I’m never slow to berate when service is bad, so it’s important to applaud when it’s superb – and the service I’ve just had from Amazon is just that… In May Mrs MSE bought me a Kindle for my birthday, and I must admit I adore it (and her), I’ll never go back to paper books again...

Update: November 2013: Beware – payday loans can kill mortgage applications I’ve just noticed this old blog still sitting here. While it’s technically still correct, things have moved on since it was originally written. Mortgage underwriters will often reject people who’ve had past payday loans outright. So the general stance is still to AVOID them. For full...

I’m writing this having just watched the Wednesday (5 October) BBC Ten O’clock news, which twice had Hugh Edwards reading this headline… Tesco’s worst UK sales performance for 20 years." Frankly I couldn’t believe it, 20 years ago Tesco was far smaller, but when I googled the story I found over 500 articles from broadcasters, newspapers, websites...

Buy something from a store in cash and the store must obey the Sale of Goods Act rules. But what happens if you’re one of the growing band of voucheristas who buy without cash? In a nutshell your rights are identical. When you purchase goods or services you are entering into a contract between you and the...

This quick blog is more to ensure there’s a permanent record than anything else. Last week I was on a debate panel for CCCS at the Liberal Democrat conference. One fellow panellist was the coalition Consumer Minister, Ed Davey, so I took the opportunity to ask him about the Financial Inclusion Fund (FIF). In a nutshell the...