Pay TV licence at start of month to avoid rip-off
Not long ago a reader called Sinead moved into a rented apartment in Dublin and almost immediately got a letter saying the new address was not registered for a TV licence. The letter said an inspector would be around within 10 days to make sure they had done the needful.
This was on November 23rd. Sinead forgot about it for a few days and then on November 30th went online and bought the licence. “I got a printout of the transaction as proof of purchase and it said the licence would expire on October 31st, 2012. I presumed the licence would be for a year from date of purchase. Effectively, my licence for €160 is now only for 11 months,” she writes.
She points out that had she waited two more days until December 1st – still within the 10 days of the inspector’s visit – she would have got a licence valid until November 30th, 2012 – a full 12 months for the same price.
“I searched everywhere on the terms and conditions and FAQ on the An Post website and it doesn’t explain this anywhere,” says Sinead. “I know it is only a simple thing but it is the principle. I feel a bit ripped off.”
She made a few calls but got nowhere. “I don’t expect this to change anything about the An Post system but just to warn people that, if they are buying a TV licence, please wait until the start of a new month and you will get better value and the licence will last the full 12 months.”
ATM-specific savings accounts are unfair
James Maher sent us a mail last week in connection with ATMs. “Do you realise that when someone, these days, opens a savings account in any of our banks, they’ll be offered an ATM card which will only allow them withdraw from that savings account in that particular bank’s ATM machines – not any bank’s ATM machines?”
He says this is “disgraceful, particularly in the light of our ownership of the banks” and suggests that it “must contribute to the mindset of keeping one’s money savings under the bed, despite the inherent security danger of that, especially if there’s no ATM machines within easy access for savers”.
He says that when banks first introduced ATM machines, all banks allowed all such ATM withdrawals from their ATM machines, irrespective of which bank savings accounts are held in. “I’ve pointed this out to our top politicians, in writing, but I might as well have been talking to the wall. You’d wonder sometimes just who is running our country – our politicians or our banks?”
Bank’s Saturday opening is all hype
John Corcoran recently got married and he and his wife decided to open a joint account and made moves to switch to Ulster Bank, attracted by its claims to be more customer focused than the others.
“Access through opening hours on Saturday was particularly attractive to us and appears to be central to their marketing campaign. You can therefore understand my surprise when on Saturday morning my wife and I, with our switching paperwork completed, walked the 200 metres from the billboard to the Inchicore branch of Ulster Bank to find that they do not, in fact, open on Saturday and are the same as the rest.”
A decent gesture by cigar emporium
Good news from a reader called Ronnie. Before Christmas he discovered two gift vouchers for the Decent Cigar Emporium on Grafton Street worth €100. The problem was they were bought four years ago. “Ah, remember the days when we smoked cigars?” he says. “More in hope than expectation I called in today to see if they would still honour them. No problem.”
Book of Kells cheaper in the UK than Ireland
Not such good news from a reader called Dr NM Gallivan. “Last week at the Library Shop in Trinity College I purchased The Book Of Kells (an introduction) published by Thames Hudson.” Nothing untoward about that? The listed cover price in the UK was £9.95 while the price he was asked for was €19. “Is this a record?”
