I recently won an eBay auction and promptly paid using the preferred PayPal method, which according to eBay is “The fast, easy & safe way to pay“.

Conveniently (for them) eBay also own PayPal and so not only do they earn revenue from the auction listing fees and 5.25% of the final value, but also 3.4% of the payment transaction amount.

I was shocked to later receive an email from eBay informing me that the seller’s trading privileges had been suspended and the listing removed, but they would not share any further information due to “privacy concerns”. So I was left with £216 deducted from my credit card and no item to show for it.

Not to worry I thought, PayPal boast that their “Buyer Protection helps you to buy with confidence; purchases may be covered up to £500, at no additional cost.”

The key word there is “may”. Only particular auctions that meet strict eligibility requirements are protected to this value. For standard transactions the most you can hope to claim back via PayPal’s dispute resolution process is £120 minus £15 for what they call an “eBay processing cost” – a paltry £105 in total, no matter how much you paid using their supposedly safe payment method.

Faced with the prospect of being £111 out of pocket, I contacted my credit card company to seek recompense for the full amount via what is called a ‘Chargeback’. I was surprised to discover that a Chargeback can be instigated many weeks or even months after a transaction takes place, so an unscrupulous buyer can attempt to reverse a transaction long after you assume it has completed. It seems to me that PayPal is riddled with loopholes and far from the perceived safe trading environment.

Fortunately my seller eventually came good and refunded the purchase in full, but I was lucky and I doubt that I will consider PayPal for high value purchases in future. BBC’s Watchdog programme has also covered this issue, there is more information and advise on their web site.

Finally, make sure that you pay close attention to the full description of what you are bidding on. One unfortunate buyer has just paid £470 for a photo of a Xbox 360! He failed to read the small print: “This auction is not for a Xbox 360 game system, but instead of picture of one.”

» eBayer pays £470 for photo of Xbox 360

“Your time is precious” proclaims the SpinVox web site.

For those not in the know, SpinVox is a service that “converts your voicemails into text messages and sends them straight to your mobile phone or email.”

This is not a rant directed at the SpinVox translation service as I have been using SpinVox for a few months and it has generally been ok. The quality of speech to text translation can be a bit ropey and it is evident that they are using humans to convert at least some of the messages, so if privacy is a concern then don’t use this service.

My issue is with their “time is precious” motto. If my time is so precious to them, why did they keep me waiting in a call queue for 61 minutes to cancel my subscription?

“May I ask why you are cancelling your subscription with us?” the advisor asked.
“Do you know how long I have been waiting in the call queue?” I asked in return.
“Er, sorry about that… about half an hour?”
“No, sixty-one minutes to be precise”
“Oh, that’s bad”

Too right it’s bad. Can anyone beat 61 minutes on hold?

For reference, you can also cancel SpinVox by sending “STOP” to 84004 (which isn’t mentioned on their web site).

Section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998 provides individuals with the right to apply for a copy of the information held by credit reference agencies which relates to them.

I recently checked the information that credit reference agencies have on me and was surprised to find that most of them had created and maintained a financial connection between myself and my ex. It seems that unless you personally take steps to correct this, it could stay on your credit report ad-infinitum and affect your credit scoring.

It costs just £2 to request your personal credit report from each agency, so it’s well worth checking. Don’t be fooled into subscribing to their monitoring services, there isn’t any need as the statutory report will tell you everything you need to know.

The application forms can be difficult to find so I have included direct links below (please let me know if any of the links are broken).

• Experian
• Equifax
• Callcredit

The report should arrive within a week. You can remove a stale financial association or other erroneous data by contacting the agencies direct or submitting the relevant online form.