"Free With Purchase": Reading the Small Print on Matched Offers

A matched bonus or a gift with purchase is a discount with conditions attached. The conditions decide whether it is a discount at all.

The same offer in different clothes

• A department store gives a gift when you spend above a threshold.
• A bank pays a welcome bonus if you meet a minimum spend in three months.
• A gaming site matches a first deposit, subject to a wagering requirement.

In each case the business is paying to change your behaviour, and has set terms to make sure the payment is worth it.

Four things to find

1. The threshold. What you must spend or deposit to qualify.
2. The ceiling. The most the offer can be worth.
3. The condition. What must be done before the benefit becomes yours.
4. The deadline. How long you have.

A published example

A first-deposit match in the Taiwanese market shows all four in one place. According to this Traditional Chinese explainer on how a first-deposit offer is calculated (娛樂城首儲優惠怎麼算), the offer described is a 100 percent match: deposit 500 and receive 500, deposit 1,000 and receive 1,000. The threshold, the ceiling and the turnover condition are stated alongside. That is the standard to hold any offer to.

How to decide

• Would you have made the purchase or deposit anyway? Then the offer is a bonus.
• Are you spending more to qualify? Then the extra is what the gift costs you.
• Is the condition one you would meet in the ordinary course? If not, value the offer at zero.

The quiet cost

Offers also cost attention. Chasing thresholds across several programmes takes time, and the habit of buying to qualify is worth more to the seller than any single gift is to you.