A late start gave me time to spend going through the morning’s post. Worryingly, I had a letter from work. I immediately suspected the worst. Why were they writing to me? It turned out that they weren’t happy with a claim I’d made for legitimate travel expenses a couple of months ago. According to their records they had several vehicle registration plate numbers against which I could claim expenses, but they didn’t have my current car as one of them. Odd then that they’ve paid other expense claims I’ve made for that car.
Talking of expenses, on September 6, I travelled to the University in London
And there was a letter from the garage. Having sold me a new car less than six months ago they wondered if I’d like to trade it in already. And whilst I’m on the subject of my car, I had a reminder about the road tax being due. Once upon a time I had money put aside to pay the road tax. I’ve bought six months worth. It was cheaper than a years worth, and now the road tax will be due at the same time as the M.O.T. I’ve put it on my credit card. The bill normally goes up to the 17th of each month, so hopefully I won’t have to actually pay this road tax for another month.
The power company wrote to me – they were putting up the prices of both leccie and gas. No surprises there. And I got a letter from the dentist. I pay into a monthly insurance policy with them, and once I’ve paid that, all the actual dental work is free. If you have good teeth, this can work out rather expensive. Me – I’m convinced I’m quids in with the deal. Mind you they are putting the monthly fee up in January. It’s going up by 4%, which I suppose is (just about) in line with the rate of inflation.
And a letter from the bank. What with all my money worries at the moment I’ve been swapping money from one account to another to tide me over. I have various accounts, most with overdraft facilities. When I first approached the bank about the forthcoming boiler expenses they wanted to double my overdraft limits. I said that wasn’t necessary. And it wouldn’t have been necessary. For all that money was tight, I knew what I was doing. Unfortunately the bank didn’t, and for no adequately explored reason they transferred nearly two hundred pounds from one of my accounts to another. They’d written to me apologizing that they were unable to agree to an informal overdraft request. Even though they’d offered one. But because they chose to do this transfer I went seriously overdrawn.
I phoned the bank and spoke to Shoba whose grasp of English was somewhat worse than my grasp of Urdu.
Once I’m straight I would like to pack up with them. Does anyone at Lloyds, Barclays or the NatWest speak English, and does anyone know if they are about to go bust…?
Do not go to Nationwide. They screw up my money/cards/access/transfers....every year. I am always going to change but as I am here for just a short time (usually) I never seem to get round to it. I was told Barclays are good but I have no personal experience of them.
ReplyDeleteI've never had any problem with Natwest, no nothing about Lloyds, but Barclays killed my father with their cockups. He died in the bank from a heart attack caused by the fact that they had transacted a single transfer multiple times causing my parents to go overdrawn then froze their credit and debit cards, cheques and accounts on a bank holiday weekend.
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