Consumer Hacks with Wendy Knowler
Know your rights as a consumer. ECR’s Consumer Watchdog, Wendy Knowler, is giving us daily consumer tips to help empower you as a consumer. Here are the latest Consumer Hacks with Wendy Knowler.
Never stop paying the whole bill
If your municipal bill is wrong, dispute it. But keep paying the part you don't dispute. That one move takes away the municipality's lawful grounds to cut off your water or electricity while the dispute drags on, and these disputes drag on for months. Do it properly. Put your dispute…
Shake the sand out
Back from the beach in a hired car? Get the sand out of it before you return it. Nur returned his rental car with sand in the footwells after a family trip to the Drakensberg and was charged R600 extra for a specialist valet. Rental agreements generally allow the company…
Your usual Uber is going away
Uber has retired its UberX option – the go-to for many South Africans, and from this month you have four options. Uber Go is a smaller car at a smaller price, for quick trips around town. Uber Comfort gets you a newer car with extra space, and you can request…
Paying for the privilege
Roderick asked me: "When you have an account with a retailer and it is fully paid up, why do they still debit you with account fees when you have a zero balance? I buy maybe twice a year from this retailer and always pay my account up as quick as…
Pay down the card that's nearest its limit first
Your credit score is not a judgment of you. It's a forecast built from behaviour, and behaviour can change. The thing lenders consider most, after whether you pay on time, is how much of your available credit you're using. TransUnion tells South Africans to worry they’ve used up more than…
Check the stars before you sign
Before you buy a car, look up how it performed in a crash test. Global NCAP has been crash testing cars sold in South Africa for years and the results are free on its website. The gap between models is enormous. Two cars that look alike and cost almost the…
"No refunds" is not the last word
Have you ever booked a photographer, a venue, or an event planner, and then had to cancel? You may well have been told the deposit was non-refundable - end of discussion. The Consumer Protection Act says otherwise. You may cancel an advance booking, and the supplier may keep a reasonable…
Ask what they'll buy it back for
A woman came to me wanting to sell gold coins she'd bought years earlier as an investment. Here's the thing about anything sold to you as an investment that you can hold in your hand: coins, collectibles, memorabilia. There are two prices: what a dealer will sell it to you…
A discount you can't use isn't compensation
When something goes wrong, companies love to offer a voucher or a percentage-off-your-next-purchase as compensation, rather than money. One family was given 25% off future flights by SAA. Generous, until they tried to book and found there was simply no way to apply the discount at the payment stage because…
Cancelled isn't cancelled until they say so in writing
A woman's husband had a stroke seven years ago and hasn't been able to use his phone since. She says the account was closed. The billing carried on anyway. This is the among the most common complaint I get. You phone, someone says they'll cancel it, and nobody does. Months…
Are you overpaying for your pet’s meds?
Vet bills are brutal, and medication is a big slice of them. But you may never be told that a cheaper equivalent of what you're being dispensed exists, because nobody at the counter is obliged to raise it with you. So ask. Ask whether there's a generic or a cheaper…
Check your credit record before it costs you
A listener wrote to me about a phone account written off years ago. He doesn't dispute the money. What he disputes is what the listing has since done to him. Most people only find out they're listed when a loan or a rental application is turned down, and by then…
Scammers still getting away with the fake POP tactic
Selling something on Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace? The oldest trick in the book is still working beautifully for scammers. The "buyer" sends you a proof of payment, often a very convincing one, and arranges a courier to collect that same day. The money never arrives, the goods are gone, and…
It pays to know your CPA
Mitch of Durban bought a second-hand phone from well-known national retailer. Six weeks later it failed. The shop refused a refund, refused a credit, refused a swap, and offered him a repair. That is not how the law works. Under the Consumer Protection Act, if something you buy fails within…
Free for three months. Then not.
A Discovery member took advantage of a free health check and then got a sales call offering her a three-month free Vitality trial. She agreed, on condition that she be contacted before the free period ended. Nobody contacted her. The membership rolled over into a paid one, and the fees…
Do you know what your store cards are costing you?
Store cards can quietly drain your wallet through monthly service fees, even if you have what you assume is a zero balance. Last month Woolworths raised its store card fee to R52.49 a month, applying it even to those customers who have a zero balance. That works out to R630…
How much do you value after sales service?
Nico Grobler and his wife bought two Grafton Everest leather recliners from Tafelberg Furnishers. A few years in, the leather on the armrests and leg rests began to wear and scuff – prematurely, in their view. But because the chairs were well out of their two-year warranty, the couple’s first…
Still using the green ID book? Let your bank help you out, pronto
Home Affairs has launched a site that shows you the closest bank branch where you can apply for a Smart ID Card. It's at myhomeaffairsonline.dha.gov.za. There are 372 participating branches so far, and new ones appear on the site as they sign up. Since March, more than half a million…
Even with saved beneficiaries, check the account details before paying
When you pay a company by EFT, where do you get the banking details? If they’re saved in your banking app, that’s worth a second thought. A Truworths account holder made debt repayments using saved beneficiary details, but the debt collectors had switched banks. Her money landed in a dormant…
Missing a visa rule could cost you - a lot
A couple flew from Joburg to Auckland, with the return journey via Perth, but were refused boarding because their Perth layover was longer than eight hours, meaning they needed an Australian transit visa. Being Sunday afternoon, it was too late to apply. They had to buy two Cathay Pacific tickets…