Refer a friend promos with win/win scenarios - eg ME Bank promo

Munificent on 30/11/2014 - 20:59

Hi all,

As most of you would be aware of, there was a recent promo from ME Bank where if you referred someone and they signed up using your code, they would get $50 and you would get $50; up to a limit of 10 referrals per person. https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/171010

I found it strangely difficult to convince my friends and acquaintances to actually sign up to this promo, even though they clearly benefit from the promo. Did anyone else experience a similar thing?
I found that most people were quite reluctant to sign up and some of the common excuses were:
- too lazy / can't be stuffed
- too much hassle
- busy, no time to do it

It didn't matter if these people were rich or poor, it didn't change the result. I found this to be very surprising behaviour especially with how easily one can sign up to bank accounts these days. If you extrapolate $50 for 10 minutes, you effectively are earning $300/hr pro-rata by signing up. I'm 99.99% positive that the people I know don't make even close that much money.

I know that everyone on OzBargain would jump onto this deal, but why is it the general population has no desire to get this free money? This inertia is even more surprising in the context of modern consumerist society where people will line up for hours in the hopes of "saving money" via sales such as boxing day sales or grand openings of stores.

Interested to hear your thoughts!

Financial

Related Stores

ME Bank
ME Bank

Comments

  • plmko on 30/11/2014 - 21:17
    +4

    It's a psychological pattern where if you don't place cash in context, people have weird concepts of the value of money or savings. The ABC Checkout show, did a story about how people were willing to drive across town to save $20 on a $100 radio but weren't willing to do the same when it was a $10,000 car, when logically $20 is still $20 no matter where it comes from.

    I actually managed to convince one fellow to sign up but only by framing the 'free' money in terms of wage of hours worked: $50 = ~3 hrs of scrubbing some dishes in a kitchen avoided. Or 5% cash back offer = getting 122.55cents per litre of petrol instead of 129cents. Suddenly they go out their way to sign up.

    • Munificent on 30/11/2014 - 21:50
      +1

      Haha, very insightful! Love how we have to work so hard to convince people to get free money!

      I fell back on the line "ah okay, guess you're already too rich and probably don't need the money". It helped, but still people couldn't be bothered

    • [Deactivated] on 04/12/2014 - 12:05
      +1

      I don't really understand either.

      I think we ozbargainers have so much experience in Signing up for things that it we don't even need to think about the hassle.

      Most of the other people who don't regularly sign up for stuff may have a fear of official forms, identity verification and the works.

  • shortgum on 30/11/2014 - 22:59
    +1

    I tried several times to get my friends to join. at the end just not even bother~~

    They just come up with random strange excuses by not worth getting the free money. I am with you MAN!

    went off to refer all my other 3 family members to join. that's it!

    happy to how I live and spend and let them be their own way on manage money

  • peterpeterpumpkin on 30/11/2014 - 23:34

    Thanks for the info on the new deal. Apparently they've upgraded the T&Cs so it's a little harder now - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/171010?page=2#comment-2391…

  • hamza23 on 01/12/2014 - 01:31
    +2

    It's a frustration for many of us, being surrounded in life by Non-OzBargainers, I cannot understand the way these people think :)

  • backno67 on 01/12/2014 - 08:15

    I think it's mainly fear of not knowing all the T & C's and signing up for something they dont quite understand. That, and no one likes to feel they have been 'influenced'.

    I convinced my brother and girlfriend to Ing $75 referral, and received the money - though it took a while. I thought mebank would be a walk in the park as they had already done it. Nope, go figure.

  • Munificent on 01/12/2014 - 08:20

    You would think that because it's being referred by someone they know, they would be more receptive and not feel like they are being influenced

  • WithVenom on 06/12/2014 - 21:53

    I experienced this too - I got a bunch of random excuses… I WANT TO HELP YOU DAMNIT! (but I also want $50 free for myself tee hee)

    • jlien on 08/12/2014 - 14:30
      +1

      Think that's exactly the problem. The reality is you want to help yourself firstly, and then secondly help your friend. Would you still be as proactive if they get $100 and you get $0?, how about if they get $50 and you get put out of pocket $10?

      People don't like being sold when they know the person doing the sale is getting a kick back, especially so from a friend, it just feels like their friendship is taken advantage of.

      • Munificent on 09/12/2014 - 20:44

        I can honestly say, if my friend gets $100 and I get nothing, I will still go out of the way to promote it. Chances are if they are a good friend, they will want to shout you lunch or a drink to say thanks anyways. Helping friends is better than helping strangers - well to me at least

  • idjces on 06/12/2014 - 22:30

    Experienced the same here. I spent an hour working on a friends car trying to sort out his immobilizer issue (for free ofcourse). I brought up mebank as a way to make $50 for 5 minutes work, had sooo much difficulty trying to convince him to sign up, yet here he is complaining of the $800 quote he got to fix his car, and doesn't have the $ for it!

    From every one that I asked, all of them that live paycheck to paycheck said no without any consideration. The few who could actually save their income were fairly easily convinced

  • ethereal88 on 10/12/2014 - 07:23
    -1

    Because MeBank is a shitty joke of a bank that should be shut down. They are desperate for people to sign up to their junk.

  • Baghern on 10/12/2014 - 15:58

    its not 10mins that's the problem, its all the follow up

    6 x 10 mins may = 1hr, but another way to look at it feels is 6 efforts

    Applying, confirming, id, passwords, learning ….. closing etc

    I was surprised I couldn't convince people to jump on the ING $250 iconic deal. Then again I only did it, because I was already familiar with ING (savings account). Would I have bothered if I didn't?

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