Credit

That's good service. I had to order some printer toner last night, and it was 2 to 3days 'free' delivery. It arrived at 12:15 today.  It tickled me that he pulled out his little machine for me to sign and said, "Sorry mate, according to this, I'm 40 seconds too early. You can't sign for 40 seconds"


Sigma the dog seized the opportunity and had him throwing his ball around the garden until his machine beeped.


I'm impressed. The delivery company was DPD - dpd.co.uk. :)

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In case regular readers are wondering. A good mate visited who allowed me to use his card. As has been pointed out to me, my claim to fame of living without credit does make life rather awkward, and to be frank, at risk from being defrauded.


Luckily, I'm tech and financial savvy, and I have private arraignments with them all, and I mean all, credit reference agencies and major institutions that use them. Anything at all, and I'm flagged by phone immediately. It took some setting up, because most charge a monthly fee to keep track of your credit history.


But I negotiated a deal. In return I'm used anonymously as a staff  training case study.

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A credit reference agency is that the banks, build societies, credit card firms, loan companies and shops refer to when you use a any form of credit, ie loans, credit and debit cards, shop cards.

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Top tips.

Experian advertise a £5 a month fee service to keep track of your credit history. Good idea to do that, but it's little known that if you put a self addressed envelope in with a £3-£5 postal order with a letter, or even pound coins taped to a postcard with a self addressed envelope, they'll post back your credit history to you whenever you want. No need to sign up to a monthly fee.


Why £3-£5 ? Because it depends what mood their in. Seriously.


If you're on Indefinite Disability Living Allowance, because it's a regular income, banks and building societies really, really want you to have credit, often unlimited. Which is disgusting. I dread what's going to happen to those who fall for that chestnut, when it changes to Personal independence Payment (PIP) in April 2013, as there will no longer be an Indefinite catagory


If there's a dispute with the major Credit Reference Agencies information, any fake, false, fraudulent  or wrong information IS NOT removed from the record. All that will be recorded is your objections. You have to depend on the decision of the shop whether they'll accept the transaction.


You may come across cash pre-payment cards, where you pre-pay cash on a card, but pay a monthly fee when you put money on. They can be used as any other debit or credit card in shops or on the web. But watch out, particularly if you are on a low income. The fee is high and you need to be registered on at least the limited electoral roll.