December locals chat

[mellow2]

New thread as the other one is not going to last long.

Hi 2cute,

Great to have you back.

sfx I get very excited about that sort of thing too

We had a fabby bookclub meet last night and I am quite hungover.

MORNING FOXIE - did that hurt

...

good morning all

well M&S was empty apart from the me and a bunch of grannieslovely no queues

still must track down a couple of items but might take dd to Kew for a spin on Carousel first.

hope you all have a nice day

I just went to the bank and there were about 200 people in the queue!!

Morning all!

Hi 2cute! Lovely to 'see' you.

Hi xoxo![waves]

This is probably my last one before Christmas (going oop north tomorrow morning). Have a lovely Christmas and hope to see you all soon!

Mrs R,
Are you feeling better yet? DH came home with the flu last night. So I told him to stay away from me and slept on the sofa. Not taking any chances in the run up to Christmas.

Feeling a bit better - still got this nasty cough and croaky voice. Oh no your poor dh (hahaha!!). I said to my dh it was strange he hadn't had it and he said he had but he had fought it (so brave of him !!).

That's funny. Dh actually says he has "man flu"

I just have to have a moan here.... BLOODY BLOODY STUPID AMERICAN EXPRESS. They took out the same bill two months in a row. So, I was paid this morning and the whole thing was extracted (in error) by AMEX. They admit they made a mistake. But, nonetheless it will take a few days to get it back, leaving me unable to to buy Christmas presents this weekend. Feck feck feck...

I think it is such rubbish that I have to be personally responsible for a credit card which is only for work.

ok rant over. I just learned all about an indemnity claim. Apparently it's the fastest way to get your money back. They promise it will be back in my account on Sunday -- I'll believe it when I see it.

And I have to pay the nanny before she leaves on Saturday.... how am I going to do that?!?!?

I think I'll cancel this bloody direct debit and pay them as and when I want to initiate the transaction.

Buger bugger bugger...

ring your bank, explain the situation and they should give you a temporary overdraft to tide you over until Amex give you back your cash.

Write an extremely strong letter of complaint to Amex and demand that they compensate you for overdraft arrangement fees/interests etc.

do it NOW!

Thanks Paddle. I spoke to the bank (Abbey) who processed the indemnity claim. They promised it would be in my account in 48 hours. But, I'll believe it when I see it.

I've just asked DH to cover the nanny ££ so we can pay her before she goes off on hols. Hopefully he can!

But THIS is exactly why I don't like Direct Debits. Why can't they put the money back RIGHT NOW?

That a good idea about the overdraft, but I think it would be a lot more work faffing around with letters and following up, etc. to get my money back.

Incidentally, I resisted this company credit card when they gave it to me a year ago. But, my company insisted all company travel must go on the company Amex card. And then they said I had to pay my direct debit. Nice, eh? I have to sogn up to their card, I have to link it to my own account, and when AMEX takes all of my paycheck three days before Christmas, its my problem.

Is now a good time to mention I my new years resolution involves a new employer?

Granted this is not my employer's doing, but I still think it's crap that I'm responsible.

I suppose I could charge Christmas expenses to my AMEX even though that is strictly forbidden by company policy... do I care?

Sory, I've just gone on and on about me me me...

How's the new pad? I think you have moved in now. Does mini paddle like it? Fancy an after work meal in the new year?

oh ele - sorry to hear about Amex - they've just moved across here as well and everyone is moaning. However, you saying about charging your Xmas expenses reminded me of when I worked at EDS and a guy there was leaving and they didn't take his card back immediately so he decided to buy a car on his Amex card he managed to reach his limit of £100,000 and was never seen again. Oh isn't revenge sweet!

And why can't you charge personal expenses when your personal bank account has to pay it anyway? Can't see any tax implications of that!

Steppy/XoXo?anyone else not signed up for January Girls Night Out?

I have created a new thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/4136/443820?rnd=1198238727289

And don't forget there is also a Feb 1st meet up (most likely at Gaucho) , and of course everyone is welcome there. Foxy wants to keep separate meet ups. So I hope no one minds. If people prefer Escale, I don't mind. But just so you know everyone is welcome on Feb. 1st as well.

Feb 1st Richmond Meet-up

It's a shame I won't be able to join the Jan and Feb meet ups as I'm heading back to Malaysia for 6 weeks after Christmas.

Ele, I would charge Christmas expenses to Amex if I were you.

this sort of thing has happened to me before wrt to double payments.

the fault is with your bank for agreeing to a 2nd direct debit. of course it's also with amex for presenting the DD for a 2nd time.

however, your bank (Abbey) should not have paid the 2nd presentation. therefore the responsibility lies with them to cover the sum until they recoup it from Amex.

regardless of how long that takes, they should give you an arrangement fee free/interest free overdraft to cover the funds.

banks cannot process DDs without formal notice of your agreement. for anyone other than the bank and amex to be at fault here you would have had to have signed a 2nd dd mandate.

understand about the faff over letters etc so ditch that but insist Abbey give you that overdraft facility till Sunday.

move went well thanks. we're settling in and dd does seem to have coped quite well. unfortunately she also seems to have been ill for about a month but hopefully she's over the worst of it now.

weekday nights aren't great for me, we should try to hook up on a weekend sometime tho.

Actually, the story is a tad more complicated (yes, really). My expenses from work were not paid in time to cover the bill. So I called AMEX and said "HELP!". AMEX was fab. Said no problem, we'll cancel this direct debit, set up a new one and it will take money one week later, yada yada yada. At this point I was a big AMex fan. But it has all gone wrong in the feew months that followed. Direct Debit was not taken. I got a letter from Amex demanding payment. So I called Amex and said YOU didn't take it. So I paid with debit card over phone (expenses from company had cleared at this point). So, then the direct debit this mornig was a duplicate of a payment I had made with the debit card over the phone. So, to be fair, Abbey is totally in the clear. There is no way they could have been expected to know this was a duplicate.

Okay, this is partially my fault for the hoo ha of caneclling the direct debit and reinstating it a week later. But, hey, it was on Amex's suggestion that I did this. And it is AMEX who has failed miserably on many steps to follow. They obviously haven't got their billing systems in sync.

Anyway, DH is covering the bills until they refund my money. So I'm going to leave Abbey alone. And I am not trusting AMEX with any more direct debit shenanigans.

Yes, a weekend would be nice... maybe sometime in Jan, but not 12 or 18. Can you e-mail me? I know you have a new e-mail but can't remember what it is.

HI all. Just popping in, haven't had a chance to catch up on the thread, so hope everyone is well. We have been a flurry of nativity plays, parties,ds's 3rd birthday was on Wednesday, organising dd's party for in the new year and getting everything reasdy for christmas! Last day of school today, so no more scrapping ice of the car in the mornings for 2 weeks (YAY)!

Hi COV - I thought it was ds' birthday around the sametime as my dd2s (she's 7 today!). Happy Birthday COV's ds! Have a lovely Christmas - will be thinking of you with your ILs.

Hi all, just thought I'd pop in quickly while the painkillers are working!

Festive, glad to see you've moved in for xmas, that's great!

How's everyone else? Mellow, shame you can't join us for night out but nice you're getting to see your family for a while.

Op went as well as it could, dh & ds came to see me about 6pm but I was still a bit out of it and kept drifting off, I don't even remember them leaving . I really do not recommend coming round after anaesthetic (sp?) & morphine!

[hugs] ros, take it easy and take things slowly (hard to do at this time of year I know).