Loyalty doesn’t always pay

You won’t save cash by sticking with the same firms year in, year out. Quite the opposite, in fact.

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Loyalty is all well and good, but it can come back to bite you

Loyalty doesn't pay, warns Citizens Advice. Companies penalise loyal customers by more than £4bn a year, according to the consumer group, which has launched a super-complaint with the Competition and Markets Authority, calling for the regulator to tackle the practice of overcharging repeat customers. "Regulators and [the] government have recognised the loyalty penalty as a problem for a long time yet the lack of any meaningful progress makes this super-complaint inevitable," says Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice.

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Ruth Jackson-Kirby

Ruth Jackson-Kirby is a freelance personal finance journalist with 17 years’ experience, writing about everything from savings accounts and credit cards to pensions, property and pet insurance.

Ruth started her career at MoneyWeek after graduating with an MA from the University of St Andrews, and she continues to contribute regular articles to our personal finance section. After leaving MoneyWeek she went on to become deputy editor of Moneywise before becoming a freelance journalist.

Ruth writes regularly for national publications including The Sunday Times, The Times, The Mail on Sunday and Good Housekeeping, among many other titles both online and offline.