Wholesale petrol prices have fallen $30 a barrel since last month. The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, cut fuel duty by 5p a litre on March 23 and a result VAT fell 1p per litre. But prices have stayed stubbornly high at most filling stations. We need to find out which stations are playing fair and reducing their prices and use them. The Competition and Markets Authority is trying to help by increasing competition. Since Morrisons was taken over last year by private equity some 1,200 petrol stations have been under the same ownership and are less likely to compete on prices. […]
Category: Travel
Leasehold and train battles continue
Two successes but we have to make sure we do not allow ourselves to go soft and stop fighting. The Government has announced that it plans to ban builders from selling new houses as leasehold. At Money Fight Club, in the Financial Times and on Share Radio I have long campaigned for the feudal leasehold system to be reformed. The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership has also been brilliant. Sajid Javid late last night announced that the market was broken and was harming home buyers. Builders and the companies that make fat profits from buying freeholds from property developers to inflate […]
Read the small print or get conned
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Claim compensation for rail delays
Claim now and claim often for delays on trains. Too many commuters and other passengers are letting the rail companies get away with running late trains without claiming what they can. The companies still do not make it easy but money is available for delays of 15 minutes. The companies are saving £100m a year because travelers do not claim what they can. With fares up 2.3% this year the compensation can help. Southern Rail claims it is running a normal service from today, even though ASLEF, the train drivers’ union, and the RMT union is still banning overtime. Southern […]
Delays for new train fare compensation
News about the new train fare compensation for travellers if they are delayed more than 15 minutes will be met with muted joy. While it is very annoying to arrive in Victoria time after time 28 minutes late and therefore unable to get any compensation for the delay. The new extra level of delay compensation paying after 15 minutes will give just 25% of the single fare. And for those with season tickets they will first of all have to divide their annual cost by 464 and then divide that by four to get the level of their compensation. No […]
UK petrol prices – a license to burn money
For months we’ve been told that UK petrol prices could not fall further or faster because the refineries buy their fuel months ahead. Yeah, right. UK petrol prices rise again So it came as a surprise to see prices creeping up again ALREADY! The excuse, no doubt, is that this reflects the increase of a few dollars per barrel for Brent crude. The price of crude has moved from a low of $45 to above $60. With what can only be described as lightning speed the price per litre at my local filling station increased from 107.9p to 109.9p. With […]
Hit by bad weather rail failures? Compensation letter
Record numbers of train journeys have been delayed or cancelled due to floods and strong winds. The problems are getting worse, with more rail failures and more lines affected every day. Network Rail, which runs and maintains Britain’s rail tracks, has agreed a new five year plan to get the trains running on time. But, in the meantime, if you can’t travel it is important that you claim compensation from the rail company who should have got you where you needed to get to. As you might expect each one has a different system. Any other approach would make it […]
Train pain
More trains cancelled! And on the same day that the rail companies detailed their inflation-busting price rises for next year. The average increase is 2.8% compared to the inflation rate of 2.1%. And, coincidentally, it was the same day that Southern Railway sent out vouchers to those who suffered appalling delays and cancellations due to storms and delays in October. Every passenger delayed by the cancellations should claim for the disruption. Monday December 23 saw many train lines closing down for hours and on Christmas Eve they still have not going again. The compensation paid for having no trains at […]