Money Talks

Beware of Ticket Plan: my story

Ticket prices can be eye-wateringly high these days, but it’s hidden charges that really sting consumers. Here’s one to watch out for that you may not have noticed until it’s too late.

Last month I spent a ridiculous amount of money on Take That tickets (more fool me, you will probably say, but let’s leave personal music taste out of this). And if they weren’t already expensive enough I was pretty outraged to see some extra charges thrown in at the last minute.

The total came to £366 - that’s what I thought I was putting on my credit card in a bid to get a glimpse of Gary Barlow and co. Yet, when I received confirmation of my order, the total was £378. I’m no maths genius but it doesn’t add up. So when I looked closely at the bill I saw that I’d been charged £2 extra per ticket – £8 if my calculations are correct – for something called Ticketplan.

And more annoyingly this Ticketplan came with an extra transaction fee of £4.80 on top of the original booking fee!

I hadn’t asked for Ticketplan. I didn’t even know what Ticketplan was. But a bit of research told me it’s an insurance plan to cover the cost of tickets in case I can’t make the Take That concert next June.

The terms and conditions say the plan will refund the cost of my tickets if I can’t go because I, or any immediate family die. Or if I’m injured/struck down with a serious illness/involved in a fire/summoned to court.

The likelihood of those things happening are, I’d like to think, relatively slim. And even if something terrible does happen, I doubt my immediate thought will be to claim back for a refund on Take That tickets – especially if I die.

Add-ons and extra charges aren’t new to retailers and certainly aren’t exclusive to See Tickets, my vendor of choice on this occasion. But it is something being investigated by the Office Of Fair Trading.

Its report into advertising of pricing was announced last October and is due out next week. It looks at issues like the above, which is known as drip-pricing. If you’ve used Ryanair you’ll be familiar with the tactic.

Here’s how it works: You nearly complete a transaction, then some extra fees are added on to the total. Fees which, most likely, you won’t expect. A booking fee is fair enough and pretty standard, but not insurance, as far as I’m concerned.

The worst part is that Ticketplan was an ‘opt out’ system. So, I was automatically signed up to pay the extra £12 and a tiny box at the bottom of the page would have warned me. But I missed it and ended up paying the £12 price for a policy I don’t want. I’m sure I can’t be the only one.

Have you been sold a Ticketplan you didn’t want? What other add-ons and fees really drive you mad? Let me know @confusedlois or email me lois.avery@confused.com

Switch your energy supplier now before prices go up

Scottish Power has jumped on the price rise bandwagon, spelling more doom and gloom for anyone heating a home this winter. Confused.com's Lois Avery looks at how the main providers have hiked their prices so far and offers guidance on when to switch in order to beat the rises.

If you haven’t considered switching energy provider, then now’s the time to do it. That’s right, another provider is planning a winter energy price hike – as if heating your home wasn’t expensive enough.

But it’s not all bad news, as you could do something about it now, while there’s a window of opportunity and money to be saved.

So who’s doing what?

Scottish Power is the latest in the long line of energy providers boosting prices.

It announced that standard gas and electricity customers will see a 2% increase in gas prices and an 8.9 per cent increase in electricity prices from 25 November – that’s this week.

British Gas gave its customers slightly more notice to shop around for gas and electricity by announcing ahead of time that prices would be going up by 7%on 10 December; so you still have a few weeks to switch if you’re a British Gas customer.

If you’re a Scottish and Southern Energy customer you’ll need to move a little faster. Prices are set to rise by an eye-watering 9.6 %on 1 December.

Buy yourself some time

Even if you’ve already had your letter informing you that prices are set to rise, then you can buy yourself some extra time. Ofgem rules mean that energy companies cannot enforce their price rises if a customer tells them that they reject the rise within 20 working days of receiving a letter about it.

So, if you inform your supplier that you reject the price rise, you then have 15 days to switch suppliers. This usually takes around six weeks, during which time you can continue to pay the lower price.

This could be useful after experts warned that next in line to hike their rates will either be Eon or npower. Both of which have been withdrawing best buy deals since the summer. EDF energy is the only provider bucking the trend so far, after it promised not to increase prices until at least March 2011.

Here’s what the rises could cost you

Consumer Focus has worked out that if you’re currently a British Gas customer, then your average monthly direct debit bill will be about £1,082. But come 10 December, this will jump to £1,159 – losing you £77 a year.

And, if you’re with Scottish Power, then the price increase will boost the average bill by £54 annually and Scottish and Southern Energy customers will pay £66 more..

So, if you want to avoid the rises and try and get a cheaper deal, then you can compare gas and electricity prices across all the main energy providers and see who can offer you the cheapest deal this winter. Online deals usually offer the bigger savings and setting up a direct debit to pay your bill monthly is usually cheaper.

Once you’ve done that, you could get in touch and let me know what you think about the flurry of price rises, and if you decide to battle your provider over prices, then tell me about your experience.  Did they make it difficult for you?

Consumer Focus is on your side. They say customers “will watch with dismay as another energy firm joins in the rush to hike prices” and are likely to be ‘baffled’ as to why they are being told to pay more.

If you’re ‘baffled’ by the latest increases then let me know @confusedlois on Twitter, email me lois.avery@confused.com or post a comment below and start a debate.

Do we really spend a whole year of our lives parking?

Parking can drive even the most mild-mannered drivers to distraction and new figures show we’re spending up to a year of our lives driving round in circles. So why are Britain’s drivers so beset with parking gripes? Lois Avery takes a look.

Parking in Britain is a problem – I’m sure we’re all agreed on this. Whether you think it’s too expensive, over-enforced or spaces are too few and far between.

But it’s also a very time consuming activity, so much so that a new survey reckons we spend up to a year of our lives parking. A whole year.

That’s according to a National Car Parks study of 9,000 drivers, which found that, on average, British drivers spend 152 hours a year searching for a parking space. As well as denting our wallets, parking can also dent our sanity – mine at least.

For those of you with private driveways or allocated parking, this might sound far-fetched. But I can well believe that I’m spending such a significant proportion of my life literally driving round in circles.

The NCP survey found that the average daily time spent searching for a parking space was 25 minutes. Well NCP, If you think 25 minutes is a lot try an hour, because that’s how long it can take me to park sometimes.

You’re probably thinking that it serves me right for living in such a built up area, or for neglecting to check out the parking situation before I signed on the dotted line. But the problem is, I live in Bristol, a city that’s so compact, the number of cars vastly outweighs its capacity for parking.

As a result, the streets, mainly during the evenings, (around 7pm at its peak) become a battle ground, with everyone desperate to get a spot near their front door. If you live in London, Birmingham or Glasgow – where the NCP say parking is considered to be a particular problem - I’m sure you’ll sympathise.

Even once you’ve managed to find a parking space within a five mile radius of your home, the stress doesn’t end. Because our parking laws are so over-enforced that being a mere centimetre over a line can land you with a hefty fine.  Or, should you forget your tape measure one day and inadvertently park more than 50 centimetres from a curb you’ll probably get a ticket. Then there’s yellow lines, single and double, red lines, stopping zones, loading zones. You name it, our laws are enforcing it.

But the AA say Britain’s parking problems stem from the fact that, as a nation of drivers, we’re just not very good at it. I beg to differ.

There was a day when I would shy away from a space unless it was big enough for four cars. But, having lived somewhere where parking spaces are hard to come by, my skills are so honed that I can confidently say  I could get into a space so tight that the cars around me would need a tin opener to ease themselves out.

So maybe my parking nightmares will stand me in good stead – living in a city has been like an intensive parking course. Which also leads to another issue – should parking be more of a focus for leaner drivers?
As our little island’s roads become more and more congested, drivers are going to have to get better at parking. There’s nothing more annoying that a badly parked car that takes up two precious spaces. I know there are arguments for taking public transport or riding a bike, for example, but that’s not practical for everyone, So what’s the alternative?

I’d love to hear your suggestions. Or your parking nightmares. Does parking drive you round the bend?  And should driving tests focus more on parking than they currently do ?Let me know via twitter @confusedlois or email me at lois.avery@confused.com