24
Mar
Posted on 24/03/10, filed under General | No Comments
We all know that oil is a finite fossil fuel don’t we? That’s why it’s getting so much more expensive isn’t it? It’s getting harder and more costly to extract and government taxes make up a huge percentage of the price we pay at the pump too. Well, that’s certainly part of the long term picture and petrol as a revenue generator for the Chancellor of the Exchequer is a favourite option, even though in today’s budget Chancellor Darling has said that fuel price hikes will be “phased in”.
But it’s not the whole story. There are other, less obvious, reasons we pay through the nose at the forecourt!
Last year, we had the spectacle of oil tankers sitting off the British coast near Cornwall and refusing to unload until prices rose even higher. And this practice still goes on. Tankers park off our shores for months, making millions for speculators and keeping your petrol costs soaring. They refuse to unload their cargo until market speculation has driven up the price to a level they want. This waiting game can be very lucrative, with the cargo sometimes rising in value by over £1 million a day.
Several tankers sitting in Lyme Bay last year increased the value of the oil they were carrying from £313 million to £378 million by doing nothing more than simply watching and waiting! Oil pumped out of the ground by major producers such as BP, Shell and Exxon goes by pipeline to tankers which then circle the globe. Even while it’s en-route at sea, this cargo of oil may be bought and sold by different traders many times (often in the same day) on the international commodity markets. Some of these oil traders may be reputable big-name players within the industry, but others are simply speculators out for a fast buck at your expense.
Now, the price you pay at a forecourt is largely fixed as soon as that oil reaches an onshore refinery, but until the oil does get to that refinery, speculators are free to drive up the price. If it’s not high enough, the tankers simply cruise around or park in a safe haven until the price does increase so they can sell on in the UK at a huge profit. The extent of this oil speculation is beginning to alarm even the OPEC producer countries who’ve suggested that they will increase supply (and thus reduce the price) if speculators do not stop this “wait and see” practice. So next time you notice yet another price rise at the forecourt, don’t just blame the government. Blame the tankers at anchor too!
24
Mar
Posted on 24/03/10, filed under General | No Comments
Once upon a time, directory enquiries were the Cinderella service of the Post Office and BT.
Since liberalisation of the service, they’ve got much more of a profile through TV and radio ads and trying very hard to generate sexy or funny brand images. That exposure (not to mention the moustaches) seems to have come at a price! Costs for directory services have continued to creep upwards to the point where there’s really not that much difference in price between the better known providers. For example, a one minute call to 118 118 is £1.20 (85p on connection plus 35p a minute) while using BT’s 118 500 number it’s £1.40.
The Number
There is a service we’ve come across which offers FREE directory enquiry calls. It’s called The Number (0800 118 3733) and although it is genuinely free, you do have to register first so you can be added to a tele-marketing database. You also have to endure a recorded advertisement every time you call and it’s an entirely automated system relying on voice recognition technology. There are no human operators available if you get stuck or can’t get the information you want and because of the adverts and all the other bits and pieces you can be on the receiver for a long time before you get the number you want.
G.M. Group 118 226
The best and cheapest option in our opinion is the fixed fee service provided by a little known company called the G.M. Group. Its 118 226 number allows you up to two enquiries for a flat rate of 23.5p, no matter how long the call lasts. The G.M. Group directory enquiry service is actually provided by BT using the same call centre staff you would talk to if you dialled the BT 118 500 number. The service was designed to appeal to businesses but there’s absolutely nothing to stop consumers from using it. It’s quick, there are no advertisements and no risk of you being added to a database and bombarded with sales calls at all hours of the night! Above all you speak to a real human being and not a machine.
One or two enquiry numbers through the G.M. Group will cost you just 23.5 p and you can get three numbers out of them for just 47p!
Compare that with 118 118 (£1,20 for one, £1.55 for two and £1.90 for three numbers) or BT 118 500 (£1.40 for one, £2.38 for two and £3.37 for three numbers) and it’s obvious that the G.M. group is the best value for money around!
24
Mar
Posted on 24/03/10, filed under General | 1 Comment
Mobile phones have come a long way since Britain’s first mobile phone call was made on 1 January 1985 by veteran comedian Ernie Wise. There are now said to be 62.5 million mobile phones in the country which is pretty impressive when you consider that there are only around 60 million men, women and children available to make the calls! It’s predicted that the “average” person will soon have two mobile phones.
It’s clear that many more of us are going to be using our mobiles rather than landlines for business and personal calls. That’s probably already the case with many business users and domestic users are rapidly catching up. However, that’s potentially very bad news if you want to call an 0800 number from your mobile!
For the consumer, the attraction of an 0800 number is the fact that the call is (or should be) free to them. For businesses, an 0800 number is a useful marketing tool because it encourages call throughput, stimulates enquiries and enhances customer service.
That’s all true if you’re using a landline, but it’s a different story if you’re calling from your mobile. Most mobile phone providers in the UK charge for calls to 0800, 0808 and 0500 numbers. Typically, calls to these numbers will cost you anything from 10 pence a minute (T-Mobile) to 20 pence a minute (O2 and Vodafone).
We’ve found a great supplier that allows you to make calls to 0800 numbers from your mobile phone absolutely FREE. This is a great service that we here at Search & Save use ourselves. 0800Buster.co.uk gives you a normal local rate number to call from your mobile, so it’s part of your free minutes if you have them. Even if you don’t get free minutes to UK landlines, the access number is charged at the normal landline rate, so it’s still likely to be cheaper than calling 0800, 0808 or 0500 numbers direct from your mobile. Getting hold of this service is an easy process.
• Join up to 0800Buster by visiting their website and sign up for FREE.
• Dial the 0800Buster access number – 01212 84 0800.
• Wait for a prompt that asks you to enter the full free-phone number you want to call.
• Enter the full number and press # and you’ll be put through at no cost to you whatsoever.
Calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers are not included in the free service. In fact, you should say No to 0870! Numbers starting 0870 or 0871 are more akin to premium rates and can cost up to 10 pence per minute. 0844 numbers can cost up to 6 pence per minute, 0845 ‘Lo-Call’ numbers can set you back 7 pence per minute, while 0871 number prefixes can be as much as 11 pence per minute.
24
Mar
Posted on 24/03/10, filed under General | No Comments
Welcome to the new Search & Save website!
We hope you find it useful, informative and helpful in giving you the market intelligence you need in one handy place to allow you to cut the costs of running your home or your business.
We’re not a price comparison site as you’ll see. Our aim is to give you the benefit of the decades of experience we here at Search & Save have gathered. We’ll highlight what we think are the best deals across many sectors and categories based on a number of factors including price, quality and proven standards of service.
We don’t compete with excellent Internet resources like Martin Lewis’s Moneysaving expert.com. That site tends give you information about the latest money saving opportunities you can get that week or other usually limited duration offers, whereas Search & Save is designed to give you the benefit of our expertise to identify suppliers and services that will help save you money, but also provide a good standard of service on a consistent and long term basis.
Those deals will be updated regularly on the main pages of the site as we find packages that are more attractive, but keep checking this blog where we’ll post articles of interest, latest news and views any other information that changes on a more dynamic and frequent basis.
So do bookmark this blog or use it to ask any questions you might have about any of the deals we highlight. We’ll always respond to your comments and welcome your participation!
