At what point does being cute become fraud

BMN

LittleVoice wrote: »

Not a good example. 5% (even when paid gross) is for a year. 2% cashback might be for a quarter (and is not subject to tax deduction), ie 8% in a year.

Also the interest is taxable but cashback is not.

MABLE

ceredigion wrote: »

Can I express my extreme gratitude to those fellow contributors who took the time and trouble to correct my spelling.
I would be the first to admit my mastery of the English language is far from the best , I cant spell for adam and I know it . My grammar's not that bad though , certainly seen worse on these boards in the past.
Would like to think my vocabulary is fairly good though. So there must be something going on in this muffled brain of mine. So please don't destroy my delusions. The world would be a boring place if we were all perfect and never made an error ,like some.

I am moore interrested in savving monay than worying about sommeones spelling. :rotfl:

Archi_Bald

Hazzanet wrote: »

As for upping a payment to an energy supplier to gain cashback on the DD, I would genuinely say that you're not MSE if you didn't at least consider it.

I must be a bit dim because I don't quite feel the excitement about overpaying the energy supplier for 2% cashback. There's a limit as to how much I would put into an energy supplier - they don't come with any FSCS protection - and surely there's a limit by how much they will raise your DD to (before their systems automatically reduce the DD amount again)? Wouldn't I do better if I just put my extra money into a regular saver?

PeacefulWaters

ceredigion wrote: »

Would appear that I'm the only one, who can see the difference in over payment of a utility bill in error just in the general throws of life and the passage I highlighted earlier where there is a deliberate act to deceive for a financial benefit.
Surely just because T&C don't say that you cant do something ,doesn't make it right to do so. There again I may just have a slightly straighter moral compass than some.


P.S I know there's a double negative in there somewhere but hay ho.

I don't get where there's a deception.

The bank / energy company launches an offer or scheme. The customer decides how best to benefit from it, if at all.

What's the problem?

Goldiegirl

Hazzanet wrote: »

As for upping a payment to an energy supplier to gain cashback on the DD, I would genuinely say that you're not MSE if you didn't at least consider it.

From my time on this forum, I've quite often seen the term 'being MSE' to justify some completely over the top and sometimes bizzare behaviour to save a few pence. So in my mind 'being MSE' isn't always a compliment.

Archi_Bald wrote: »

I must be a bit dim because I don't quite feel the excitement about overpaying the energy supplier for 2% cashback.

I'm quite happy to use cashback sites, use cards that'll give me small rewards, collect my monthly £5 from Halifax and to use money off vouchers. But this is all relating to things that I'd be buying anyway. But all this overpaying the energy bill, and generally cycling money through endless accounts is way over the top for me.


What people are doing isn't fraud - but is too obsessive in my opinion.


What is fraud, and what people openly do on some parts of this board is re-use postage stamps that weren't franked - that is cheating the Post Office out of revenue. But under the guise of 'being MSE' people are quite happy to do this.


That's another reason why 'being MSE' isn't necessarily a compliment.

Hazzanet

Goldiegirl wrote: »

From my time on this forum, I've quite often seen the term 'being MSE' to justify some completely over the top and sometimes bizzare behaviour to save a few pence. So in my mind 'being MSE' isn't always a compliment.

You will, of course, have noted that I didn't make any reference to it being a compliment or otherwise, and I only said that an MSE person would at least have considered (thought about) it.

If I were to do it, it certainly wouldn't be by £100's; in fact I always overpay the energy companies a little anyway to avoid a debit balance.

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I'm quite happy to use cashback sites, use cards that'll give me small rewards, collect my monthly £5 from Halifax and to use money off vouchers. But this is all relating to things that I'd be buying anyway.

Same here.

Goldiegirl wrote: »

But all this overpaying the energy bill, and generally cycling money through endless accounts is way over the top for me.

You'll similarly note that while I may cycle a bit of money through a couple of current accounts, I was clear that I CBA with the energy... indeed I actively CBA with the cashback on the 123 account.

Goldiegirl wrote: »

What people are doing isn't fraud - but is too obsessive in my opinion.

Note sure how to take that

Goldiegirl wrote: »

What is fraud, and what people openly do on some parts of this board is re-use postage stamps that weren't franked - that is cheating the Post Office out of revenue. But under the guise of 'being MSE' people are quite happy to do this.

Agree with your sentiments entirely.

HappyMJ

It's not fraud.

I have 3 Halifax Reward Saver Accounts in which my salary of at least £1,000 (since changed to a lower figure) is supposed to be credited to each of the accounts to qualify for a £5 payment. I don't earn £1,000 net from 3 different jobs...I don't even earn that from 1 job. It's the same money being recycled from account to account. It's exploiting T's and C's and there's nothing wrong with that. I don't even properly use the accounts except for the obligatory 2 direct debits per account.

Thrugelmir

ceredigion wrote: »

Which to me at least is, lets say pushing the boundaries at best .

I would say there's a more profitable way of spending ones time.

retiredin2011

Here is another one for you, my gas and electricity are going up by over £500 a year, never could work out percentages, because I am on a special tariff from Eon that is being ended on 29th June.

I am going to add 1000kWh of electricity and 400 metric units to my gas usage when I give them my final meter readings for that tariff on that night and request a bill.

My next bill at the end of Sept should be zero for usage, although there will still be the standing charge to pay.

That will upset their DD calculation.

I wonder if I would get away with adding my winter usage as well?

Goldiegirl

retiredin2011 wrote: »

Here is another one for you, my gas and electricity are going up by over £500 a year, never could work out percentages, because I am on a special tariff from Eon that is being ended on 29th June.

I am going to add 1000kWh of electricity and 400 metric units to my gas usage when I give them my final meter readings for that tariff on that night and request a bill.

My next bill at the end of Sept should be zero for usage, although there will still be the standing charge to pay.

That will upset their DD calculation.

I wonder if I would get away with adding my winter usage as well?

I think that's the point where being cute becomes something else