Are the banks really open for business?

Our Banks are telling us that they’re lending again, and that they are reaching their lending targets – nearly!

But we keep hearing stories of agreed facilities being withdrwan, or only being renewed at huge extra costs. And of continuting difficulties for people trying to move house, or buy their first property.

On top of that the banks are still not paying decent rates of interest on many of their accounts and millions of us haver money floating about in accounts paying no interest at all.

We own many of the banks, or so we’re constantly being told. Should we not expect better of them?

What’s your experience of our Banks.

Are they lending eonugh money, and quickly enough? And if not how do you think we should get them to increase their lending?

Tell us what you think.

Do you know where your money is?

Right, here we go. No long lists of New Year resolutions for 2012. Just one simple message that will help you no end with your money this year.

Get involved!

Don’t let everything happen passively. It’s your money and you need to take control of it all and it starts by taking an interest:

What rate am I paying on my mortgage?

Can I find a better rate?

Is my house insurance competitive?

Should I take back that faulty TV that I just put up with because I don’t really understand my rights?

Are my tax payments up-to-date?

What income will my pension give me and when?

Could I borrow more cheaply than I am at present?

How much am I spending every week? And why?

Can I afford that new car I really want?

I could go on but you get the picture by now. Make 2012 the year you start to take an interest in your money and to make it work a bit harder for you.

That’s all.

Broken camera, or broken contract?

Q. I purchased A Canon IXUS 120IS camera from Camerabox in June 2010 with a 2 year’s full warranty and a lesser 5 year one. My camera is now 18 months old has developed a few faults shuts down error 32, stores pictures up-side down and the picture jumps around when focusing. Within 2 years I am supposed to send camera to them for repair and get instructions from their web site not successful yet as I write this. I cannot reach their site directly but do when I put it on a search. I hear they were in administration in June. Is this still the case? My camera still produces good pictures I just have to keep re switching it on and orientate every picture. Should I return it to them at address I received when I bought it? Can you shed any light on their current status, or give me any advice please.
Geoff Whitby

Your question raises a few interesting points. Firstly, as far as I am aware Camerbox is indeed in administration and there is little chance of you getting money back from them. That doesn’t mean all is lost however and there are two options with regard to the payment you made, depending on how you paid for the camera. If you used your credit card then you may be able to make a claim from the credit card company under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. This allows you to claim against the credit card company (and some debit cards) if the contract is broken as it may have been in this case if the camera is indeed faulty. For a claim under Section 75 to be valid the goods need to cost more than £100 and less than £30,000.

If you used a debit card than you may be able to ask your bank to deal with a refund by way of a ‘chargeback’ on the card. This effectively allows the transaction to be reversed. If you want to claim using this method then you should speak to your card provider in the first instance.

As far as the warranty is concerned my first question would be to ask who was providing it I would also want to ask who is providing the 2-year Warranty – Camerabox or Canon? If the former then you are out of luck but if it is Canon then it may be that you could send the camera back to them and ask for their opinion, especially if the fault is not something that you would expect from a camera less than 2 years old.

I hope this helps

No point crying over spilt wine this Christmas

As Christmas approaches yet again it’s a good time to make sure that your house insurance is up to date – and we’ll concentrate on your contents for today but will come back and look at the best way to protect your bricks and mortar later.

Many Banks and Building Societies are now offering House Insurance as part of their mortgage package – but often with only basic cover. It might be wise extending the cover you have so that your valuable goods are covered against accidental damage as well as against the standard risks of fire and theft. A cup of coffee or glass of wine could do serious damage to your new computer and repairs or replacement may not be covered unless you have this extension.

If you are planning to add bikes or cameras or new jewellery to your contents you might want to cover them against ‘all risks’, so that they are covered not just in your home but also if you lose them or they are stolen while you are away from home. You should also check whether there is a limit on the amount you can claim for a ‘single item’ unless it is specifically named on the policy.

At the same time you should ensure that the amount you have insured your contents for is adequate. If not then you risk the insurance company paying out only a proportion of your claim, on the basis that you have only insured a proportion of your belongings.

You should also check what exclusions apply to your policy. Many claims are denied at an early stage when policyholders are told, for example, that the camera that was stolen from your car is not covered unless it was locked in the boot, or that there is a limit to the amount you can claim for CDs or DVDs.

Remember also that you should be honest with your insurer when making an application for a policy. Don’t give them an excuse to refuse to pay your claim by forgetting to mention a previous claim, or by underestimating the value of all of your contents to save a wee bit in the premium you pay..

And if you do have to claim the insurance company will be able to deal with your claim much mire efficiently if you give them as many details as possible when you submit the claim form. That doesn’t mean that you have to turn the house upside down looking for the receipt for the new Simpsons Blue Ray you bought, but the more detail you provide the less chance there is that you will become involved in lengthy correspondence and the more chance that your claim will be settled promptly.

What’s the real cost of the Christmas party?

With the Christmas party season just about to kick-off Moneysucks offers a few tips to make sure your Festive Fun doesn’t turn into a New Year Hangover when you look at the cost of your night out.
Fixed price deals in restaurants are really popular at the moment with websites like 5pm.com doing great business in helping diners search out a bargain but there’s nothing worse than paying a small fortune for a meal when you thought was going to be a bargain – especially if you booked it and told you’re colleagues you’d sorted out a great deal for them.

So be careful when you’re ordering that you’re not racking up extra costs because the main course you want attracts a £5 supplement, or even worse that the pre-theatre menu that you think everyone will order from is so small and restrictive that you all end up ordering a la carte at a huge extra cost.

And then there’s the wine. There’s a terrible temptation at this time of the year to really push the boat out and spend more than you normally would on the wine. It’s usually not necessary. Most restaurants have a perfectly acceptance list of house wines, and with the amount that many of us drink at these parties, you’re unlikely to notice the difference after the first couple of glasses anyway.

And don’t get conned by allowing the staff to fill your table with overpriced bottled water. Tap water is perfectly drinkable and should be free in most restaurants.

And if you are intending making a night of it then you might be better going on somewhere else after your mean rather than sitting in a restaurant all night drinking at over-inflated prices.

And then there’s the bill. It’s easy to get reckless after a few beers and round up the bill to include a huge tip. So check exactly what you’re being charged for first of all. Is there a service charge included in the bill? If so you don’t want to add another one.


You might also want to check how best to add a tip, if you think it’s deserved. If you add it to your credit card payment, for example, will it still all go to the staff?

And make sure that you fill in all of the details on the payment slip yourself so that there are no gaps left for anyone else to add anything to at a later date.

But above all, enjoy yourself!

You’re for the chop!

These are worrying times for a lot of people as employers make cuts to cope with poor trading conditions. But you do have rights as employees, and it’s important to know what these rights are, and what you can do if you think that your employer is contemplating redundancies.

It’s also important to make sure that you understand why your employer has chosen you for redundancy rather than one or more of your colleagues, and to know what you can do to make sure that all processes are followed before you are made redundant

In this second part of a new series on what to do if you think you are at risk of losing your job, Dawn Robertson, Partner at Employment Solicitors Murray Beith Employment (www.murraybeith.co.uk ), looks at what rights you have.

“My employer has confirmed that they are going through a redundancy process with me and some other members of staff. What are they required to do by law?

As with all questions in law, there is never one answer. In this case, the answer does depend on the number of employees potentially affected by the redundancy process. The following answer is therefore based on the number of employees potentially affected being less than 20. If that is not the case, you should seek independent legal advice on your situation.

Under the law, the first thing that an employer is required to do when going through a redundancy process is to establish that it is a redundancy situation. Although the term “redundancy” is applied to all manner of situations, a proper redundancy situation only arises in certain specified circumstances. In general, this usually relates to a reduction in the amount of work available either as a whole or in part of the business. You should check the following website for a full statutory definition of redundancy: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimannal/eim13800.htm.

Once an employer has decided that redundancy is a possibility, it should consider alternatives to redundancy before properly starting the redundancy process. This means that it should give consideration to whether there is an alternative – such as reduced working hours, reduction in salary, short-time working or job-sharing – to redundancy. If there are no viable alternatives, the employer must then go on to identify the areas within the business which may require a reduction in staff. If, for example, it is identified that there are 5 members of the sales team but that there is now only sufficient work for 4 members of the sales team, then one member of the sales team will be potentially redundant. The employer needs to consider how to select that person. The first step is to establish the “pool” from which that person will be selected. If each role within the sales team is at the same level and dealing with the same type of work, the 5 members of that team will be identified as a “pool” of potentially affected employees. Taking that example forward, the management team would then be required to establish the proposed “selection criteria” for assessing which member of staff would be made redundant. Selection criteria could include a number of different things, for example: length of service; qualifications; relevant experience; interpersonal skills; disciplinary records; and, absence records (excluding anything covered by disability discrimination legislation).

The employer must then meet with the potentially affected members of staff to advise them of the situation and ask them for suggestions of ways to avoid redundancies. This initial meeting will generally be held as a group. Following on from that, management will have to advise staff whether any of their suggestions will be taken forward. If not, the employer must go through an initial selection process, at the end of which the person or people scoring lowest will be informed of a further meeting, to be held on a one-to-one basis. At this point, only the employee(s) provisionally selected for redundancy will meet with their employer. In other words, this is your chance to really put forward your case for staying in your post. You are not entitled to see what anyone else has scored but are entitled to have your scoring re-assessed in light of the information you provide. This is the whole point of only “provisionally” selecting an employee or employees for redundancy as they may then put forward examples of ways in which they should have received a higher score. It is quite often the case that this second meeting is continued to another date while certain points raised by the employee are investigated. If what they say is confirmed, it is possible that the employer will revise their scoring upwards and in doing so it may be the case that someone else within the pool becomes provisionally selected for redundancy (instead of the person initially selected). Should that be the case, they would then require to have a meeting with the management team and would go through the same process, outlined above.

Because of the seriousness of the situation and the possibility that it will lead to dismissal “on the grounds of redundancy”, the employer is required to give you the right to be accompanied at the meeting either by a trade union representative or a fellow employee. They are entitled to make representations on your behalf.

If the process continues and you are informed by your employer that the redundancy has been confirmed, you should be given a right to appeal against the decision. An employer’s failure to give this may lead to the termination of employment being deemed unfair. At the same time, you should be provided with a breakdown of the payments you will be entitled to on termination. This will include any notice period (or payment in lieu) and any accrued but untaken holiday pay, as well as a calculation of your statutory redundancy payment.

You are, in general, entitled to a week’s salary for every completed year of service. The statutory maximum weekly salary is currently £400 and your statutory redundancy payment will be calculated on the following basis:-

• One and a half weeks’ pay for each complete year of service after reaching the age of 41.

• One week’s pay for each complete year of service between the ages 22 and 40 inclusive.

• Half a week’s pay for each complete year of service under the age of 22.

The maximum length of service that may be taken into account for redundancy pay is 20 years.

If you have concerns about your position you should consider taking independent legal advice or contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau. An advisor can help you as you go through the process and provide advice on your individual situation.”

The biggest advert doesn’t mean the best price!

In years gone by all of the major retailers’ sales started on the same day – and at the same time on the same day – and queues were formed outside our shops in the middle of July before the main summer giveaway started and then again just after Christmas for the Winter Sale.

These days every shop seems to have a permanent sale. We’re bombarded every night of the week with adverts for ‘half price sofas’, ‘two thirds off all of our TVs’ and ‘lowest price ever washing machines’. Buy now while stocks last they all seems to say, and no more so than in the next few weeks with retailers looking to make hay while the Christmas sun shines!

On top of that we’re often told that we need to rush because the ‘great give away must end this Saturday’ or that we should ‘hurry because there are only three more days left at these great prices’. The reality is that these ‘great prices’ will still be around in two months time somewhere in the country, or that another retailer will be selling the same goods at a better price and not even calling it a sale at all! And that’s before we even start to look at the bargains available these days online. So when is a sale a real bargain, and when is it just clever marketing?

The Consumer Protection Act 1987 sets out guidelines for sale items. For the discounted offer to be considered genuine, the goods must have being offered at the higher price for at least 28 consecutive days during the last six months (in the same shop), prior to the goods being discounted or ‘placed on sale’.

So it’s easy then? Well not really and several retailers have been taken to task by the Office of Fair Trading for misleading adverts and for falsely inflating the price of goods before a ‘sale’ begins. So if you are looking for a bargain in the run up to Christmas, patience and a good look round before parting with your hard earned cash may be a better option than rushing to the shop with the biggest and loudest adverts!

How long should it last?

Most goods that you buy will be covered by a manufacturer’s warranty that lasts for the first twelve months from the date of purchase but any Manufacturer’s Warranty is issued in addition to the protection you enjoy under Sale of Goods legislation. This legislation allows you to bring an action against the retailer that sold you the faulty goods for up to six years (five in Scotland) from the date of purchase.

So when you take something back after 12 months and the retailer gives you a long drawn out and dirty look before telling you that ‘you are only covered for the first 12 months’ you can now tell them that they are correct, but it is the manufacturer’s cover that expires after 12 months – you still have protection under the Sale of Goods Act.

Of course if something does go wrong within the first twelve months you could choose to ask either the retailer or manufacturer to deal with it – and it’s up to you to decide which one.

In fact if the goods you bought cost more than one hundred pounds (but less than £30,000) and you paid with your credit card you may actually have a third option since you could take action against the credit card company instead.

Now I said a minute ago that you are covered for up to five or six years depending on where you live. That doesn’t mean that you should expect a full refund if your kettle breaks down after five and a half years, but instead any claim after a prolonged period of usage would need to take into account the expected normal working life of the goods concerned. So if you paid £5000 for a leather suite you would expect it to be in good nick after three or four years but you might not be surprised if your £20 printer that you used every day gives up the ghost after a couple of years.

Why did they not tell me that at the time?

So you’ve just bought the biggest, widest-screened, multiest-dimensional, highest definition TV in the shop and you can’t wait to get it opened on Christmas morning to watch a blue ray version of your favourite movie.

It was great, in fact everything you watched was great. Sport, movies, soaps, even a bit of Kirstie and Phil on Location, Location, Location. All looking glorious with your latest technology.

Then disaster.

You bought the TV on interest-free-credit-pay-nothing-for-12-months-super-duper-deal-of-the-week and twelve months or so later you get a bill through the door. But they’ve added interest at 25.7% backdated to the day you bought the TV.

But why, you think? I bought it on interest-free credit. How can they start to charge me interest. And I only bought it less than a year ago, on 12 months interest free credit so I shouldn’t even have to pay for it for another few weeks yet.

So you go find the agreement you signed, which of course you haven’t looked at since the day you signed it – in fact the fact that you can find it at all is a bonus!

And then the awful truth dawns – you bought it a year ago last week and it’s there in black and white that if the balance wasn’t completely cleared in exactly 12 months then interest would be charged from the date of purchase!

With no reminders.

Ouch!

Read the small print – always, and especially at this time of the year!!

Your’e Fired!

These are worrying times for a lot of people as employers make cuts to cope with poor trading conditions. But you do have rights as employees, and it’s important to know what these rights are, and what you can do if you think that your employer is contemplating redundancies.

It’s also important to make sure that you understand why your employer has chosen you for redundancy rather than one or more of your colleagues, and to know what you can do to make sure that all processes are followed before you are made redundant

In this first part of a new series on what to do if you think you are at risk of losing your job, Dawn Robertson, Partner at Employment Solicitors Murray Beith Employment (www.murraybeith.co.uk ), looks at the early stages of the process.

What should I do if I think I am going to be made redundant?

The answer to this really depends on whether you have good reason for thinking you are going to be made redundant or whether you simply feel that you have less work than normal. If your employer is in any way thinking that they may need to cut heads, they should make you aware of this before taking any steps in that direction. They may, for example, be aware of possible new work or other issues, of which you are not aware.

If, however, your employer has already indicated that things are slow and that it may be necessary to think about redundancies, they should, in the first instance, meet with you and your colleagues as a group to inform you of this. In doing so, they should be asking you for your views and proposals in terms of how redundancies can be avoided. Coming up with suggestions like shorter working weeks, reducing overtime costs and generally reducing costs without loss of jobs should help. The more you can do to help your employer reduce costs, the less likely it is that a redundancy process will happen.

Having said that, there will be situations were redundancies can’t be avoided. In those circumstances, your employer is required to meet with you on an individual basis and run through what they intend to do. If you are one of a group of employees who do the same thing, your employer will be obliged to go through a selection process for redundancy.

Basically, this means that they will need to mark each of you in terms of how you do your jobs, the skills you bring to your job etc and reach a decision on who is the most likely to be made redundant. This is an area where the employer can get it wrong and you should be given an opportunity by your employer to comment on any marks given to you.

Daft as it seems, the marking often is done by someone who knows some individual employees better than others and this can result in a distortion of marks. You need to be in a position to question and challenge the marks you have been given in order to minimise your risk of redundancy.

The meetings that Dawn refers to above need to rake place as part of a formal consultation process that begins with you, as the employee, being made aware that your position is ‘at risk’ of redundancy. Next time we’ll look in detail at this process and explain how you can make sure that you do as much as you can as part of this process to protect your job and income or, if that is not possible, to ensure you come out the other end with all of the benefits to which you are entitled.

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