Travelling On

shangaijimmy

EDF will always be at the top of my list. Spent 6 months going back and forward with them claiming we were £1,800 in areas with them, despite...and here's the great but...never ever being with them! And it was a new build house and no one else had ever lived in it ! Oh BT are high up there as well...

Karmacat

shangaijimmy said:

I would switch without hesitation or second thought. I take the approach that said company doesn't deserve our business, and off we trot without glancing back...other than to put offending company on the 'you are dead to me list' 

Thanks Jimmy!  And that's a great name for a list  
SL - love your names too, and omg, you were locked in an interview room as a student?   

Karmacat

Good grief, Jimmy!  I'm happy to say I've never had shares in EDF, phew.  SSE, who I *do* have shares with, have done some pretty skanky things, but nothing on a par with that, I don't think.  I shall prepare to be surprised now

Extremely blowy here today, of course, but sort of normal amounts of rain, nothing like what the north is suffering.  My UK tax return is completed but not yet submitted - I can run through that today.  French figures are fully compiled, though I need to scan the info that comes from the tax office, as well as showing I paid it.  I can muck about with the old computer, the scanner and a flash drive to get that.  I could do it on my phone, and share it on the email app to get it onto the computer, but scanning is more "official", if you know what I mean.  I'll run through those figures tomorrow.

So today, I have this to-do list:
- arranged phone call to colleague in the city by the sea.
- buy the rest of the premium bonds - NSI have come through and confirmed the purchase of the little £25 experiment of last week.
- as above, scan French tax paperwork and get it onto my current computer.
- since I'm doing that, I could draft my letter to cahoot, explaining about the collapsed effort of last year to get my dormant account closed and the money sent over to me.  That needs the faffing about with the scanner/printer and the other laptop too.
- read through final draft of UK income tax and submit.

That will finish off one item on the Big List, one item will be all but finished, and one item will be restarted.  Determined to get most of the finances list done in January.

Karmacat

Just bought £1475 of premium bonds - I'm going to buy them in increments of £1500 till I get where I want, to avoid jumping through too many hoops with my bank.  

But while doing it, I saw that my DD to TalkTalk has just gone up from £32 to £44!!! Again, it's mea culpa, because I'm sure I saw something from them about price variations and increases - so that will get tagged on to the "maintenance issue".  I won't put it on the Big List 

Karmacat

Karmacat said:

So today, I have this to-do list:
- arranged phone call to colleague in the city by the sea.
Done.  He, as usual, is rummaging about doing chores, he suddenly went muffled, it turned out he put his phone in his pocket while carrying dry laundry upstairs   
- buy the rest of the premium bonds - NSI have come through and confirmed the purchase of the little £25 experiment of last week.
Done.  Nice and easy.
- as above, scan French tax paperwork and get it onto my current computer.
Not yet.
- since I'm doing that, I could draft my letter to cahoot, explaining about the collapsed effort of last year to get my dormant account closed and the money sent over to me.  That needs the faffing about with the scanner/printer and the other laptop too.
Ooh, this is good!  I got brave, in spite of the horrible phone call the other day, and called cahoot.  He had to check with someone when I failed the security questions (how often is interest paid? ) and luckily got the sensible answer.  I begged not to be sent a cheque because of covid, he confirmed my current account details, and he's sent it over to me via the banking system itself.  His cotton socks can consider themselves blessed
- read through final draft of UK income tax and submit.

Reading through the draft - that comes last, after the scanning.  It might come tomorrow, as I need to be alert.  Very pleased with how today has gone so far, though   9/115 done.

I'm loath to move to do the scanning, ouch, so I thought I'd try to pay the maintenance invoice I didn't pay last month, more ouch.  Tried to log on to their website, which is always exciting: but it doesn't recognise my login, my password or even my email address.  Their software condescended to let me send them a message, which I've written on the fly in French, and heaven only knows how it comes over I might just pay it from the current account tomorrow, as I found the letter I wrote updating the banking details (new maintenance company, sigh ...).  Onwards and upwards.

beanielou

Hellifax were top of the list for me.

shangaijimmy

Oooh, Hellifax are also on my list. I'd forgotten about them... Early 00's I banked with them briefly, which was all fine. I then came to remortgaging and the needed to switch bank to same as mortgage company. So in the early switch days they would send out a list of all your direct debits to confirm what you wanted to switch across etc... Only the list I got wasn't my bank details (I was a touch envious at well the other person was doing...), no details were even remotely similar! On the phone I was kindly asked if I could destroy the list they had sent...horrendous really and makes you wonder how often that happens!!

Karmacat

Oh yeah, they're up there for me too: when I was buying my French apartment, I applied for a mortgage in the UK, and they supposedly had one of the best offers around.  They got the amount and the rate wrong, three times, in writing.  Luckily, I got a mortgage in France, at a really good rate.  It was a stupid purchase overall, but the stress of Hellifax (I love that) was baaaad.

I did the scanning that was needed for the finances, plus a few other bits and bobs up there (a share certificate that was sent to me a few months ago, for one).  Just transferred them to this computer.

I already know what I need to do tomorrow:
- read through English accounts and submit. yep
- read through French accounts.  Upload everything to my accountant's Client Space.  Not done it that way before, we'll see how it goes. wait for TVA details
- buy the next tranche of premium bonds. wait for confirmation
- phone call with sister. yep
- try to pay the maintenance bill again for the French apartment, see if I can rustle up any other login details.  Or if they answer my email, which is doubtful.  Or pay directly via my French bank.  We'll see. yep

Suffolk_lass

It was my first year at College - I applied last minute when I was made redundant - post clearing I just rang and asked, went in, demonstrated my sporting prowess (🧑‍🎓🏃‍♀️💃🥾) across a number of activities and they said yes (the most hilarious was doing a handstand, which I had never done - ever - in front of a GB gymnastics coach - I digress) - applied for my grant and then my bed broke so I went into Nit-Wits and explained and they advanced an overdraft.

Bought the bed, three weeks later went in to get cash and was asked to go in to an interview room where they locked me in and called for the manager who threatened to call the police. Fortunately I was able to describe the member of staff who had advanced the OD and they had the good grace to confirm and admit they had omitted to record it properly (but they had got their notes) - so they let me go.

A friend reported it to the local paper and the next thing was my Mum telling me about a student locked in a bank interview room and do be careful dear...

themadvix

It sounds like you had a really productive day yesterday - you sound energetic in a mental way (as opposed to physical, not mad!). 😊 I hope today goes as well with the tax and French admin.

 Weather was wet and windy here but, as you say, nothing like what it was up north! The storm has blown itself out now and there’s sunshine and blue sky (albeit with simultaneous drops of rain on the pond!).