Is it ever really worth switching?

cheatthecheatingcheaters

I have switched credit cards for interest-free benefits and for lower overseas spending, several times over the last few years.

Each time I have done this, some muppet at the call centre or bank has made an error on the transaction. One time I was charged interest on an interest free card for months whilst I fought Virgin on a technicality where the error was absolutely made by the company. My choice was, take a big financial hit, or waste a lot of my time fighting it. I have never changed cards, ISP, bank accounts, mobile phone company, without having some clueless idiot somehow ruining the transaction, to my financial detriment.

Our Sky Box failed, so a bloke came to install another one yesterday, and now the new one does not work. I will be ringing them today to cancel the whole thing and just forget about Sky.

There's no way I am going to bother switching gas or electricity supplier, as I have no faith at all that they will do it correctly, perhaps leaving us without electricity or gas, or possibly leaving us paying more for some sort of hidden fee or basic accounting error at the company.

I rate my time as being worth at least £20 per hour. Unless the benefits of any switch are worth more than £100 (assuming at least five hours of phone calls, letter writing, trips to the post office, more phone calls to rectify "mistakes"), then I don't think I'll be switching anything any time soon.

Is there anyone out there, like me, thinking that in the face of mass incompetence in the British workforce (or perhaps deliberate construction of "errors" to rip-off customers), that all this changing suppliers, cards, accounts is ultimately, not worth it?

ironlady2022

I don't tend to agree. I mean what makes you think that your time is worth £20 an hour? Personally I use my mobile phone to call them up, if they are on 0845 numbers you can use saynoto0870 website. 5 hours seems like an inflated figure. Trips to post office? Can you not do it remotely from your computer? Or whilst you are doing your supermarket round? I never make a special trip unless it's urgent. Think you just need to have more faith. People make mistakes but I think you've just had a bad experience. I've had no trouble switching bank accounts, then getting £75 from Nationwide, £5pm from Halifax Rewards Current account. Perfect exchange rate when I use my cards abroad using either Post Office or Halifax Clarity credit card. £130 for switching gas and electric suppliers (takes about 6 weeks anyway). Up to £200 cashback from quidco website, by doing NOTHING differently from August to present.

I think if you cannot be bothered to make the effort to do such things then you have no grounds to complain or should not even be reading Martin Lewis.

nzseries1

I think that £20 per hour is a perfectly valid amount to put on one's time.

The problem is that you're signing up to their terms and conditions. They're not signing up to yours. They hold all the power - you hold none. It's a fact of life, unfortunately.

Recently I've felt quite the same - it's just easier to stick with what you've got than go through all the hassle of switching just for the potential to make a few extra quid.

cheatthecheatingcheaters

I value my spare time at £20 p/h because I earn £30 p/h at work.

I value Mr Lewis' advice dearly and have used it to get, for instance, a Nationwide CC which has saved me a lot of money on purchases overseas. I took advice from forums and Martin here when switching from my awful F2S broadband over to O2. O2 were excellent.

However, aside from these two cases where it was certainly worthwhile, my experience with other companies is that in many cases, I wish I had just kept the more expensive phone contract or credit card, rather than spend weeks fighting over some clerical error (or cleverly disguised rip-off). Virgin Credit Card, Vodafone, F2S, all let me down. Even the wonderful Nationwide credit card ripped me off when I chose to make manual payments, they automatically (without informing me) stopped my DD, then penalised me for not keeping up payments!

I feel that any time you let another of these companies in to your life you are just asking for a hassle.

In answer to the query regarding why I use the post office instead of email... in two cases where I was fighting a corporate injustice I had to put my case in writing. In each case, the letter I sent was "lost" and had to be re-sent. That's four trips to the PO already.

I could start a whole new thread on being left fiscally stranded in foreign countries without a working credit card after the computer cancels the card (due to a fraud, ie: me buying something), even though I regularly inform the CC company of future travel plans.

***sigh***

nzseries1

I guess there's a lot to be said for "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", unless you're prepared for potential stress (and make multiple visits to the Post Office to stand in an hour-long queue each time!)