Kindle vs Kobo: Which is best?

As MoneySavingExpert.com’s resident tech writer, I often get asked: “Which is better, the Kindle or the Kobo?” My honest answer is: it depends what you’re looking for.

Many people (including MSE’s head honcho – who is firmly on Team Kindle, see his comment below) favour the ubiquitous Kindle, and it has been one of the UK’s most-wanted Christmas gifts for a couple of years.

But with the arrival of the slightly cheaper Kobo last year, a battle for the title of best e-reader began, sparking much debate on our Cheap e-readers forum discussion.

So, if you’re considering swapping paperbacks for something a bit more hi-tech, here’s my take on the UK’s two biggest e-readers.

Price

Cost is obviously going to be a big factor for many when choosing an e-reader.

Amazon’s newest Kindle (the wi-fi model, without keyboard) is £89, though it is often possible to pick one up for slightly less with a discount code from Tesco.

In contrast, the standard cost for the Kobo wi-fi is around £70, with the cheapest we’ve found at Asda (£59) if you bag it at the right time. For a round up of all the deals available, read the Cheap e-Book Readers guide.

My choice: Kobo

Books

The Kindle has space for around 1,400 books, and the Kobo 1,000. But this should be more than enough for even the fastest of readers.

If it’s not, the Kobo has an SD card slot, which can expand your library up to 32GB, or 10,000 books. The Kindle doesn’t have an SD card slot, but I’m not going to mark it down for this (who really needs more than 100 books, let alone 1,400?). And you can also store files on your PC to free up room on your reader.

Free e-books are available from a whole load of websites, including Amazon and the Kobo site, so there’s no need to spend money buying something to read. The Kobo even comes pre-loaded with 100 classic novels, such as The Hound Of The Baskervilles and Anne Of Green Gables.

If you do want to buy the latest Kinsella or Grisham bestseller, bear in mind Amazon’s Kindle store is competitively priced, offering a lot of the newest releases a lot cheaper than other online sites, so I’d suggest you compare e-book prices before downloading anything.

If you have a Kindle, unless you buy your books from Amazon’s Kindle store (as AZW files), you may have to spend time converting e-books to a readable format, as Amazon restricts the use of ePub files.

It allows for MOBI and PDF files though, so if you want to get books that aren’t available on the Amazon site (or are cheaper elsewhere), you’ll have to download a file convertor program. I’m a big fan of Calibre, which is really easy to use and transfers books to the Kindle in seconds, once converted to a MOBI file.

The majority of free e-books on the web are in the ePub format, which can be put directly on to the Kobo, but will have to be converted if using a Kindle.

Similarly, if your local library offers free e-books, you may experience problems if you have a Kindle, as they tend to be in ePub format, and copyright laws prevent you from converting them.

For me, the openness of Kobo’s file format gives it the edge over the Kindle in this category.

My choice: Kobo

Size

If you plan to use your e-reader while travelling, size is important.

And, if you’re used to reading paperback books, you may find an e-reader takes a bit of getting used to. Both the Kindle and Kobo have a 6-inch screen, which is a lot smaller than the size of a standard book.

At 170g, the Kindle is the lighter of the two though, weighing a lot less than the average paperback. And the Kobo is not that much heavier, at 221g.

The Kindle is also a fraction smaller, so will take up less suitcase space — meaning more room for flip flops/bikinis/inflatable crocodiles etc.

But neither e-reader is waterproof, so don’t attempt to read in the pool (or bath), unless you’ve got one of these.

My choice: Kindle

Look & feel

The e-reader is a big favourite with daily commuters (myself included), so being able to hold it in one hand while frantically gripping an overhead bar/briefcase/scalding cup of coffee is a must.

In my ‘holdability’ test, the Kobo came up trumps with its soft rubber finish. The raised pattern on the back makes it really comfy to hold, perhaps more so than an actual book, though it’s been a while since I’ve held a paperback.

As both devices feature a 6-inch e-ink screen, and both let you choose your font and size, there are no differences here.

Buttons were next up on my test list, which for me is where the Kindle lost serious brownie points. I am not a fan of the page turn buttons on the Kindle. There were way too many of them for a start.

I often lost my place in the book I was reading and found myself pressing the wrong buttons all the time. Annoying.

The onscreen keyboard on the Kindle was also slow, and a pain to type with.

The Kobo was a lot simpler, with the five-way controller doing page turns and navigating the menus.

When it comes to turning the page, Amazon claims the latest Kindle has 10% faster turns than its predecessor, the Kindle Keyboard, but to the naked eye — well, mine — page turns were still pretty slow.

The Kobo was even slower to load pages than the Kindle though, which I found broke my reading pace. I also didn’t like the way the Kobo screen flashed black and white with a sort of ‘ghost’ text when turning the page. Creepy.

My choice: Draw, but the Kobo wins for the daily commuter.

My verdict

With an RRP of £69.99, the Kobo is not only cheaper than the Kindle but I think better for books, with thousands of titles available to borrow for free at a growing number of libraries.

It’s not the Kindle, though, and that’s what most people seem to want.

If buying an e-reader for yourself, the Kobo wins hands down in my opinion. Save yourself the extra £20 and buy a nice case for it.

But if you’re buying an e-reader as a present, it may be worth spending that extra £20 and getting them what they really want. After all, you don’t want to be known as the person who gives the cheap Kindle substitute.

Do you agree with me? You can leave your feeback in the comments section below or in the MSE Forum.

The offending cards

I’ve been getting nasty stares as I enter my local train station over recent weeks, like I’m some kind of pariah, for the heinous crime of my Oyster card not opening the gates quickly enough in the London rush hour.

Now, I know every minute counts in the morning as we make that last minute dash to the train but, seriously, guys!

Anyway, despite that needless aside, the issue is I’m lazy and don’t take my card out of my wallet. Instead, I touch the wallet itself against the reader.

However, that didn’t initially explain why I was having problems all of a sudden, as it had always worked that way in the past.

I showed my Oyster card at the ticket booth and got the all-clear. So what could it be?

The lightbulb moment

Then I realised.

A few months ago Barclaycard sent me a contactless card to replace my old Egg Money credit card (as Barclaycard took over the Egg card business last year).

I didn’t initially keep it in my wallet as I use a different cashback card for spending on, but realised I ought to keep it as a back-up.

You can use the Barclaycard by tapping it against a reader at certain shops to pay for goods, so it obviously uses similar technology to Oyster, so was probably confusing the gate machines.

So, I moved the Barclaycard to a different part of my wallet and have remembered to touch my wallet on the same side as my Oyster over recent days.

Thankfully, I can now get through the gates immediately.

So the moral of the story is simple. Keep your contactless credit cards away from your travel payment card, to avoid others looking at you like you have the IQ of an amoeba.

Has this happened to you? You can leave your feedback in the MSE forum or in the comments section below.

After working at MoneySaving Towers for a decent length of time, one can become complacent about the punch this website can pack — and the press release that just dropped into my inbox provided a eye-opening reminder.

In last week’s weekly email, we highlighted a great loophole for savers.

National Counties Building Society was offering a three-year fixed rate ISA paying 3.7% AER — a rate far higher than anything available with easy access. But unlike normal fixed-rate bonds, you could get at your cash without paying a penalty. Instead you just needed to give 99 days’ notice.

This effectively made it a guaranteed good rate which allowed withdrawal, provided you can plan ahead.

As we’ve mentioned similar deals in the weekly email before, we knew this would be red hot and probably disappear quickly. Savings providers usually have a maximum tranche of cash that they want to attract, at which point they cut off the account for new customers.

This time it actually lasted quite well, but it was no surprise to see an email pop up about an hour ago explaining that the deal was full and had been withdrawn.

‘Staggering 16,000%’

What did catch the eye, though, was the explanation the building society gave:

National Counties has withdrawn its 5th Issue fixed rate cash ISA to new customers, following a week which saw enquiries about the product jump by a staggering 16,000%.

Following a conversation on 21 February between two keen savers on the forum of Moneysavingexpert.com, regarding a so-called ‘loophole’ in the 5th Issue Fixed Rate Cash ISA, a mass of exchanges broke out resulting in a total of 50 posts and a dedicated story in the site’s weekly email.

16,000%! While statistics can be manipulated to show what the author desires, and this account probably started from a low base of interest, that thwacking figure certainly makes the eyes water.

Deals we mention in the weekly email often go like the hottest of cakes, and this titbit from a sizeable financial institution gives a great memory-jog of how much MoneySavers love a great deal.

Feel free to leave any comments on The power of MSE — it boosts popularity by 16,000%! discussion or in the comments section below.

So you’ve managed to survive Valentine’s Day, narrowly escaping cupid’s arrow and bypassing all the cute teddies and chocolates.

But even though you’ve got through the most romantic day of the year on your tod, it still seems the majority of things (and best deals) are aimed towards couples.

So how do you get the best deals if you’re single?

Take the plethora of 2for1 restaurant deals, 2for1 theme park and attraction tickets, not to mention all the BOGOF deals down the local supermarket (there’s only so much ice-cream a gal can get away with).

True, you can go with a friend, but if you just fancy asserting your independence and going it alone, here are my top tips for fun, yet affordable activities.

Films

No, I’m not telling you to brave the cinema on a Friday night to sit among the teenage sweethearts. After a long week at work, sometimes you just want to stay in and not budge from the sofa.

And despite having a Sky, Virgin or Freeview box, sometimes it feels like there’s nothing worth watching.

If you’ve got a laptop and internet access, you’re half way there.

BBC iPlayer is a nifty website which allows you to watch many films, documentaries and popular series for free. Plus, you can pause the programme to make a brew and watch the next episode of a series straightaway rather than waiting a whole week.

Shopping

Retail therapy can work wonders, especially when you’re on your own. There’s no one to rush you, no-one telling you that you look fabulous in that dress when you ask the $64 million dollar question of ‘does my bum look big in this?’ and you’re not being dragged around shops you have absolutely no interest in.

But even better than this, is grabbing yourself a bargain. By signing up to retailers’ newsletters, you’re often rewarded with money off your first shop.

Plus check out MSE’s High Street Sales and Discount Vouchers page to see if you can save while you shop. Getting those £50+ Gap jeans for £30 is a sweeter deal than those heart-shaped bonbons!

Museums

Whatever part of the country you’re in, why not take a stroll through history and acquaint yourself with art and science by visiting one of the many free UK museums?

I love getting lost in Tate Modern, snaking my way through the garish art of the 1900s to the more outlandish sculptures of the 21st century. And OK, I admit, I leave feeling a sense of intellectual smugness.

Check out the Free Museums & Galleries page to find your nearest free venue when you’ve a quiet weekend planned.

Books and reading

Immersing yourself in literature needn’t cost the earth. If you’re lucky enough to have a Kindle, you’ve opened yourself up to a world of free novels, whether you’re into classics such as Wuthering Heights or fancy checking out new works from up-and-coming authors.

Most weekends I surf Amazon’s free Kindle books before settling down in a comfy chair in Costa with a nice warm latte.

No Kindle? Charity shops are inundated with books from every genre and author and I have to say, buying Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden was the best 50p I’ve spent in a while. It saved me from boredom as I was gripped by the effects of swine flu back in 2009.

Exercise and gyms

It’s a love-hate relationship for me (more love in summer, hate in the cold, wintry nights) but a little bit of exercise increases those endorphin levels.

I’m blessed living five minutes from a forest whether for dirt biking or a long leisurely stroll on a Sunday, but there are also many cycling and walking routes up and down the country to take advantage of.

Otherwise, if you’re not the outdoorsy-type, see MSE’s Cheap Gyms Guide for loads of tips to blag yourself a free pass for up to 10 days, with no obligation to take out an expensive and lengthy contract.

Obviously this isn’t an exhaustive list of things to do when you’re by yourself; there’s plenty out there to keep you occupied. But rather than list all the possibilities, get out there and see for yourself.

You can give your tips and feedback in the comments section below or in the MSE forum.

Beauty and make-up aren’t the most important or MoneySaving things in the world, but they can make us feel happy.

And if we can save a few pennies on things that make us happy, we can put them towards those more important things in life.

I’ve certainly done that. Below are the five beauty products I’ve found to be the best (in my 31 years’ experience!) and I managed to pick them up pretty cheap too.

Being a MSE deals researcher, I haven’t paid a lot for anything in a loooong time, and where possible, I’ve included discount codes in my examples below that’ll knock the price down even further…

• From a young age I’ve been a massive fan of The Body Shop (did anyone else have a slightly unhealthy obsession with lip balm when they were at school?) so it comes as no surprise that my top £10 and under beauty product comes from it. It’s the Brow & Liner kit for £10.

  Sounds basic enough you might think, it’s just for eye brows, but ask any self-respecting beauty sporting a ‘Scouse Brow’ and they’ll tell you how important brows are to frame the face. Not only that, get the darker shades and you’ll get a black powder which is ideal for the night-time smoky look or a bit of eye liner. I can’t recommend this product enough. I use it every day and, after my recommendation, so does MSE Penny.

• Lip balm these days has to be Carmex (£1.95 at Superdrug). It’s the only thing to banish frosty dry lips. Stick it on over night for best effects. Some people swear by Vaseline, for me it feels like your putting pig fat on your lips, but that’s just a personal thing.

• Hand cream has to be another Body Shop favourite — Hemp Hand Protector (currently on offer for £5 for 100ml). It’s the only hand cream I’ve found that doesn’t feel too waxy or greasy and actually works. My sister works as a sound engineer, lifting and carrying heavy equipment all over the place, so I stocked up on this for her when there was a 40% code.
  
  Speaking of codes, I can’t remember the last time I bought something in-store at The Body Shop; the regular online discounts are really strong. It’s currently got 10% off if you buy one item, 20% off two, 30% off three and 40% off four with the code ENJOY till Mon 27 Feb.
• Another make-up bag fail-safe is Max Factor Masterpiece mascara. Now, I’ve got to admit, this isn’t one of my finds, it’s my mum’s, but no matter how many expensive mascaras I buy (Lancome, Clinique, Dior) I always go back to this one (turns out mums are always right after all, eh?). The brush is a sturdy shape that gets right down into the teeniest of eye lashes. One coat’s perfect for work, two or three’s dramatic enough for the evening.

• To take it all off at the end of a day I use the old trusted Johnson’s baby wipes (£2.98 for 2×64 pack at Asda). These are pretty much always on offer somewhere (there’s a Superdrug, Boots and Morrisons near MSE Towers and I have been known to check out prices at all three on wipe watch). I’ve tried other beauty wipes and cheaper ones, but these are the ones that agree with my face most.

So there they are, my life time’s collection. I have a hundred more, but I kept this blog down to my top five.

There’s a raft of invaluable info in the MSE forums, check out the MSE Beauty & Fashion Board for more hints and tips.

Bicester Village outlet shopping

Outlet store shopping is great for bargains but not so great when things go wrong, it seems.

With such stores featuring heavily in the news — M&S is offering its outlet range online at 40% off standard prices from today — this blog should serve as a warning to shoppers.

I say this from personal experience from something that happened only today.

The saga started on Boxing Day when I drove an hour-and-a-half from my London home to the Bicester Village outlet centre near Oxford to pick up a few bargains.

With a mix of the ‘January sales’ and the fact the clearance items at such shopping centres are already hugely discounted, I picked up some corking deals.

But two weeks ago, when I tried on a Hugo Boss T-shirt (which cost little more than a standard M&S T-shirt) I’d bought on that trip for the first time, there was a small hole near the bottom.

Now, the damage may have developed since I bought it. But since all I did was load the item into my car and then onto a hanger, it was probably there already and I’d missed it in the shop.

No exchange

Yesterday, I took the T-shirt to the Hugo Boss store at Westfield, Shepherd’s Bush, hoping for a refund or exchange.

The assistant didn’t quibble about the legitimacy of my claim, but insisted I had to take it back to Bicester. Outlet store purchases must be taken back to an outlet store, according to the terms and conditions. M&S, and some others, operate a similar policy with their outlet stores.

I asked if she’d do me a favour and help me out as Bicester is a long way to go for a single T-shirt. She kindly took the T-shirt and said she’d speak to her manager.

This lunchtime, I got a call from a very polite and friendly member of staff (I presume it was the manager) saying there was nothing the store could do. I even asked if they could send it onto Bicester for me, but I was told that wasn’t possible.

The staff tried to do all they could but it appears their hands were tied.

I was told I can’t even send the T-shirt myself as both me and my credit card need to be present for a refund or exchange.

So I’ll collect it tomorrow and repair the hole myself (though I’m useless at that sort of thing!) as Bicester is too far to drive for that. It would probably cost half the value of the T-shirt in petrol just to get there and back.

It’s a lesson for me and everyone else. While outlet stores are great in many ways, they don’t come without their risks.

Has this happened to you? You can leave your feedback in the MSE forum or in the comments section below.

Who’d have thought it would be cheaper to fly premium economy than economy?

Well, I got that pleasant surprise this month when booking an Easter getaway.

I was prepared to pay a little more than usual, as I’m flying on Good Friday and my ticket from British Airways was indeed on the steep side.

It cost £500 instead of the usual £300-£400. That’s my fault for choosing peak time, but still the cheapest option of all the airlines I could have used.

But rather than growl when handing over my card details from the clutch of my wallet, I left the BA website with a grin as I’m flying premium economy on the way out which should hopefully make the four-hour journey easier to bear (I don’t like flying, especially turbulence, so anything to improve the journey is a big thing for me).

Yet I never asked it to show me tickets in that class as I’d selected economy.

When the results came up I thought there was a glitch on the site as it said the cheapest tickets for the day I wanted were in World Traveller Plus instead of World Traveller (whatever happened to economy, premium economy, business and first? That’s for another day…)

But it was fine, I went through the booking process and I have indeed got a premium economy seat on the outward leg.

I checked with BA’s press office to find out if this was an anomaly or is usual.

I was told when all restricted (when it’s expensive to change) tickets in one class of travel sell out, it may be cheaper to fly on a restricted ticket in the next class up, rather than on a flexible fare in the lower class.

Credit to BA for offering a cheaper seat in a higher class even when I’d not asked for it. It’s something to keep an eagle eye out for when you’re booking.

You may be offered premium economy for your preferred journey or, if you’re flexible, it may be worth picking a different flight when premium economy is reasonably priced, and get something more than you hoped for.

Has this happened to you? You can leave your feedback in the MSE forum or in the comments section below.

Pushy timeshare reps often use bribes to lure unsuspecting holidaymakers into parting with their life savings. But unfortunately for them, they’d picked up a MoneySaver…

On a recent trip to California, I was asked to see a quick presentation in return for a totally free, no-strings-attached $100 gift card. My MoneySaving antenna popped up – the notorious timeshare freebie. I’d heard reports from those who’ve attended property sales pitches just for these bribes, so decided to give it a go.

Little did I know I was in for a three-and-a-half-hour sales ordeal that would use my own cash to hold me to ransom. They even claimed timeshares prevent cancer.

As I told them quite frankly at the outset, I had absolutely no intention of buying anything and was purely in it for the freebie. They were magnanimous – “That’s fine! There’s absolutely no pressure.” Considering the Rambo-esque sales tactics that followed, I’ve since decided they don’t consider anything short of a punch in the face as ‘pressure’.

Before I was allowed to attend, they checked I had all the ingredients for a mammoth impulse buy: earning above a threshold, partner in tow, and carrying an approved payment method. We were cheerfully packed into a minibus with a dozen other couples and told to enjoy our ‘free treat’ (final check: “Did you all say you have Mastercard? Good.”)

The minibus pulled up at a new hotel building, where we were herded upstairs to a windowless, low-ceiling conference room crammed with sales staff. Here are the tricks used in the sales pitches that followed, and more importantly, the survival strategies we used to grab the freebie and run.

The tactics they used:

• The show ain’t over till they say so. On arrival, we had to put down a refundable cash deposit of about $50 and sign a form saying we would forfeit this, and the promised gift card, if we left before the timeshare pitch was finished (which had no specified end time – eek). There was no mention of this when we signed up, so we had no choice but to pay up or leave.

  Incidentally, I say ‘about $50′, as bizarrely, neither myself or my partner can remember exactly how much it was. I can only assume it’s because a) it was sprung on us with absolutely no warning or b) the ensuing sales onslaught triggered a mild form of retrograde amnesia.

• Wear ‘em down. The sales pitch started late in the morning and lasted several hours into the afternoon. We were greeted with tea and coffee at the start, but there were no further refreshments, nowhere to get lunch – and if you didn’t want to forfeit your freebie and deposit, no way to leave without their approval.

• Divide and conquer. There were two parts to the pitch, starting with a presentation. Each couple was instantly assigned their own sales rep, who followed them throughout (more on this delightful practice later), and insisted on sitting with them during the presentation. Maximum sales patter, minimum privacy.

• Share the love. Having stated only couples could attend the day, we were all made to publicly declare our love – one couple at a time, moving around the room – followed by a kiss. I’m not joking. Each was accompanied by loud, satisfied ‘aaaaahs’ from the sales staff, and immediately used for the “if you love them, you’ll buy them a timeshare” tactic.

• Free chocolate. All at MSE Towers know this is my Achilles heel, and I must admit being pressured into spending tens of thousands on a holiday apartment is far more appealing when you add free chocs (incidentally, it was a Hershey’s kiss, woven into the presentation as reinforcement of the “love = timeshare” message).

• Buy a holiday home and you won’t get cancer. Stay with me a moment here. Yes, that’s what they said in the presentation. The equation was: your own holiday home = more holidays = less stress = stress causes cancer (?) Therefore timeshare = no cancer. I’m not being figurative, they literally spent several minutes arguing this bizarre equation.

I have since decided that, compared to what followed, the presentation was the ‘carrot’. What came next can only be described as a large number of sticks used to metaphorically beat us into parting with all our savings.

• Tell a sad story. The second part of the pitch was a face-to-face ‘chat’ with our allocated sales rep. I braced myself for the hard sell, but our saleslady started by casually flipping through a photo album. And pointing out all the people in it who were now dead. There were a lot.

  The entire episode was incredibly odd – I presume they were her friends, but I can’t say for certain. They could have been people who had refused to buy timeshares. Either way, I can only assume this was meant as a reminder to seize the day, but it made us feel pretty uncomfortable.

• Call in the ‘bad cop’. The face-to-face hard sell started. When I disagreed with the (frankly ludicrous) ‘savings’ they’d argued we’d make – which amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars – our sales rep called over what can only be described as the head sales-bully.

  With all the charm and tact of a Rottweiler with a machete, he snapped at me for not “understanding the value”. I was then barked the ‘savings’ again at twice the volume. He shouted at me for so long, I literally had to stare passively at my lap until he went away. Our persistent, human saleslady seemed a godsend by comparison.

• No solo bathroom breaks. After two hours of constant sales pressure, I excused myself to pop to the loo. My other half said he needed to go too. The timeshare saleslady insisted on ‘coming along’, and immediately wedged herself between us until my partner departed for the gents.

  When we got into the ladies’ bathroom, she stuck her head round a cubicle, flushed immediately, and walked straight back outside to wait for my other half, ensuring there was no conferring.

• The non-sequitur is king. If you aren’t going to buy property for a number of sensible reasons, why not ignore logic altogether? We had some real gems thrown at us by the sales staff. Me: “No thank you, I’m really not interested.” Saleslady: “Why don’t you think you deserve nice things?”

The defence we used:

• Stick it out. As we’d had to put our own cash down as a refundable deposit, we decided in true MoneySaving style, we weren’t leaving without it, and braced ourselves for the worst.

• Signal for backup. This simple tag-team strategy worked surprisingly well. If the pressure directed at you gets too much, just stop talking and look down. Partner will step in to take rest of verbal beating.

• Don’t just say ‘no’. Open ended answers are more difficult to respond to, so don’t meet with pre-prepared sales pitches. We quickly found that every time we said ‘no’, it added fuel to the fire. They simply said: “Why not?” Any response was then turned into a problem they had just the solution for (timeshare anyone?)

• Be vague. This was an almost nirvana-like, semi-vegetative state that we arrived at after several hours of repeating: “We’re really not interested.” It’s incredibly difficult to become drawn into an argument if you just lapse into non-specific noises of vague non-committal to any question.
  
  Saleslady: “So you can see this is a wonderful opportunity, shall we sign you up?” Me: “Aah. Hmmm.” Saleslady: “Yes, but this is incredible value, you know you really should sign up, right now.” Me: “Oh? Hmmm.” Saleslady: “Sign up!!” Me: “Oh.”

• Be chirpy. The saleslady found this incredibly annoying. The length of the sales pitch is designed to wear you down, so staying unnaturally upbeat was a surprisingly effective way to combat this.

• Ask about them. An integral part of the above tactic. Saleslady: “You know, you really need to travel more, which our properties can make possible for you. Seeing pictures of Paris is nothing compared to seeing it for yourself.” Me: “It’s beautiful isn’t it? What was your favourite part?” Saleslady: “Oh. Um, I liked the… I’ve never been.”

• Be polite. I was careful not to be rude, or to match their aggressiveness at any time. It was evident by their guerrilla tactics that staff were under massive pressure themselves to make a sale. Eventually, we were allowed to collect our deposit and gift card, thanked our (now surly) sales rep and literally ran out of the building. As I left the room, I heard a fellow detainee, near tears, shouting: “You said no pressure! This is ridiculous.”

It took three-and-a-half hours, but we emerged victorious with the promised incentive. Would I do it again? Yes, but only for an outstanding freebie. Would I recommend it to others? Only if you’re very thick-skinned, aren’t afraid of Rottweilers, bring emergency food, drink, and glucose tablets, and have absolutely no intention of buying anything while you’re there (not even a packet of crisps).

Of course, all timeshare sales pitches are different, so hopefully some will be easier to get through than this. Scarily, that also means some may be harder. If you’ve been through the timeshare hard-sell, what were your strategies to get through it, and what techniques did they use? Share your tips to help others in the MSE forum.

While my colleagues in the editorial team are busy finding you the best savings, sales and switching tips, part of my new role as the site’s Campaign Officer is the less public side of MoneySavingExpert.com’s work. My new monthly blog is a way to let you know some of the ways we are fighting your corner in the background.

Along with my five years’ experience from working at MSE, and previously working for Citizens Advice and Trading Standards, to do my job I discuss our stance with Martin, get feedback from the rest of the team and monitor views and problems from the 10,000s of emails and forum posts we get each day to tell the Government, regulators and watchdogs what consumers need.

January’s a big month for policy workers, where campaigns and initiatives are planned and many political and consumer groups are asking for input. So here’s some of the things I’ve been involved in that I can tell you about (a few issues are yet to be announced so can’t be mentioned just yet)…

The Financial Ombudsman wants feedback on its new fees structure:

The Ombudsman charges firms to handle their complaints. From next year it’s proposing to break them into small, medium and large users, charging a separate fee for each. Plus it may add an additional £350 to PPI Reclaims to help it deal with the increasing numbers expected during 2012. It will still be free for consumers.

We were asked to comment on the proposal and I wrote to say we were broadly in favour, but also concerned that the new proposals still don’t incentivise financial institutions to settle complaints in house. Firms pay the same if 8% or 80% of cases are awarded against them, so they’ve no interest to sort complaints early.

Sharing ideas on collective purchasing with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC):

MSE is a member of DECC’s Collective Purchase and Switching Working Group along with other consumer groups and representatives from the energy market.

This month I attended a round-table meeting to discuss how collective purchasing (where a third party looks for best deals and switches a group of consumers) could work in the energy market. It’s an area the Government is looking at in several markets. The Department for Business is also hosting a microsite and looking for consumers’ views via our forum.

Financial Services Authority (FSA) review of its complaints data:

The FSA has published complaints data about individual firms for 18 months. It’s now reviewing the effectiveness to see if the process can be improved. I fed into the review by saying, while not being the main way to choose products and services, awareness of the data seems to be growing with consumers. We believe factual, easy-to-understand and trusted data will help consumers choose where they want to shop.

Working alongside Which? on Payment Protection Insurance reclaiming:

I’ve been working on a couple of Payment Protection Insurance projects with Which? over the last few months. It’s a little early for us to give more details, but with both organisations working together we’re hoping to shake up the reclaim process this year. Watch this space for more info!

Reviewing the work of the Independent Taskforce on Student Finance Information:

With UCAS applications for 2012 starters down in England the taskforce, headed by Martin and helped by university and student groups, has been reviewing its work to set the focus for the year ahead. We’ve now released pdf guides, a calculator, videos, lesson plans, mobile app (see resources) and organised a Student Finance Day which saw over 60 universities hold events in England and Wales.

Feeding through to Trading Standards Institute (TSI) about Consumer Week:

TSI have held a consumer week for the past few years. With this year’s focus on switching, or more specifically "Helping you Haggle", we are planning to be a partner in the event along with Consumer Focus.

Catching up with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) news and consumer teams:

MSE Guy, our news editor, and I met the OFT to find out what’s in store for the watchdog during 2012. It’s losing quite a few of its areas of work but there are some interesting reports due soon.

These include an investigation into airline surcharges, a payday lending compliance review, private motor insurance study results and a review of the current account market to see how things have been going since the bank charges test case. I used this opportunity to remind their head of news how she ran away from me outside the Supreme Court during the bank charges test case!

Campaign of the Week

A new addition to the weekly email in October last year, the aim of Campaign of the Week is to champion a consumer campaign undertaken by someone else. I’ve had some great replies from this month’s campaigns which show what a difference collective consumer power can make.

• Save the Children ‘No child left in the cold’ petition: 1000s of MoneySavers signed the petition to persuade energy companies to help poorer families with their energy bills. Several providers have now agreed to meet the charity to discuss the issues. See more on the campaign.

• Consumer Credit Counselling Service ‘Payday loans and debt management spamming’ campaign: The debt advice charity received 100s of replies from spammed MoneySavers and MSE coverage was the tipping point for the Information Commissioner’s Office to announce it’s tackling the problem as a “high priority”.

• Citizens Advice ‘Big Energy Week’: A nationwide campaign of events and tips on how to cut energy costs. Each day the Citizens Advice team also collected themed stories such as this one on ‘how much of your income do your gas and electric bills eat up?’ which included MoneySavers’ tweets.

• Pre-loved ‘Clear out the Clutter’ donations: Throughout January the classified advertising site paid £1 to Action for Children for each new ad placed on its site and MoneySavers helped raise around £2,000 for the charity.

• Money for Life challenge: This new scheme offers grants to teachers and community groups to help 16-to-24-year-olds develop money management skills and pass on tips to their friends, families and communities. See more info.

If you’re a charity, community group or organisation with a top campaign coming up, please send us a campaign of the week suggestion.

And finally…

While not a campaign as such, as a big fan I wanted to add an honorary mention for the long-awaited legal changes introduced for credit unions. These local savings and loan co-operatives now have more power to provide extra services to their communities and more flexibility on who can use the union. Yay! See our Credit Union guide to see if there’s a union near you.

Comment and discuss: A month in the life of MSE Campaigns – January