Miscellaneous advice

You can't be too careful. When we resided in Bulkington we had a house in the middle of the village and a shop 100yds away, so a lot of people knew where we lived. One year when preparing for our holiday I tried for ultra deception. I stopped the newspaper delivery two weeks before departure, had a local friend manage the shop saying that we were out for the day if asked and said friend drew the house curtains each night, lights on timer. No milk delivered, again stopped well before holiday. Sealed down tight and fool proof When we returned our friend told us that her mother who lived in Bedworth had been told by the dustmen that we were away. I should have arranged for someone to put rubbish in the bin.

Hi all, BUY NOW, PAY LATER. Please be aware that a trader offering "pay nothing for three months" terms is not usually financing the credit. It's more often a credit company, in the trade called a factor company. It works by the trader funding the factor company with a direct fee, but in addition - THIS IS THE IMPORTANT BIT - by any default by the borrower, the cost of making a late payment is colossal. So please be warned. A third of all sizeable merchandise is being sold via these delayed payment terms at present. Happy shopping. ps. During the decade of Black Friday deals, with only two exceptions, white goods were considerably cheaper in February than the previous autumn.

Do not know if this is a scam but just to let everyone know. I keep getting an email from PayPal to say my security details are not up to date, and can I sign in to provide the details they need, until then I can not transfer or send and receive money. I only login to PayPal through the portal I know and use all the time and everything is up to date. Just to warn.

That isn't from PayPal.

For anyone not aware - if you are concerned about an email with a link asking you to logon etc. and unsure if it’s a scam, put your mouse and hover over the link without actually pressing/selecting it, in the lower left corner of your screen you will see the full link address of where you will be sent to. A genuine one say from Lloyds Bank will show 'lloydsbank.com’. However, scam emails won't (will probably be a very long winded address pointing offshore). If ever in any doubt don't click on it and certainly do not download anything unless 100% sure. Once you have downloaded a file it is within your computer’s system and may have access to your inputs/files etc.

The ideal situation would be if all legitimate sites, where credit cards or home addresses are used, never included links. They should all direct the user to use their normal login routes to respond or just read more information. We often forget but even emails from forum members include the warning to reply via the HCF site and not press reply from our email. That way the person who has contacted you never sees your real email, just your HCF email.

Due to record breaking bills, there is a lot of advice out there on what people can do to reduce energy use. Most suggestions you'll already know but one that I discovered some years ago is a portable thermostat. Rather than let my hall (an area I keep cold) determine how warm I want the living room to be, I have the thermostat with me. First, it's much more responsive, so I don't need to wait in the cold or heat for the hall temperature to catch up, the thermostat experiences what I do. With the door shut I can get toasty very quickly. Also, I can control the boiler directly, so even if the thermostat is doing the programmed thing, if I'm colder or warmer than normal I can quickly rectify the problem. There are some very expensive systems that let you control individual rooms by a phone app but mine is just a remote control device with a big letter display that didn't cost much. An electrician could install one and it wouldn't need a plumber but it does need a power supply. Basically it replaces the wire coming from the hall thermostat. On mine I can set maximum and minimum temperatures but also I can set any on/off arrangements (by hour) for any day of the week. When I go on holiday for a week I can set the hours for when I come back to be different to when I'm away. The one warning I would give is to make sure the signal gets to the controller (especially when the battery is low) because it may not get the turn on or turn off signal, leading to too hot or too cold. You only experience that once before you learn what causes it. Fortunately for my sister, she spoke to me a short while after it had started and I suggested she check the batteries of the remote, which fixed the issue instantly. I had about 10 hours of discomfort, first getting too hot and then too cold as the only thing I could think to do was turn the boiler off. I didn't work it out till the morning.

That's a good idea, Helen. Our thermostat is portable. We had a lot of central heating problems last winter, boiler kept needing topping up, so we had a leak we could not find, finished up having a new boiler (with new thermostat!) and plumbing changes. The plumbing changes then involved water through the lounge and kitchen ceiling which meant replastering and subsequently repainting which all took a long time through Covid. As we were doing that we had individual thermostats on all the radiators. I had never thought of taking the main thermostat round the house but the thermostats on the radiators are very good as you can just have a background heat or turn the heating off in rooms you don't use much. I am afraid we just have to bite the bullet with these prices but we all have to keep warm, I will say at our age, but I know that does not apply to you

Hi all, SPAM !?!?! There are emails & text messages flying around regarding claiming current state benefits. Please be on your guard. I had a text this morning purporting to be from ….gov.com. The £150 council payment to most housing bands is automatic & needs no application. My energy supplier is handling the £400. Please make any helpful comments.

If you pay things by direct debit, rebates etc will always be automatic.

Hi, Is anybody out there? I've had a cold this week, no chest infection. I'm wondering with the pollen count so high, if I have hayfever.

Ah, that might explain it, Philip, I hadn't realised the pollen count was high, so thank you.for informing us. I've been a little bit snivelly this last couple of days, and I wondered if it was my allergic rhinitis or the start of a cold. Probably the former then, thankfully!

Isn't it good on here! Posted this week Misery for millions of hay fever sufferers as Met Office now warns pollen levels will be VERY high this weekend. I've read elsewhere that it's the highest count since 1981. I've posted my symptoms on a probe that tells me YES. Also, one common side effect. Massive excessive build up of ear wax. Where did I spend £55 last month????

I find that my allergies are cumulative. One irritant isn't too hard to solve but when several are active I'm increasingly affected. A cold can start things off. I have to be careful what I eat while I'm at my worst. I love fish but I sometimes have to give it up while other factors are high.

Stand on your head for a couple of hours Helen, that should sort you out. (hope you don't bring up the fish though)