Your ideas

Annual Equivalent Rate (AER) is one of the mostly used indicators for lending and borrowing money. However, unlike what the name suggests, it does not represent an equivalent rate if it was compounded annually.

Let’s look at a simple example:
You borrow £100 with a rate of 10% for a year compounded annually. As you would expect this the money you owe by the end of the year will be £110.
In another case where you borrow £100 with a monthly compounded rate of 10% AER, things are different. At the end of the year you don’t owe the same amount, but instead you owe £110.47. Well, it’s not equivalent, is it?

The reason being that the monthly interest rate is assumed to be equivalent of the AER rate divided by 12 months, which is clearly false mathematics. The difference may not seem a lot in the case of £100 as above, but in larger sums, e.g. in a case of a mortgage which lasts for many years, this may be accrued to a sizeable amount.

I question the sincerity in the naming of such tools. Naming of technical terms should not be a mechanism to mislead people. And I am surprised how governments have allowed AER’s usage.

I hope other people find this as annoying as I do. Give me your thoughts.

We had fibre installed in our village last year and were suitably grateful. I am a BT customer and asked for it to be installed and they did so in due course. Only now do I find they installed FTTP (fibre to the premises or fibre to the home ftth) and when I try to get a quote for a fibre service from other suppliers to check my service is reasonably priced (which it is not) they say I am not connected to fibre. On further investigation this is because BT through their subsidiary Openreach will not give any supplier but themselves access to my line hence I am a captive of a monopoly.Surely I should have been told all of the implications BEFORE being asked to agree to a supply and not left to find out for myself. I have complained to Ofcom but they do not want to know !! Is anybody else interested in taking on BT to get this monopoly broken.

It’s just a simple idea, but doesn’t seem to exist on Which? As usual when I need a new product or service I turn to Which? In this case I need my wedding dress dry cleaning… how should I choose a provider, what to look out for and what to pay. There doesn’t appear to be anything (or at least not when I search the Which? website). Isn’t it about time Which? helped with dry cleaners?

Hi how much did you have to spend on school uniform last September? my cost was quite expensive because my son started secondary school so i bought him a brand new uniform. how doe my cost compare to your cost ? my sons uniform cost
school jumper £11×2
school polo shirt £9×3
school trousers £7×2
school shoes / plain black lace up plimsolls £3

We’ve used standard dinner candles from Morrisons for years. The last batch bought in December 2016, in readiness for Christmas have proved a disaster.
They have melted, dripped and leaked all over the place causing a real mess on our mantelpiece. The inherent fire hazards of this are unthinkable. I’ve emailed Morrisons who’s supplier Spaas, eventually returned a pathetic set of excuses. I remonstrated on the dangers of poor quality materials etc, but to no avail.
Has anyone else had such a problem?

Now that the Yorkshire has pulled out of the market is the Nationwide the only mutual left to offer a current account? I’m with the Coventry which closed its current account to new members recently, and will doubtless close remaining accounts sometime soon. What is the best option for those who don’t want their money used for the benefit of corporate shareholders?

Recently on this site there was a complaint about Experian because the person complained that although they were in residence for 55 years, Experian (and it applys to ALL credit agencies) were unable to verify their existance and why does the government not do something about it. I have tried through my MP to get something done but nobody seems to be bothered that thousands of man hours are being wasted by us all having to supply proof of who we are from two lists of forms (passports,driving licence etc) just because the systems being used by the credit agencies are stupid. All the govenment needs to do is prescribe what checks are necessary and give them (The credit agencies) access to passport and drivers info and the whole process could be speeded up. Because my wife keeps opening new savings accounts, to try and get the best interest rate month by month, we have to provide this proof almost daily even though she is 77 lived here all her life and never had any bad debts and has passport ,driving licence etc. What a complete waste of time for all concerned.

As someone who missed the old pension by a few days I have a complete lack of clarity on several points. Also there is nothing joined up.
I asked for a forecast and received one that assumed that as I was on retiring (because of company rules) enrolled in a contracted out scheme I had spent my the full working life contracted out. Also the time in work does not add up. Then again In he new scheme the pension is strictly personnel, however is the pension I was paying into also applied to a partner raising children etc. Does that still apply to those who paid into the old scheme or has my wife lost what we paid for?
Again I cannot get answers.
Its just not acceptable to just go silent on us
I

Why do Amazon not insist that their marketplace sellers follow the consumer laws on faulty goods after their arbitrary 30-days return policy has expired?
I bought a Rotho bin from ehappypets.co.uk, which broke after three months. The company refused to do any thing and Amazon backed them up.
Also, Amazon removed comments I made on Seller Feedback without informing me or telling me why. Amazon say they want to build the most “customer-centric” company in the world. Really?

With all the publicity in the national press about Russian hacking how can we be sure that Kasperski hasn’t deliberately developed an excellent anti virus system which it sells at a sensible price for the particular target market but which actually contains a trojan that can be activated whenever Kasperki feels it would help Russia?

It appears BA have a policy of targeting passengers travelling on 2 for 1 vouchers for downgrades or no-flight in the event of a plane being overbooked. These vouchers are often hard earned as part of a loyalty scheme and are booked months ahead, often as part of a long awaited special holiday. It appears 2 for 1 ticket holders are targeted for downgrades for the purely short sighted commercial reason of getting the seats filled by people paying the full price. Compensation is also miserly. Rather than getting benefits for their loyalty, these passengers are being treated with contempt by our national carrier. Regardless of what the legal position may or may not be, the practice is morally repugnant. I wonder if anyone travelling on 2 for 1 vouchers or other redemptions has been affected by this.