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The situation in relation to clamping is largley replicated by private car parking compmanies when issuing tickets. My wife recently received a demand for £75 fpr overstayng by 10 minutes, to be increased to £150 if not paid within 14 days. However she was not the driver and we informed the company of this. This has cut no ice with the company who have continued to harass both if us with seperate letters threating court action and our credit rating. We have therefore decided to use the services of a solicitor to deal with this. Like the clampers there seems to be little regulation and a lot of harrassment which is very intimidating. Above all the "fines" are totaly disproportionate to the "crime." (Far more than speeding fines!!). If it had been a reasonable amount we would have paid up within days.

One of the experts at the show saved money on utility bills by advising a swap to monthly direct debit from the standard tariff pay as you use.

Well, my experience proves that this doesn't always work. Until Nov 2006 we were on direct debit paying £38 a month. Then it was increased to £86. We hadn't underpaid, and it was the same story every year, always up never down. So I cancelled the direct debit which would have cost us £1032 for the next 12 months, and paid on the standard tariff each quarter. Our bill for 2007 was £371. Quite a saving.

On 7 Oct 2008 our old imperial meter was replaced with a new metric meter. Unfortunately, we have continued to receive estimated bills for the old meter. If we had been paying by direct debit they would have continued to take the money even though the bills were wrong. They've had four meter readings, two from their own meter readers and still haven't got it right.

In our opinion, direct debits do not always save you money and leave you with no bargaining tool if the bill is wrong.