This is actually a general one, though I had the issue with Nationwide this morning. It’s all in the T’s and C’s of just about every credit card I’ve had, though. I just forgot about it.
When I was in Japan I had to take a cash advance on my Nationwide credit card. Normally I just use my debit/bank card in the ATMs but for some reason the one in the 7-Eleven near my hostel just wouldn’t accept it despite it having worked two days previously in the airport. Fortunately the same machine accepted my credit card. I knew I’d get hit for the cash advance fee, but I didn’t have much choice.
What I didn’t realise was that interest is accrued on these withdrawals/advances from the moment the cash is in your hand until the time you pay it off. This means that if you withdraw cash two days after you’ve just paid your monthly credit card bill you’ll be hit for 28 days’ interest on the next one.
The way round it is to get to the bank or pop online and use your internet banking. As soon as you can after the withdrawal, make a manual payment onto your credit card.
As it happened, I’d have been really stiffed if I’d not noticed the interest on my statement online. I’d had a large refund come through before the withdrawal which paid off my previous balance. As such, no direct debit dropped out of my bank account this month and so nothing was paid off towards the cash advance (which, I believe, takes “priority” over purchase debts on the card which is at least one bit of fairness in the whole thing).
As a rule, I never use cash advances if I can avoid it. I’d recommend sticking to the same principle. But if you have to, as I did, the simple rule is to pay it off as soon as you can.
I shifted from Vodafone to 3 last week after Adam kindly told me of a nice tariff they have. For £20 per month, I get unlimited texts, internet and calls to other 3 mobiles(subject to the usual “fair use” policies which make them limited…) and 200 minutes for everyone else. And a shiny Nokia E71 to play with.
I do recommend it. It’s a good deal. And if you decide to go for it, please get in touch and tell me beforehand. If I give you my number and you quote it when you sign up, we both get £30 – more if you get a mobile internetdongle for your laptop as well.
However, a few points to note which aren’t made clear. I’ve spent a little while on the phone to their support (in India, but all three people I spoke to were really good) which has clarified a few things. They did credit some of the cash back as well. I’ll detail as I go.
First up, you can use the Nokia E71 as a modem. Either through the included USB cable or with a little utility called JoikuSpot. The “Light” version is enough for general web access though you do have to tweak your proxy settings to access “https” resources. This means the roaming internet dongle isn’t so useful, although it does have the benefit of ease of use. On the other hand, it’s £15 per month for 5Gb usage. The telephone contract offers unlimited downloads on the same 3G network regardless of whether it’s on your phone or your laptop via the phone.
Next up – video calls ain’t included on your tarrif. They’re 50p per minute so that’s an expensive assumption to make. The charge for the one I tried out (which never even connected – thankfully) was 48p and not refunded.
Using the Three mailserver costs you if you’re sending emails. Ditch the “Mail on 3” or “3Mail” settings ASAP once you unpack the phone. Replace it with GMail, Hotmail or whatever you use. Just make sure you don’t send any emails through their SMTP servers. The costs for the couple I sent when I was tinkering with the phone were refunded.
Nokia Maps, supplied with the phone, costs cash after a while – I think 90 days (at least the very useful Drive and Walk features do). It’s a nice bit of software but Google Maps does just as good a job and costs nothing. I’ve not been able to uninstall Nokia Maps, though – it seems it’s part of the firmware and can’t be completely removed. To get Google Maps, use the browser on the phone to go to google.com, click the link at the top for “More…” and then scroll down to “Maps”. Download and install.
Here’s a biggie, though. Twitter have a UK (+44) phone number you can use to send SMS‘s to for publication in your Twitter stream. They do say on their FAQ that some networks see it as a foreign number… and Three is one of these networks. It seems that despite it having the UK prefix, it’s based in Ireland and therefore subject to international charges of 25p per text.
This does worry me. Not because of Twitter per se, but the fact that some numbers can be “international” without appearing to be so. How on earth has this situation arisen?
It is a shame as sending an SMS is quicker than using the Twitter web page on the mobile or an alternative utility. On that score, however, I recommend Twim. Locate the current stable release’s .jar or .jad file, click on it in your mobile browser and install. It does give the occasional error message, but on the whole it’s pretty reliable and the Twitpic integration new with the current release is ace. The author says it uses about the same bandwidth as using the web page, but it’s far wasier to use. On this tariff, it’s irrelevant anyway. And, hey – it’s free.
I’m happy with the package, don’t get me wrong. A little more clarification on what is chargeable would have been nice. Oh, and there is nothing in any of the paperwork I received that told me the voicemail number! For those also looking… it’s “123”.
Everything sucks. Then it sucks that it sucks. Then it sucks that it sucks that it sucks. Then you think, “What the hell – it’ll be OK”. Then five minutes later you’re thinking, “But what if it isn’t?” and the whole spiral starts again.
It doesn’t matter what you do, your mind starts circling. Nothing seems to have much point, but you go ahead and do it anyway.
Even if you’ve been through it before and know that things will be fine some time later on, it doesn’t help. It’s now that counts. Because it’s now that you just want to curl up and let the world pass you by. Only you can’t as that’s giving up and you have to put a brave face on it for everyone else.
Not having a good day. Or week. Or forseeable future.
Tomorrow I shall be with my little cousin. That, right now, is about the only thing I reckon that will genuinely take my mind off things. She’s the most amazing kid and I love her more than life itself. On the downside, I think she wants to go and see 17 Again. Ick.
I removed the post I just put up as someone closely-ish involved informed me it would only be more upsetting to the person most closely associated with it.
Suffice to say I may be quiet for some time. I’ve done something I regret to a depth I cannot put into words and it’s cost me possibly the most important thing in my life.
Please don’t ask what. If I want to talk, I will email people or catch them on MSN. This matter is entirely my own fault. I made a stupid, stupid mistake and I have to live with the consequences. I hate myself and I feel sick. Otherwise I’m pretty much numb.
A post on Times Online detailing 20 reasons not to fly Ryanair. They pretty much cover everything although I’ll clarify point 2. If one person in your group has a bag then you all must check in at the airport and all pay the check-in charge, but only if you’ve made a group booking.
The way round this is to book the luggage carrier’s flight separately. Which takes time and is a pain in the arse, but saves a fiver per person per flight segment so may be worth it.
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