ValueIreland.com

Michael O’Leary has another go at the fuckers* at the National Consumer Agency today - you can see his comments about the “plonkers” and “noddies” from todays Evening Herald.

All funniness aside, he made a very important point - and in my mind clearly illustrates the populist nature of the actions of Ann Fitzgerald and the National Consumer Agency.

Ryanair announced it was cancelling flights booked through “screen scraper” websites and following the hoo-haa and publicity it was targeted (all be it through a pathetic letter only) by the NCA for what was perceived to be mistreatment of Irish consumers.

In response to the letter, Mr.O’Leary and Ryanair pointed out that in fact, consumers using such “screen scraper” websites were in fact being victimised by the operators of the websites who levied unclear and hidden charges themselves.

And what did the fuckers* do when presented with a way to actually act in the true interests of the Irish consumer?

The “noddies” took the weekend off, went for a nice drive in the country with their best friend.

There was an article (linked here) in yesterdays Sunday Business Post that contained the sub-headline of “Payments group claims data protection law prevents naming of shops and restaurants”. But unfortunately, the article doesn’t really detail the reasoning behind this bizarrely anti-consumer aspect of data protection legislation.

Shop Around - As with all other purchases that you make, shop around. There are numerous insurance companies providing travel insurance on the Irish market. You should take the time to contact most, if not all of them, to get a quote.

Someone you can trust - You should always go with a reputable and established company. There’s no point in taking risks. Check if they have industry accreditation. If necessary, ask around amongst colleagues and friends to see if they’ve heard of a particular company. And remember, no matter how good a website is, the company should have a call centre, sales staff, and a proper postal address for their office – if none of these exist, be careful.

Contact Information - Following from the point above, make sure you have all contact information necessary for your insurance company if you have any problems abroad. Ensure you have numbers that can be dialled from your destination as some free-phone numbers may not work outside of Ireland.

Policy Details - Ensure that you’re familiar with the details of the policy you’re thinking of buying - does it include cover for cancellations, delays, lost luggage? What cover does it provide with regards to medical coverage? Is this sufficient considering your destination? Will you be paid up-front or will you be reimbursed later after you yourself have incurred the expense? Are you comfortable with the cover you’ve just purchased?

Don’t Lie - By truthful and up-front with whatever it is you’re planning to do when you’re on your holiday - if you’re thinking of maybe doing any ‘extreme sports’ highlighted by travel insurance companies (skiing, parachuting etc.) but may or may not, mention is so that you’re covered should you decided to do so, just in case. Be honest also when it comes to pre-existing medical insurance.

Multiple policies with same company - Some companies provide discounts if you hold more than one insurance policy with them. So if you already have car, home or life insurance with a single company, ask for a quote for your travel insurance if they provide such cover, and ask if they can offer you any discount seeing as you’re providing them with all of your insurance business.

Less than obvious Insurers - When shopping around, you should keep an eye out for companies you may not expect providing Travel Insurance - for example, the AA, or the VHI. You may also find that when purchasing your holiday tickets online, that the company selling you the travel may offer Travel Insurance as well.

Internet Travel Insurance Suppliers - Now, more than ever, the choice of Travel Insurance suppliers on the internet is vast. Googling on “travel insurance”, restricting your search to Ireland only provides at least 5 internet-only travel insurance providers.

Special Offers - Always keep an eye out for special offers that may be offered at various times by different insurance companies. For example, look out for money back guarantees such as “If you find a cheaper deal elsewhere, we’ll refund the difference”. This can assure you that you’re not being stung. Another promotion may be something like “one month’s insurance free if you pay monthly by direct debit”. These can give good value.

Single or Multi Trip Insurance - Always consider your actual needs when buying travel insurance. You may be tempted by what seems like good value on Multi Trip travel insurance policies, but you should consider whether or not you’ll actually need this.

Sharp Sales Practices - A newly observed sales tactic by a small number of travel agents is to tell customers they will not make a holiday booking unless they have proof of insurance. This is not the case, as you can purchase any holiday package, and travel anywhere you like without purchasing insurance. If you do so, it a risk of your own making, but perfectly legal to do so.

Have your policy to hand - When ringing around looking for quotes and you are renewing your policy, have your existing policy with you so you can answer the relevant questions, and ask important questions of your own. If you’re sure your existing policy meets your requirements, use this as the basis for requesting a quotation from a potential new insurer.

Check the small print - Remember, sometimes just because an insurance company has sold you a policy this does not mean you’re eligible to claim on it. If you have any concerns, get them to confirm to you that you are covered in particular situations – in writing if possible.

Timeliness - Arrange for your travel insurance at least a month before leaving if possible. Confirm before you actually leave that your cover is in place, and that your premium payment has actually been received.

Documentation - Ensure that you bring your all relevant travel insurance documentation with you on your holiday. Keep it with your other important documentation such as your passport and travel tickets - items you’re going to make sure you look after.

Excess - Firstly, make sure you are aware if there is any excess on the policy you’re thinking of buying - ensure that you’re happy with this amount. To reduce the price of the premium, you could volunteer to pay more of an excess towards the cost of each claim. Only do this if you can afford to do so however.

Do you actually need travel insurance - As with all insurance, it’s your choice to purchase or not. In some cases, such as travelling within the European Economic Area (including EC countries, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), you are entitled to reciprocal state-provided health services by taking with you a form called E111, available from all Post Offices. You must get the form completed before you leave. This may be sufficient for your needs. Click here for more information.

This post from last week on the www.saynoto1890.com website created an enormous amount of interest. Some interesting implications I think if the statement included in it from the ComReg employee is accurate - though I have my doubts. Here’s the post:

For some reason that doesn’t make sense to me yet, whenever you make a call to ComReg, be it looking for information or trying to complain about something, you’re helping ComReg make money for themselves. They’re there supposedly to be of service to consumers, yet you call them and they make money from your phone call.

From a SayNoTo1890.com reader, we were provided with the following snippet of an e-mail from a ComReg employee:

The Locall number we advertise is a minor source of revenue for us – the bulk comes from levies imposed on those firms we regulate.

If that’s the case, I wonder how much money other Government organisations are making from making us consumers ring them on their 1890 numbers.

I say I don’t understand this because normally businesses who have these 1890 numbers end up paying the balance of whatever the call would cost. It’s normally only 0818 numbers that a business would make money one.

Better purchasing decisions through better information” might be a bit of a mouthful, but this blog helps you achieve exactly that, keeping its eyes peeled and guns a-blazing for any anti-consumer infractions.

WHEN you go north of the border, prices go south. This simple fact now has shoppers from the Republic regularly travelling in droves to towns such as Newry to do their shopping.

The difference in terms of hard cash is more glaring now than it has ever been, with stg£1 now worth around €1.26, compared with €1.50 or more just a few months ago. That dramatic drop in sterling’s value has led to a huge increase in purchasing power for buyers from the Republic. No additional duty or tax is payable on goods bought in shops and supermarkets in Northern Ireland once the duty and tax have already been paid there.

Every day of the week, Newry is invaded by shoppers from the Republic, on the hunt for better value on a wide variety of goods. Newry has two shopping centres. The main one is the Quays. Just five minutes’ walk away is the smaller Buttercrane centre. The Quays has branches of many of the major UK multiples. The list includes Debenhams, Awear, Boots, Argos, Next, Oasis, Monsoon, Aldo, River Island, HMV and Waterstones.

Meanwhile, the Buttercrane centre has Dunnes Stores and Marks & Spencer, as well as Miss Selfridge, Holland & Barrett, Jessops, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Virgin Megastore, Principles, Wallis and Mothercare.

When Money Talks visited Newry on Tuesday last, it was clear which shop in the Quays was attracting the lion’s share of the business. Although the centre itself was experiencing a typical midweek lull, there were queues at every one of the dozen or so checkouts at Sainsburys. Some checkouts even had two cash registers in operation. Unlike many supermarkets this side of the border, every checkout was manned.

There were even a few public announcements, apologising for the delays due to the crowds.

The first thing that was striking was the mood in the queue. It was markedly different from what one normally experiences in the Republic, and it wasn’t just because of the superior service. Here in the south, consumers are constantly reminded of how much we’re forking out in our local supermarket, over and above what we should be paying. Ireland has the dubious distinction of having the highest prices in Europe after Denmark. And so we stand in the queue, assailed by a wearying financial anxiety, preparing to be ripped off yet again, deflated by wildly inflated prices.

In the queue at Sainsburys, it was an altogether different story. People were visibly cheerful, chatting among themselves, animated by their decision to take charge of their spending and find a better deal. Not surprisingly, most of them were from the Republic.

One of them is Joyce Denver, from Balrothery, County Dublin. She and her husband Shane travel to Newry every six weeks. They do their supermarket shopping in Sainsburys, and purchase clothes for their young child in Next.

Joyce said groceries in Sainsburys are significantly cheaper than her local supermarket in Dublin.

“This week I spent €120, and the week before I spent €160 in Dunnes Stores (in the Republic) for the same goods. The rate is particularly good at the moment, so you can save a lot, ” she says.

Sainsburys’ car park is “always full of southern cars”, she adds. “There are tons of people from Dublin, and they always buy loads of drink.”

There’s a joke in Newry that you can easily spot the shoppers from the Republic, because they have two trolleys - one for food, the other for drink.

She reckons the best time of the week to go shopping in Newry is on Tuesday or Wednesday.

“Weekends are mad, especially on Sundays, when they don’t open till 1pm. Shoppers from the south don’t know that, so they’re all waiting to get in the door and it’s very, very busy.”

Also at Sainsburys was Lorna O’Grady from Dundalk.

She shops every week in Newry and said, quite simply, that “everything is better value here”. She saves €30 to €40 on her weekly trip for groceries.

Diarmuid McShane, editor of consumer awareness website Valueireland. com, recently shopped in Newry for Spanish wine. He bought a dozen bottles, saving €3 to €4 each compared with prices in the Republic.

“We were going to go to France to buy wine, but we opted for Newry instead, ” he said. “We bought several different wines just to sample them. So when we decide which ones we like best we can easily go back and buy a whole lot more.”

He reckons his next shopping trip there will be well worth the drive from Dublin, even after spending €35 on petrol for the journey.

How much can you bring back?

Shoppers from this side of the border are allowed to bring back up to 90 litres of wine.

However, you can bring more than this if you can prove that it’s for your personal use and that there are exceptional circumstances that explain the extra amount, such as that you’re having a wedding or 21st party, and are using the wine for that reason.

Up to 10 litres of spirits are allowed, plus 20 litres of sherry or port, plus 10 litres of beer.

The only conditions are that whatever you buy must be for personal use. You must keep your receipts as proof of purchase, and you must personally accompany the goods.

Phone users are being ripped off when they make calls to government departments and large companies via 1850, 1890 and 0818 numbers. While mobile users who pay by bill have a block of “free” minutes credited to their phone each month, these minutes include standard land line and mobile numbers, but usually not other numbers.

Dialling these numbers can cost up to 49c per minute when calling from a mobile, and up to 8c a minute from a land line. Last week, the consumer awareness website ValueIreland.com published a useful list of land line numbers which you can contact as a cheaper alternative to the more expensive numbers. The list is available at www.SayNoTo1890.com.

ALL TALK, NO COST

THE immensely popular Skype allows you to make free phonecalls from your computer to just about anywhere in the world. All you need to do is download the software (at skype. com), which takes just a few seconds. Then pop along to your nearest electronic/computer store and buy a headset, which costs as little as 20.

Once you and the person you’re calling plug the headsets into your respective computers, you’re ready to talk.

DOUBLE-DIGIT SAVINGS FOR TEXT FANS

FANCY saving up to 40 a month on text messages? Tens of thousands of Irish people are doing just that by sending free texts over the internet.

The trend is proving increasingly popular, particularly among office workers. Mobile companies allow you to send up to 300 messages a month using the online option. Just log on to your mobile provider’s website and sign up.

DIRECTORY ENQUIRIES

FORGET calling 11850 and paying for its costly service.

Instead, find the number you’re looking for at its website (www.11850. ie) for free.

THE MUSIC OF THE MOMENT

AMERICAN independent record label Matador Records recently released its annual Intended Play compilation, which features recent and upcoming musical highlights.

This is the first time the 12 song collection has been downloadable, with tracks from the likes of Cat Power, Times New Viking and Matmos.

Meanwhile, a 16-track sampler free from antilabel blog. com includes recent songs from Nick Cave, Billy Bragg and Galactic. Apple’s iTunes store offers a free single of the week, and it always worth checking out. , and by downloading a lot with iRATE radio (http: //irate. sourceforge. net) you can hoover up tracks from websites that allow free legal downloads of their music.

One of the most enlightening, no-nonsense music websites is epitonic. com. It provides fascinating chronicles of every genre, with excellent biogs on ooodles of artists.

In a similar vein, allmusic. com gives in-depth profiles on all the important names in music, sorts them into different genres and connects them to their influences.

PODCASTS

BBC radio shows how it’s done when it comes to podcasts. It allows you to download episodes of lots of programmes to your computer, and from there to your iPod. A fascinating choice of music and culture.

CLICK AND COLLECT

Gumtree’s online community is growing all the time (gumtree. ie), and one of its most intriguing aspects is its weird and wonderful Freebies section, which consists mainly of unwanted household items. The quality on offer is, as you would expect, hit and miss, but there’s the odd gem.

Another Irish giveaway website tapping into our new clearout culture is jumbletown. ie. You can search for ‘Today’s New Items’ on a county-by-county basis.

Meanwhile, in the Free Stuff section of adverts. ie this week, there was a free Playstation plus games, and a 21-inch Mitsubishi TV.

ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

HAS your anti-virus software expired? Then before you think about buying another product, save yourself time and money by downloading Symantec’s Norton AntiVirus free for 30 days. After the trial period is up, you can subscribe for a year, and it’s generally cheaper to do so than buy from Irish retailers. You can, of course, just flit around from one anti-virus provider to the next using the 30-day option for months at at time. Other providers include AVG (grisoft. com), Panda. com and Kaspersky. com.

FINANCIAL TIPS

IRISH financial awareness website askaboutmoney. com is a website with a difference.

It is run by a small group of financially savvy individuals who regularly chew the fat over a dizzying range of topics.

A leaner, more focused site is valueireland. com. It’s tiny compared to askaboutmoney, but there’s a very useful advice section which can save you a fortune. It provides a concise and very readable overview of things you need to look out for when shelling out your hard earned cash, such as hiring a tradesperson, shopping online, avoiding excessive mobile phone charges.

DVDS

WHEN you sign up to Irish DVD websites screen click. com and moviestar. ie, you get two weeks’ free rentals delivered to your door. After the period is up, there’s absolutely no obligation to continue with the service.

Deal of the Week

Tired of paying through the nose for calls from your landline? Then you’d have to be several digits short of a phone number to stay with a phone company that offers you less than Euphony. This little-known phone company’s EUTalk package offers free local and national calls up to 60 minutes long for just 10.99 a month. More details from euphony. ie Rip-off of the Week 3 for just half an hour on the internet at the Central Cafe at Grafton Street in Dublin. Yikes!

Tip of the week

This week’s survey by the Financial Regulator on the cost of home insurance contained a glaring omission: none of the seven insurance providers from which it got quotes from was a low-cost, online insurance company. The new breed of internet-only operators frequently offer far better value than the big household names in the insurance game. Last year, for example, a survey by this reporter found that savings of up to 600 could be made on car insurance by taking out policies from the likes of insure. ie and insureme. ie. Admittedly the current survey covered a different product, but the same principle applies. For household insurance, simplymortgages. ie gets quotes from some of the biggest home insurance providers in Ireland and abroad, which means it can often beat rival quotes from Irish-based insurance companies.

Can’t get broadband in your area?

Don’t have it on your computer?

Or maybe you don’t have a computer to begin with. Don’t worry . . . with your mobile you can check your email, get stock quotes, read the news, or just kill some time flirting on Facebook.

Or at least that’s how mobile providers want you to think. The financial reality, however, can be a sobering, even nasty, experience. For not only is it expensive to surf the Net in this way, but there are a couple of financial booby-traps lying in wait for the less than vigilant.

Consumers Association of Ireland’s chief executive Dermott Jewell says there is “a good degree of dissatisfaction among consumers about the cost of mobile internet.” In the past year he received several hundred complaints from mobile users who, after receiving their mobile bill, could not believe their eyes.

Their bills were severely inflated due to hefty excess charges they had to pay after they exceeded their monthly ‘download limit.’

These limits are what cause mobile users the most financial pain. They determine how much information your phone can receive from the internet during any given month. Even when you just browse the web you import a certain amount of information to your mobile.

Simply surfing the net won’t normally mean you go over the allowed limit. If, on the other hand, you download music, video or games, your download total can rise dramatically, and you risk paying dearly for your habits.

For example, 50MB gives you about a half an hour viewing videos on websites such as the immensely popular YouTube, or around 1,000 internet pages, depending on your handset and the amount of information on the websites you’re accessing. So a few sessions idly browsing the Net can very easily spiral into a shocking phone bill.

One of our readers relates how mobile internet can be a very expensive hobby for consumers who are less than ruthlessly aware of the hidden financial dangers of the new technology.

He received his monthly bill last week, having hooked up to mobile internet for the final four days of the last billing period. He says: “I experimented with my new phone’s (Nokia N95) internet capabilities. I downloaded one free music track and one movie clip and surfed the web for maybe five hours overall.

“For this I was billed 50.28. The amount of data downloaded was, according to my bill, 8.6MB. The largest individual charge was for a (free) movie clip which took just over two minutes to download. That cost 29.37!”

The reader rang the mobile provider the day he got the phone asking whether he needed to change his billing system. “The girl at customer services said I should see how I got on the first month and then drop in to one of their shops and chat with a rep.”

“It’s been an expensive four-day trial. Thank God I didn’t get the phone at the beginning of the month!”

Download limits If you’re going to surf the Net from your mobile, the first thing you need to know is: what’s the download limit?

The reason that is so crucially important is that these limits kick in (and boy, do some of them kick! ) once a specified amount of information has been accessed by your phone.

The biggest download limit is from O2. Its Broadband 10GB Add-on package gives you 10,000 megabytes (MB), or 10 gigabytes (GB), per month.

That will cost you 30, however, you could get a pretty good broadband package for your home computer or laptop instead, for arguably far better value, unless of course you want to be able to access the internet very often while you’re on the move. You also need to buy a high-speed HSDPA mobile, such as the Nokia N95, to get the full benefit from this package.

Diarmuid McShane, editor of consumer awareness website valueireland. com, bought a Nokia N95 when he switched from Vodafone to O2, and signed up to the 30 a month package. He says his experience using the technology has been “perfect.”

He uses his mobile mainly to watch TV and videos online, and to listen to internet radio.

He adds: “The trick is to watch out for the mobile provider’s ‘fair usage policy.’” These policies govern what happens when you go over your monthly allowance.

Mobile providers usually turn a blind eye to the occasional occurrence and generally contact you when you are about to exceed, or have exceeded, your limit.

If you regularly overstep the mark, the provider then has discretion to charge you, or even suspend your internet access till the following month.

What happens when you go over the limit?

All the Irish mobile providers we surveyed told us they adopt a fair usage policy in relation to customers exceeding their download limit. But what happens when they decide that you have to cough up for the excess use? Download limits vary from one provider to the next, and it is not possible here to compare like with like in terms of what each provider will tolerate, since each individual case is assessed on its own merits.

What does it cost?

From 7.50 a month for a basic package to 30, on the basis that you don’t exceed your download limit. See table for more details.

Deal of the Week

Danish designer men’s shop Bertoni on Dublin’s Duke Street is closing down, and is selling off its entire stock for a fraction of the usual prices.

Recently we put our money where our mouth is and snapped up a small wardrobe of bargains there.

Jackets (average 180 each) are being let go for as little as 50; shirts costing around 70 are selling at 20 for two; trousers originally around 85 are now retailing from as little as 30 for two pairs, and coats are down from 180 to 50.

A spokesperson for Bertoni said the sale will last at least for the next two weeks, but advises customers to get there early as stocks are flying out the door.

Rip-off of the Week

A packet of four Gillette Sensor 3 razors was selling for a whopping 9.85 this week at Price’s Medical Hall on Dublin’s Clare Street. Meanwhile, just “ve minutes away on Westland Row, the Trinity Pharmacy was charging just 6.99, or 2.86 less.

That’s a difference of 40 per cent!

Tip of the week If you’re a mobile user and you pay as you go, switch to a bill-paying option and not only can you keep your existing number . . . you can also save a fortune in the process.

Recently we did just that. Now we’re saving at least 30 a month and getting 200 minutes more in calls than with the dearer, prepaid option.

There’s a useful calculator at callcosts. ie.

Just type in the type and number of calls you make per month, and it tells you what the cheapest options are. And remember that, no matter what the package or provider is, you can always keep your current number.