Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 25, 1995                   TAG: 9501260053
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GETTING A CARD IS SIMPLE; GETTING A REAL DEAL ISN'T

We're like split personalities, rolling down an electronic highway but with trunks full of paper and plastic cards that promise discounts or special treatment or merely access at the places where we spend our money.

Not including credit or frequent-flyer cards, an average shopper could be carrying 15 to 20 of these special customer rectangles.

Count them:

There are the free video rental cards such as those for Blockbuster, King Video and Kroger Video Center.

There are the general shopping cards such as ones from Babbage's Software, where you get a punch for each $15 purchase and $15 off after 10 punches; Staples, which gives a cardholder the ``member price'' on any of 250 office supply items; or Mail Boxes Etc., where, after sending 10 packages, you get a $5 shipment free.

These are also free cards as are the Hecht's underwear and Leggett hosiery club memberships and Sam's Wholesale Club basic membership card, which basically just gets you in the door. There is a fee for the discount card.

We love the idea of getting a discount so much, though, that we'll pay for it. Waldenbooks and Books-A-Million cards cost, as does the Ritz Camera Frequent Foto Distinguished Buyer Club identification.

The Super-8 Motel V.I.P. card carries a $3 processing fee.

No question, the cards save money. But what they do best is get you to return again and again to the same retailer. They are designed to build customer loyalty by getting us where we respond best, at the wallet level.

There is no sign that the customer card is losing in popularity, either. In fact, it's now entering the grocery store business. Food Lion recently announced the MVP Customer card that offers discounts ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent, depending on the total of the purchase.

So far, no other grocery chains have offered us cards. One competitor, Kroger, retaliated by advertising that you don't need a card to get discounts at its stores.

I have a sneaking suspicion that we hardly need any of these cards to get along. And I know that carrying them around is so much trouble that I rarely have the one I need when I need it. But we love the thought of getting a deal. This leads to the second topic for today - a sweepstakes financed by the people who make a 900-call to find out if they've won.

Some area people have gotten a personalized letter from Payment Transfer Systems announcing that they might be due a payment of $7,427.18, but warning they should respond quickly to a hot line number.

The ``hot line'' is a 900 number that has a minimum charge of $3.98. A ``Transfer Summary'' that accompanies the letter notes that the average call takes 6 minutes.

In other words, it will cost $20 or so to learn quickly if you've won. Plus, the difference between what the sweepstakes company pays for the 900 line and what you pay for the call supplies the sweepstakes company with the prize money and the funds to pay 100 employees to run the show.

You can mail in your entry, but about half of the people call, said Tony Brown, president of Direct Mail Sweepstakes, the Irvine, Calif., company that operates Payment Transfer Systems.

For the price of a call, you get coupons valued at about $100, Brown said.

He also said that sometimes people aren't happy about the 900-call experience when the phone bill arrives.

``We get complaints, and we have a no-questions-asked policy. We'll give your money back,'' Brown said.

Direct Mail has been running these self-supporting sweepstakes for 10 years, he said. It's all on the up and up; the prize money is put in escrow before the contest is announced.

And when this contest is over, one person will be $7,427 richer, and about 370 other people can look in the mirror and say ``Sucker.''

Remember the rules:

If it looks like a deal, it probably isn't. If you think you're getting something for nothing, you likely are getting taken. Phone numbers that begin with 800 are free, but 900 numbers cost big time, and if the come-on comes from California...