on inertia

Quoted from BBC online article:

The banks take advantage of our inertia - of our reluctance to seek out the keenest deals for banking services. The same is true in telecoms and gas. BT and British Gas derive huge benefits from the millions of individuals who can't be bothered to seek out cheaper providers of their services, or are simply fearful of change. But if they are making profits from our inertia, who is to blame? Is it BT, British Gas and the banks? Or is it us and our unreasonable reluctance to switch banks or telecoms provider or gas supplier?

How many of you have switched banks, used alternative suppliers, etc.? I'm not too bothered with low int. rates on current accounts as you're best off squirreling most in a savings a/c (which I do).

Seb

Reply to
silicono2
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As you say, for a bank, it's not the interest on a current account that matters, since there shouldn't be much in it, it's the quality of the customer service, the fairness of the charges, etc. I'm lucky in that the bank i started off with - the Co-operative - has really quite good customer service.

For other things, i've changed energy suppliers in most flats i've lived in, have recently stayed with BT since they're actually quite good value, and have moved my savings a couple of times - from National Savings to a Northern Rock ISA, and then from NR to a Kent Reliance ISA. I am hoping not to have to move again, but will if necessary.

As for 'unreasonable reluctance' - have you tried switching gas and electricity supplier? It's a nightmare! Especially if one or both of the parties are incompetent retards (eg npower) and do things like not knowing the meter number of the meter they're supplying.

tom

Reply to
Tom Anderson

I must admit I have never understood why people stay with the high street banks that tend to treat their customers with contempt and offer expensive banking. It is hassle to move if you have a lot of direct debits etc.

Gas and Electricity - well the free market, unlike banking, is a relatively new thing and with some recent bankruptcies I can understand why people are relecutant to move.

Reply to
davidof

Exactly - all these second tier suppliers provide a fourth rate service. It is too much trouble and often unwise to leave the devil you know.

Reply to
Colin Forrester

I've stayed with Royal Bank of Scotland (having been bribed £40 to open a student account a while ago). I know they got an especially poor reputation but I rarely write or pay in cheques and don't run into common problems with current accounts. I keep most money that needs quick access on an RBS savings account (the sort that can have direct debits and cash withdrawal by card) and all the rest in a savings account with Newcastle--4.7% rate, but no cash withdrawal and as far as I can tell, no direct debit facility.

My landlord has our house on EDF--as little as I like French utilities (represents everything that's wrong with their economy--and fights tooth and nail against foreign acquisitions, then buys up utilities in other countries like crazy)--but they generally provide good service in France at least. Not sure about their pricing compared to British Gas. Since I'm likely to move out on my own after New Year, I'd have to learn how to shop around a bit--relevant web links welcome. About telecoms, I think it's worth being a bit more adventurous, bad phone/net connection not as traumatic as no heating/power/water if it comes to worse. I'm on NTL because I don't need to pay for a BT line and I use VOIP, but TalkTalk is looking quite tempting (though I'm a bit sceptical such a great deal will be for life, as promised in the small print).

Seb

Reply to
silicono2

It's called freedom - freedom to enter into disadvantageous contracts.

In such an environment the thick lose, the intelligent gain.

Daytona

Reply to
Daytona

Quite so. You can call it inertia, and maybe it is, but all these companies claim to want loyal customers... and then abuse them with confusion marketing and bribes for new ones. All the propoganda says you should switch... but, unless such customer abuse is active, staying put may well be the cheapest option. I've changed gas and electric suppliers twice, but whoever pesters you will claim they are cheaper, as they are a bunch of lying bastards working for companies who prize "marketing" over everything else.

Tiddy Ogg.

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Reply to
Tiddy Ogg

Tom Anderson wrote

I won't bore you with full details of the 5 month struggle I had with PowerGen when my blonde bimbo friend accidentally switched to them for her gas. (Nice man came to door in response for her request to get off a pre-pay key system for her gas). 8-)

PowerGen farm out meter reading to Meter Reading Services Ltd, who couldn't tell the difference between a metric meter and an Imperial one.

Hence bills were approximately 2.8 times too high....

Reply to
Gordon

I've switched banks several times.

I've switched my gas supplier to the same supplier as my electricity. I haven't switch my electricity supplier, as any time I review it, the potential savings are pretty minimal, if any, and my existing supplier is consistently second cheapest, whereas the cheapest supplier changes very frequently.

I have switched my mobile supplier once, mainly due to customer service issues. The price was about the same.

I have switched my landline supplier several times. Sometimes due to price, sometimes due to customer service issues.

I have changed my car insurer every year so far, as I generally make savings of between 50% and 75% of the premium by doing so. I have never changed my household insurer as it is always consistently much cheaper than anyone else.

Reply to
Jonathan Bryce

wrote

That's rather a matter of opinion, isn't it? :-(

Reply to
Tim

I don't see any reason to switch banks. It really is not worth the hassle. Possibly your credit rating could suffer slightly. All the banks offer similar levels of service, the offers to switch or almost always short-term. I really doubt my bank makes any money out of me, probably they lose money.

With utilities it is impossible to calculate any advantage moving forward. So unless you have a fetish for personal administration, or use industrial levels of energy it is probably not worth it.

Reply to
whitely525

How? It would be illegal for a bank to maliciously damage your credit rating (if they had that power) that way. Opening multiple overdraft facilities might do it, but a bank switch involves opening and closing an account.

I don't think this is true. Some are consistently better than others in my experience (e.g., Smile).

Possibly, but I suspect you over-estimate their costs. Most of my interaction with banks is via the internet and probably has negligible cost for them.

With utilities it is harder, but when the switching services first started the savings were huge. There are also big savings from combining services in some areas (e.g., TV, phone and broadband in my case).

Thom

Reply to
Thom

The length of time you have been with your bank forms part of the credit score.

Reply to
Jonathan Bryce

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