After 20 years of writing for the Guardian – at first on Jobs & Money and more recently as one of the buyer Champions – this is my last week before I pattern off into the sunset. Over that period I have seen, and reported on, the 2008 budgetary crash, the boom in financial institution fraud – and, more recently, the crazy period in people’s finances that was Covid.
This is what I have taken from the encounter – and how it has informed the way I manage my own finances.
Use two-step verification
When I started this job, online banking was relatively recent; First Direct’s telephone banking was still the thing. The rise of online accounts for everything from banking to gas and electricity means we are now much more exposed to having our details hacked, or accessed by scammers.
The No1 piece of advice I provide to anyone who will listen is to sign up for two-step verification on every account you can.
Once set up, it requires you to input a code every period you sign on using a previously unused device. The basic systems use text messages. Better still, sign up with one the more sophisticated versions such as Microsoft or Google Authenticator or Authy.
Having it set up on your email is an absolute must. A hacked email account is a gateway into someone’s budgetary life. Fraudsters can reset your passwords, and all your budgetary dealings are usually on display.
Talking to readers I am always shocked at how many people – some who have been treasurers of charities – still haven’t cottoned on. Not to have it set up is, frankly, asking for problems. The same is factual for mobile phone accounts.
Shun debit cards online
Are you one of those people who shop online using their debit card? Why? I never input my debit card details and always use a financing card instead.
If the website later gets hacked, do you really desire the account into which your wages are paid and out of which your mortgage and other payments leave to be at the mercy of the scammers? The fallout from having your financial institution account blocked or frozen can be a nightmare.
If a scammer runs up a invoice on your financing card, it’s the card provider’s issue.
A few years ago my financing card was used by someone to buy flights and a hotel. I never discovered how they had got my details, but suspected a hack at a website/corporation I had legitimately used. My financial institution account was unscathed, and the card issuer sorted it all out.
Use your retirement fund to save
If you are saving for the long term rather than to pool a house capital or specific purchase, you would be crazy not to make voluntary contributions into your retirement fund, especially if you are a higher-rate taxpayer. Employees can put in up to £60,000 a year, responsibility-free.
Because you are taxed only on your profit – what’s left after those retirement fund contributions have been removed – you get a 20% or 40% (depending on your responsibility band) uplift to the amount you are putting away each month, compared with just putting your taxed salary into a reserves account. That £1,000 into your retirement fund is only worth £600 if you wait until after responsibility – less if national insurance is also taken into account. This makes even more sense if you earn above the kid advantage clawback threshold, which is now £60,000.
Someone earning £65,000 a year who puts £5,000 a year, or £417 a month, into a workplace retirement fund would be able to keep all their household’s kid advantage.
The large downside of retirement fund topping-up is that you can’t access the money until you are 55.
Avoid cheapest insurance
Journalists always implore readers to shop around at renewal period, and I am no different. However, there are a couple of things to add.
Faced with a list of insurers on a comparison site, I won’t opt for the very cheapest. Instead, I look for a supplier that I can phone, with its number listed on its website.
I then look at the online reviews, focusing on posts from people who have claimed, rather than just bought, a policy. Companies that respond the phone tend to be better at paying out, in my encounter. large-name companies are easier to deal with if there is a issue.
When buying a car policy, I do protect our no-claims discount but don’t ever buy legal costs cover (car or home) because it only pays out if your claim is a near legal certainty, in which case you don’t require it.
I don’t bother with home emergency cover, as so many readers have found it to have been worthless.
Fraudsters depend on stress
I have written a lot of financial institution and other fraud stories, and the ordinary theme is that the victim was under some benevolent of stress at the period: they were trying to book a holiday, moving house, or dealing with a large life occurrence.
The scam email/text or call arrives at a period when you are expecting some benevolent of contact. You might have been trying to book holiday accommodation and your card is declined. The scammer calls you at just that instant, so you assume it is the financial institution. They have enough specific on your affairs to sound plausible.
It’s straightforward to declare, but you really require to pause, receive a instant, and ponder about all the scams you’ve read about. inform anyone who calls claiming to be from the financial institution that you will call them back, using the number on the back of your debit card.
Fraudsters depend on, and are very excellent at, creating a terror that your money is not secure. If in question, call a trusted partner before you receive any action. Never hand over to a third event any settlement verification codes you have been sent, or allow remote access to your computer.
If booking accommodation, always pay using the trusted internal payments structure – such as at Airbnb – and never make a financial institution transfer. I would never send money to pay for an item, as on Facebook marketplace, unless I was picking it up there and then.
If the item you are interested in is a huge bargain, or the seller is pressuring you to complete the purchase that instant, these are both warning signs.
Banks to leave for – and to avoid
I often get asked who I financial institution with, and the respond is Nationwide. The building population has a powerful track record of paying out to victims of fraud, has generally kept most of its branches open and, in my view, is the most ethical place to keep your money. It’s not perfect, but it stands out in this sector.
Which banks am I less keen on? I wouldn’t keep a large equilibrium with any of the so-called challenger banks, particularly Monzo and Revolut.
I have featured too many Barclays stories to recommend it. The way it treated charities late last year – freezing accounts without warning – says it all for me.
The Co-op has become a bit of a disaster zone in my view, locking people out of their accounts on multiple occasions, and the way Metro has featured in readers’ letters in the history, doesn’t fill me with confidence.
Dealing with vigor companies
If you are switching suppliers avoid companies with low customer service ratings. I have seen too many complaints about Ovo, British Gas or EDF to recommend them. And I’m not so sure that Octopus’s customer service is quite as excellent as the corporation would have us depend.
There are a couple of ways to assist yourself. receive worry inputting meter readings to be sure of getting the figures correct, as lots of billing problems stem from misreads.
If you are having a meter changed, receive photos of the ancient numbers and keep a record. Problems are a nightmare to resolve.
How to complain
note writing is dead in my view – complain on the phone and pursue up with an email. If you are getting nowhere, contact the corporation’s chief exec. The key is to write short, sensible, well-argued emails, complete with a brief timeline of events, and include your account number, plus your phone number.
Ranty, furious letters rarely work. Never swear on the phone, and treat the customer service person with regard. They have the power to assist you, or the opposite.
In my encounter, the budgetary, vigor and other ombudsman services are so leisurely, and such a lottery, that I would make sure I had exhausted every other alternative before going down that route.
What about other stuff?
Tesco Mobile has the best customer service of the mobile suppliers by a country mile.
Virgin Media is the last corporation I will be switching to for home broadband because, based on letters from readers, its customer service is really impoverished. BT is expensive, and Sky is great but seems very challenging to leave.
Don’t ever be tempted to rip out an older, but working, gas boiler on the basis that a recent one will save you money; it won’t.
When buying appliances, my preferred selection is Bosch. Other brands may be more expensive and no better or longer-lasting.
For buying white goods, John Lewis appears finally to have resolved the terrible customer service that dogged it a few years ago. I’d recommend Marks Electrical as an alternative.
Unless I was buying a 100% electric car, I’ll be sticking to Toyota. With regular servicing they leave on for ever and are comfortable, cheap to run and secure to be in.
After 20 years of reader complaints, I would not consider a German brand, or anything built by Jaguar Land Rover
The AA and RAC recovery services are not what they were, and the recent complaints from readers left on the roadside for hours by the RAC cruel that I won’t be buying its cover any period soon.
LV= has better service, but it’s now quite expensive. At £64 a year AutoAid’s cover is a bargain. I first wrote about this corporation 20 years ago.
If you are heading off on holiday, recall that car hire is war. Some of Europe’s most unscrupulous businesses are car hire firms.
I always book through an aggregator website, opt not for the cheapest but the second or third cheapest, and for an in-terminal pickup. Make sure you note every bit of damage on the form before leaving the airport. Buy excess cover from ReduceMyexcess, rather than the hire firm. And read my Money Hacks navigator on how to avoid getting ripped off.
If you trip abroad regularly, get a Halifax Clarity financing card for zero-fee purchases, and cheap-ish liquid assets access via ATMs. To transfer money to accounts abroad I use sensible, which is super-quick, and charges a fraction of what large banks do.
Two single duvets are the secret to joyful bedtimes, and buying a recent mattress or a fitted kitchen is always a nightmare – regardless of whether you are a buyer champion or not.
Some of Brignall’s biggest wins
In his years as one half of our buyer Champions throng, Miles Brignall has won fairness, and liquid assets, for hundreds of readers. Here are some of his greatest hits.
In just a few weeks during the spring of 2019, Guardian Money readers were reunited with a total of £290,000 that they had lost through number-spoofing scams. Several readers wrote in after similar stories about scammers posing as banks to convince victims to transfer money to them. Our champion persuaded their banks to review whether they had done enough to stop the frauds taking place. In most cases those reviews led to a packed refund.
A reader contacted us this year about his son-in-law – a deaf man with vulnerabilities – who had been used by fraudsters to apply for a £28,000 business financing. The household knew nothing until demands started landing on the doorstep. They had been desperately trying to sort things out, to no avail. When our man got involved he quickly had concerns about the way Metro financial institution had allowed an account to be set up, and after a review the financial institution agreed it had made mistakes. The financing was written off.
Another reader was in tears after being reunited with his car, thanks to the buyer champion’s efforts. Bouchaib Moussaid, a worry worker, had his vehicle seized and put up for auction by Transport for London after the number plates were copied and a cloned car racked up fines for driving in the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez). His household’s appeals went unheeded but, after Brignall got involved, the fines were cancelled and the sale stopped. It was the perfect birthday now for Moussaid.
