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June 30 One mobile charger for all phones - coming soon
Now, finally, the European Union has come in handy for something. It has persuaded the telecoms industry to commit to a universal charger. Not only will this save us money and be more convenient (we will be able to borrow anyone's charger) but it will cut down on waste when old chargers are thrown out. Of course there will be some initial waste and expense when ditch our old versions gradually after the new universal charger comes out. It's also unlikely that chargers will be sold with mobiles in future but I can imagine the price will remain the same. Manufacturers supporting the move include Apple, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Texas Instruments. Like most customer-friendly mobile developments prompted by the EU, the deal, which covers only the EU area, followed threats of legislation if a voluntary solution could not be found. The first generation of "inter-chargeable" phones should be in the high street from 2010, the Commission said. In most cases, they will charge within two hours. Have your say... are universal chargers a good thing? Leave a comment below... Share It
June 29 Financial advice clean-up needs to be tougher
Sounds simple enough, I know. You sell a product and get paid. But when you are dealing with someone's finances, there should be no opportunity to sell them anything other than the best possible product for their needs and circumstances. And this is where commission falls down and fees make sense. Take away commission and you take away the incentive for an unscrupulous adviser to flog you the product which pays him or her the most, regardless of whether it's any use to you. Pay a fee and you know the adviser is working in your interests. To this end, I'd like to see the FSA close the 'tied' and 'multi-tied' adviser routes so that we just have independent financial advisers. It has become clear over recent years that if you want anything other than a current account, you don't go to your bank. I'm not one for a nanny state but I'm pretty sure we could all do without tied advisers. Have your say....leave a comment below.. Share It
June 26 We fund luxury lifestyles of BBC staff
When the 2007 figures were released it became clear that you, me and every TV licence fee payer (paying £142.50 a year) has stumped up £363,085 to cover the cost of their chauffeurs, private jets, hotels, Christmas dinners, champagne and flowers. Yes, you have read that correctly. I am talking about the BBC and not the Saudi Royal family. Director General Mark Thompson is paid £816,000 a year decided that was nowhere near enough cash and so put in claims totalling £77,823.35 in one year. He spent £1,277 of our money on a private jet so that he could rush back to office and deal with the expenses scandal of one of his staff. And even though he has a chauffeur, he billed the corporation for his annual London congestion charge of £1,696. He even claimed for amounts as small as 23p and 37p for parking meters. Thompson also blew £2,236.90 on tickets to fly his entire family home with him after he cut short another break to deal with the Sachsgate obscene phone call affair involving Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand. Information on the salaries of the Beeb's 50 top-earning managers reveal 27 make more than the Prime Minister's £195,000. How can any of them claim their jobs involve more responsibility than the PM? The salaries and exes of the BBC's top 100 executives and decision-makers will be published for the first time in September. Meanwhile the BBC continues to fight to keep salaries of star presenters secret. And guess what, we pay the legal bill for that too - it's around £250,000 and counting right now. But why do we have to force it out of them? They are a publicly-funded body and should be completely transparent. And they have no place squandering public money on luxury lifestyles. Read more about how our cash is wasted by the BBC here. Have your say.. is it time for the BBC to lose its licence fee? Leave your comments below... Share It
June 23 Beware being charged to avoid unwanted calls
It's a central opt-out register, funded by the direct marketing industry and it's a legal requirement that companies do not make sales and survey calls to numbers registered on the TPS. Once a number has been registered it will become effective in 28 days. At present around 15 million numbers are registered with the TPS. But I was curious about these other sites that charge. Firstly, they don't make it clear that they charge unless you click through several pages of their sites. Like my friend, you could find yourself registering before you realise - perhaps they like it way if it allows them to capture data. So they are not transparent and their fees are not insignificant. Both sites make digs at the TPS which are not helpful to customers. All of this makes a mockery of their claims to be 'consumer champions'. Callpreventionregistry.co.uk charges £35.75 a year (the information is in the terms and conditions you get just before the final click when registering) and says this covers the cost of preventing international calls as well as domestic - something which the TPS does not do, although it is very hard to diagnose what percentage of nuisance calls come from outside the UK. Optoutuk.co.uk has a basic service which is 'free' (unless you count the 'one-time payment of £2.50 for admin') but then depending on how much 'protection' you want it costs between £5 and an incredible £97.50 per year. It owns another website - stopunwantedcalls.org - which may look independent but is a holding page directing you back to the optouuk site. Reduce unwanted calls.... Register your home and mobile phone numbers with the TPS: www.tpsonline.org.uk or call 0845 070 0707. You can reduce silent calls by registering your number with the Silent Callgard Service on 0870 4443969. Silent calls do not fall under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations as no marketing message is sent. For further advice about the rules on silent calls, visit the Ofcom website. Reduce junk mail.... To reduce the volume of unwanted direct or junk mail, register your name and address with the TPS's sister organisation the Mailing Preference Service (MPS). The MPS is a free service set up by the direct-marketing industry to help people who don’t want to receive junk mail. Register your details online at www.mpsonline.org.uk or phone 0845 703 4599. If you have registered with the MPS but are still receiving unwanted mail, you can complain directly to the MPS, who will investigate and contact the company sending the mail. Have you used TPS or have you used a service which charges? What impact did it have on your unwanted calls? Leave a comment below..... Image: Progets.com Follow me on TwitterShare It
June 21 Why Setanta is still taking your money....
Those of you that are paying by direct debit and have not cancelled it yet need to think about whether you want to take the risk. If you were paying via debit or credit card each month then you have what is called a 'recurring payment' and incredibly you cannot cancel it - only they can. You could ask the company to cancel the recurring payment. If this is proving tricky then the way to get around this is to change your payment method to direct debit and then cancel the direct debit. Either way you have call 0871 200 62 03 (between 8am and 9pm) and then go through the menu to speak to someone. There is also an FAQ on the company website. If you have any problems, let me know. Then make a note to yourself never to sign up to a recurring payment again. The system works entirely in favour of the company and not you. All credit to my friend Martin Lewis for getting this out there. Have your say... are you staying with Setanta or cancelling? Leave a comment below...
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June 19 The dangers of tennis
Halifax Home Insurance says it typically sees a rise in home insurance claims for broken windows and other accidental glass breakages during Wimbledon, with claims increasing by around a third in June last year compared to last January. "We'd advise any budding Murrays and Sharapovas to take care when playing ball sports close to home, and check they are insured for accidental damage should a mishap occur," says David Rochester of Halifax Home Insurance. According to Halifax claims data, people in Ipswich had the most smashing time last year, claiming most frequently for broken glass and windows. Those in Stirling, Falkirk and Grangemouth – near Dunblane where British No1 Andy Murray is from – which I reckon must be down to 'the Murray Effect'. Four of the top ten smashing places in the UK were in his home country of Scotland. Other places with claims in the top ten were Luton, South Ulster, Bromley, Lancaster, Canterbury and Slough. You have been warned. Of course it would be really bad luck to bump up your home cover and then whack a tennis ball into your car window... A Wimbledon trivia quiz for the weekend....
Leave your answers below....
June 16 BBC licence fee given to ITV
The government's Digital Britain report says that a £200 million 'digital switchover surplus' from the licence fee would be used to fund these other services. Ouch. If they had left it any longer the spare cash would surely have ended up in Jonathan Ross's bank account. New culture secretary Ben Bradshaw (who put in really poor performance on Question Time recently) told parliament that a 'small levy' of 50p a month would also be placed on all fixed phone lines to help pay for next-generation broadband for 90% of the population. I am sure those still waiting for decent broadband in their area will have something to say about this. The BBC has been lobbying hard to protect the licence fee, but Bradshaw said: "There is nothing that says the BBC must have exclusive rights to it." He said there was no news yet in the proposed partnership between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4. So, finally, the BBC is reminded that it is a public service broadcaster funded by licence payers and not a boys' club with an opaque slush fund. Next stop, ditch the licence fee altogether. What do you think? Is this good news for customers? Leave a comment below..... Share It
June 15 Watch out house buyers - gazumping is back....
Unless you speak to a seller you're likely to discover that it's a nasty practice which leads to heartache and headaches for many concerned. Although I'd be interested to hear from any sellers who see it as a problem. It seems the slight rise in house prices - up 1.2% in April and May say Nationwide - was prompted by a huge demand from buyers and a shortage of properties for sale as would-be vendors either rent or stay put to ride out the property prices slump. Estate agents are reporting evidence of gazumping in London but say it may spread to other cities and towns if demand continues to out-strip supply. I know that some agents are setting up sales via sealed bids to avoid attempts to gazump. And some vendors take a pre-contract deposit of perhaps £1000 from both the buyer and the seller. If either party back out of the agreement, the other keeps both deposits. I'm not sure how easy it would be to get a vendor to agree to this in our notional 'buyer's market' though. My top tips for minimising the risk:
Have your say... Have you been gazumped or gazumped someone else? Ever been tempted to do but backed down to spare them the upset? Any more tips for minimising the risk of it happening? Leave a comment below.... Follow me on Twitter
June 12 Is sun cream a rip-off?
Here's what the consumer group discovered:
This is good news for anyone on a small income and particularly families. But Which? is calling for industry guidelines on sunscreen testing to be reviewed following its annual sunscreen test. It says the existing requirements set by Colipa, the European Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association, allow the tests to be carried out in different ways which means that two scientists could test the same sunscreen and come up with very different sun protection factor (SPF) results. It's easy to see why this is a big issue - the industry is worth £259million a year according to Mintel. “Health is at stake here," says Martyn Hocking, Editor, Which? "The fact that sunscreens with the same label can be tested in different ways means that they won’t necessarily give the same level of protection, and that’s a problem if people assume they’re interchangeable." With 10,000 cases of malignant melanoma - the deadliest form of skin cancer - emerging each year, I wonder whether the NHS will consider bringing out a thoroughly effective, affordable sunscreen in the future. Have your say... is sun screen a rip off? Leave a comment below... Share It
June 09 DVLA still selling your personal details
Last week the Times reported that DVLA is happily selling drivers’ names and addresses to cowboy clamping companies that break industry rules by charging drivers more than £500 for minor parking breaches. The agency made more than £4 million last year by selling the details of 1.6 million drivers. It sold 900 names and addresses to Newline Securities and Parking Control Management, both of which have repeatedly double-charged drivers for parking breaches and inflated bills by adding spurious charges. The paper says that Newline left a family stranded overnight after seizing a car and refusing to allow the owner to retrieve his house keys. PCM charged an elderly couple £375 after they parked for 30 minutes outside a boarded-up office. DVLA has continued to sell drivers’ details to the companies despite being aware of their behaviour, contradicting its claim that it carefully vets companies seeking access to the vehicle register. I can't help thinking that politicians should give up some of their enormous 12-week summer holiday and stay in the Commons sorting out the economy and all the other things - including this - that are being ignored while they bicker between themselves and fight for power. Paul Watters, head of roads policy at the AA, said: “The DVLA is aiding and abetting a dubious and sometimes downright scandalous parking ticket scam in private car parks and on private land. It is time for all parking enforcement on private land, which has become a goldmine for unscrupulous companies, to be properly regulated with full independent rights of appeal for the public who frequently fall victim to malpractice.” A DVLA spokesman said: “We encourage anyone who believes their data has been misused to report it through our complaints procedure to inform our handling of future queries. We keep our processes under constant review to ensure they remain robust.” Here is the DVLA complaints procedure. Better still, contact your MP and ask them to get something done about it. Have your say... Do you think it's acceptable for the DVLA to sell its data? Have you had a bad experience from your data being sold on? Leave a comment below...
June 07 More shrinking groceries....
I was reminded of this when I heard that Mars Bars are shrinking again. This time it's nothing to do with a counterfeiting gang on the Continent but rather a decision of Mars' head office. And you've guessed it, the price remains the same so once again we are paying the same money for less product. Snickers bars are shrinking too. Like Mars they are reduced by 7.2% from 62.5g to 58g. When challenged, Mars UK initially claimed the switch to smaller sizes was designed to help tackle the nation’s obesity crisis. Nice deflection there. I guess they won't be pushing the 'helps you work, rest and play' strapline any more. Of course we have seen shrinking groceries for months now, including Dairylea, Rolos and many more but apparently food prices are gradually coming down so there is no excuse to keep ripping us off.
Have your say....have you spotted any more shrinking groceries lately? Have you re-discovered any childhood favourites at the supermarket? Leave your comments below.... Share It
June 05 Would you sell - or buy - a property on eBay?
The Observer recently reported that in the past three months, 125 houses have been sold through the site, the highest number the website has ever processed in one quarter. "On average, seven people bid per house," says Poppy Lewis, an eBay spokeswoman. "The majority were holiday homes." When I first heard about this trend, I had another question in my mind...would you buy a home via eBay? Not me. But then perhaps I am too cautious. According to eBay, the legal complexity surrounding high-cost sales and property descriptions means it cannot force the highest bidder to continue with the purchase. Instead, the parties contact each other and discuss contracts. There is a sliding scale of costs for the seller, but most house vendors pay about £35 to £40. A small price to pay for such a wide audience and the chance to save thousands by cutting out the estate agent. But don't forget the dreaded Home Information Pack. Have you bought or sold a property online? Share your experience...Leave your comments below..... Share It
June 03 The driving licence red tape which now costs even more...Last October, I alerted you to the risk of a £1,000 fine if your driving licence expired. At the time it was a shock to realise that there was an expiry date before the age of 70. Now you will be delighted to know that the fee you must pay to renew your licence has gone up from £17.50 to £20.00 from last month, a recession-busting increase of 12.5%. A spokesman for the AA said "If services are too expensive people could be tempted to break the law". This reflects some of the comments you made when we last discussed this. Has your licence expired? Do you plan to 'forget' to check the expiry date? Leave a comment below.... Share It
June 01 Brown, Balls and Darling - and the next Chancellor
A spokesman for Darling, who represents Edinburgh South West, said the report was wrong. "The allegation of double claiming is simply untrue. He paid the bills due for his flat until he moved out in September 2007 after which he made no further claims for it," he said. Gordon Brown said that after speaking to him he did not think there was "substance" to the claims. But just hours later, Darling decided to repay the money, clearly indicating that the Telegraph report was in fact true. Crucially, Darling has his boss's backing, for now. But could he be sacrificed for the health of the party soon? Brown's choice of words made me cringe. He told Radio Four's Today programme that Darling was "A very good colleague and friend." No danger of substance there. My best friends Mimi and Clare are fantastic people. But I wouldn't want either of them to be Chancellor.... After repaying £700 of expenses, Brown was asked if he was happy that the Chancellor had done nothing wrong. He replied that he was happy the money had been repaid to 'avoid ambiguity'. Boy, do they need to get their facts straight. Regardless of him repaying service charges, I'd say Darling is certainly in the brown stuff. Today's allegations come just days after it was revealed that on top of the 'usual' furnishing expenses, he claimed back stamp duty and also charged the taxpayer for an accountant to help avoid paying the taxes that he implements. A serial 'flipper', he has switched the designation of his second home an incredible four times in four years. If Darling does go, who could replace him? I see it as a bit of a Hobson's Choice. The only realistic answer is schools secretary Ed Balls. He's seen by his party as a die-hard Brown henchman with plenty of experience in the Treasury. But what really matters to you and I is whether he could do the job? Should Darling go? Is Balls up to the job? Would an election now be better for our economy? Have your say and leave a comment below.... Share It
May 27 How to complain ...and get results.....
To most big companies, you and I are little more than a reference number. And it's really easy to ignore a reference number, especially if it accepts everything you throw at it and never complains. It's still pretty easy to brush off reference numbers if they call your company helpline. Too many firms are comfortable knowing that their endless telephone hold system, push-button menus and call centre buck-passing will leave you with more desire to stick knitting needles in your eyes than pursue your case. Try e-mail? Sure, if you are an avid collector of customer service scripts. Because there is little chance that your complaint will get anything more than a standard response (which will either ask you to be patient for a further response or say there is nothing the firm can do to help). Having fun yet? So here's how to get results....
There is no guarantee you will get what you want every time but the pen (or PC) is mightier than the e-mail or phone call when it comes to complaining. Need more help? Contact me. Also, the Consumer Direct website has a special section. There is a site called HowToComplain.com which has helpful listings of trade bodies and head office info. Have your say.... have you been given the run-around with a complaint? Taken drastic action? Or do you have a success story to share? Leave your comments below... Share It
May 25 Are you one of thousands paying too much council tax?
Council tax bills have risen from an average of £564 a year in 1997 to £1,078 in 2007, a rise of 51% while inflation rose by only 31% over the same period. And surprise, surprise, refunds are not automatic in cases where evaluations are found to be wrong. Householders have to suspect they are being overcharged and lodge an appeal. Paying too much council tax? I urge you to challenge the valuation band on your property. The simplest way is to talk to your neighbours. You can check your banding on the website of the Valuation Office Agency. If you're in Scotland it's the Scottish Assessors' Association site. Find the bands of properties that share your postcode and look for properties in a lower band. Don't forget that if you get really unlucky, you may find that your band is pushed up. But it's well worth checking. And don't forget to claim the 25% discount if you live alone. Of course you can also write to your council and ask them to review your band. If they respond favourably then make sure you are refunded for the whole time you were overcharged. Have your say.... leave a comment below... Share It
May 22 Letting agents - time for a crackdown
More on that in a moment. It struck me that as well as tenants feeling ripped off, I reckon there are lots of homeowners who feel the same way about letting agents. It really does seem to be a crapshoot as to whether you get a decent agency or not. And as with most businesses, even the good companies can have one or two dud staff. Friends of mine rented their house while they went abroad for two years. They are pretty flexible people and asked for non-smokers, no pets and that the study be kept as a study and not turned into a fourth bedroom. The house was let furnished. Just a few months into the let, they received a bill from their letting agent for a double bed. It turns out that this was sent by mistake as the agent had bought it to..you've guessed it... turn the study into a fourth bedroom. On a trip home they took the chance to make a pre-arranged visit to their house only to find it smelt of smoke and there was a large parrot in a cage along with evidence that it was not always kept in the cage. OK so none of this was the end of the world. But why should letting agents be allowed to do what they want? They certainly took my friends' calls much faster when the let was first being arranged than they ever did once it was set up. But back to tenants. Citizens Advice is calling on the government to extend recently-announced plans to regulate letting agents, saying these must include a ban on the additional charges tenants often have to pay letting agents on top of their rent, usually for carrying out tasks that are no more than the routine business of letting and managing a property. The Let Down campaign, is based on evidence from Citizens Advice Bureaux advising on around 6,000 problems with letting agents a year, an online survey completed by 1,300 tenants who visited the Citizens Advice website between August and November 2008 and a survey of 424 letting agents' terms and conditions. This found that 94% of the letting agents imposed up to seven additional charges on tenants, not counting the tenancy deposit and rent in advance. In some cases these added up to well over £600. Charges included a non-returnable holding deposit, a deposit administration charge, a reference check charge, an administration fee, a check-in inventory charge, a check-out inventory charge and a tenancy renewal fee. The other big money-spinner for letting agents is the tenant credit check. CA reports some tenants being charged £250 every six months for this, which is outrageous. The report also uncovers considerable scope for double charging by agents, with tenants and landlords both being charged for the same service. As with the experience of my friends, most tenants said the agent was very helpful initially but this changed completely once they had been signed up to the tenancy. One of the biggest problems was getting repairs dealt with. Many tenants reported difficulties getting through to the agent and said when they finally did, they were met with an unprofessional and uncooperative response. The way some agents handled money also led to tenants being left significantly out of pocket, and in some cases the agent simply disappeared. Call me naive but I was slightly surprised to learn that anyone can set themselves up as a letting agent without any need for professional expertise or experience, any rules or controls over how they hold and manage the steady stream of money they handle between tenants and landlords, or any redress scheme for when things go wrong. Not good enough. Have your say.... are you a letting agent with a response? Are you a tenant or landlord with good or bad experiences of letting agents or tips on how to choose one (if you have no choice but to use one)? Leave your comments below.... Share It
May 18 Brand copycats in the supermarket - does it matter?
Food inflation is hotting up again - rising by 18% overall, many items cost three times more than this time last year. Minced beef is 20% dearer and broccoli (up 50%), pasta, cheese (up 16%) and bacon (up 6%) remain more expensive. Carrots are up 37%, wonderful Marmite is up 36% and even chocolate will cost you 25% more. Elsewhere it's swings and roundabouts as energy prices start to fall while petrol prices rise again. Staying with groceries, the Daily Mail recently claimed that shoppers were being duped by 'cheap copycat versions of popular brands' in supermarkets. Apparently one in three shoppers told the British Brands Group that they bought the wrong product by mistake because it looked the same. These include Asda's You'd Butter Believe It margarine packs (described as 'virtually identical to the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter brand from Unilever'), Lidl's Jammy Rings and Aldi's Jammy Devils which are deemed rip-offs of Jammie Dodgers and Sainsbury's own-brand shampoo with 'similar packaging to Head & Shoulders'. The newspaper has included angry quotes from brand experts but nowhere in the article is there a single word about what the shoppers thought of the 'mistake' product. It's possible they were delighted. It's possible other people have not noticed any difference. It goes without saying that we have more important things to worry about. I say hooray for supermarket own brands and anything which makes my shopping bill cheaper. If they're rubbish then we stop buying them. If they're as good as a more expensive branded product I am sure the companies will cope....after all, they can just cut their multi-million pound branding budgets. Have your say...have you bought a cheaper product that looked the same as one from a big brand? Was it a good buy or a false economy? Leave your comments below... Share It
May 13 The BBC - how it spends our moneyI paid my TV licence last week which cost £142.50. So I thought it would be a good time to have another look at how the BBC spends our money.... Let's remember that for our money, the BBC provides 8 interactive TV channels, 10 radio networks, more than 50 local TV and radio services, the BBC's website, and the on-demand TV and radio service, BBC iPlayer. Auntie has cut back 7,200 staff in four years, frozen wages for many and axed bonuses in a bid to save £2billion by 2013. Researching this piece certainly made me think they could be saving a ton of cash without much difficulty at all. Incidentally, the £14.3million spent on just fifty fat cat BBC bosses would pay for 677 nurses, 695 teachers, 540 firemen or 596 policemen. Great. If you do not own a TV but watch BBC programmes via the internet, you may find you are handed a licence bill at some stage as the BBC Trust is considering changing the law to account of technology. October 2008 : £81,000 is spent by the BBC on entertaining 170 guests at Wimbledon. November 2008 : An opinion poll finds that three-quarters of people now oppose the BBC Licence fee. December 2008 :
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And if you're thinking of doing a Noel Edmonds and refusing to pay for your licence, bear in mind that the new detectors vans are now unmarked. Although, I don't think I have ever seen one in my entire life. Is the BBC worth the money? I'd pay up for Radio Four, the website and anything with David Attenborough. Have your say.... is the BBC worth the licence fee? Leave a comment below.... Share It
May 05 At last, the clampdown begins on uninsured drivers
Several words spring to mind when I think of uninsured drivers. Most of them involve a few ****s. I think the reason that uninsured drivers have remained a problem for so long is that there has never really been a joined-up approach to catching them. But hope springs eternal.... the cost of damage caused by uninsured drivers has fallen this year thanks to the success of the Motor Insurance Database which allows police to make an instant check on whether a car has insurance. It also enables police to target uninsured drivers using automatic number plate recognition cameras to pull over suspicious vehicles. The Department for Transport is launching a second layer of support for cops to enable them to clamp or seize cars on driveways and outside the homes of the worst offenders (following a 30-day warning letter) rather than waiting to spot them on the road. Hooray. Last year police seized 185,000 cars and vans at the roadside and prosecuted 300,000 drivers for having no insurance. Police can seize, impound and crush any car found on the road without insurance. The system has helped deliver a 13% reduction in three years - from 38,000 in 2005 to 33,000 in 2008. Unfortunately the cost of every crash is higher these days as cars are more expensive to repair and people are more likely to claim for injury, but the overall total has started to drop. The Motor Insurers' Bureau which operates the system believes that there are up to two million cars still being driven without insurance. In a typical year, 160 people die and 23,000 are injured in accidents involving uninsured drivers. And paying for the damage costs honest motorists an extra £30 per year on their premiums. Despite the falling costs, I don't think we can expect the additional costs to disappear any time soon. The good news is that the Motor Insurance Database is also available for you and I to use if we have a fender bender. It's only web-based for now - via a site called www.askmid.com - so will work on the spot for those with web-enabled mobiles. There is a fee of £3.50 (it used to be £10 via post) to check that the name and contact details of the insurer for any car. Plans are underway to provide this as a text service by next year. In the meantime, make a note of the registration as you would after any prang, and you can have some comfort beyond the hastily scribbled details of the other driver on the back of a pay-and-display ticket. Have your say.... have you been hit by an uninsured driver? Have you dodged insurance yourself? Leave your comments below...
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