We all do it. Tick the box stating that we have read and agree the terms and conditions before placing an order. Mostly we get away with it, but in the last week or so I have come across several dodgy contracts produced to make extra money for the business at the expense of the customer. The first example was a hotel in South London that a relative booked for two nights. He paid the £126 cost, but did not actually end up using the room or even visiting it. A good deal for the hotel you might think. […]
Category: Money Fight Club
Commuters should fight back at reduced service
Commuters need to fight back. Southern Rail has decided to officially reduce its service. Nothing to do with the year long strike. Nothing to do with lack of demand. No it is because Southern appears to believe that it runs the trains for its convenience and not as a service to the hundreds of thousands of commuters, who pay heavily for the privilege. The rail company has decided to cut the late trains from both Victoria and Brighton and to cut the first trains from Brighton. Southern had recently been providing a service with fewer cancellations apart from when its […]
Beware stealth price rises
As you make a shopping list for the Easter supermarket shop this weekend remember two things. Supermarkets are increasing prices by stealth and that could be why Tesco could report a 30% increase in profits this week. While milk and bread are likely to be the same as last week and the week before those items you buy infrequently could well cost more. I reckon that for every reduction there are two bigger increases in other aisles. Then there is the regular yo-yo pricing that has everyday items such as loo rolls or mayonnaise moving up and down week by […]
Prices are rising fast but official index misleads
Inflation is rising fast, but the Government and the supermarkets would have us believe that prices are not soaring above earnings. Experts tell us we are mistaken when we think our weekly shop is more expensive. Today we are told that prices in the newly configured inflation basket have increased by 2.3% year on year. That is according to the official consumer price index invented a few years ago and according to the new CPIH index that includes the economists’ take on the cost of owning a home unveiled today was also exactly the same as the CPI, which does […]
Unfair contract traps to be outlawed
Hidden traps in consumer contracts that cause us to pay out far more than we expect and for longer are to be outlawed in next week’s Budget according to Government pre-briefing. But don’t hold your breathe it is likely to take years for businesses that have spent decades devising new ways to con us to reform. They will kick and scream and be in denial about what they have been doing and legislation will probably take longer than Brexit so prepare for an avalanche of unfair tricks to part us from our money in the meantime. We will have to […]
The poor and old will still pay too much
The poor, the old and the vulnerable should beware. Good intentions could cost them dearly. The government through the energy regulator is capping the price of gas and electricity paid for through prepayment meters. They also want to solve the housing problem by “persuading” the elderly to leave their family homes and move to special retirement properties or warden-assisted flats. Costs are more than better off customers pay First of all Ofgem reckons that the 4million households with prepayment meters should save around £80 a year from April . This long awaited measure recommended by the Competition and Markets Authority […]
Travel industry still exploiting holidaymakers
Exploiting passengers and holidaymakers seems to be the mission statement for the travel industry. Today we hear that some rail companies will make it easier for travelers to get the cheapest fare from later in the year, but not all of them. The way fares are currently charged means that passengers often pay three or four times as much as they need to. Especially those who buy from the ticket machines. I abandoned the ticket machines in Sussex that never offer the cheapest fare a long time ago and always queue up to buy the best deals or buy online […]
Energy bills rise 28%
Just as the cold weather is arriving the cost of my household energy bills are increasing by a whopping 28% and there is more to come. I am not alone. Anyone who has been on a fixed price tariff that is coming to an end will find their costs are increasing similarly. And the companies are getting away with it without any adverse publicity because they are not putting up their standard tariffs yet. Their fixed rate tariffs are under the radar, although they have been used by the energy companies to demonstrate that they are not making much profit […]
Retailers should refund customers for faulty goods
Retailers are keen to get us into their sales and seem to have forgotten about the items we paid good money for before Christmas. Faulty items are a nuisance so are the customers who bought them. We all need to tough it out. Yes it is worth taking things back for a refund. A very small example has caused disgruntlement in Money Fight Club Towers. A pair of cashmere socks bought as a gift were wrapped up by the sales assistant with the security device still attached. First of all we were annoyed that the retailer thought so little of […]
Feudal leasehold contracts trap buyers
Two leasehold triumphs today but there is still a long way to go. Leasehold, a feudal form of tenure unique to England and Wales has been trapping home-buyers for decades with contracts that cost them dear. Today Taylor Wimpey, the builder, has said that it will no longer build new leasehold houses with ground rents that can double every ten years. These leases have trapped buyers, who have been unable to sell on their properties. Last year 95% of all new properties sold in London were leasehold and 670,000 of houses were leasehold in England and Wales, including 2,829 new […]