Posted in February 2007

Bank charges

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Tuesday 27th February 2007, 9:56am

People are being advised to reclaim bank charges

I was listening to talksport on 20th Feb, between 10.00am/11.30am-ish (sorry, I mean't to post this earlier), and they were talking about bank charges ie £30 per letter - they said you can send a letter requesting copies of the last 6 years of charges (you may have to send £10), then you can send a second letter saying that you have been overcharged (you will have to calculate the amount) and request repayment. There have been people quoting repayments of between £100's and £1000's.

Two sites have been mentioned for guidance and even include letters (templates) to send. The sites are: debtwizard.com and moneysavingexpert.com, it is well worth a try, as Mike from debtwizard says that banks would rather pay up millions, than risk a test case in court and end up paying billions.

Also, it seems that you can do the same with credit card charges, however, you don't (cannot?) claim the first £12 on each charge listed (agreement with finance authorities).

Finally, someone mentioned penaltycharges.co.uk which you can use to claim back business account bank charges, the person said that they have reclaimed £16,000.

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Fellow suffers beware..

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Friday 23rd February 2007, 2:06pm

Read the small print..

I've been suffering with a cold for the past 2 weeks, but thought I would be brave and not tell anybody (can I hear a violin?), however, it seems there are quiite a few of us bloggers suffering with it at the moment, so here's something that I 'discovered' about the medication.

I went to the chemist to get something for the chesty cough and sore throat, and they recommended a couple of products and off I trotted with my cures. I don't know about you, but have you ever read the small print on these things? the cough linctus includes the sentences.. "contains colours which may cause allergic reactions" and also, "If you accidentally take too much see a doctor straight away" (you're allowed 2 x 5ml, 4 times a day), whilst the lozenges had the comforting message about side effects of "May occasionally include allergic reactions, or very rarely a blood disorder which gives a blue tinge to your lips and nails"

In the past I normally just take a swig from the bottle and chomp through the lozenges like smarties! Perhaps it is a good excuse to stick to conventional medicines like scotch, brandy etc. (hic)

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Credit card fraud pt3

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Tuesday 20th February 2007, 9:24am

Other options?

It seems my ears must have been burning, as I received a reply from Paul the Frustrated Businessman, which suggested that I look at prepaid mastercards, as they have been using one for their online purchases.

Spookily, I had just started to do that after hearing about it on talksport radio, who are currently promoting their own card. Also, I looked at moneysupermarket, which lists another eleven cards.

I will mention that you need to check through the various fees/reload options etc., as some have set cost, others work on percentages of purchases, so you need to have some idea of much you will be using the card to find the best deal for you.

Happy hunting...

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Credit card fraud pt 2

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Friday 16th February 2007, 9:32am

I'm not alone...

Just an update to the incident, having mentioned it to my family, I discovered that two of them were also recent victims. Having discussed it further, there didn't seem to be any pattern as I had only used it online, one had used it at warehouses and the other a mixture of online and shops.

The only thing in common we have is that our relative banks (we all have different banks) picked up on the fraud very quickly and we didn't suffer (financially) in the long term.

I also noted with interest the 'chip and pin' article on Watchdog this week, where the banks were refusing to refund payments. A lot of people I know aren't happy with this issue and see it as a convenient excuse by the banks to not refund the money.

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Credit card fraud

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Wednesday 14th February 2007, 9:57am

How did they get my details?

I've been shopping online for years and never had any problems apart from one missing delivery issue, which they finally admitted that they hadn't sent.

However, back to the issue, I arrived back from town just after midday to find a telephone message from my banks fraud dept! I called back through their main number (to make sure it was legit) and discovered that somebody had made online purchases for travel and hotels.

Thankfully, they had picked up on them straight away as the purchases had been made during the time I was in town (I hadn't used my credit card). They talked me through every step, identifying which purchases were valid and which were fake, and how they would block the credit card and then set up a new Mint credit card with the relevant details: balance transfers / payments, etc.

The fraud amount has been repaid into my new card and everything appears to be ok. There is just the paperwork to complete. I have to say, that at no point did I feel I was being accused of any mistakes which lead to the fraud.

The only question remaining is how they got my details, I haven't given details over the phone/in the shop for well over a year now, which must imply that it has come from one of the online sites. I will be looking to see if they are any practical solutions to make sure this doesn't happen again.

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England 2 - 0

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Monday 12th February 2007, 9:07am

England win and take the competion

Despite my concerns about Australia, they again showed that if you can apply pressure on them, they try to hit their way out of trouble. How much the rain had to play in the result is difficult to say, but it was the same for both sides.

Finally, the value of using one-day players has shown the difference it can make to a side, lets hope the board learn from this.

Roll on the world cup!

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England win!!!

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Friday 9th February 2007, 3:02pm

England beat Australia

After having sand kicked in our (Englands') faces, we beat Australia in the first best of three series cricket final.

For most of the match, England looked to do their collective best to shoot themselves in the foot, however, they didn't plan on Australia out doing them in a batting collapse.

However, I still wonder if this is still part of an Australia plot to eek out the public interest, and set us up for a big fall.

Still in the meantime, Australia your boys took a hell of a beating!!!

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