FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

StuartGMC

FB
Good to see you changed both tyres, it amazes me how some people scrimp on the cost of tyres. Afterall you only have 4 squares about 6x6" keeping you on the road; it's one area where I don't cut back. That said even on my S-Type the Continentals with highspeed rating and the strengthened sidewalls (vehicle is about 2.1tonne) are usually only about £100 each so a set of four new boots isn't too much.

BTW - did you need much adjustment on the front and rear alignments? With so many ramps around these days (and remember most cars are adjustable on front and rear axels) it seems they can need adjusting every 6months to avoid uneven tyre wear.

It reminds me to do this after my next business trip - on motorway I use there are several very large potholes in lane 1 which you can't avoid if lane 2 is occupied - gave the car and steering a heck of a jolt at 70mph. I sent an e-mail to Highways Agency and they responded immediately to say it had been advised to the region, so we'll see if it gets picked up and patched.

Kaz2904

Thanks for the idea of offset Stuart but we don't have enough in savings to make it worth our while. I've looked around at these products and they have a higher interest rate and most of them now come with a whopping gurt arrangement fee.
If we're on the svr and interest rates start to increase then we would jump onto a fix for 2 years anyway for safety so would have another set of arrangement fees to pay.
Obviously we will look in depth closer to the time because there may be some good offers around but I shant be paying for a fix if it means going for a higher rate than the svr and paying an arrangement fee. (It would be galling enough to have to pay a balance transfer fee!).

FB good news on the holiday, it should be lovely. We're off to Scotland this year. What do you need when you book a pitch with electric hook up? Is a generator -no, can't be because you're paying for the power. Is it some sort of transformer or something? I know Lidl and Aldi had lots of camping stuff in last year at the beginning of June and one of them had the gubbins that I'd seen everyone with.

financialbliss

StuartGMC wrote: »

BTW - did you need much adjustment on the front and rear alignments?

Don't think so. Was at a local independent tyre specialist - just does puncture repairs and tyre changes. Normally use this company instead of a big national - they were very busy on Saturday and I was there over an hour! Forecourt was full of cars and people were even carrying tyres in with punctures for repair!

The other "good" tyre - it had already had 3 punctures repaired and I was quotes £76 for one tyre or £72 each for two, so I was happy to swap both tyres over for the peace of mind, despite the additional cost.

FB.

financialbliss

Kaz2904 wrote: »

FB good news on the holiday, it should be lovely. We're off to Scotland this year. What do you need when you book a pitch with electric hook up?

Hi Kaz,
To be honest, I'm not 100% sure Once we booked we ordered the camping brochure to see what details are in there. I think it will just be an outside electric socket similar to a one you may have on the outside of a house or conservatory - we have one on our conservatory and it's just a standard socket with a waterproof cover.

Some friends of ours take a portable TV and DVD player. We're not quite 100% sure what we are taking yet, but the marginal extra cost over simply booking a grass pitch was hardly going to break the bank!

FB.

financialbliss

Was having a great time off work until I logged into my credit card account yesterday and spotted a transaction that I didn’t make – transaction was for £337.78 for an IPOD touch from Comet.

Spoke to Barclaycard and initially they weren’t that interested and asked me to telephone Comet to check the transaction and then tried to sell me credit card fraud insurance for £69.99 a year. :mad:

I immediately contacted Comet who confirmed that while the transaction was made in my name using my credit card account, it wasn’t being delivered to my home address, but wouldn’t disclose the actual address.

Back on the phone again to Barclaycard again – this time it was like telephoning a different company. Voiced my concerns that I believed that I was subject to credit card fraud and my cards got stopped immediately and a transaction dispute form has been posted out so I can highlight the transaction in writing.

In my 20-odd years of having a bank account and 12 or so years of having a credit card, I’ve never had to worry about fraud. The operator said I was very lucky as I’d caught it very early – only a few days after it had happened.

Done a MSE forum search and spotted another thread of Barclaycard / Goldfish credit card fraud and found this link that suggests a gang actively targeted people who were migrated from Goldfish to Barclaycard – I’m one of those:

http://www.opriskandcompliance.com/public/showPage.html?page=851437

Financial Bliss.

evab_2

I hope it gets sorted quickly for you.

StuartGMC

financialbliss wrote: »

Don't think so. Was at a local independent tyre specialist - just does puncture repairs and tyre changes. Normally use this company instead of a big nationalFB.

I use a local independent too and get them to check the alignment (check is usually free, but adjustments cost, so you probably want one you can trust). I recommend you keep an eye out for "feathering" on your tyres which is the very first indication of an alignment issue; it'll save you replacing tyres due to uneven wear.

(Feathering is easier to see than describe, but basically the square edge of the tread pattern - inside or outside edge of tyre - gains a slight pattern of thin lines so the edge is no longer distinct or smooth)

Floxxie

financialbliss wrote: »

Was having a great time off work until I logged into my credit card account yesterday and spotted a transaction that I didn’t make – transaction was for £337.78 for an IPOD touch from Comet.

Spoke to Barclaycard and initially they weren’t that interested and asked me to telephone Comet to check the transaction and then tried to sell me credit card fraud insurance for £69.99 a year. :mad:

I immediately contacted Comet who confirmed that while the transaction was made in my name using my credit card account, it wasn’t being delivered to my home address, but wouldn’t disclose the actual address.

Back on the phone again to Barclaycard again – this time it was like telephoning a different company. Voiced my concerns that I believed that I was subject to credit card fraud and my cards got stopped immediately and a transaction dispute form has been posted out so I can highlight the transaction in writing.

In my 20-odd years of having a bank account and 12 or so years of having a credit card, I’ve never had to worry about fraud. The operator said I was very lucky as I’d caught it very early – only a few days after it had happened.

Done a MSE forum search and spotted another thread of Barclaycard / Goldfish credit card fraud and found this link that suggests a gang actively targeted people who were migrated from Goldfish to Barclaycard – I’m one of those:

http://www.opriskandcompliance.com/public/showPage.html?page=851437

Financial Bliss.

Hi FB,

Without going into too much info, the news article isn't quite accurate but it makes a good headline.

If anything Barclays fraud systems should have picked up this transaction if it was unusual, which as it didn't, suggests that you often spend such money on gadgets :rotfl:

My OH is a card fraud investigator so every working day is spent dealing with naughty people!

I've only had one fraudulent transaction show up on my Egg card and I went into a mad panic thinking somebody had stolen my identity. We managed to trace it back and OH went into action and got the police involved; the fraudster got away with it though.

Anyway hope you get it all sorted quickly.

Floxxie

financialbliss

Floxxie wrote: »

If anything Barclays fraud systems should have picked up this transaction if it was unusual, which as it didn't, suggests that you often spend such money on gadgets :rotfl:

My OH is a card fraud investigator so every working day is spent dealing with naughty people!

Anyway hope you get it all sorted quickly.

Floxxie

Hi Floxxie,
Good post. I actually went into panic mode - done a full anti-virus and malware scan on my home computer and it was totally clean.

Heaven knows where my details have been sourced from - I thought I was quite careful with credit cards and I don't let them out of my sight. In the last week though I've made two purchases on the internet - PS3 game - Little Big Planet for son and another item from ebay, neither at a high value.

There were also other transactions in progress that hadn't hit the credit card account - one for £298.00 - worrying stuff. Hopefully it's all sorted.

Question now is since I normally pay the credit card on-line and I can't view the card details to make a payment, how do I pay the bill? Guess it's a trip to a local Barclays branch or payment via telephone will be required.

And it still leaves the worry of identity theft.

FB.

StuartGMC

FB
In this area it has been highlighted that certain franchised petrol stations have been prone to this, with the activities monitored to catch "Mr Big" and not shut down the people at the cash till. It may have been similar for you rather than online?