FINANCE AND QUIZ NIGHT.....

February 2nd 2012

For avid followers of this drivel, the good news on the Caxton Card saga ..(do keep up, it was all detailed in the post of Jan 18th)..is that the money has finally been returned as I deem it, or no longer put aside as pending as they would explain it. The strange thing is that they told me it could take up to 16 days, a strange number, and lo and behold,it popped back into the available balance exactly 16 days after it had been removed. So how did they know it would take 16 days unless Shell had told them it would reverse the pending request in 16 days and if so did Shell or Caxton have use of that money in the meantime ? It's not just Caxton, who expressly warn of automated fuel pumps, car rental firms and hotels who want to swipe a card at reception, as I noticed a Carrefour pending charge of €120 remained on a debit card for 7 days after using a pay-at-the-pump last year(the card being debited with the actual fuel purchased immediately but the sum for the total amount of fuel that could have been purchased ie €120, being sent as a pending request and reducing my available balance......wake up at the back, questions will be asked....I think that this is a big issue as in certain circumstances it could mean that you cannot withdraw funds as these pending requests effectively block legitimate access to your account. And with the Shell garage episode this was not a pending charge in case the funds were not cleared but a commuincations error that sent 3 requests for the same transaction. Are we being ripped off again by the retailers and card issuers

or merely grossly inconvenienced ?

And the news that all are waiting for, it being the night after the Quiz...

Well, 30 teams last night, 120 people. We scored 44/50 and irritatingly knew the answers to 5 of the questions we got wrong, but argued over which were the correct ones. And I have to hang my head in shame at plumping for Graham Hill after crossing out Mike Hawthorn as first British F1 champion (well there was only 4 years between them) and what made it more galling was that the Good Fairy kept wittering on about Hawthorn and is now looking very smug and sniggering every few minutes. This meant that we came second after 45 won the top prize of €60 and had to settle for €40. But as was pointed out, if we'd tied again for 1st we'd still have lost it on a tie break so we repaired to the bar to spend our winnings...........

Weather continues to be exceedingly sunny and warm, and a mass electric bike ride-out...including a home-converted electric tandem....resulted in such ribald comments as Hell's Grandparents and brought terror and confusion to the local countryside.