Shoppers warned to avoid rip-off discount service ‘Senior Advantage’

A recent investigation by consumer advocacy group Choice has found that the membership program known as ‘Senior Advantage’ could be ripping-off older Australians by charging customers to access discounts that are already freely available to everyone.

Choice issued a warning to seniors around the country to watch out for these “discount” programs and similar online tricks that are heavily marketed online but offer no actual exclusive deals to customers despite payments being made.

“Choice is issuing a warning today about Senior Advantage,” Choice investigator Andy Kollmorgen said. “As part of our investigation we signed up to this service and found that the company made big claims but delivered no unique value. When we tried to claim deals from Senior Advantage we were taken directly to publicly available deals like the half-price specials pages for major supermarkets.”

According to Senior Advantage’s website, the program offers “access to one of the biggest discounts portal for seniors” and “thousands of searchable deals and coupons” but Choice found that a number of these members-only offerings were actually publicly available for free elsewhere.

Membership costs for the program appear on the site as $39 for a one-year plan, $75 for a two-year plan, and $99 for a three-year plan.

“Senior Advantage appears to be a lazy cash grab, essentially re-badging discounts already available for free,” Kollmorgen said. “They take advantage of senior Australians with big promises, drip pricing and lazy, cheap content of little value.”

The investigation also uncovered that the CEO potentially doesn’t exist, with a reverse image search revealing that the image used for the CEO on the website was actually a stock photo. It also found that although the website advertised one price initially, it defaulted to another more expensive price on the checkout page.

Other questionable findings from the report included the website providing low-quality content on budgeting and dieting that is largely available for free from more authoritative sources, as well as a number of dubious reviews about the service, which appeared to be fake.

The company was also found to be based in Lithuania, which Choice said could be its attempt at funnelling disputes through the Lithuanian legal system to avoid the stronger Australian Consumer Law system.

The investigation by Choice was sparked by tip-offs from seniors’ groups, with many now receiving refunds from the company. Choice’s advice for those who have paid for memberships to the website is to demand their money back as soon as possible.