A frugal life is an easy life!

Surveys and awards serve no purpose other than to protect or increase sales for the companies involved - it is a simple message but one that needs to be remembered.

The latest shining example (of many out there in "marketing land") of how a false perception is given, comes from the Grocer magazine.
The Grocer magazine's customer base is retailers. This is through it's advertising, marketing even jobs promotion.

I followed a link to read their latest report, but it was "subscription only" - I would have to pay to read it! (No thanks)
The next best thing then, the Grocer gave their report to the BBC website to generate publicity and they published the headlines from it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8476315.stm

"Supermarket alcohol promotions reduced"
You can laugh now, I did.

"Research for the magazine showed that the number of deals on alcohol in January this year made up 22% of all promotions, compared to 26% last year"
How many big occasions are celebrated after New Years in January?
Why not look at the deals for December?

"Instead, offers on fresh food have risen. This year they made up 14% of promotions - while last year they represented only 11.5%"
Is this because these are the latest promotions for supermarkets?
January each year, more people start eating healthier food after the big eating season of Christmas and New Year?

"The Grocer said the trend was most marked at Asda - Drink deals there fell from 27% to 13%"
I would dispute this totally!
It is certainly not the case at my local Asda!
Is it not only natural for drinks offers to fall as the New Year celebrations are over?

"A separate study for The Grocer showed that, on average, alcohol was selling for 2% to 5% more in the run-up to Christmas in 2009, compared with 2008."
A seperate study that didn't make the headlines?
A seperate study that shows that despite inflation being at 1.5% for months, supermarket's put their prices up on alcohol by up to 5%
That is more than three times the rate of inflation (On just one product area) - no wonder supermarket's are making millions of pounds in profits!
This displays the exact opposite to what supermarket TV adverts are saying to the public does it not?

The entire credibility of the report is destroyed at the end, when the real reason is revealed as to why the report has been put out:

"The research comes as politicians consider introducing minimum pricing rules for alcohol as a way of tackling binge drinking"
Need I say anything more...

When paid by direct debit, a pensioner friend of the website was paying £40 per month for their gas supply.

Back in August 2009, their six monthly statement showed they were in credit, but as we hear all to often, it "will level itself out over the year."
They were advised to check they were on the lowest tariff - which they were, paying by the "cheapest method of direct debit" - which they were.
Imagine their shock at being presented with a new monthly payment plan that would increase their monthly direct debit to £125 a month!

On contacting the company, they were informed that they now owed the gas supplier more than £550 - from being in credit four months earlier.

Within two weeks, their request to have a card meter installed to pay for their gas and collect the so called arrears was honoured.
Our pensioner friend now pays £20 per week for their gas supply, having £13 per week taken from this amount for their arrears.
During the cold winter months, our pensioners are advised to "not worry about the expense and put their heating on and keep warm" - how are a company allowed to get away with increases that are more than treble what they were before?

In October 2008 the energy watchdog ruled that companies must lower their charges before the end of March 2009, after they were increased by more than 40% for the year (the time of the year when more energy is used).

In March 2009, energy companies did lower their prices, but not by much, one company only lowered its prices by 10% if the customer took out a long term contract for joint gas and electricity supply - taking into account the previous rises of over 40% this left their customers more than 30% out of pocket.

It appears from our friend's experiences, the gas suppliers have simply held off the increases until winter 2009.
Can a gas supplier justify an increase of more than treble the monthly direct debit charge?
I doubt it very much, as our pensioner friend only has their heating on for two hours in a morning and two hours in an evening, as they live alone.

It is a shameful way to treat people - or is this just an isolated case?

ADDITIONAL:

It appears that this is not just an isolated case!
Another pensioner friend of the website, who is with a different gas company to the one referred to above, has seen the amount that their gas company demand in monthly direct debit payments, shoot up.

They were paying £45 per month, it has now been increased to £113 per month.
Yet again, this is disgraceful!

We see it everywhere we look, on every sign, on every piece of promotional bumph, included to refer us to some small print that we hardly ever read, until it is too late.

The dreaded asterix *

The sprog came home from college today, prevented from printing his assignment off, because the establishment have changed their policy on printing for students.
Not content with charging £3500 per year for his course (An increase from £1800 it was three years ago) but now they are demanding a payment be made in advance for using the college's print services.

A minimum payment of £5 must be made by debit or credit card and each page printed will cost 6p and this will be taken from the £5 deposited.
I asked sprog1 where on the course paperwork was the asterix? Where is the *?

Of course there isn't one, but it is going the same way as everything else that business tries to sell us.
Flights are a prime example, you click to buy a flight only to find that airport taxes, baggage allowances, etc, have an * after them and they bump the price up to nothing like what you were clearly led to believe in the advertising on the website or in the newspaper or shop.
"Upto 70% off sale *" - This is a common one, the * normally means that it's only applicable to new customers (you being an existing customer of course) or you cannot use it to buy certain products (almost always the product that you wanted) or to get the benefit of the offer to which the * is attached to, you have to pay more than you would normally for the product or service, in which case you are not really benefitting.

There of course is the other type of * the invisible one!

Ever bought car insurance?
I have had the same policy with the same company for 14 years now.
Until 3 years ago, my "Fully comprehensive policy" used to have a courtesy car within that package.
Until they applied the invisible * - now I have no courtesy car as well as a higher price each year.
The same invisible * applies to my excess fee, payable by me incase of an accident, even if it is not my fault. It seems to keep on rising but the price of my insurance never reduces when each quote comes in to renew.
What about "gap" insurance, where your car that is worth £10,000 on a fully comp policy, if it is written off a year later, if you don't pay for the extra for the "gap insurance" the fully comprehensive policy only pays part of the £10,000 value of your car. How fantastic is that!

Becareful out there gang, until someone high up comes along and stops these misleading practices, then it is down to us and only us, to stop it being applied to us!

In the snow, it is easy to clear the windscreen and side windows off, then you open your car door and whoosh!

The snow around the edge of your door gets sucked into the car and all over your seat.
You probably try in vane to dust it off and just like me, you end up getting more snow on the seat than was there in the first place!

Great, now not only are you having to dig the car out and freeze whilst you do it, now you get a wet seat of your pants to add to the fun... not anymore!

When leaving your car after you park up, leave your front seats tilted forward, as if someone is getting out of the back.
When you next come to get in your snow covered car, the magic suction created by opening the door will suck the snow in and place it on the back of your front seat, pull your seat back into the upright position, hey presto... a nice dry, snow free seat to sit on!

A much better option that purchasing a top of the range car with heated front seats.

A credit card is an unsecured debt. These are being used more and more to meet monthly payments on people's mortgages.
The idea being, is that people will not fall behind with their mortgage, if they cannot keep up the payments on their credit card, they will not lose their home, as the debt is "unsecured."

A report out today, shows that charging orders - where an unsecured debt is secured against your home - are on the increase, by 722%

Once in place, a court can be asked to action the charging order by the company who request it be placed on the home.
If the court grant the action, then the home would be sold and before any funds are passed to the former owner, any charging orders on the property must be paid.
In one case that I helped with, a high street bank made out that the charging order was just a "formality."
Once in front of the local magistrate, for a debt less than £4000, the solicitor instructed the magistrate that he would be seeking to enforce the charging order in full, ie, forcing the owner to sell their property to pay the company he represented off!

We have already covered how to defend a charging order but for those that are not sure, here is a summary:

• ALWAYS defend a charging order
• Always have the case heard in your local magistrates court
• Always appear in person and make a defence

Points you can make to help your defence (For more details click the link above):

• Offer only what you are sure you can afford, there is no point going back to court in the future or struggling to meet a payment you offered
• Keep your repayment offer, the same as any other creditors that you may have
• To grant a charging order on your property would give an unfair prejudice to any other creditor who did not have a charging order on your home
• Point out that the original debt was unsecured - the company were happy to give you what they gave you, unsecured, why do they require it now?
• As the debt was unsecured, you would have been charged a higher rate of interest upon taking it out and any payments that you have made towards paying it off. Ask for a refund of the difference in interest between a secured product and your unsecured product - they now want to secure the debt, you should get at least their secured debt rating?
• If you have any "administration" charges in the total amount the company are claiming you owe them, only offer a partial admittance, add up your "admin" charges or "late fees" and request that these be taken off the full balance being claimed.
  Point out to the court that you have asked for a detailed breakdown of each charge and as you have not been given one (no company will!) you can only assume that they are making some level of profit from each charge and as such it becomes a penalty charge - which under common law in England and Wales, is unenforceable (as a penalty charge can only recover ACTUAL LOSS and not make a profit)

As with anything legal, if you are unsure about any of the points raised, please seek legal advice or contact your citizen's advice bureau, BEFORE you take any action or decisions.

A 722% increase in charging orders being applied for through magistrates court is a huge amount, be on your guard gang!

Defending a charging order