Hi Peter,

I agree especially when sorting out house or car insurance on one of the many comparison websites. It's made more tedious by trying to compare like for like and then noticing all the hidden charges when you think you have found a good deal…!

Happy New Year!

Regards

Derek

It took months to get a new phone installed when the GPO was in charge. Anyone remember party lines? Now it takes days. Competition sharpens the mind of providers, although regulation is required. Where privatisation doesn't make sense is where there is no competition. I can only buy water from United Utilities. If I could buy it from someone else based on how much sewage they pump into the rivers I could affect their bottom line, as it is the government just slaps their wrist and allows them to pass on fines to the customer. If fines had to be paid by the directors in person they might get their act together

I stay away from comparison websites. They are all biased and want to sell you a, or their, product. For house, bike and car insurance I use a local insurance broker (remember them?). No time wasting, always a simple phone call that is answered quickly (no multiple options) and I think I get a good deal. As for gas and electricity, I don't switch. This may be stupid but being suspicious I ask myself why are you encouraged to switch. Money?

JA

Hi, I think the choice we have about just about everything you can have now compared to the old days, has become overwhelming in many ways. When my siblings and myself were all still living with our parents and after my older brother died, my parents had a phone put in, they had to wait a little while, but when it was put in they had to have a party line and it remained for many years, I don't know that anyone would accept such a thing now. I used to be with BT until about fourteen or so years ago, but once after time, my line was pulled down by some painters and the repair guys had to phone up to see who was providing the line before the could go ahead and do the repair straight away or if it would have to be booked for some other time, luckily they had the order to do it immediately, I'll bet if I was still with BT, I would've had to have waited, and the guy on the phone kind of suggested that. But I do remember when mobile phones were becoming cheaper, more popular and more flexible with PAYG, the sudden choice of mobiles and contracts even with the various mobile providers themselves, seemed like a mountain of choice and I think you get that now with on demand TV. On the other hand, many of the power providers have done a belly flop during this Covid 19 pandemic.

I had to change who I had my household insurance with back in may, as who I had it with since 1980, was no longer offering household insurance, so I had the task of selecting another company so just chose one of the well known lot, that was comparable with what I had, couldn't be doing with trawling through all those that are out there.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 01/01/2022 15:05:38

I always used a broker because when you had to make a claim those guys don't get the insurance runaround and it only cost an extra 10-20 for the service

Gosh if you think renewing annually is hassle just remember the days of paying each utility bill monthly or was it quarterly by cheque, and the milkman every week. Having to go to the bank to get cash to do shopping or buy lunch in the canteen, petrol etc.

Of course there are still a lot of people in the cash economy. You see that at the supermarket when they are queuing for the self service checkouts that haven't got the 'card only' sign up.

I won't play ball. I will not use spurious comparison site, switch providers every year, buy a new portable telephone at the same rate.. Why not? Because I do not want the complexity, want coherence, and do not believe I would gain anything!

Bazyle –

I see far more card-paying than cash-paying customers at the staffed tills. Including me.

Let's face it, we are paying for those counter-staff either way, so we may as well do our bit to keep them employed.

One day in my bank, one of the assistants asked me if I'd considered on-line banking. I said I had tried it, could not get it to work, and anyway, I asked, "why are you talking yourself out a job?" She seemed to see my point.

It kept a sense of value and how it was being spent rather than waving a loan card at a terminal. For folk struggling then contemporary sales must pull them over the brink much more easily. Cheque stubs were a neater record of spend compared to dozens of till receipts and the hassles of on-line access to view statements. Youngsters have less appreciation of the value of money.

Real choice only happens when the government guys create a decent baseline in the market

The post office bank opened interest bearing current accounts(Girobank) around 1970 to give everyone easy access to a decent basic current account

To compete the banks had to open loads of branches and offer a decent service and decent products

The government started killing Girobank off from the 1980s and closing as many post offices as possible

This allowed banks to shut huge numbers of branches and the removal of the Girobank current account in exchange for some crummy private sector bank account alternative meant the banks could offer a REALLY rubbish service with no fear of any competition

Once you allow a private cartel to operate the sector simply goes down the toilet as far as customers are concerned

It's the same with anything basic that people need

water

electricity

etc etc etc

The food sector has done ok/well but the barriers to entry are much lower

Edited By Ady1 on 02/01/2022 02:02:58

Peter G….

well, we have lived outside the UK for almost 25 years now……

Mostley France but now Crete,

you have to understand that starting a DD in France is easy but stopping one is a nightmare…..

The company has the right to keep taking ur money until u've jumped thru all the hoops and this can take months….

then u actually never get the overpayment back…..

god knows how the poor French get on with it all……

perhaps thats why they are so miserable…..hahaha…

they only accept instruction from u via a registered letter and other oddaties…..to long a list….

for example…

we closed the water bill down the proper way, then actually actually tried to stop the water comp taking more money from us so in the end we closed the bank account down with the min of 25euro's needed…..and just let em take it…..

actually it was cheaper than all the extra registered deliv letters, on top of those we sent allready…..

Banks are useless and u think u have it bad in the UK….

A lot better here tho……

when a bill comes thru it has a special code number on it…..

so u go to the hole in the wall….dial in the number and state the amount..press the green button…..job done……

this way she say's she can keep control…..!!!!!

It'd be highly unlikely that we would change our phone or internet suppliers and the electric comp is a monopoly so where's the problem I say….?????

another odd one……we have 2 water supplies, domestic and agriclutural……

one you pay the water board via the hole in the wall and the other u pay the local council at the town hall in cash…..

no cheques or bank cards accepted…..strange or what……

it does keep the brain cells moving tho tho……hahaha…

It's just we had so many probs in France it messed with her head….

lastly a joke……

Whats the best thing about France….

the sign that says u are now leaving FR…….hahaha…..

we drove here, what a pleasure to cross the border into Spain….pre brexit…..can u say that word here…..hahaha…