For years now local authorities have been selling on personal data from the electoral register to private firms for marketing purposes or to pass on to other firms. Did you know that? A great many people didn’t, and were shocked to hear about this practice as a result of a report produced recently by the [...]
July 15th, 2008 | Catriona | 0 comments | ContinuedFeatured
Foreign Credit Card Transactions – New Protection
As many of us know, Using a credit card for transactions over £100 provides you with an automatic insurance policy should the supplier you are dealing with go bust or disappear, or if the goods turn out to be faulty. This is because under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, if you run into [...]
July 9th, 2008 | Catriona | 0 comments | Continued
Cooling off and Cancellations
Contracts are, by definition, legally binding, therefore it’s difficult to cancel without financial penalty unless you can prove breach of contract. In contracts for services, you have three fundamental statutory rights - that the supplier will do the job with reasonable care and skill, at reasonable cost and within reasonable time. Any failure to do [...]
July 8th, 2008 | Catriona | 0 comments | Continued
Excessive Mobile Roaming Charges - The Latest
A year after the European Commission stepped in to introduce the Eurotariff, limiting the cost of overseas (roaming) call charges for European consumers, T-Mobile have announced they are slashing the cost of mobile internet (data roaming) charges by 80% from £7.50 per megabyte to just £1.50. In addition, they are also set to reduce the [...]
July 8th, 2008 | Catriona | 2 comments | Continued
Excessive Bank Charges
Banks have traditionally levied heavy financial penalties on consumers who exceed their overdraft limits or have insufficient funds to honour cheques or direct debit payments. In April 2007, the OFT launched an investigation into whether these charges were fair and legal in terms of reflecting the true administrative cost to the bank. This was followed [...]
July 7th, 2008 | Catriona | 0 comments | Continued
More Bad Press for PPIs
Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) has received a good deal of bad press over the last few months due to reports of extortionate rates, unfair policy exclusions, and unscrupulous selling practices of credit and loan providers; see our Payment Protection Insurance guide. For consumers seeking peace of mind against the threat of financial hardship due to [...]
July 7th, 2008 | Catriona | 0 comments | Continued
Buying a New Build Home
Many people decide to ‘buy new’ from a housebuilder in the belief that it will be a much less troublesome experience than buying somebody else’s home. In reality however, these people go on to find the experience more stressful than they could possibly have anticipated. The reason for this is that the purchase of property [...]
July 6th, 2008 | Catriona | 2 comments | Continued
Buying Online
New Regulations have introduced greater consumer protection measures for the increasing number of people buying online and by mail order. Although the practice is still not without its problems due to the anonymity of the web and the regularity of card fraud.
The purchase of goods and services over the internet, by phone or by mail [...]
Buying a Car
When you buy a car, whether brand new or second hand, you benefit from the protection of certain statutory consumer rights as provided for under the Sale of Goods Act. However there is some variation in these rights depending on how you buy the car and who you buy it from.
Your statutory rights
First and [...]
Buying Clothing and Footwear
Your statutory consumer rights with regard to the purchase of clothing and footwear can be found in the Sale of Goods Act. They refer to standards of quality and consumer expectations, and what you should do if these are not met.
Your statutory rights
Any item of clothing or pair of shoes you buy should be of [...]
