are generally introduced through the respective football clubs. Again I have said a zillion times on here... every clubs packages are different, I sourced 3 which... 1) Where not loans in the sense that payment was in advance. 2) Where not loans in the sense that there was no financial risk to the club. 3) Where not loans in the sense that no credit checks on the individual customer ( how many 'loan' companies do you know that don't credit check? ) 4) No cost in administration of charges to be incurred by the club. 5) Zebra's fees passed on to the customer as opposed to SFC in the way of a fixed interest payment and/or administration fee. If you really want to challenge me, can I suggest you do the same as me and phone them up and get some quotes etc. If you don't then you are obviously in no position to rubbish the scheme.

I will. I wanted it out in the open and reported in the Echo ( which I will assume will be on Monday now ) before I did though to add that little bit more pressure in a response.

I have said fookin dozens of times on here and including in the original post what the fakkin deal is and how it is made up. Either there is a high proportion of retards commenting on this thread, or you are all on a wind-up...

Missing the point - again. Not only that, but speculating again. The packages are not the same with regards to installment plans for each club. Each one is bespoke. The application form might be generic, but where on there does it state the terms are generic? It doesn't. If you are going to try and put things across as fact, can I suggest that you do the same as I did, secret shop Zebra and get the FACTS from the horses mouth? I don't need to use that application form, I know they do not offer Season Ticket finance for Southampton FC, although they may offer personal loans to the value of the ticket, with high interest rates, and obviously, subject to credit checks... but that's not the point I am making...

I am just repeating myself over and over and over again. I am dealing in FACTS, the FACT is that Zebra Finance can offer a service to SFC at no cost to them, collecting season ticket premiums on their behalf. Do not get mixed up with other finance and loan options which Zebra may offer... this is not what I have spoken to them about, I have spoken to them about their Season Ticket Finance packages where they administrate and collect installment plan premiums on behalf of football clubs. Its nothing to do with personal loans, it's not a loan, the customer is paying IN ADVANCE for the product in the same way you would pay for your car insurance in installments in advance.

I think you can pretty much put your mortgage on the prices of beer and food in the concourses being more next season.

You have not seen any lies? You are retarded. You are trolling so I will stick you on ignore from now on. And let's wait to see the final number of Saints STH's ... then you will see a 4 figure sum, I am certain of that. We could have had near on 20k STH's this season with a fan friendly pricing structure... we will be lucky to get 10k now.

There are only 2 season ticket finance companies. I would say that if the club wanted to have a plan, they would speak to both, would you not?

But you are not balancing. You are speculating and coming up with unrealistic solutions.

If I cannot get the money together for a season ticket paid up front then I will go to less than 10 games next season, not just to prove a point, but I wouldn't want to go to any more than that anyway. Take midweek games out - 5 games at least. Take New Years or Boxing Day games out - 1 game. Take games out when I have weddings/holidays/other commitments out - 4 games. Take dull and boring games out early on in the season - 2 games. Take TV Games out - 2 games There's 14 games that I wouldn't justify spending my money on if I didn't have a season ticket and was paying match by match. The thing is with season tickets is that it almost makes you feel obliged to go. I still miss 3 or 4 games a season anyway due to other commitments, but paying on a match by match basis, I don't think I would be @rsed with them games, especially as I was to do all/most away games next season.

No you don't. But there is a large group of Saints fans, which runs into four figures that do. And the reasons the club have given for removing the Installment plan are complete made up b*llocks. Are you not interested in why the club is feeding fans lies? Regardless of that the subject matter is?

You're getting tedious now.

Quick answer. Because there are only 2 respected companies that offer this service. Zebra Finance and Premium Credit The club has to enter into an agreement with only one company, as they have done with Premium Credit Ltd for the last few years ( apart from last year ). Zebra Finance collect the premiums on a monthly basis on behalf of SFC and collect and administration fee for doing so, which is generally hidden in the interest. Each month, based on a £65 a month payback, Zebra takes a fiver and gives the £60 to SFC That's all there is to it. It really is that simple. If someone defaults, as part of Zebras job, they chase up the payments and can impose CCJ's etc and/or hand the account back to SFC

Seriously, how many times before it gets through... and I find myself having to reply every single time you or someone else mentions administration costs, because otherwise the thread will change as more people jump on and don't look at any posts other than the last few. THERE IS NO ADMINISTRATION COSTS FOR THE CLUB He quoted less than 40% COULD get a 0% credit card... the number is between 30% and 40% and I got this figure off someone who works in risk management for HSBC, so funnily enough less than 40% of the UK population qualify for one. Now take the demographic and income of the people who most likely to rely on a payment plan for their season ticket... what percentage of them do you think would qualify for one? Que all the Billy Big Balls ( word of the week ) coming on here and stating if people need to pay it off in installments then they are not wealthy enough to deserve to watch Saints blah blah blah The club does not need to offer 0%, there are plenty of other options which do not carry any cost to the club, there is no excuse.

It's none of your business my financial affairs to be honest and what I decide to do. A large number of my friends cannot now renew their season tickets, which is one reason why I will not be renewing, I have also had an unexpected expense in the last couple of days so even if I wanted to renew, I couldn't now. I am making a point and a very valid one that the club is bullying people out of buying season tickets and the excuse/reason they have give is a LIE... that is a FACT... I have proven it beyond doubt. As for me, I will do away games as normal and make sure I go to less than 10 home games so the club don't recoup the money they would have had off me from a season ticket.

I really do give up on some people. Can I make a suggestion, when people come and view this thread can they at least read the original post before replying. This company is just one example, but as the people who run the Installment plans for Man Utd, Man City, Spurs and even P*mpey, I am sure they would protest they are not backalley shysters. As for loans, I can't be arsed to explain the reasons why many people wouldn't qualify. As I said, I have explained how Zebra collect their administration fees time and time again on this thread, even in the original post. They are not a loan company with regards to season tickets and their APR on loans is completely irrelevent!!!! IT IS NOT A LOAN FOR THEIR SEASON TICKET SERVICE They simply take an interest fee off the customer which they keep for the administration and collection of the premiums on behalf of SFC, thye then pay SFC the full season ticket installment on a monthly basis. The net result is the customer ends up paying around a fiver extra a month for being able to pay in installments. It's not rocket science, is it?