02/08/2014 Your Money

On television, on iPlayer, on catch`up, on demand,

it's your weekly guide to making the most of your cash.

Fees release me ` the broadband companies that charge

We'll find out if you can avoid the exit charges.

The higher costs of everyday life if you have a disability `

we'll see one attempt to keep those costs down.

And doing what they say on the tin ` what it means

If a company provides a shoddy service, you'd think you

But, for some broadband companies, not only do you have to pay

for the bad service, they also make you pay an extra charge

And they call in the heavies if you don't pay.

Citizens Advice says the average cost of getting out of

a broadband contract was ?190, but it found some cases where customers

It had 3,000 complaints about internet and broadband

from customers in Wales and England last year.

Nearly one`quarter of them were complaints

Just under one`fifth of complaints were about how

the companies handle complaints themselves and put them right.

Around three in 20 complaints were about the cost of the service

Laura Bunt is head of policy at Citizens Advice.

It might stagger some people that if a service is not up to scratch you

have to pay more to get rid of it. We will come to that in a second.

When our company is allowed to impose extra charges, and how do we

know in advance that we will be clobbered by them? Consumers should

not be being punished for switching from poor broadband service, or when

they have experienced persistent faults with their service. We have

seen too many examples of people being hit by cancellation fees when

we have dealt with consistent issues. A woman saw us who was hit

with eight B even though it was not in terms and conditions that she

would be asked to pay a fee but her service was so poor that she was

having to a local Internet cafe, and paid for that service, rather than

rely on what she had at home. So anally broadband company and paying

someone else as well? You mentioned terms and conditions, is it always

in the contract that you will have to do maybe things? People should

always check terms and conditions, and if you are experiencing problems

with your Internet service you should tell the provider as soon as

possible so we can try and resolve it. Make sure you keep a record of

where the issues have occurred and when you have spoken to the buy .com

and check your terms and conditions to make sure they are not in breach

of contract. Trying to work out whether there is some advance

warning that you might face these charges, or whether the company

could argue, you signed up to it, it was there in advance, and you can

complain about it now but your signature is on the contract, so

top. A good broadband service should be one that works for you, so you

need to ensure you are getting the service you expect, check with your

neighbours, shop around, make sure you are getting what was advertised

in terms of the quoted speed and service that you receive. You

mentioned the important steps of, if you do complain, keep a record,

write everything down, because that information, you don't know when it

will come in useful and it is important it is written down at the

time so it has a per Rafferty. What happens if the companies take this

to extremes and it is passed to a debt collector because you have

fused to pay this charge? Cancellation fees can be really

difficult, because it can turn into a shop that, and for many people who

are trying to manage with stretched budgets that can be challenging, it

can be difficult to pay immediately. If you are hit with a fee, or if you

are struggling to pay immediately, come and talk to Citizens Advice, we

might be able to negotiate with the supplier on your behalf or work with

you to sort out a repayment plan. Thank you very much for joining us.

Government figures this week showed more than 27,000 people in England

and Wales became insolvent in April, May, and June this year.

If you are struggling to pay your debts,

One, don't ignore it ` it won't just go away.

Two, you don't have to pay to get debt advice.

Several charities will help you sort out your finances free of charge.

Ernie has just given us another chance to become a millionaire.

The Premium Bonds have brought back the second million`pound

The odds of winning reckoned to be 40 billion to one.

But if you don't win, you still keep your money, and you're still

And, important for working mums and dads, and for low paid workers,

you've got more time to renew your tax credits, if you need it.

The deadline for many was the 31st July.

That has been pushed back to 6th August because of a strike.

If you don't renew your tax credits in time,

If you have a disability, just living

Chances are you'll pay more for everything

That's what a new commission is trying to find out.

Gene has a syndrome which causes her joints to dislocate regularly. The

most mundane tasks in the kitchen and around the house can be tiring

and painful. She says dealing with the condition takes a big chunk of

her income, too. I have two by the ergonomic seating for my wheelchair,

which was ?90. I was given a box standard rigid walking frame, but

there is no way to store it in my flat so I had to go and purchase a

folding walking frame, which was ?35. When I need it risks rents, I

had to buy them. I have been told I need specialist knives to prepare

food in the kitchen more easily and more safely, they are ?25 per

blade. We never seem to have the money to be able to buy them.

Specialist items can really mount up in cost. The charity Scope says

disabled people face a living cost previa of about ?550 per month.

About two thirds of that is covered by the main benefit and welfare

system, but what about the rest? That is a question posed to this man

who, after 30 years in the financial services industry, is chairing a

commission investigating the extra cost of disability. I want to

achieve three broad objectives. First of all, highlight the size and

attractiveness of serving the disabled sector with additional

goods and services, and provide greater competition. Secondly, we

want to expose the extent of bad practice, where unscrupulous

companies charge disabled people more for the same goods and

services. Thirdly, we want to harness the power of the purple

pound and help disabled people the consumers. Many disabled people say

sappy shopping does not bring down high insurance premiums, but the

industry insists it is fully open for business. I think insurers are

always looking to improve the service they offer to all of their

customers are always looking to develop products to meet people with

particular needs, for examples insurers may have different

disability groups, some are able to offer low`cost contents insurance to

people in social housing, and insurers are always looking to

develop products to meet different people's needs. They are there to

include customers, not exclude sectors of society. Jean just wants

to ensure companies compete for her custom to make her financial outlook

more comfortable, because she knows that, physically, life will continue

to be tough. If you are buying a new boiler or redoing a bathroom, you

will look for the kitemark which means that an item has been checked

and assessed and meets the high standards of the British standards

institution. Now, it will be used on savings accounts and insurance plans

that are easy to understand and do what they say on the tin. Carol

Sergeant run a government backed review of products, which came up

with the idea of the kitemark. Your review was pretty straightforward

and has said a lot of policies are too confusing and it is not clear

what they are charging and consumers need a bit of help in navigating

finding the best one for them? Yes, we found that consumers found that

products are complicated and the market is competitive, and they did

not have enough trust and confidence in them, so the proposition was to

produce simple, straightforward products which literally do what

they said on the tin, no frills, no gimmicks, no nasty surprises, but

then reassure customers that they really do deliver that by having

them certified and kitemark by the British standards institution. So if

you see the kitemark on the brochure or in the advertising literature,

what does it tell you? It is telling you that product meets the standards

that we set out in that review, that there are no unfortunate bells and

whistles, that there are no hidden charges, that it is all very

straightforward, that you will get exactly what you think you are

paying for, and that that has actually been investigated by the

British standards Institute to award the kitemark in the first place, but

then they do ongoing monitoring of quite a rigorous nature. They don't

hand these things out to anybody? They certainly don't, they have been

around for over 100 years and will not risk their reputation by putting

their kitemark on something that does not deliver. To be clear of

what it is not doing, it is not giving you a financial

recommendation, it is not advice? It is not telling you that this is the

best return all the lowest fee? It deliberately does not put the price

cap on the product because we want healthy competition and previous

initiatives with price caps simply didn't work, but it does require the

price to be entirely straightforward, with no hidden

tricks, no bells, no unreasonable charges, no nasty surprises, so you

can see exactly what you are going to pay, and that is it. Is this

about changing the behaviour of the banks and financial companies? It is

a mixture of two things. It is about helping to deal with the fact that a

significant part of our population is under provided in terms of rainy

day savings, the stuff that gets you through life, and in terms of

insurance, so only a very small proportion of people with dependents

have insurance at the moment. If they can be made more confident in

products, if the product can be made more straightforward to buy and to

manage, so that you don't have to worry about whether the terms are

going to change and so on, and you can easily get out of the product if

you change of mind, we think more people will buy them. At the

challenge now is for the rest of the industry to come up and start

offering their customers these very, very straightforward, totally

trustworthy kitemark product so we can get some good competition. And

have they bought into this? The report was one that involved the

collaboration of charities, consumer groups, the industry with the

regulated government observers. They all signed up to the report. As a

good idea, Barclay's have gone ahead and have done the first product. The

challenge has now been laid down to the rest of the industry, were you

and why you not offering your customers straightforward products.

Thank you for coming in today. That is all for today. You can keep

up`to`date on our website on the page now.