We are in what they are calling a “Credit Crunch” at the moment. Fewer mortgages are being agreed each month. More and more repossessions are happening. The stock markets are going wild – but mainly plunging.
There is of course a natural cycle. Take for instance the trajectory of the baby boomers. They all start earning at the same time, max out their spending power at the same time and anyway, once they’ve paid for the wedding, started the mortgage off, and equipped themselves with all the mod cons they don’t need to buy so much for a while. The retailer sells less, has to make staff redundant, who then also have less spending power. The baby boomers gradually get promotion. The first round of electrical goods stops working. They start spending again. Perhaps they also now need childcare. Another group of people are emloyed. All these rhythms are natural and acceptable.
But what makes things worse is the attitude of the press. “Things are going to be awful. We’re going into a recession,” they say. Everybody stops spending and the recession gets to be worse than it would have been.
I wonder also, all of you who work for building societies, whether you send out those letters about missed payments with a type of glee, with a rubbing of the hands. I’d caution against that. Who would buy these repossessed houses anyway? The people who you repossess have to live somewhere – it may even be on benefits – which means in the end that you’re paying anyway. Do something else. Lengthen the time of the mortgage – you’re going to get the house when they die anyway – with its added value unless you’re dealing with a pretty shrewd investor.
And of course, why it’s become bad at the moment is due to the baby boomers again. They’ve probably just put their children though higher education, they’re beginning to take early retirement, and they’re looking after elderly relations, financially, as well as anything else, because the state can’t any more. It will pass. Just hold tight. Protect yourself, but spend if you can: you’ll be giving somebody else a livelihood. Money makes the world go around. The love of it is the root of all evil, they say. It is, in the end, but an abstract concept and there to serve us not rule over us.
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Saturday, 26 January 2008
Pay and Display Car Parks – Another Immoral Way of Criminalising Motorists
Why do we still have these relics form the 20th Century? We have the technology now to make everything much fairer and to make sure the councils do get their money. Have you noticed, anyway, how many Pay and Display car parks are very tatty, with great big holes in them which do nothing for your suspension?
I was in Blackpool recently with my cousin. Neither of us had much change, and so we managed not to park on two half empty car parks. Blackpool off-season, on a cold day. Who’d want to stop there except mad fools like us, anyway?
You always worry about those traffic wardens (personally I really do worry about them. Just think: if nobody volunteered to do the job, we’d never get another parking ticket. What sort of person really wants to do that job? (Just humour the grumpy old woman – next thing she’ll be saying if nobody volunteered to be a soldier there’d be no more wars.)) coming and ruining your windscreen by sticking on a parking ticket three minutes after your time’s run out. You usually put another hour on just in case.
And why have those machines anyway, full of cash? Isn’t that asking for trouble? Why do we still have cash? If we have to pay cash, why can’t there be a change machine nearby? The Grumpy Old Woman thinks she smells a plot. If you supplied a cash machine, you may not be able to fine as many people.
It would be interesting to know how much money they make form parking fines and what actually happens to it. I’m sure it doesn’t go towards keeping the car parks in good repair. Some must go towards the traffic warden’s salary and uniform. But does it actually go towards undoing the harm I’ve done by parking my car there? Will it go towards undoing the damage that owning a car for over twenty years has done to the environment? Or will it just help to meet some target? I hope it helps to keep the Council Tax down for the good people in Blackpool.
In the end, though, I didn’t park in the Pay and Display in Blackpool. We found a side street. I have had a fine in Southampton because I misread a confusing notice. I argued my out of one in Salisbury because I’d tried to pay, in good faith, and thought I had. They are Pay and Display, but at least there’s a way of paying electronically if you don’t have the cash. Its complex, it doesn’t actually work, but at least they try.
But, come on council folks, you could do better than this.
Interesting though: I wonder what would happen if you just left an honesty box there, and asked people to give what they thought it was worth? On Malta they have uniformed car park attendants – and you can park all day for a minimum of 50p. You are invited to give what you think it’s worth to park there. One even washed all the windscreens after a sandy rain shower.
I was in Blackpool recently with my cousin. Neither of us had much change, and so we managed not to park on two half empty car parks. Blackpool off-season, on a cold day. Who’d want to stop there except mad fools like us, anyway?
You always worry about those traffic wardens (personally I really do worry about them. Just think: if nobody volunteered to do the job, we’d never get another parking ticket. What sort of person really wants to do that job? (Just humour the grumpy old woman – next thing she’ll be saying if nobody volunteered to be a soldier there’d be no more wars.)) coming and ruining your windscreen by sticking on a parking ticket three minutes after your time’s run out. You usually put another hour on just in case.
And why have those machines anyway, full of cash? Isn’t that asking for trouble? Why do we still have cash? If we have to pay cash, why can’t there be a change machine nearby? The Grumpy Old Woman thinks she smells a plot. If you supplied a cash machine, you may not be able to fine as many people.
It would be interesting to know how much money they make form parking fines and what actually happens to it. I’m sure it doesn’t go towards keeping the car parks in good repair. Some must go towards the traffic warden’s salary and uniform. But does it actually go towards undoing the harm I’ve done by parking my car there? Will it go towards undoing the damage that owning a car for over twenty years has done to the environment? Or will it just help to meet some target? I hope it helps to keep the Council Tax down for the good people in Blackpool.
In the end, though, I didn’t park in the Pay and Display in Blackpool. We found a side street. I have had a fine in Southampton because I misread a confusing notice. I argued my out of one in Salisbury because I’d tried to pay, in good faith, and thought I had. They are Pay and Display, but at least there’s a way of paying electronically if you don’t have the cash. Its complex, it doesn’t actually work, but at least they try.
But, come on council folks, you could do better than this.
Interesting though: I wonder what would happen if you just left an honesty box there, and asked people to give what they thought it was worth? On Malta they have uniformed car park attendants – and you can park all day for a minimum of 50p. You are invited to give what you think it’s worth to park there. One even washed all the windscreens after a sandy rain shower.
Monday, 21 January 2008
Identity Paranoia
There’s been a lot in the news about the amount of data that’s kept about us and the amount that is carelessly lost. I don’t mean lost in the sense of deleted, but I mean actually a physical record lost in such a way that people who might use it wrongly could get hold of it. A memory stick misplaced with medical records on it, for instance, a CD lost in the post and bizarrely some paper records ending up in the middle of a traffic roundabout.
But are we forgetting who we are in all of this?
Can out true identities be boiled down to a few administrative details?
Aren’t we really a lot more than that?
Personally, I would actually be more worried about somebody not being able to find my medical record than too many people knowing about it. If we make everything too “secure” we’re in danger of losing the plot in the detail.
Yes, of course it’s important to keep bank details safe, and to look out for people misusing them. But we do behave oddly. We send our driving license or passport out to scores of people when applying for mortgages, or ironically, to have CRB checks. We give our credit card details over the phone, including the security code on the back. Anybody could make a note and use them again. They don’t, because most of us are basically good and if we’re not good, we might just be scared of being found out. I’d challenge anybody to misuse my credit card or take money from my bank account; I’m a very efficient spender. There’s never anything there.
I‘ve had to apply for a new passport recently. Despite all the paranoia about identity and terrorism, it was actually easier than it’s ever been before. I didn’t have to have anyone confirm that my passport picture looked like me. It certainly looks nothing like the old one. But I risked it. I figured that as no one had questioned me in recent weeks, it must be near enough and I wish I did look like I did ten years ago. I went for the “check and send” service. The man at the post office has known me for a few weeks. He said it was okay. Well, the passport came back wihtin the suggested two weeks, despite a postal strike. Makes you think.
Going back to those people who lost that personal data. I doubt whether they did it on purpose, or that they were negligent or even careless. I guess they just made a mistake. We all make mistakes. I’ve managed to destroy a memory stick myself by running over its string on my office chair.
But are we forgetting who we are in all of this?
Can out true identities be boiled down to a few administrative details?
Aren’t we really a lot more than that?
Personally, I would actually be more worried about somebody not being able to find my medical record than too many people knowing about it. If we make everything too “secure” we’re in danger of losing the plot in the detail.
Yes, of course it’s important to keep bank details safe, and to look out for people misusing them. But we do behave oddly. We send our driving license or passport out to scores of people when applying for mortgages, or ironically, to have CRB checks. We give our credit card details over the phone, including the security code on the back. Anybody could make a note and use them again. They don’t, because most of us are basically good and if we’re not good, we might just be scared of being found out. I’d challenge anybody to misuse my credit card or take money from my bank account; I’m a very efficient spender. There’s never anything there.
I‘ve had to apply for a new passport recently. Despite all the paranoia about identity and terrorism, it was actually easier than it’s ever been before. I didn’t have to have anyone confirm that my passport picture looked like me. It certainly looks nothing like the old one. But I risked it. I figured that as no one had questioned me in recent weeks, it must be near enough and I wish I did look like I did ten years ago. I went for the “check and send” service. The man at the post office has known me for a few weeks. He said it was okay. Well, the passport came back wihtin the suggested two weeks, despite a postal strike. Makes you think.
Going back to those people who lost that personal data. I doubt whether they did it on purpose, or that they were negligent or even careless. I guess they just made a mistake. We all make mistakes. I’ve managed to destroy a memory stick myself by running over its string on my office chair.
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
Non-integrated systems
Oh, why am I having to send so many letters like this?
Thank you for your letter of 7th of January. However, it has left me dismayed. You threaten court action. Yet, in a letter form one of your colleagues sent earlier, your company thanks me for supplying my new bank account details –on the 1st of January by phone! – (actually, I think it was several days before, by mail) and tells me that should you in the meantime try to take money from the old bank account and it should fail, you will go to the new one.
Fine.
However, I do object to the £35.00 default fee and it is imperative that you do not terminate my agreement because you have already given me a schedule for payments from my new bank account.
I can see what the problem is. Sadly, although I have understanding and knowledge of these things I do not have the IT expertise. You do not have integrated systems. I urge to pass this letter on to
• Your complaints department
• Your most senior contact within your company
I urge them to employ as quickly as possible a systems analyst. It is frightening the number of companies who operating in this totally chaotic way and I have firsthand evidence that many of the problems of a rather large finance company are more to do with this type of problem than over-borrowing.
How ridiculous is this?
1. I write to you giving you new bank details.
2. You claim that you had a phone call on 1st of January.
3. You write acknowledge the bank details and tell me not to worry if you inadvertently go to the old bank.
4. You go to the old bank. It fails; you threaten then court action, cancellation of policy, that I must pay the full amount you immediately.
5. You take another £35.00 just because you can. (If you have taken it, please refund it or maybe I’ll think about the small claims court myself – and let my Landlord Organisations know. It is already in the hands of the Highest Court which exists, so beware)
I am including a cheque for the disputed amount. If this results in an overpayment, please credit my account with that, or destroy the cheque and return it to me.
I do expect:
1. an apology
2. an assurance that my account is up-to-date
3. an assurance that the service I am paying for is still provided
Thank you for your letter of 7th of January. However, it has left me dismayed. You threaten court action. Yet, in a letter form one of your colleagues sent earlier, your company thanks me for supplying my new bank account details –on the 1st of January by phone! – (actually, I think it was several days before, by mail) and tells me that should you in the meantime try to take money from the old bank account and it should fail, you will go to the new one.
Fine.
However, I do object to the £35.00 default fee and it is imperative that you do not terminate my agreement because you have already given me a schedule for payments from my new bank account.
I can see what the problem is. Sadly, although I have understanding and knowledge of these things I do not have the IT expertise. You do not have integrated systems. I urge to pass this letter on to
• Your complaints department
• Your most senior contact within your company
I urge them to employ as quickly as possible a systems analyst. It is frightening the number of companies who operating in this totally chaotic way and I have firsthand evidence that many of the problems of a rather large finance company are more to do with this type of problem than over-borrowing.
How ridiculous is this?
1. I write to you giving you new bank details.
2. You claim that you had a phone call on 1st of January.
3. You write acknowledge the bank details and tell me not to worry if you inadvertently go to the old bank.
4. You go to the old bank. It fails; you threaten then court action, cancellation of policy, that I must pay the full amount you immediately.
5. You take another £35.00 just because you can. (If you have taken it, please refund it or maybe I’ll think about the small claims court myself – and let my Landlord Organisations know. It is already in the hands of the Highest Court which exists, so beware)
I am including a cheque for the disputed amount. If this results in an overpayment, please credit my account with that, or destroy the cheque and return it to me.
I do expect:
1. an apology
2. an assurance that my account is up-to-date
3. an assurance that the service I am paying for is still provided
Friday, 11 January 2008
Muddles versus common sense 3:0
My father lives with us, though because both my husband and I frequently work away from home, social services treat him as if he lives on his own. He has Meals on Wheels and two visits a day from care workers. He is rather frail, physically, though very good mentally. Not that he has all the much understanding of the 21st Century, but then who does? He is profoundly deaf and has lost considerable confidence socially. But still, we feel, too healthy and manageable to go into an old people’s home.
My father had to have an operation on his eye this week. He’d already had the first one done some months ago. This new appointment was very much last minute, with no letter being sent beforehand. They’d tried to ring him first but typical conversation with my father:
Ring, ring.
“Hello?”
……….
“I can’t hear what you’re saying.”
Bang.
By the way, Dad has a state of the art hearing aid, and with a fresh battery in that, he has one quarter of normal hearing. Ironically, he can hear quite well on the phone if you’re talking about something sensible.
Eventually, they phoned us and we established, and convinced him - that was not easy because he was expecting a letter which only arrived on Saturday - that the operation was to take place last Monday and that a car would come for him at 8.30. When will they understand the words “Please contact us about arrangements”? Well they won’t. Patient’s dignity you know. What happened to common sense? First thing Dad always does is tells us or asks us to deal with it! He then got a phone call telling him the car would come at 7.15. He only told us this after it was too late to phone and check.
A car came at 7.15. Another came at 8.30.
They botched the op.
He had to go back Tuesday to have the mistake put right, Wednesday to have it redone, and he has to go back again another time. Cars came for him, two hours early. They discharged him with eye drops and no instructions.
“I’ll type them up and send them to you,” said the clerk.
In the mean time, what do we do with the eye drops now?
My husband has phoned. The carers have phoned. No one talks any sense.
Isn’t there a better way? And isn’t it to do with good old common sense?
My father had to have an operation on his eye this week. He’d already had the first one done some months ago. This new appointment was very much last minute, with no letter being sent beforehand. They’d tried to ring him first but typical conversation with my father:
Ring, ring.
“Hello?”
……….
“I can’t hear what you’re saying.”
Bang.
By the way, Dad has a state of the art hearing aid, and with a fresh battery in that, he has one quarter of normal hearing. Ironically, he can hear quite well on the phone if you’re talking about something sensible.
Eventually, they phoned us and we established, and convinced him - that was not easy because he was expecting a letter which only arrived on Saturday - that the operation was to take place last Monday and that a car would come for him at 8.30. When will they understand the words “Please contact us about arrangements”? Well they won’t. Patient’s dignity you know. What happened to common sense? First thing Dad always does is tells us or asks us to deal with it! He then got a phone call telling him the car would come at 7.15. He only told us this after it was too late to phone and check.
A car came at 7.15. Another came at 8.30.
They botched the op.
He had to go back Tuesday to have the mistake put right, Wednesday to have it redone, and he has to go back again another time. Cars came for him, two hours early. They discharged him with eye drops and no instructions.
“I’ll type them up and send them to you,” said the clerk.
In the mean time, what do we do with the eye drops now?
My husband has phoned. The carers have phoned. No one talks any sense.
Isn’t there a better way? And isn’t it to do with good old common sense?
Sunday, 6 January 2008
21st Century Sanity Bushell's Letting Agency
Another of my Letting Agents. Bushells, of Streatham, excel themselves. First of all, they have found me very nice tenants and have maintained a good relationship with them. They are now into their fourth year of renting my property. Maintenance issues are dealt with promptly. The rent is also paid on time. They have even sourced good quality reasonably priced flooring and furniture. They certainly get contractors out to the property quicker than I could. They really do do a fantastic job.
Tuesday, 1 January 2008
Contacting Credit Card Providers
I had a letter form one of my credit card providers, saying that they had not managed to collect my direct debit. Well, yes, it had been a difficult month and yes, there probably hadn’t been enough for the direct debit to go out.
So, I tried to phone. I got through to their automated paying service. After much punching in of numbers, it recognised me, my card, and the debit card with which I was paying. Then it started to read back the number I had given, in its funny, tinny voice. It got almost to the end. Then silence.
I rang back in, and went through the whole rigmarole again. It was still saying I owed money. I opted to speak to an operative. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait too long, although by the time I did speak to someone, I had been trying to solve this for forty minutes – forty minutes I wouldn’t normally have. And by the time everything was solved, we had used up an hour. Depending on which way you calculate it, my time is worth anything between fifteen and sixty pounds an hour.
I’d also been puzzled by the fact that the machine told me that my next payment would be paid by direct debit and the letter said it was cancelled. The young man I spoke to did get it all sorted out. The direct debit was still in place, but the debit card payment had not gone through. Good job I checked, really.
So, I tried to phone. I got through to their automated paying service. After much punching in of numbers, it recognised me, my card, and the debit card with which I was paying. Then it started to read back the number I had given, in its funny, tinny voice. It got almost to the end. Then silence.
I rang back in, and went through the whole rigmarole again. It was still saying I owed money. I opted to speak to an operative. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait too long, although by the time I did speak to someone, I had been trying to solve this for forty minutes – forty minutes I wouldn’t normally have. And by the time everything was solved, we had used up an hour. Depending on which way you calculate it, my time is worth anything between fifteen and sixty pounds an hour.
I’d also been puzzled by the fact that the machine told me that my next payment would be paid by direct debit and the letter said it was cancelled. The young man I spoke to did get it all sorted out. The direct debit was still in place, but the debit card payment had not gone through. Good job I checked, really.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)