A frugal life is an easy life!

Traditions are passed on to children around the world by their families, but here in the UK traditions are being watered down and allowed to disappear.
It is not very thrifty, to pay out for the ever increasing costs of fireworks, but the costs of losing traditions or watering down events that have took place for hundreds of years, is a process that desperately needs reversing.

Take our bonfire night celebrations.
In my area, many of the children I converse with think that the thing to do at this time, is to visit a travelling funfair, paying over the odds for rides and stalls, eating candyfloss, etc, whilst watching fireworks being let off on a hill almost a mile away and if they are lucky, seeing a bonfire being lit.

They expect to get wet (as it always rains), stand in queues for attractions, walk for miles as all the areas where the funfairs are, have no parking and public transport laid on is poor, packed out and expensive. They expect mum and dad to pay £5 to get in then £2 for a 2 minute ride on a waltzer.
Black peas, toffee apples, bonfire toffee and baked potatoes can only be found from a travelling stall, at extortionate prices, after they have queued up for 20 minutes of course. Often it is now named the bonfire night "weekend" - a misleading fact that irks me considerably - designed to part people with more money by visiting the same fair in a different local location.
Not very frugal is it!
Nor does it uphold traditions that millions of British children have been lucky enough to experience over the decades.

A traditional bonfire night, is a fantastic feast of seasonal colours, smells, all enjoyed with friends and family. It can also provide a valuable thrifty service.
In today's world, we are forever being charged more of our hard earned money for basic refuse disposal - landfill costs are a record levels - bonfire night gives us all a perfect opporunity to get rid of rubbish, broken furniture, old sheds, etc.
Our small bonfire night celebrations with a fire, fireworks, traditional bonfire night fayre (which all takes places, rain or not, on November 5th) is now a regular "burn bin" occasion - whereby all the important letters that need to be shredded, are saved in bags and boxes and thrown on to the fire once its established.

Bonfire night used to be great fun for children, collecting bonfire material from neighbours for days, building the fire itself, eaten red hot potatoes that have been wrapped in tinfoil and thrown into the hot embers, dripping with butter and cheese, parents letting off all kinds of fireworks, all being shared around the fire as all the local families come together for a night of fun.

Sprog 1 has always had the full bonfire night tradition at our house.
A fire, fireworks, toffee apples, baked spuds cooked in the fire, etc.
Now with sprog 2, it is very important that this tradition continues.
It is my job as a parent - one that I enjoy of course - to pass on traditions to my kids, in the hope that they too, will pass them on to their children.

A funfair is not part of bonfire night tradition - as the neighbourhood children told us a couple of years ago, as they sat on wooden crates, around our small bonfire, watching the wife let off fireworks in the street and writing their names with sparklers, then scoffing piping hot baked spuds, dripping with butter and cheese, even eating the skins - the funfair was expensive and packed out, full of mud, we saw only a few fireworks in the distance as we had to walk half a mile to get there because there was no parking... we didn't even see a fire!
We only got on two rides and had to queue for an hour and we got wet. This is miles better!

Twenty seven phone calls over 24 hours and STILL I haven't been able to cancel my AA membership!

Each time I ring up, "We are very busy dealing with breakdown calls, please try again later" - then I am cut off.

I have tried afternoons, evenings, after midnight, early morning and dinner time.
I have tried all five of the options allowed by the AA
The one occasion I did manage to get through, They promised to call me back, they left a message saying they would call me back again in 30 minutes, that was over an hour ago!

Why would I want to cancel my AA membership?
New customers get my level of cover at £150 a year - the same price as I got it for last year. The problem is, my AA membership will renew soon for the value price of £235 - £85 MORE than I and new customers get it for!

Now if only I could cancel it....

UPDATE:
After ringing up on the "breakdown number" - I was transferred over to the correct department, who then transferred me to the AA's "cancellation department"

They asked why I was cancelling, (Because of the £85 INCREASE in price, for "Free" legal advice and two "Free" extra call outs) the advisor offered to discount the price down, from £235 to £164 - still an increase of almost £15, but I can live with that.

A letter came confirming the renewal and stating that £235 would be taken from my account in the coming month!

Once again I was back on the membership phone number, which once again cut me off, on all the options given, after making me listen to all the options each time.
This time I tried the membership complaints number - kindly left on this post via a comment, posted by an AA member of staff - after 10 minutes on hold, I got through to Hayden.
Hayden informed me that the previous advisor had "issued a credit" on my account so that "the system" (isn't it always the system?) would see the credit, then would deduct this from the payment it takes for the renewal... leaving me just the £164 to pay.

The reason I got a letter telling me they were taking £235 for the renewal, is because the AA is currently using "an old system" (there's the system again) that could not adjust to quote the actual amount it was taking for a renewal.
I was assured that "the system" will only take £164 - if not, I was to ring him back personally and the overcharge would be credited back to my account.
I was told not to worry though, as next year their "new system" would be up and running - adding that he could see why "customers got confused"
If it works, then we shall see later this month.

Whatever the AA are paying the top brass who oversee their systems, I'd sack them off as they are not doing their job!

• Sort out your membership phone number and options - if the only way to discuss membership or cancel, is to pretend to have a breakdown, then it will cause more delays to your breakdown staff?
• When a customer reports a problem, don't ignore it! - DO something about it, then it won't be a problem for other customers?
• Sort out your "system" so that customers are not sent out the wrong price for renewal - you'll then find that you won't have thousands of customers ringing back, increasing the workload and burden on your call centre advisors, to try and correct and rectify mistakes your system is making?
• Stop cutting membership number callers off - It's hardly a good advertisement for your company and you may find that posts like this won't appear on websites?

A little bit of common sense, makes life easier for your customers, your staff and may even allow you the financial flexibility to reduce your prices, attracting more business?

UPDATE 2:
The farce continues - now the AA send me a letter saying they couldn't get the funds to pay for new membership from the exact same account details they took the membership money from 12 months ago.

Have the AA ever heard of their legal responsibility, under the Data Protection Act, to maintain customer accounts in an accurate manner?
It would appear not....

I believe that some bank charges are in breach of the fraud act 2006.

A real example:
You have £100 left in your account.
You make an authorised card payment for £60 (leaving a £40 balance on your account)
A direct debit, of £50 is due out of your account before the business calls for your authorised card payment.
The bank takes the funds to pay your direct debit of £50 from your authorised card payment funds, currently being held off your balance, in a "holding account."

The company calls for your authorised card payment funds, the bank pays them.
You are now over your balance and subjected to two bank charges.
Bank charge one - £35 for "an unauthorised card payment"
Bank charge two - £25 for "an unauthorised overdraft fee"
Total charges: £60

Take into account:
Who gave the bank permission to "reuse funds held in a holding account?"
Had the bank NOT reused the funds and returned the direct debit unpaid, the only charge applicable would have been £35, for non payment of a direct debit.
When you bought something for £60 on your card, the funds were in your account to pay for it - the bank also issued an authorisation number for the sale - how can you now be charged "an unauthorised card payment fee"?
The bank reused your funds to pay the direct debit, not you! Surely the bank cannot bill you for charges which was a result of THEIR actions?

Additional:
When you the customer contact the bank by telephone, complaining about "reusing funds" - you are told that the money remains in your bank account but just comes off your available balance for three days.
When you the customer contact the bank by telephone, complaining about "paying a direct debit with money for an authorised card payment" - you are told that the card payment money is moved to a holding account.
The response the bank gives changes, depending on your complaint. Reading from a menu the advisor maybe, but each menu contradicts the other.

Where the fraud act 2006 should apply:
Section two:
Fraud by false representation
(1)A person is in breach of this section if he—

(a)dishonestly makes a false representation, and

(b)intends, by making the representation—

(i)to make a gain for himself or another, or

(ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.

 

A - Changing excuse dependant on complaint, ie. holding account or not? To obtain higher charges against the customer.
B(i) "Another" - being the bank the advisor works for.
B (ii) "Another" - being you the customer.

(2)A representation is false if—

(a)it is untrue or misleading, and

(b)the person making it knows that it is, or might be, untrue or misleading

Section three:
Fraud by failing to disclose information
A person is in breach of this section if he—

(a)dishonestly fails to disclose to another person information which he is under a legal duty to disclose, and

(b)intends, by failing to disclose the information—

(i)to make a gain for himself or another, or

(ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.

A - Is there a holding account or not? Why won't the banks tell their customers?
B(i) - This information changes to prevent the advisor from having to refund charges on behalf of the bank
B(ii) - This causes the customer to lose money.

Section four:
Fraud by abuse of position

 (1)A person is in breach of this section if he—

(a)occupies a position in which he is expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of another person,

(b)dishonestly abuses that position, and

(c)intends, by means of the abuse of that position—

(i)to make a gain for himself or another, or

(ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.

1A - Is it not the case that the bank is supposed to act in the account holder's best interest?
If so, why manipulate customers accounts, like in the example given above, to extract £60 in charges instead of £35 had the bank acted honourably?
Is this not clearly "acting against the financial interests of another person (ie. their own customer)
1B - The bank abuses its position, by giving conflicting reasons for the operations of accounts and gaining financially from it, in the form of higher charges.
This is applicable also to subsection C(i) and C(ii).

How much longer must the humble customer be forced into parting with more of their money than they need to?

Let me know what you think...

Bank's love to charge for each unpaid direct debit (and knock on overdraft charges, etc), it makes huge profits from them, it knows this, their customers know this, the powers that be know it.

So avoiding running up unpaid direct debit charges (and knock on overdraft charges, etc) is fair game as far as I'm concerned.
Not only is this tip fair game, but it's also a frugal way of saving YOU some of your hard earned cash!

Banks charge you for:

• Standing order non payment - even though it's automated and doesn't pay anything out at all and have to claim it back because funds are unavailable
• Insufficient funds to cover a card payment - even though the card transaction has been authorised at the time you made the purchase and the bank have reused the money taken off your available balance (without your permission) and used it for a direct debit/standing order, leaving you with not enough money to cover your card payment, that the bank themselves have authorised!
• Unauthorised overdraft fees - I have known banks issue a £25 charge for a person going over their limit for just one day to the amount of £3
• Often a combination of some or all of the above!

The tip is simple - if you have a direct debit coming out of your account and for whatever reason, you won't or don't have the funds to cover it, then contact your bank, by telephone banking and tell them you are in dispute with the company that has the direct debit set up and to cancel it.

Then make sure that the banking advisor puts a note on the account that the direct debit is NOT to be paid.

Should they pay it and you incur a charge, most calls are recorded so they can listen in, and have it confirmed by the advisor at the bank that you spoke to - hence the charge is removed.
This will also prevent any knock on charges like an unauthorised overdraft fee.

This process will give you a few days to arrange funds to be in your account to pay the direct debit. When the company notify you that the direct debit has been cancelled, simply fob them off by saying that you've been having problems with your account and your direct debits keep being cancelled.

Courts should be returning all bank charges (of any kind) to customers - if their charges reflect "actual loss" as the law states they should, then all the court needs to ask is for proof that each bank charge is the bank's actual loss - if the bank cannot give evidence that the charges are for actual loss, then I don't see how the court can fail to find in favour of the customer.
Any charge/fee that makes profit for the company/person that applies it, (ie, it is not a charge to recover an "actual loss") is classed as a "penalty charge" - penalty charges are unenforceable in England and Wales under common law.

Play one off against another, this is what they would do to you should a bank charge be issued on your account for a mistake by the bank or a company claiming a payment from your account!

*IMPORTANT:
Common sense should be used as regards this post.
OBVIOUSLY, do not cancel a direct debit that pays your mortgage or a loan, as the company will charge you for it!

This post refers to companies that DO NOT issue their own charges for non payment of a direct debit, like mobile phone companies, gym memberships, etc. Companies that you pay a monthly amount for a service usually.
If in doubt, read your terms and conditions or don't do it!

In principal, the warm front scheme is a reliable way of bringing boilers up to date, improving heating in homes, improving insulation to retain heat and save energy.

In practice, from start to finish in this case, warm front has been completely inept, failed totally and the manner with which any information request or timescales have been met, has been nothing short of disgraceful!

From application to completion - warm front proudly state that completion for fitting a new central heating boiler and replacement radiators is between four to six months. Posted here, are details of our case.

In October 2009, an application was made for a replacement boiler and radiators, under the warm front scheme.
The application was completed and passed without issue.
In November 2009, an advisor for the warm front scheme came out to the house, checked all the relevant paperwork, filled out all the information and verified that the application was ok to proceed.

Next, we were told, a head honcho would come out and plan out the work required, this could take up to four months.
Nobody came over the next six months. We received just two letters from warm front, stating that we were just waiting for the assessor to come out and plan the work needed.
We waited until August 2010 (Some TEN months later) before this assessor appeared at our house.
He measured up, he looked around, he finalised everything. On leaving he stated (In front of witnesses) "You will be looking at between four to six WEEKS, for the work to start."

That was almost twelve weeks ago.
I have contacted the man himself, via his office, twice. The first time he "couldn't come to the phone, but would call back" - no call came.
The second time he "was out of the office for the day but would contact me as soon as he returned, later that day" - again, no call came.

Today, instead of ringing his office directly, I rang the warm front "customer service team" - the reply I got, was pathetic!

• Could you please give me a time when the work will start?
  No, I'll have to read your account notes (put on hold for 10 minutes)
• Can you now give me a start date for the work?
  No, I will need to ring the warm front head department who are dealing with it, to find out what's going on (put on hold for another 15 minutes)
• Can you now give me a start date for the work?
  I'm afraid the installation has been cancelled! The fitting company tried to ring you once but were unable to get a reply so the job has been cancelled.
• Are you seriously telling me that a household's future heating requirements for the next decade at least, have been cancelled because the company fitting the boiler were unable to contact us by phone, on one occasion?
  Yes - but they did say they will reinstated the job now they know that you want it doing!
• You make it sound as if I've invited someone around for a cup of coffee! How dare they treat us like this!
  Our phone has been working, on the same telephone number for more than 20 years, if they cannot dial a simple telephone number correctly, it hardly inspires confidence in their ability to install a gas boiler and pipework!
  I'm sorry I can understand your frustrations! One of their assessors will contact you to let you know when they will visit your property!
• This has already been done. How long will this take?
  I wasn't given a timescale for this, they told me that the job will be reinstated today.
• Am I looking at another six month wait or will they get in touch within a week?
  They didn't tell me...
• Did you ask them?
  No!
• So I just have to sit tight and wait?
  Sorry, yes.

Utterly useless, the whole process!

It could be another week, it could be another six months, not a single person has got a clue.
One thing that is certain though, when the paperwork was verified and filled out, EVERYONE involved in the chain, warm front, eaga, the company supposed to be fitting the boiler, will all have already been paid!

UPDATE:
I phoned in with a formal complaint to warm front today (after reading their "customer charter") regarding the whole process and the complete failure to actually install a new boiler, which is the whole point of the scheme.

The response I got was stunning:

• I was asked for a run down of the complaint - I started by stating that the application went in, in November 2009 - immediately, the woman jumped in with "The government stopped all work in November 2009 for upto six months, so your complaint is all about timescales and your wait, you have to put your complaint in writing and send it in to our installation department at our head office!"
• I haven't finished yet, I have mentioned just one date so far - "you told me that it's a timescale complaint!" - No I did not, I told you when the application was first put in...
• "It doesn't matter, you still need to put your complaint in writing and send it to us" - can I tell you what my complaint is about? - "Please do not shout at me" - well stop talking over me then and allow me to tell you the details of the complaint!

It turns out that in yesterday's phone call, the reason I wasn't given any information after the lady had read through my notes, was because I have no account notes to read through - so why keep me hanging on hold for 10 minutes whilst, "I read through your account notes"?

The lack of information about fitting times and times to contact us was because they lady did not phone the installers - so why keep me on hold for another 15 minutes whilst she "Just rings the installers to see what's going on"?

As for our job being "reinstated" and "the installers will contact you" - this was a complete and total lie!
According to our account notes, the job remained cancelled and the installers would not be contacted, the lady should have contacted their warm front scheme head office (I know a head office full of incompetant people!) and asked them to sort it out with the installation company. Sadly, the lady did neither, so what exactly was she doing whilst I was put on hold?

This explains why the lady could give me not a single bit of information with any accuracy!

UPDATE 2:
The installers contacted me today, confirming they have at long last (after 10 months) received the job from the warm front team - I was advised to contact warm front myself, as the installers send off a quoted price to the warm front team and we must wait for it to be authorised by them and confirmed back with the installers - then they can order the parts and arrange for the work to be done.
I was advised that it can take anything up to 3 months, for warm front to authorise a job to go ahead.

Alarmed by this, I rang warm front's "customer management team" (I use this term loosely) only to be confronted by an abrupt (I am being polite) lady with a major chip on her shoulder.

I asked for confirmation that they had received the authorisation request and wanted to know how long it would take to go through - a fairly straight forward request?
Not according to the lady at warm front!
"I don't know why the installers are advising it can take up to three months to authorise a job, that's simply not true!" Said warm front,

So how long will it take, roughly?
"We don't give out a timescale for authorising work!"
Just roughly, two weeks? a month?
"We don't give out timescales but it's definately not as long as three months!"
So how do I know it's not true?
"You will have to trust us!"
But winter is coming and for the second year running, you will have held up the paperwork and leave us without a boiler and heating, with respect, I have a young baby in the house and this needs sorting out!
*sigh* "Give me your address then I will check we have received the authorisation request..."

Before I could even give our address, she put the phone down on me!

Nothing but hassle dealing with the warm front team, they are as much use as a chocolate fireguard!

Update 3:
After a year of waiting, we now have one shiney new boiler installed.
Just  few points to note;

• Promised a Baxi boiler - they fitted an ideal logic boiler, saying, "We have never fitted a baxi boiler, we always fit ideal logic!" - Not true, as confirmed by warmfront.
• On the inspection, the fitters were warned of an exceptionally good water pressure here - reminded of this just prior to fitting - they went ahead and fitted a 24 watt boiler. The result is having to trickle the hot tap to get piping hot water (which uses twice the gas to heat) - if the hot tap is ran as we did with our old boiler, ie, normally, then running a bath gives only lukewarm water (wasting yet more gas as the boiler tries to heat water that's going through it too fast) - had they fitted a 30 watt boiler, we could have had piping hot water.
• "A new boiler is more efficient" - our old back boiler was more than 30 years old, it's fair to say that a new boiler would be more efficient?
  WRONG!
  This time last year, we had used gas worth £80 via our prepayment meter - this month with new boiler, we have used £140 from our prepayment meter.
  It's ok, this is because British Gas have just put up their prices?
  WRONG AGAIN!
  This is before the 9% British gas price increase - our gas price has remained identical for two years, yet the amount of credit taken from the meter with the new boiler has exceeded the amount we paid last year, by almost DOUBLE!
• British gas informed me that the installers should have fitted a 30 watt boiler - the installers who put in a 24 watt boiler say they are wrong.

We are left in a rediculous position of having a boiler that cannot produce piping hot water (unless the hot tap is running at a trickle), uses more gas than our 30 year old back boiler system (uneconomical) and the installation company, whom warm front continue to refer us back to when we point out what is wrong say, "As long as the boiler is fitted to manufacturer's instructions we will not change the boiler. You should fit a device that will enable you to turn down your water pressure!"

As soon as it can be afforded, this great efficient boiler is going on the scrap heap and a new more powerful boiler will be put in its place.

Update 4:

Ten months after being fitted, nine months after all the faults with the installation were reported, we are still getting nowhere with the fitters that warmfront sent out to our house.

After phone calls to the officer who inspected the property originally, we finally got someone to come out and inspect the work done.
On arrival, the bloke showed me the form for their records, listing all the faults that needed correcting.
The sheet was blank - showing me that the new engineers who took over the maintainance of our boiler, had stood, seen and "inspected" the work previously hadn't taken a blind bit of notice of all the faults and given the job a clean bill of health. (No doubt the company that take over maintainance of warmfront boilers are associated with the Eaga group of companies as well?)

The bloke the fitters sent out went through all the duff wiring - earthed the boiler up running wires straight down the middle of a wall and dangerously wiring the boiler itself up to a temporary plug socket instead of its own fuse in the mains electric unit.
He agreed with me on the need for this to be changed "urgently" and also acknowledged that the removal of support under part of the upstairs flooring, that had been removed and not put back when they re cemented it up, also needed to be changed immediately.

The back room radiator, that has been turned off for months, was found to be leaking from a poor standard of fitting the radiator, whenever it is turned on, causing damage to the floorboard underneath if left unfixed.

The bloke assured me that the original workmen no longer worked for them, he left promising that workmen would be here Thursday or Friday of that week (his inspection took place on the Tuesday) as Wednesday his men were already booked for a job.

Thursday and Friday came and went, I spent two days of my holiday sat around the house waiting.
Another three weeks have passed without so much as a phone call from the warmfront fitters.

As it stands, we cannot heat our back bedroom, we have a boiler wired in to a temporary plug socket, which could start a fire, we have a partially concreted bathroom floor that could give way at anytime, causing the heating pipes underneath to be stood on. We have earthing strips running unsecured down the middle of a front room wall, when they know we have a toddler running around the house.

Shabby, unprofessional and rude is how I would describe warmfront and its contracted fitters. Not acceptable for a taxpayer funded scheme.