Brand rip-offs: Why it always make sense to buy own-brand

I hate brand rip-offs, and a ruling yesterday reminded me why. So I've crunched the numbers to make the point.

The Advertising Standards Authority banned two 'misleading' L’Oreal adverts – one involved a face cream that had apparently wiped the years away for Julia Roberts (pictured); the other was model Christy Turlington promoting one of the company's foundation products.

Put aside, for a moment, the morally bankrupt art of touching up pictures to convince consumers of a product's merits. My problem is with industries that spend a fortune to persuade you to buy - and then bill you for it.

Instead of just developing incredible products that sell themselves, the business models of some industries are reliant on talking up their game.

Consider that Julia Roberts was reportedly paid around £15million to be the face of L'Oreal's Lancome brand. Then consider that you are paying for that each time you buy a L'Oreal product.

The savings account weasels and their bonus trap

When is a bonus not a bonus? When your sneaky bank is offering it to you on a savings account just so it can pull a fast one in the future.

Our savings expert Dan Hyde has delivered another excellent article highlighting the menace of bonus rate savings accounts today. [Top savings account rates crash by up to 95% after a year]

He has revealed that one in ten accounts carry temporary bonuses that will see their rate plummet in the future. That doesn't sound like much, but then you realise that pretty much every decent instant access savings rate you can get falls into this pot.

And why do banks and building societies do this? Their propaganda would like you to believe it's a 'bonus' - a little extra reward because it loves and cares about you so much.

Except that's claptrap. It's not really a bonus - it's a trap. A trap designed to catch you out in about a year's time when your rate stops being 3% and ends up at 0.5%. Savvy savers will move on at this point, but your sneaky savings provider weasel knows that inertia means most savers will end up forgetting, or never get round to it, and they will have snared another person in their low rate trap.

Why I dread a trip to the opticians

Recently, I decided that I wanted to get my eyes tested as I was starting to feel that perhaps my glasses weren’t quite strong enough.

I found out that we have an eyecare scheme here at work, which means I am entitled to a free eye test because I use a computer daily.

When I checked out which opticians accept the voucher, the big chain High Street giant that I usually use didn’t.

In honesty, I felt this was a good thing. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to avoid large chain businesses and give local, independent places ago.

EU insurance ruling: Enforced equality trumps facts

So what are the odds on insurers playing fair on the EU ruling and equalising costs for men and women drivers, rather than just charging women a bundle more?

I’d put the chance at somewhere between extremely slim and not going to happen.

You would presume that the eurocrats who have outlawed gender based risk pricing on insurance would have realised this, but then perhaps they just don’t care.

Because it seems that in their world enforced equality trumps fact.

Champions League final tickets at Wembley for £2... a minute

I’m a football fanatic and although lower league games tend to be what I’m interested in, I do enjoy the excitement of European football.

You’ll find me shouting my tonsils out of my throat most Tuesdays and Saturdays at Roots Hall, watching my beloved Southend United.

I also sometimes take a little trip to the Emirates (when my friend can get tickets under £25 for Arsenal games) and Wembley, to watch England matches from time to time (again, paying no more than £25).

This year, the Champions League final is to be played at Wembley. It promises to be a great spectacle between two of Europe’s elite.

A personal letter of thanks to you from a bank boss

It must have been an oversight that Barclays missed out a thanks to taxpayers and its customers for their contribution to the bank's success.

So I've done my best to imagine what the Massachusetts-born boss really wanted to say.

Dear taxpayers and bank customers of Britain,

Hey, thanks for bailing out my industry and stopping the domino effect that could have wiped out all UK banks, I really appreciate it. I'd have hated to have missed out on my latest £9.5m bonus, so well done. Good job.

Ryanair's scathing attack on Which? Magazine over 'super-complaint' to OFT

Here at This is Money we’re used to getting anodyne, dare I say boring, responses from companies when we put our questions to
them.

You can tell that the statements they eventually hand over have been pored over by various communications staff, executives and compliance people. 

There is one exception.

Here’s Stephen McNamara, head of comms at shrinking violets Ryanair, in response to the news of the Which? 'super-complaint' to the OFT over the 'admin' fees it and other companies charge for processing card payments. You can read the full story here.

Fare rises are the least of it: Train company profiteering knows no bounds

As soon as I had made the train booking from London to Hebden Bridge in the Pennines the other day, I realised I had made a mistake. No, not in choosing to visit Hebden Bridge.

I'd panicked: I had been confronted with the prospect of having to pay £244 for East Coast's walk-on 'anytime return' if I didn't book the advance tickets, and who knew how long those would remain available.

So I got them. 'Cheap advance singles' - an absolute steal at £44.50 each way, or nearly £90 fully three weeks before date of travel. But at least I'd get on the train and have a seat.

Almost immediately I realised I'd chosen the return leg wrongly. Too late. A simple mistake and I lost £44.50. Because they are of course non-refundable, and non-exchangeable in any meaningful sense (one cannot change stations or the date).

Had these been the cheap tickets that we hear so much about from train companies, I would take it on the chin. I can get over losing say £25, just: such tickets were cheap on account of their inflexibility - or vice versa.

The Government should act now on petrol and rail fares

It's high time the Coalition Government took a serious look outside of Westminster - and now might be a good time to start with petrol prices and rail fares.

The chart below shows the current average £1.28 cost of petrol and where that money goes.

Frankly, it is a shocker. Your pain at the pump sets the tills ringing at the Treasury: where they cash in to the tune of 80.3p every time someone buys one of those astonishingly expensive £1.28 litres of fuel.

Why I loathe mobile phone providers (particularly Orange)

In recent months I have come to loathe mobile phone companies.

I say ‘come to loathe’. What I really mean is my vitriolic hatred for their crafty, subversive ways has returned with a vengeance.

I know millions of others out there feel the same. Not just about mobile providers, but all sorts of companies that don’t put customers first.

TalkTalk was the very worst of British firms in 2010, you told us. So we gave them our Wooden Spoon Award for their pathetic attempt (euphemism alert) at providing good service.

My particular issue is with Orange. My two-year-old contract finally comes to an end today. Instead of renewing it, I want to switch to Pay As You Go. So earlier this week – a full three days before my contract officially expired - I phoned Orange and told them.