Who is bagging the plastic levy?Peter McCauley contacted us in connection with bag charges in Tesco and Dunnes. He said that both are now charging 70 cent for their "bag for life". He points out that retailers in the UK sell these bags for between 6p and 10p.
“Up until late last year. Tesco sold them at 35 cent including the levy of 22 cent. This is about 13 cent once the levy is taken away and similar to the UK,” he writes. “However, at some stage recently, Tesco and Dunnes began charging 70 cent for these bags. Now I know oil has gone up, but a near 600 per cent increase in the cost of a plastic bag? That’s pushing it,” he writes. And how does he arrive at a 600 per cent increase? “Well, if a long-life bag is sold for 70c or more, then the plastic bag levy does not apply. Therefore Tesco and Dunnes are charging and taking 70c for every “bag for life” plastic bag they sell and not one cent is paid as a levy – despite Tesco’s till receipt saying that the 70c charge includes 22c levy.”
He asks who is to blame – “the Department of the Environment for having such a low limit or the supermarkets for spotting an area they can make an excessive profit/fleece their customers?” We reckoned there was no point in contacting the department because it would say it had nothing to do with supermarket pricing and there was even less point in contacting our friends in Dunnes Stores as experience has shown that they would say nothing, so we called Tesco.
In response, Tesco said it “moved the price of one of our reusable bags from 35c to 70c in December. It took some time to update our IT systems and this resulted in a delay in removing the reference to the bag levy on our receipts. That has now been done. No customer has been charged more than they should have been as a result of this systems delay.” The company did not explain why it had increased the price by 100 per cent or why a bag for life costs much more in the Republic than in the UK.
TSB computer says a costly no
Geoffrey Gorman from Sligo is a customer of Permanent TSB and has a current account and a deposit account and has an issue with the whole system which operates in the bank.
He has direct debits which leave his account at different times every month. He has discovered that if he has a direct debit coming out on a Saturday and cannot get into the bank on Friday and he moves money from his deposit account through online banking to his current account to cover the debit, his bank imposes a fee.
“I phoned to ask why,” writes Gorman, “and this is what the bank told me: ‘the bank’s computers switch off for customers at the weekend but stay running for the banks so even if you do online banking at the weekend it’s futile as it does not register’.”
No so lucky lotto pick
Anthony Connaughton, recently used his MBNA credit card to top up his account on lotto.iein order to play online.
“When looking at my credit card statement I noticed that for my €20 top-up I had been charged a €2.50 “cash advance fee” and with the corresponding interest of 30 cent – an extra €2.80 in total. While I understand that the fee appears to be down to MBNA, it is not highlighted on the online site,” he writes.
“Nowhere was I told that a fee would be charged by MBNA if I used my card. While I do not have knowledge of the charging process between a company and MBNA is it maybe also the Lotto’s fault for the way the transaction is set up? By charging me, the Lotto does not incur any merchant’s charges.”
“Due to this exorbitant and hidden charge, I won’t be playing online in the future and I wish to highlight this issue for other users.”
Car rental extras
A bed and breakfast owner in Limerick contacted us in connection with car rental in Shannon Airport because he says many visitors who rent cars at the airport are unaware of the hidden costs until it is too late.
“A gentleman from the USA recently reserved a room with us and I forewarned him of the hidden costs that had befallen other foreign visitors who had rented cars in Shannon so he checked out the terms and conditions of the car rental firm by email in advance of his arrival.”
Our reader’s guest was satisfied that he had all the information he needed until he actually arrived and rented the car from EuropeCar. “It was a Hyundai. He was informed that the daily charge for the car was €12 but that he would also have to purchase “mandatory insurance” for €20 a day. This was the first time he was told of this. He was informed that his credit card insurance, which he would normally use, did not cover Ireland and that there were only two other countries in the world, South Africa and Russia, that had compulsory car insurance cover. He explained that his credit card insurance had previously been accepted in other European countries and also in the United States but to no avail.” The total daily cost of renting, not including fuel, was €32 “not a huge sum to pay for a car but daily insurance at €20 a day amounts to a possible €7,300 a year. The gentleman had no option but to pay up or walk.”
