You gotta have faith…
Sunday 10th August, 2008 - £8,228.83 in debt…
There was a time, years ago when I was younger and even more stupid than I am now, when my wallet was full of credit cards and store cards. Now I have a debit card, one credit card sometimes (for emergencies), and an increasing number of friendly-looking loyalty cards.
The problem with loyalty cards is that you never stop hearing about them. Every day you walk past signs telling you about extra points on this, using your points for that, and the incessant “do you have a Nectar card?” from till people, followed by a withering and slightly sympathetic look if you say no. Being the winner of “Most Unreasonably Stubborn Human 2008″, I didn’t budge until very recently. Now I have four of the things.
Nectar Card
This allows me to collect points at Sainsbury’s (where I often buy petrol) and BP garages. among other places I haven’t tried yet. In return for the heroic effort of handing my key-fob over at the till, I get to spend my points on various “treats”, from a cordless screwdriver to a night out at the bingo, to indoor skydiving.
Tesco Clubcard
Wih this one, I build up points from shopping at Tesco, and I can spend the points on my next Tesco shop. But that’s stupid when you can spend them on treats instead and increase their value by four times. Treats include Air Miles, theme park days out, and restaurant meals.
Boots Advantage Card
This gives four points per pound spent, and Boots often has double or triple points days when you can collect even more. Each point is worth 1p when you spend it in-store, but you can’t redeem your points against everything. You can also pop your card into an in-store Boots Bonus Machine and pick up money-off vouchers.
Co-op Membership Card
I signed up for one of these a couple of weeks ago, received it through the post, eagerly panted my way down to the Co-op and handed it over with my shopping, and was told that it wasn’t accepted. Apparently this is because my Co-op is part of the Plymouth and South West Co-op, which is in another dimension to the rest of them. In theory, the Co-op Membership Card gives you a share of Co-op’s profits (how much you get depends on how much you spend), and it goes straight into your bank account.
Now I’ve run out of ideas. Have I missed any?
Shiny Happy People? Not exactly…
There’s something I just can’t let pass right now, and it’s a three pronged attack.
My bugbear bleeds neatly into yesterday’s npower bashing on Times Online, and I know I wanted everyone to stay positive and concentrate on the pleasing aspects of their energy supplier, but it’s possible today’s post may degenerate into something of a rant (I’m just so complex).
I’m taking the line ‘I know that this is vitriol, no solution, spleen venting’ from REM’s magnum opus ‘Ignoreland’ as my call to arms, so forgive me. I’m so mad i could throw a yoghurt at someone, even though i haven’t been mixing sleeping tablets with alcohol, and i don’t have an ego problem.
Ok, so it’s three pronged……….
(1) npower announced a new eco-friendly initiative yesterday called the ‘Climate Cops’ scheme. Effectively, it’s a series of lectures and practical courses aimed at young students in order to make them more ecologically switched on.
The campaign is fronted by the professionally chirpy Fearne Cotton, and the gainfully unemployed Piers Morgan, with Mr Morgan choosing the winning school at the end of the twelve month course. The school judged to have applied itself most unswervingly to its chosen green project will receive a cheque for £20,000, which must be spent on improving the school’s ecological infrastructure.
I digest the press release, I believe it to be a worthy cause and, despite the recent troubles npower has experienced, I think it’s a step in the right direction. So I write a news article on this development (see the ‘Energy News’ section), and proceed to go about my business in a typically eager and dedicated fashion.
Until……..
(2) …….it’s brought to my attention around mid-afternoon npower has raised online dual fuel tariff prices by a whopping 20%. Great, thanks very much for that, I’m really glad I fought your corner.
Essentially, the Sign Online 10 tariff has been scrapped, and replaced by the new, more expensive Sign Online 11 tariff. A quick bit of maths in the office shows the Sign Online 11 tariff is still the cheapest on the market (by £10 from British Gas Click Energy 5), so all is not lost.
Like a scratched record (and not even a good one, this is like a scratched copy of ‘How can we be lovers if we can’t be friends’ by Michael Bolton) the same reason has been trotted out for this price rise as those we heard previously this year: escalating wholesale costs and exorbitant crude oil prices.
Which would be fairly easy to stomach, if……….
(3) ……Shell and BP hadn’t announced combined first quarter profits of £7.2 billion this lunchtime.
How much money do they want? What can you even do with £7.2 billion? There aren’t enough consumables in the world to spend that amount of money on! It makes me want to throw up, and I’m not even an anarchist or especially right on.
Right, let me just take a breath for a moment.
That’s better. The BP profit represents a rise of nearly 50% on last quarter, whereas Shell can boast only a paltry 12% gain. The increase has been driven by higher petrol and diesel costs set by the companies in the light of (you guessed it) rising crude oil prices.
Just to conclude, rather than absorb some or all of the rising crude oil costs, petrol companies have elected to rip us off at the petrol pumps, and energy companies have chosen to rip us off in our own homes.
Gee, thanks. Again.
I think I’ll listen to ‘Everybody Hurts’ now, just to cheer myself up a bit.
Anyone else feel like venting?
