Micah Bunny’s Blog

Taking on the Banks over bank charges

Radio 4 had a programme covering the issue of reclaiming bank charges. They also just had a good one on Privacy in peril which cover identity theft and use of information stored on us in databases such as credit card info.

But back to bank charges, which it seems well worth reclaiming any that have been made against you for missing credit card repayment, bounced direct debits or cheques, or unauthorised overdrafts in last six years (maybe more in Scotland, yet to check out, but there is lower limit of £750 at small claims court in Scotland). There are several websites with templates for letters to write and then small claims court procedure which will result in getting charges refunded. There are various other web forums where one can follow others success with this.

Consumer Action Group forum

Penalty Charges website includes forum

Bank Charges Hell

Martin Lewis on reclaiming bank charges

This is money on reclaiming bank charges

Basically given the government wish to save money by scrapping post office basic bank account to force use all to use banks to have benefits and pensions paid into; it is good people are taking on the banks over there unlawful use of bank charges to fund the advertising blurb of ‘free banking’ where 20% of often poorest customers who incur most charges fund wider current account system through bank charges that amount to extortion. The law says that charges that cover more than admin costs are an unfair penalty and that is unlawful.
Also the only local cash till in my area was converted to fee charging cash till that only warns on it is a pay cash till in blue writing in thing font on blue background.

Phone Call Costs

Ok, after my post the other week on phone call costs, I though I would post up a summary

Here are some pre-dial numbers for having cheaper UK mobile calls:

0844 428 0004 (4p/min)
0844 428 2525 (4p/min)
price comparison from:
http://niftylist.co.uk/calls/to/uk/mobile/

or for UK landlines:

0844 721 2525 (1p/min)
0844 861 2121 (1p/min)
0844 861 3838 (1p/min)
0844 721 0001 (1p/min)
from:
http://niftylist.co.uk/calls/to/uk/landline/

The Niftylist website is best viewed with CustomizeGoogle enabled in Firefox web browser.

Another Phone call cost comparison site which is worth checking out does not have adverts but is more garish.

Note: you get charged for time to answer even if not answered but at these prices compared with BT/Telewest/NTL etc. this not significant factor in decision to use over default with line supplier.

If you wish to verify rates and who supplies service use:
http://www.magsys.co.uk/telecom/codelook.asp

Also another aspect of using these pre-dial numbers is the follow through number actually called does not show on itemised bill.

Also you can view web and have you can access phoneline clear at same time you can get some minutes of landline calls hassle free from JaJah and Webcalldirect. I think it gets max trial minutes from number used rather than cookie which could drop or IP which could change via Tor ( http://tor.eff.org )

These can still be used after switch to The Phone Co-op as default service which I reccomend for reasons over immediate cost comparisions but is slightly cheaper than BT but still worth using these pre-dial access numbers to get the cheapest rates.
I reccomend The Phone Coop because it is a customer coop and so is more stable and can’t be taken over by another company which causes disruption. Also one can have share and influence the company policy through that as well as get a dividend. Also it is worth getting a Phone Coop account if you use Cable phone line to get fixed cost calls in evening.
For directory inquiries use 118114 which is cheaper than most of others.

Martin Lewis’s take on phone and broadband costs

Rip off ATMs and bank charges

BBC have a story today about rip off ATM charging. This comes after the goverment forced pensioners and those on benefit to get bank accoutns to receive dole in. There was a previous story on Scottish TV.
In our area the only ATMs that charge. One is in a location that used to be non-charging can they keep the bank symbols on it and only warning that it charged £1.75 was on screen in a blue thin font on a blue background. Often wehn people using told it charges people don’t use it, so in many case people go to use it unaware of charge. Obtaining money from these charges is deceiving people and in my view amounts to fraud.
Also a friend went into a shop and first asked if they accepted cards and they said they did then later at till they told him to go use charging machince in the store.

Also now with admin charges on bills people are encouraged to used direct debit but it is not as straight forward to set it up so fits in with weekly or fortnightly pay. I have a friend who has several time including last 2 months had bank charges to pay because out of sync direct debits with income. I would advise them to move to bank that has buffer zone (such as the HSBC) where it is preserved by not being able to dip into it with solo/eletron card or atm withdrawals but if direct debit attempted will be able to. But I doubt can switch bank with resulting bad credit rating due to previous uncovered direct debit attempts.

For basic accounts the co-operative bank has a lower charge than most, but still it is pretty unbearable to get one of these let alone several. HSBC may be not charge.
Someone elses advice on bank charges

The market creating cost spread on phone calls

I just added to my webpage on phone issues that some of the cheapest phone calls can be had is by using pre-dial numbers from a company called Connect Telecom UK Ltd (Finarea SA) under brandnames Phonecheap, 0844calls, Discountdial, Dialaround, Telediscount, Telesavers and Telestunt (note they offer a different mix of rates via each but rather than lok at each site you can use a comparison site). For UK landline numbers at 1p per minute try 0844 861 2121 or 0844 861 3838. For UK mobiles at 4p per minute try 0844 428 2525 or 0844 428 0004. The disadvantage of this is that one gets charged for time the call ring even if not answered which is often the minimum charge. But in some cases, mostly overseas mobiles, it is same price to use ukfsn/justdial’s similar access numbers, which I previously recommended as UKFSN got a cut.

Also the same Connect Telecom / Finarea SA is behind a slightly different method that is maybe more suitable for mobiles: 18185, TopUpDiscount and TeleTop, so more rates to compare but do take into account the costs call to London number to access, as well as there system. Also this method makes more even sense if one has an unlimited call package. Others offering this style of service include cheapestchat. But they also can be found via comparison site.

I still recommend one switchs line rental from BT to The Phone Coop (and apply for a share in The Phone Coop) but on either look at using these prefix numbers for each call where saves money which in most cases will.

I am intrigued by fact the different brand names offer similar rates but in many signicant cases not, meaning one has to work to take advantage of the market by continually checking prices and not relying on market competiton for you. On one site, they even invite people to send in with lower prices spotted elsewhere. This is great way for them to get feedback on those that cross check sites.

I also added link to a site to compare costs of phone calls: http://www.magsys.co.uk/telecom/ but recently found niftylist which is easier.

Also a word of advice if you have someone from overseas staying it is worth for piece of mind to get direct dial international calls blocked so have to use cheaper service prefferably their own accounts. Though be warned a friends experience with BT was they removed her premium rate call block when she got international calls blocked (she has bypass pincode) and will take 7 days to get this back on. In her case wished to keep premium rate calls blocked as pre-dial number, but BT staff did not mention premium rate calls when she order service so she did not consider them. In fact when rang back up to try rectify they at first mistakenly insisted one could only have one or the other blocked.

[UPDATE (12/July2006): It seems the cock up in dealing with this issue but BT customer service operators was even more then I realised. It now turns out that the Call Barring product could have also blocked premium rate calls as well national, mobile and international. How the service is all explained in a leaflet BT produce. If they had mentioned that just need to punch in *347# to bar premium rate numbers this when rang up to qerry how come premium rate call blocking removed, let along when product first ordered, or just sent out copy of leaflet when ordered. Nor did they even give us this info in response email to online complaint.

Also when we only found leaflet online yesterday because when we tried to view pages on call feature we could not as system is too clever for it own good and it would not let us view call bar feature page (as comes up in first link on search for it one their wesbite) as we had services on order once enter account number which promoted for ie removing call baring to restore premium rate bar, which is not what we wanted we wanted both. It sesm there service although more flexible than rivals, suffers for this if they don't set systems up to make customer understanding it possible]
And be warned about suggesting to guest to use pre-paid cards as these often will come with 0845 access number listed first which is 3p/min during the day with is itself more expensive than Telesavers etc. for many UK/European calls, as well as them often having hidden costs for the user. The Post Office (TM) card seems to be free of hidden costs with rate quoted what you end up paying overall. But I suggest suggesting to them they use pre-paid service under own name instead of pre-paid cards to get better value for them.

Maybe best idea is to encourage them to get a UK sim card for their mobiles and use TopUp service with best rates for most likely calls.

Also it is worth claiming five mins of free hassle-free calls for a range of international places using JaJah. But one needs to have plain old telephone near your web browsing computer. And similarly another in same vain: Webcalldirect

Broadband in the UK

Recently a few friends have asked my advice on which service provider to go for when getting Broadband internet connection. I have a page on my homepage concerning internet access in the UK, but I did look further into the range of ADSL providers at the moment.

One to check out is: UKFSN (http://ukfsn.org/) who give some of the proceeds to free software development.

See write-ups of various providers at:

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/

One thing is there is going to be consolidation as so many providers so don’t get too use to a nice set up one provider has in way of control panel etc.

One provider that can’t be bought up by another is the Phone Coop as it is owned by it’s customers.

http://www.thephone.coop/receive.htm?name=Agent_483&name2=index.html

One thing with the Phone Coop is to take in account on price that one can become a member once a customer and get a quite significant dividend. And it is less likely to go bust as not borrowing from Banks in same way. So over long term may end up actually cheap by price.

Like many others one can switch Phone line rental to them (but there is a breakout fee if had line with BT less than six months), the only reason I can see to stay with BT is if one makes few phone calls and used free caller ID from BT. Remember to resetup premium rate call barring etc if you do switch.

The Phone Co-op provides ADSL at the Indymedia / Free Software Lab in Basement below the Forest Cafe:

http://www.infoseed.org/

It used to used Andrews and Arnold before but they were too expensive as unlike Phone Co-op did not treat small orgs same as residential customers.

The FAQ from one company that supplies ADSL has some interesting info:

http://portal.metronet.co.uk/support/broadband/adsl.shtml

The Register an Online newspaper with interest article concerning ASDL providers: http://www.theregister.co.uk/ (but be carefull as they tend to repeat gossip).

In fact they had an article on Metronet been bought up by another company, as is the trend I pointed out that all the companies will not be around and some consolidation will go on:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/28/plusnet_metronet/

LinuxUK:

http://www.uklinuxadsl.net

This one that Jason who does UKFSN used to work for, but left a while ago due to him think they were not handling money to good cause as well as they should, so as I say I would treat them just as any other company on weighting them up.

http://www.jasonclifford.com/uklinux.html

But they did win an award from some magazines for being a good ISP for what it is worth. But as I said as they are resellers often at mercy of what BT (or Openreach) do as can see in metronet FAQ.

One thing don’t be taken in by free modem offers these are usually low end usb adsl modems, which often don’t work with Linux. I would suggest buying a combined ADSL modem with router if you have more than one computer and with wireless if you have a Laptop.

I am recommending to everyone who uses Internet in uk takes a look at:

http://www.getsafeonline.org/

as there is some good advice there, that echo stuff I say to people.

Power of adverts (in UK)

In Scotland and I guess rest of the UK power companies are heavily advertising at the moment. For the past few weeks here Scottish Power and Scottish Gas (brand name of Centrica) have adverts that use price as a selling issue despite being the more expensive of the companies. I think they might be fair to try sell on being trusted or customer service but even there they don’t come out on top in surveys. They also sell idea of fixing prices over five years letting viewer assume that further price rise likely but in that time scale it is generally expected by those who understand gas market that prices will drops as new pipeline to european mainland comes on stream and changes in regulation of gas market in europe reduce prices to UK after a few years.

Anyway there are several services to compare utility prices, and watchdog energywatch publishs the various price comparisons.

Also I notice many people understandably use 118118 for directory enquiries due to it’s heavy and in my view annoying adverts, or other widely advertised numbers. 118114 by phone coop is what I recomend it is cheaper than most.

Word of mouth can conteract the distorting of consumer choices by adverts where expensive previous monopoly providers keep market share. The bloggosphere is a wider word of mouth network. I have for a few years put such links up on my homepage as I would some times mention to people in conversation recommendations and then be able to just point them to my home page. I may well just start doing blog entries for updates especially if recomendations likely to go out of date.