Consumer News Weekend Short Stack
A few tips and observations for this, the first 6 Nations Rugby, weekend:
- Avoid using Change Counter Machines – You’ll see more and more of these machines around these days. They’re really handy in that they’ll count all your beer change in seconds. But, think about it – are they there for your benefit or to make stores more money. You could end up paying up to 10% and sometimes more, or your money just to have it counted. Do it yourself – go to the bank and get a few money bags, set aside an hour some evening, and count it yourself. My last beer change count was €268 – no way I’d pay over €26.80 to have it counted.
- ValueIreland.com on TV3, Ireland AM - I should have posted this last week, but never got around to it. I was kindly invited to come onto the Ireland AM show on Wednesday morning last week to discuss shopping around for Car Insurance, Mortgages and Credit cards. You can see the full segment here.
- Ireland v France, Croke Park – The tickets that I tried to purchase online last August where the IRFU completely screwed up are finally going to be used this afternoon. Lets hope the rugby team don’t screw up as badly. Here’s hoping that we get a performance similar to (or better than) the first rugby game in Croker, also against France, and not like the sham games we experienced last year.
- Ringtone Rip Offs - I’ve received a few e-mails recently from readers who’ve been caught out where they’ve subscribed to a short code on their mobile to get a fancy ring tone. I’m still amazed that people get caught out by this – they’re all subscription services. Rarely can you get a ring tone for a once off fee – you’ll normally be signing up for a regular daily or weekly text at a premium rate. Normally though, texting STOP should stop the subscriptions, but if you’ve bigger problems, REGTEL are the people you need to go to.
- Politicians Wasting Our Money, again – This visit by 9 of our politicians to Northern Ireland last week really annoyed me. We’re told they went to check out the dual pricing sterling to euro conversion rate and the “damage caused” by the “exodus” of southerners up north to do their shopping. I think we all know exactly what’s going on and it doesn’t take them visiting to find out more. There’s National Consumer Agency reports (pointless as they are), and there’s the recent Forfas report. Maybe it’s all just for show – but a handy pointless jolly for the boys nonetheless!
Have a great weekend!
