The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[robgul]

Oh, related grumble:

Natpest were nagging me to switch to paperless statements every time I logged in, and then taking me to a settings screen which showed - correctly - that the various accounts are already set to paperless.  And then refusing to accept the click on the 'save' button on the reasonable grounds that I hadn't changed anything.

Eventually this annoyed me sufficiently that I set one account to postal bills, logged out and came in again to set it back to paperless.  This seems to have worked.  So far.  Who knows what might be in the post.

My Premium Bonds account is set to paperless - yet they send both paper and email for winnings - I guess it's too much to hope that they send two payments for each win

[perpetual dan]

British Gas, you have our billing preferences, our email address, our phone number for messages etc. You regularly send me random shit to these. I have checked online and our billing preference is not postal. That's the only box that isn't ticked.

So we get the bills in the post. Which is now so infrequent (once every couple of weeks at the moment, often 3-4 weeks) that it came with the late payment reminder in the same bundle.

Maybe you’ve missed a layer of negation. If you swap all the box ticks does the spam stop and bills come by email?

[ian]

British Gas, you have our billing preferences, our email address, our phone number for messages etc. You regularly send me random shit to these. I have checked online and our billing preference is not postal. That's the only box that isn't ticked.

So we get the bills in the post. Which is now so infrequent (once every couple of weeks at the moment, often 3-4 weeks) that it came with the late payment reminder in the same bundle.

Maybe you’ve missed a layer of negation. If you swap all the box ticks does the spam stop and bills come by email?

I think I need to try again.

We had a huge battle with EDF once, who insisted on sending a bill literally to the 'meter on the side of the cycle shed' an instruction which the postman diligent followed to the letter, so most of the time it blew away or I'd find a soggy iteration in the bushes, the most disappointing hedge grumble. We'd change the billing address and the next bill would revert. And they couldn't send us an electronic version because 'it's a business account' which is evident bullshit. We moved and it's probably still being delivered to the meter.

No idea what happened to the post which managed perfecting through the covid era, we now get a bundle every umpteen weeks (we can measure it by the number of weekly New Scientists that it contains, the last one with the gas bill and reminder was five).

[phantasmagoriana]

Oh, related grumble:

Natpest were nagging me to switch to paperless statements every time I logged in, and then taking me to a settings screen which showed - correctly - that the various accounts are already set to paperless.  And then refusing to accept the click on the 'save' button on the reasonable grounds that I hadn't changed anything.

Eventually this annoyed me sufficiently that I set one account to postal bills, logged out and came in again to set it back to paperless.  This seems to have worked.  So far.  Who knows what might be in the post.

I only have a credit card with them nowadays, but this is something that's been annoying me for years - the paperless statements box has been ticked, yet still the paper statements keep coming...will give this a go!

[Kim]

My Premium Bonds account is set to paperless - yet they send both paper and email for winnings - I guess it's too much to hope that they send two payments for each win

It doesn't matter what my premium bonds account is set to; in ~36 years it's never won anything.

[Polar Bear]

Apparently the strategy with premium bonds is to sell and buy on a regular basis such as every 12 or 24 months.  There is conjecture online that newer bonds tend to pick up small wins in their early months.

[ian]

They have to publish their rates – it's on average 2.2%, of course, unlike a standard investment, payout is lumpy, but if you hold enough, you'd anticipate around 2.2% which in recent times has outperformed many investments.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Perhaps they should be renamed Dreamium Bonds.

[Basil]

It doesn't matter what my premium bonds account is set to; in ~36 years it's never won anything.

Well, I've not won anything ever in 60 years.  Admittedly I only hold £5, but that was a lot of paper round money in those days.

[lissotriton]

Apparently the strategy with premium bonds is to sell and buy on a regular basis such as every 12 or 24 months.  There is conjecture online that newer bonds tend to pick up small wins in their early months.

That's a myth, they all have the exact same chance of winning. Newer investments are likely to be bigger, so more chance of winning something than a few quid that's been for years.
Also you need to hold them for a full calendar month before they are eligible for a draw. So selling and buying them again means you are missing out on at least 1 draw.

[Jurek]

Royal Mail are changing their stamps to ones which feature a barcode.
After the end of January 2023 stamps without barcodes will be invalid.
However, you can download a form from their website, fill it in and send it with the stamps to Freepost Swapout, and RM will send you barcoded stamps to the same value.
So between home and work I had just over £20.00 worth of stamps.
So I did all of the above and wrote Freepost Swapout on the envelope making it Pretty Bloody Obvious what is in there.
I'm not going see my £20.00 again.
Am I?

Yep, my wife got her replacement stamps today, after 2-3 weeks.

And lo!
Barcoded stamps have been delivered \0/

[CAMRAMan]

To the twat sitting opposite me on the train: don't give me that look when I ask politely for you to move your bag so I can get my feet under the table. There's a feckin' rack for bags that size... Kthxbai.

[ian]

Apparently the strategy with premium bonds is to sell and buy on a regular basis such as every 12 or 24 months.  There is conjecture online that newer bonds tend to pick up small wins in their early months.

That's a myth, they all have the exact same chance of winning. Newer investments are likely to be bigger, so more chance of winning something than a few quid that's been for years.
Also you need to hold them for a full calendar month before they are eligible for a draw. So selling and buying them again means you are missing out on at least 1 draw.

The likelihood of winning remains effectively the same regardless of your investment (it's just that 2.2% of £500k is more than £5k). The yield on any premium bond investment is averaged out at 2.2% per annum. But some investors will get £0 and a few will get £lots. Not sure how it distributes, averages hide many sins.

[lissotriton]

The likelihood of winning remains effectively the same regardless of your investment (it's just that 2.2% of £500k is more than £5k). The yield on any premium bond investment is averaged out at 2.2% per annum. But some investors will get £0 and a few will get £lots. Not sure how it distributes, averages hide many sins.

But the minimum prize is £25. So if you have invested £1000 or less, on average you will win £0.

[ian]

Actually, I misunderstood how they work, apparently, each £1 bond has an independent chance of winning, but the average return across any portfolio is tuned to 2.2% (or rather they create a prize fund based on this number).

So you can win £25 from a single £1 bond, and buying more bonds will increase your odds of winning a prize, but not your direct odds of winning a larger prize. Indirectly though, if your win rate is higher, you're more likely to feature a larger prize.

[Giraffe]

£25 prizes are no more - min. is £50. Interest rate on the overall fund has been increased so that the odds are very slightly shortened.
When the max. holding went up I consolidated all of mine (some from '60s and after in small amounts) on the (fallacious) grounds that the bigger the block the less chance of it being jumped.

[robgul]

£25 prizes are no more - min. is £50. Interest rate on the overall fund has been increased so that the odds are very slightly shortened.
When the max. holding went up I consolidated all of mine (some from '60s and after in small amounts) on the (fallacious) grounds that the bigger the block the less chance of it being jumped.

Err, are you sure about the £50 minimum? - I got 3 x £25 in the November 22 draw.   NS&I website seems to be tilting the number of £50 vs £25 wins towards 50, but retaining £25

https://nsandi-corporate.com/news-research/news/nsi-increase-premium-bonds-prize-fund-rate-0

Looking at the winnings on my holding the notional interest rate (i.e. total for the year against value of holding) is about 1.1% to date for 2022 (that's with the lower rates applying earlier in 2022 - and winnings are paid out not added as I have the max) 

Not a brilliant return but at least you can't lose your money.

[Giraffe]

No - ISTR reading it somewhere and have now checked. Seems that 25s have been reduced and 50s and 100s increased in number - sorry.

[perpetual dan]

I wish i could get google maps to stop telling me about hire scooters when i ask for *walking* directions. I've got a suitcase and want to see the place, not dodge people at speed in an unfamiliar city.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Mr Larrington]

A pint of own-brand semi-skilled milk in Mr Sainsbury’s House of Toothy Comestibles now costs ninety-five of the BRITONS' pence.  I expect it’s more than a quid in the BEAR-proof emporia of Leafy Surrey.  Rob-dogs.

[Wowbagger]

Having only just become accustomed to the existence of a day called "Black Friday", on which I steadfastly refuse to buy anything, I'm now being bombarded with emails about something called "Cyber Monday" - which appears to be another day associated with worshipping Mammon.

Note to grasping capitalist bastards everywhere: please fuck off.

Mods: if "Fuck off" is too strong for a grumble, please reclassify this as a rant. TYSM!

[Kim]

Having only just become accustomed to the existence of a day called "Black Friday", on which I steadfastly refuse to buy anything, I'm now being bombarded with emails about something called "Cyber Monday" - which appears to be another day associated with worshipping Mammon.

I learned of both at the same time, from friends unfortunate enough to work as webmonkeys in the capitalist machine.  I maintain that they are both fundamentally USAnian phenomena, that have no rightful place in BRITISH culture.  Like the Superb Owl, or Halloween.

[chrisbainbridge]

For those who want something different then can I recommend GivingTuesday tomorrow

[Mrs Pingu]

Grumble: our kitchen has a back door, but there is no light switch by the back door, so if you come in that way you have to walk through the room in the dark before you can turn the light on. 

[robgul]

Grumble: our kitchen has a back door, but there is no light switch by the back door, so if you come in that way you have to walk through the room in the dark before you can turn the light on. 

I feel your pain - my garage has a switch at the door into the utility room - if I enter from the garage doors, with bike, I have to stumble over benches, bikes etc in the dark to switch the light on (and it may then get worse if the internal door, which can only be locked/unlocked from the house side, is locked and I have to exit the garage and enter by the house front door)