UK Consumers Beware!

British Gas has been in the press recently for high prices. If you're still getting your fuel from British Gas, you need to consider switching to another provider - you still get the same gas and electricity... just at a lower price from a different supplier.

Try uSwitch.com for an impartial comparison service, or see our Keep an eye on your bills page for more details.

Best known under the name Equity Asset Management, this started as an Essex-based property company. The firm was featured twice on BBC's Watchdog, and has subsequently been acquired and renamed. Look for the names Mount Street Holdings, Pier Management, Erinaceous and Johnson Cooper.

More details: Equity Asset Management Information

Not an issue with Lastminute.com themselves - this is a quick warning to anyone ordering via their website.

When buying from the lastminute.com website, you might find you're offered a cashback deal. Take care, as you may get signed up to High Street Max, an online membership scheme that charges you £14.95 a month.

The scheme is run by Adaptive Affinity Ltd, and some of our visitors have been surprised by unexpected monthly deductions from their credit card from HighStreetMax. Check the small print carefully if you don't want to join the scheme.

1&1 Internet - This firm offer Internet web hosting, and sell domain names, and they were a former favourite of ours... until recently...

One of our team recently received a letter from a debt collection agency 'BFS Finance Ltd', 232 The Hall, Beverley, HU17 6AL for an amount of £10.45, with "charges for late payment" of £15. Surprised at getting a debt collection letter out of the blue, we did some digging around and uncovered all sorts of horror stories about 1 & 1, including a collection of phone calls from a Simon Jones, who'd been hit with almost the same problem. We're embarrassed to say that we used to recommend 1&1, as they offered a good web domain hosting service, but after receiving an out-of-the-blue debt recovery letter, we did some browsing, and found that this company have done the same to a number of other users, and well as a few other 'unexpected' business practices. We advise against using 1&1 - instead, give Namesco a go.

One frustrated customer has created Bankraid.com to highlight their practices - take a listen to the recorded phone calls of a Simon Jones talking to 1&1's Billing Team. Classic!

To be clear and transparent, we have no problem with Vistaprint, the online stationery firm themselves - Our team has used them many times with good results.

The issue we wish to highlight relates to a membership rewards scheme offered via Vistaprint. One of our team has been caught out as a result of accidentally signing up to VistaPrint Rewards whilst buying some business cards. His battle to stop the debits and obtain a refund is documented here: Adaptive Affinity Complaint.

We understand that the VistaPrint Rewards scheme is not run by VistaPrint, but by a third-party called Adaptive Affinity. For details of our experiences with Vistaprint Rewards and Adaptive Affinity, see our Adaptive Affinity Complaint page.

If ordering from VistaPrint, our advice is to take care when completing your order to make sure that you do not accidentally opt-in to the Rewards Scheme (at £9.95 a month), unless this is your intention.

If you need to contact Adaptive Affinity regarding VistaPrint Rewards, we have contact details on our Adaptive Affinity Help and Advice page.