Terrible Credit Card Reporting
Because I had a couple of my cards cloned, if I’m at home, I usually check them every morning.
As someone, who made millions by writing good reports for computer users, only one of my cards and banks has a proper reporting system, that you can use however you want.
And that is American Express!
For a start, when you look at recent transactions, they are shown by default on AMEX with the last transaction first. However all my other cards and statements are shown with the most recent last. So as one card is used a lot for small transactions, I have to scroll down to the bottom to check the transactions.
Also on AMEX, you can change the order to what you want, so perhaps if you want to locate a transaction at say Virgin Trains, you can put the descriptions in order and then scroll to V.
Why do Banks and Credit Csrd companies treat us with such contempt?
Some are a total disgrace!
If AMEX can do it, why can’t the others?
Because they don’t care about customers!
So if you’re thinking about changing your bank, make sure you have a run through the reporting of the new bank first.
In my experience most are total crap!
Zopa Lobbies For Peer-to-Peer Loans To Go In Pension Pots
My Google Alert for Zopa picked up this article from Yahoo, who got it from the Telegraph.
The title of this post and the Yahoo article says it all.
If pension pots end up in Zopa and the other sound peer-to-peer lenders, just what is this going to do for banks, as it will probably mean that all the decent personal loan business in their hands will go to the peer-to-peer lenders.
I wouldn’t think bank shares look to be a good long term investment.
The growth of Zopa might have an interesting side effect. Imagine a group of friends having a quiet drink in a pub and one of their number turns up in a shiny new car. On discussing the purchase, the buyer reveals they bought it with a Zopa loan, that they got at a good rate, because they have a good credit rating. So will their jealous friends, decide to do something about their dodgy finance, so they too, can have a decent set of wheels.
Peer pressure can work in mysterious ways.
If it does encourage people to clean up their finances, Zopa will have achieved something, that financial commentators and politicians have been trying to do for years!
I think too, that Zopa, which has just lent its billionth pound, is now getting too big for politicians to stop or even nationalise. Which probably means that money in Zopa is even more secure.
My Credit/Charge Cards Got Cloned
I use an American Express Charge Card for my travel, for the insurance and also because, if I know I’m picking up rail tickets, I don’t have to think which card I’m using. It is contactless, so I kep it separate from my Freedom Pass to avoid card class and often I don’t take it out with me.
I also have a John Lewis Partnership Card, which I use for everyday purchases and on-line, as it doesn’t use that non-protection system Verified by Visa, which is a pain in the arse.
Over the last two weeks, both have been cloned and used online for substantial purchases. With both cards, the fraud protection systems at the card companies picked up the illegal uses and the cards were stopped , causing me the hassle of having to update various web sites, where the card is stored.
So how did the cards get cloned?
I’m not sure, but both of the card statements often come in the post on the same day. I doubt it’s anything to do with the Royal Mail, although because they are moving buildings in the main sorting office that serves me, there has been a couple of things that have gone astray or turned up late.
Normally, when the statement arrives, I put it by my computer and pay it the next time, that I go on-line. I then shred the statements.
But I’ve been away a lot in the last month or two and I’ve had builders around, which caused the shredder to be out-of-use for a time.
So perhaps I was less than zealous in shredding a statement!
I suspect that as I put the green sacks for recycling outside late on a Wednesday night, someone has been raking them over and removing ones that might be promising
One thing I have done is make the American Express card paperless, so there is nothing incriminating from that going in the rubbish.
Unfortunately, the John Lewis card has no paperless facility and as it is not contactless, I am seriously thinking of giving it the order of the boot. It will certainly be going into temporary retirement.
In fact, I would say don’t get a new credit card unless the following conditions apply.
- The card’s call centre and processing is based in the UK.
- All statements can be paperless.
- Past statements are available on-line in an easily readable form.
- Cards are contactless.
I think contactless cards are important. Most contactless payments are in big retailers or in London on transport. Transactions are probably caught on CCTV and there is often no handy piece of paper that could be taken by untrustworthy staff. The twenty pound limit also means that you can’t use them for the sort of purchases criminals like.
I have worked on very secure projects in the past and only access my bank accounts from one computer that never leaves my house.
People ask me if I would use ApplePay or the future AndroidPay. I certainly would, as if say the system was cloned and I lost money, Apple or Google would be finished. Until proven otherwise, I feel that they are more secure than contactless cards.
If you worry about contactless cards, just reflect on the fact, that I have been unable to find any negative comment about their use on London’s transport system, which is one of the largest contactless card-based systems in the world. There are so many out there who hate Boris with an absolute passion, that if anything had happened, it would be repeated ad infinitum.
The weak link in all these systems isn’t the technology, it’s the fact that we do stupid things, like drop our phone or card (Guilty, as charged!) and that criminals end up in retailers and card companies in positions, where they have access to sensitive data.
How can you be sure, that the nice man in the corner hardware store hasn’t taken your card details and sold them on to someone, who has the knowledge to take card numbers, expiry dates and names and addresses to defraud on-line retailers and service providers?
The Smart Money’s On Isis Destroying Itself
This is the headline on a serious piece in the Times by Ed Conway, which talks about Islamic State and there adoption of gold as their currency!
If you can get a copy of yesterday’s Times read it.
There’s more details here in Wikipedia.
Ed’s piece is a fascinating article and it shows how crazy these cruel male chauvinist pigs are!
I know we have problems with our current monetary standard, but no serious central banker or politician would suggest opting for a metal based currency.
I wonder what Islamic State think of bitcoins?
An Offer From A Bank Out Of The Disruptive Handbook
Banks don’t often copy the sort of marketing ideas used by the disruptive companies like Zopa and OVO Energy.
Both these companies pay users a bonus for introducing new customers.
Now Nationwide are saying that if you recommend a friend and they switch to the Bank, you’ll both get £100.
Nationwide does all I need from a money-transfer company. I should say that I don’t use any of their other services except for free travel insurance and a credit card, which is one that is recommended by various financial pundits, as it is very good in its use abroad.
This sounds like a good deal all round, for those who have simple banking needs like I do.
So if you’re thinking of changing your bank and Nationwide is on your list, get a friend to recommend you and you’ll both be quids in.
Devolution For Cornwall
This report on the BBC is entitled Cornwall devolution: First county with new powers.
It is not full devolution, but various powers have been given to the Council.
- Give Cornwall Council powers for franchising and improving local bus services
- Help Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly councils create a plan to bring health and social care services together
- Enable the council to choose what projects will see millions of pounds of investment
- Give the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) more input on boosting local skills
- Make it easier for the LEP to integrate national and local services to help local firms grow
I suspect we’ll see a lot more powers devolved to the Council.
There is no mention of rail services, which are detailed here in Wikipedia, although I suspect these are covered by the Council choosing where to invest.
I suspect though that a lot of improvement in rail services has already been covered. I detailed the improvements for both Devon and Cornwall in The Japanese Are Going To Invade Devon And Cornwall.
I also suspect that as the economy improves in the Far West, whoever is operating the express and sleeper services to London, will upgrade the services to match the demand. The new AT300 trains, that First Great Western have ordered could even be used between Cornwall and Birmingham.
Just as Crossrail is going to give London and the South East a massive kick up the ladder, the electrification and modernisation of the Great Western Main Line is going to do the same for England west of Reading, And of course South Wales!
I see a sunny future for Cornwall!
Which English county is going to be next in the queue for devolution?
Is The Greek Tragedy Approaching The Final Act?
According to this report on the BBC, Greece has now voted through the bailout conditions, so that they can get further money from its debtors.
But will this be the end of the tragedy?
I doubt it!
The Greeks voted for the end of austerity in the last General Election and they have now got Austerity Plus. But they do get to keep the euro!
That sounds like a recipe for trouble!
If there is a lesson in the story of Greece and the euro over the last few years, it is that you must not fiddle the books, bribe the electorate and you must above all keep the finances in order and hopefully balanced.
Did anybody tell the Greeks that euros don’t grow on trees in Brussels?
At least the sun won’t go on strike! This is the one light at the end of the tunnel.
The Peer-to-Peer ISA Is Here
I don’t understand ISAs but I know a man or woman who claims they do. Read their article on the Zopa web site.
Are There Secondary Effects In The Budget?
I have a feeling that there could be some secondary effects from the budget and particularly the announcement of a National Living Wage.
Nowhere will this measure be felt more than at the bottom end of the employers. If you read the tabloids, you get the impression that dodgy low-quality businesses are the big employers of illegal immigrants, keeping them in squalor and paying them in cash, if they’re lucky.
With a solidly enforced living wage, will this make it more difficult for these companies and operators to survive, so this country might be less of a magnet for illegal immigrants. I don’t know, but a higher level of living wage gives the Tax Authorities a good reason to investigate the sort of businesses who rely on no-questions-asked labour.
I very much watch innovation in the media and also have been in touch several times with universities in the last few years. I think we’ll see companies using their local innovators to make sure they support their now more highly-paid employees. I know several universities are giving students real projects in local companies.
So will we be pushing our employment up-market? I think we will!
As an example, an industry that we all seem to use more these days are couriers to deliver the goods we’ve bought on-line. They have got so much better over the last few years and that is just not the delivery reliability, but the staff as well, who seem to be polite and very much on-the-ball. Incidentally, most staff who’ve delivered to me lately seem to have been British born and educated.
I don’t know what will happen in the next few years, but I have a feeling that the Chancellor’s announcements may be helping to move the country on from a low-wage, low-skilled and badly-supported work force to one where a job, where you work hard and efficiently gives you a real living wage.
Of course Labour think that the restructuring of Tax Credits will mean many will lose out. But then Labour’s solution to a low-wage, low-skill economy was to pay people at the low-end to do nothing or crap jobs.
The other thing the Chancellor must do to help, is make sure that our transport links are improved. It’s one thing to get a job and often it’s a much more difficult thing to get to that job every day. You just have to see what the Overground and the fleets of new buses have done for Hackney and the surrounding boroughs, here in London, over the past few years.
The Greek Finance Minister Had The Crash Helmet
What made me laugh yesterday was a picture of the now-resigned Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, riding away from the problems on his motocycle.
He was wearing a crash helmet and his bimbo-on-the-back had to make do without!
A Greek metaphor on the lines of I’m alright, Jack!
I think the video is on this page in the Guardian.
The Mail says the lady is his wife!
The Anonymous Widower 