Author Profile
Sam Thewlis
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Article History:
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Driving Licences go paperless from next week- how do you hire a car now?
Ideas of paperless driving licences have been floating around for some time, with the days of the paper counterpart being numbered. From next Monday, the counterpart will disappear completely and has been replaced by the DVLAs new View your Licence service. This online log-in based system allows you to view your driving record, eg vehicles…
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Which is the best bacon? Important consumer testing from Which!!!
Bacon is an important human right*, and getting the right quality bacon, at the right price, is a cause of great consternation to many Bitterwallet readers throughout the country. However, consumer champion Which!!! has now swooped in to the rescue, having recruited some 'bacon testers' to sample bacon sold by the country's supermarkets in order…
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Changing the date your car insurance starts could save you 50%
There are any number of tips and tricks to reducing your car insurance, including selecting the most insurer-friendly job title, and including more experienced drivers on your policy. However, one variable you’ve probably never considered when getting an insurance quotation is thestart date of the policy- and according to Which!!!, that alone can save you…
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Co-op charge almost ten times as much for identical painkillers
Good old Co-Operative Food. You know, the one founded on ethical principles? Well, it seems they are as ready to swindle consumers as any less ethical supermarket, by making false claims on their products, and then attempting to charge almost ten times as much for the hyped-up product. If you have a headache, you might…
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Is Spark Energy the worst energy supplier ever?
Sometimes, businesses are so bad it is almost literally beyond belief, and smaller energy supplier Spark Energy has now been fined by Ofgem for falling squarely in that category. The crime? On top of sky-high charges and inaccurate billing systems, Spark Energy simply ignored customers’ requests to leave the supplier and just continued to bill…
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Do you have a dangerous Russell Hobbs iron?
Ironing is never fun, but it's rarely dangerous, yet now household thrill seekers can take their life in their hands (almost) by using a Russell Hobbs iron to make their clothes crease-free. Thousands of Russell Hobbs irons have now been recalled after reports that some burst into flames and injured customers. Of course, you would…
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DEATHWATCH: cash machines that charge you to get your own money out
The youth of today won’t remember what it was like back when you had to use your own bank’s cashpoint* to get your money out. If you were a Lloyds’ customer, heaven help you if you wanted to use an HSBC cash machine. Or at least, you’d be charged somewhere between £1.50 and £3 for…
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Water companies the latest to be outed for sending bogus debt collection letters
It seems no-one is safe from scam debt collection agencies. Hot on the heels of banks, energy companies and payday lenders, the latest industry group to admit inventing ominous debt chasers is the water companies, with more than half the UK's water suppliers copping to the practice.. Twelve of the UK's largest water suppliers told…
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The best (and cheapest) ways to call directory enquiries
Remember the halcyon days of 192? Not the cheesy stalking website 192.com, but the single directory enquiries service run by BT until the market was deregulated in 2003. Of course, the reason the number was deregulated was to prevent BT's monopoly of the service, with the introduction of competition clearly enabling a reduction in the…
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AgeUK take people's homes, but abandon them if they need long-term care...
There’s a name for people who take valuable assets off vulnerable old people. And it’s not the one you think- national charity Age UK, have apparently been doing it for 40 years. Most people have heard horror stories about pensioners who have been sold down the river by a greasy salesman offering some kind of…