We all know we live in a country where the consumer is supposed to have power and often that is true. We have more and more organic food in our supermarkets because that is where consumers have been spending their money. Yet in many cases your choices are limited and your choices are restricted to a few companies who behave as though they can do whatever they like without caring what consumers want.

The mobile phone industry has developed very fast in the 15 years or so that it has existed but the standard way they operate resricts customers ability to choose. When you take out a new contract you are tied into that service contract subject to the Terms & Conditions.

T-mobile have incensed a lot of their customers by announcing that they are to double and in some cases treble the cost of calls to numbers starting 08 such as the 0845 and 0870 numbers that companies often use these days. These numbers are excluded from the free minutes you are allowed each month and T-Mobile are spinning a story that suggests that Ofcom has brought in guidelines that require this. What OFCOM seem to have been saying was that these numbers should be brought into line with standard charges for national numbers.

As consumers we are used to being ripped off at every opportunity by companies. What we don’t expect is a company that rips us off and then claims it is down to the regulator telling them they are required to do so.

This is just another example of why all these different premium numbers should be banned. There is no good reason for their existance and time and time again we see examples of consumers being fleeced by companies who use them.

There is a website that is very helpful if you want to avoid using 0870 numbers. The website lists alternative ‘normal’ phone numbers for many companies which enables you to call the companies using your free phone minutes or callplan and avoid the excessive charges levied on these calls. The webiste is here…STOP 0870

For T-Mobile customers this might be a good time to look at other mobile phone service providers but remember you may be trapped by the T&C’s of your contract until the period ends.

Money Magic: Seven Simple Steps to True Financial Freedom (Quick Reads)

You may have heard about online surveys where you can get paid for filling in a survey online. You may also have heard that a lot of them appear to be scams whereby they invite you to sign up and charge you for being on their list of potential survey panelists.

As a general point I would always say be very cautious about paying anybody to be given work. There may be justifiable reasons for it but you can be sure that if they are scammers they will want to make some money from you and then very likely not supply you with what you expected, or they may just supply you with information that is freely available online, or will simply fail to give you the opportunity to earn anything back at all. So, you may gather I am extremly wary of recommending online surveys as a way to make money though there are some genuine opportunities where you can earn a little cash.

There is one survey company that I can recommend from personal experience. This is an established company that does NOT ask you for any money. You don’t get paid very much, about 50p per survey, but the surveys usually only take a few minutes and you may feel you are getting a chance to have your say when you hear the survey mentioned on programmes like Newsnight or you see the results in your newspaper. The surveys can be about political matters or about shopping and brand awareness and if you think you would be interested to know more click on the following link and have a look for yourself….> Online Surveys

Money Magic: Seven Simple Steps to True Financial Freedom (Quick Reads)

The price of energy has been rising steadily for some time now and lots of people are now dreading the electricity bill dropping onto the doormat. One Cambridge woman who was not concerned about a bill arriving because she is on a prepay meter so she was very surprised when she saw an electricity bill from Npower.

When she opened the bill and saw the charges being asked for she must have felt like she had received an electric shock. The bill was asking for £90,454,217.00

You have to wonder how on earth a bill like that could be generated since it is probably enough to run a small town for some considerable time. According to Cambridge-News the lady was speechless when she opened the bill but fortunately she was reassured by the fact that it was such a ridiculous figure that it could not be true and she was able to laugh about it.

What if the bill had ‘only’ been for £900 or £9,000? Companies have a responsibility to their customers to get their bills right. If a company can send out a bill for £90 million then how can we be sure other bills are correct? It is only because this one is so excessive that it stands out as being a complete mistake but how many people suffer stress and health problems because of incorrect bills that the companies pursue and continue to send debt collectors to collect and demand payment.

There is no acceptable excuse for sending incorrect bills. Customers should never have to suffer the shock and stress of incorrect bills and the companies concerned will only stop this when they are punished enough to convince them that it must not happen. Maybe a fine of 1,000 time the mistake would make them think? Now, what is 1,000 multiplied by £90,454,217 ?…..

Money Magic: Seven Simple Steps to True Financial Freedom (Quick Reads)