People speak of companies and their morals. Banks have been getting a bad time lately in this department for the levels of salary their staff are paid, yet this doesn’t directly effect most people. Unlike the way banks, building societies and utility companies have been charging people a lot more if they don’t keep track of the latest offers.
I thought I was keeping up with my gas and electricity company but was surprised to check their latest web-based product and find it was about 5% cheaper than the account I changed to about 6 months ago. How was I supposed to know that they are now on version 5 of their account and all those on earlier versions are paying more.
Same with my bank. I opened an account a couple of years ago and found that it was paying 0.1% while the latest is paying 2%.
My most annoying experience is with a home insurance company. I recently discovered an elderly relative was paying almost £500 to insure their modest semi compared to £200 for my own. Looking on the internet I discovered the same company was offering insurance for £180 and the level of cover was actually 3 times greater on the internet. When I rang them they were quite unconcerned and even suggested I could pay more on the £500 policy to match the internet level of cover. It seems you can’t buy the £500 policy now but if you are elderly you won’t know any different and they won’t tell you. Insurance companies complain about customer fraud and put in measures making things more difficult for honest customers. Yet at the same time they are effectively what can be viewed as defrauding old people out of hundreds of pounds every year. I find it difficult to get my head round the morality of this. Surely it isn’t right?