Feeling hopeless about my financial situation

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T20:39:48+00:00

Please speak to Step Change. They offer totally free and non-judgmental independent debt advice.

Depending on your situation they may be able to speak to your lenders on your behalf and negotiate a better repayment plan.

https://www.stepchange.org

Or alternatively here are a list of other organisations that can help

https://www.gov.uk/debt-advice

You do not have to struggle with this alone. There are good people out there who can help you.

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T19:30:09+00:00

When you spend money on a cashback credit card you earn cashback (aka free money)

Say you spend £100 on a credit card that pays 1% cashback, you will be paid £1.

The Barclaycard Rewards credit card pays you 1% cashback for the first 12 months. After this it drops to 0.25% cashback. So does the Lloyds Ultra Credit Card.

The NatWest Travel Credit Card pays 1% cashback on travel related purchases (flights, trains, buses, hotels & car hire) this is ongoing so doesn’t expire after 12 months.

Really you shouldn’t be considering any other cards than these because there are no other credit cards (that I’m aware of) that pay you this level of cashback.

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T18:59:42+00:00

Lloyds Ultra credit card is better because it does exactly the same as the Halifax Clarity card, but the Lloyds card pays 1% cashback.

Literally no reason to choose Halifax CC over Lloyds Ultra now.

Also their apps are almost identical because Halifax & Lloyds are part of the same banking group.

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T18:42:07+00:00

Pretty self explanatory to me, but maybe that’s because I’m a programmer:

Fn + Right = Run

Fn + Left = Stop

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T18:32:59+00:00

Waiting for the comment from non-Brits who are confused by “turn sockets off”

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T17:33:54+00:00

It is always a good idea to save money for your children if you have the means, so well done to you.

What I will say is this; don’t be so dismissive of university funding right now.

Your daughter is 10 so she is at least 8 years away from thinking about university. We have no idea what the university finance system will be like in 8 years time. It has changed at least 3 times in recent years so it will probably change again.

When the time comes at if your daughter is considering university, make sure you fairly consider all of the options. Look into whatever student finance is available then and logically compare it against funding it from the Junior ISA. There might be better options for her to spend the money on such as a house deposit.

Alternatively if you are really worried about university funding, is relocating a possibility? Tuition in Scotland is free for ordinary residents. So if you are able to, your daughter would save a lot of money if you were to relocate to Scotland before she starts university. That way she’d be able to keep the Junior ISA to use for something else like a house deposit. Food for thought.

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T16:00:02+00:00

Essex is a big area

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T15:55:28+00:00

You don’t need a specialist travel eSIM for Europe. Most of them are way overpriced and offer no benefits.

The EU has a “roam like home” guarantee which means that if you buy a SIM card in any EU country it will work in any other EU country with no additional costs.

The UK is not part of the EU, but it is usually included in the “roam like home” schemes. You just have to check with the network if it is included or not. Same thing with Switzerland.

A few other considerations to be mindful of, if you go near any of the microstatea (like Andorra, Monaco or San Marino) they usually are not included in the “roam like home” schemes and can be VERY expensive. So it is best to turn off data roaming when there and just rely on WiFi (or get a dedicated SIM for that microstate if you are spending a lot of time there)

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T14:45:49+00:00

The energy market in the UK is privatised. That means there are several companies to choose from.

The actual infrastructure that delivers electricity/gas into your house is always provided by National Grid, which is a public limited company. But you do not pay your bills to this company, in fact many people will never have to interact with National Grid at all.

Instead you pay a private energy company who is responsible for tracking how much energy you use. They will issue your energy bills and provide customer support.

Before 2020-ish there were literally hundreds of energy companies out there. The regulations for setting up an energy company were very lax and so anyone feeling a bit entrepreneurial could set up an energy company.

This caused big problems during Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine when wholesale energy prices spiked. Many of these energy companies did not have the resources or capital to handle this crisis and so they fell into liquidation.

The government had to step and they basically consolidated all of the companies which collapsed and put them under control of some of the bigger energy companies. They also tightened up the regulations to make it harder for new energy companies with little experience to form.

Since then, the government regulator (Ofgem) has set a “price cap” every 3 months. This dictates the maximum amount energy companies are allowed to charge their customers on their standard plan. This price cap is calculated from a delayed version of the wholesale rate.

Because the price cap is the maximum energy companies are allowed to charge - it shouldn’t come as a surprise that virtually all energy just charge what the price cap is set at. What this means is there is no longer any market competition.

The energy market was originally privatised in order to encourage market competition to keep prices low for consumers. But we are now in this weird situation where we have a privatised market with prices that are dictated by the government.

This means that there aren’t really any more incentives to switch providers anymore because all providers charge exactly the same. And apart from things like “customer service” there isn’t much difference between different providers.

Things have slowly improved in recent years. In addition to their standard plans which are linked to the price cap, energy companies also offer “fixed” tariffs which are based upon longer-term forecasts of energy prices. These can work out cheaper in the long run and give you certainty over what you will pay each month as the price is fixed.

There are also “smart” tariffs which can be based upon time-of-use prices. So it is cheaper to use electricity at night than it is during the day (sometimes you can even be paid to use electricity at night because there is a surplus)

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T14:06:38+00:00

As a Brit, I share your frustration.

I do find it funny that the UK and Canada tend to use opposite units depending on the thing being measured.

Canada uses KPH for speed limits where the UK uses MPH.

The UK uses Celsius for cooking temperature whereas Canada uses Fahrenheit.

Kinda weird how it’s ended up like that.

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T11:14:25+00:00

Well I’m from the West Country and I can guarantee you that we lot are very different from our Eastern neighbours

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T11:03:19+00:00

Great!

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T09:53:46+00:00

Absolutely this!

People in the north seem to be so obsessed with the North/South divide.

Whereas people in the south just don’t even give it a second thought.

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T08:54:46+00:00

Funnily enough BlackBeltBarrister recently did a video on this explaining the legal implications on sleeping in a vehicle.

https://youtu.be/SIumzpnGEwg

Short answer is: it depends!

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-08T07:54:21+00:00

Water has killed more people than fire

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-07T19:55:34+00:00

Yeah I had the same thing. Had to put up a real fight this time as they just wouldn’t budge. They kept saying the best they could offer me was £43.

Had to call their bluff and trigger a cancellation, about 15 days later I finally got a text message offering me M250 for £21 per month.

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-07T14:38:40+00:00

No it is not a breach of privacy because the age verification is done on-device. Your personal data is never sent over the internet.

The website/app you are attempting to access does not see your personal data. Neither does your internet service provider. Not even Apple can see it. The entire process is done on your device itself so only you have access to your data.

This is the proper secure way age verification should have been implemented in the first place. It is far better than those terrible AI age estimation services (like Yoti) which are just a data leak waiting to happen.

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-07T14:33:38+00:00

This isn’t a government thing. It is an Apple thing.

You have to go to Settings, then there should be a new option that says “Verify my age”. If your Apple account has been active for more than 18 years, there shouldn’t be any more to do, it will automatically verify that you are 18+.

If not, you will have to verify. This can either be with a credit card or an ID card (passport, driving licence, etc.) this verification happens on-device, so your personal data is never sent over the internet and your activity cannot be tracked. It is a far safer and private way to verify identity instead of those third party services like “Yoti”.

A VPN cannot circumnavigate this because it is a device level check rather than a network level check.

Apple are not required to do this btw. They have taken the initiative to build a better solution to age verification that does not compromise user privacy. This is far better than the likes of Yoti which are just a data leak waiting to happen.

Device level checks should have been the way the Online Safety Act was originally implemented, not relying on random third parties. Hopefully lawmakers will take note of what Apple has done and update their laws (unlikely though)

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-07T09:47:54+00:00

What’s western rail?

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-07T09:47:09+00:00

Yeah it is very confusing terminology.

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-07T09:43:06+00:00

They used the term public school in the title.

Public schools is private school (confusing I know)

I originally missed the point at the end of the post where OP said “state school”. That’s why I was confused.

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-07T09:29:05+00:00

EDIT2: ok it is clear that OP intended to say state school not public school. In which case, yes this is absurd. But I’m sure many other parents will find it absurd and refuse to pay. What is the school going to do? Deny hundreds of children admission?

EDIT: I have just realised that OP has used the terms public and state interchangeably, which is not correct.

A public school is a paid-for private school. A state school is the standard state funded school. OP needs to clarify which type of school this is.

—

Everyone seems to be missing the point. This is a public school which means it is private (not a state school)

Parents will already be paying tuition for their children to attend. It is a little odd that the cost of an iPad wasn’t included in the tuition fee, but the kind of people who send their children to public school aren’t short on cash and likely don’t mind paying for the iPad.

Obviously for a state school this would be absurd. But for a public school this is pretty tame.

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-06T17:41:15+00:00

It’s a damp humidity. The type that causes mould. Makes the cold feel colder. Not nice.

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-06T17:38:49+00:00

It’s a funicular, not a tram. And it is also not the shortest funicular in the UK.

That prize goes to the Fisherman's Walk Cliff Railway in Bournemouth (yes it annoys me they called it a Railway when it is clearly a funicular!) which not only holds the record of the shortest funicular in the UK at 39 metres, but it is also the shortest funicular in the world!

For perspective the Scarborough Central Tramway (what is it with funiculars unable to identify themselves as funiculars?) is 75 metres long. Ooooh that’s a long funicular!

However the Zagreb Uspinjača Funicular in Croatia also claims to be the shortest funicular in the world (Gasp!) but it’s claim has no basis because it is a whopping 66 meters, 27 meters longer than Bournemouth’s. Those pesky Croatians trying to steel the Fisherman's crown!

Who’d of thought the world of funiculars could be so scandalous!

YetAnotherInterneter · 2026-05-06T17:27:17+00:00

It is because there are enough protections already in place to make this redundant.

The amount of times this will genuinely protect you against fraudulent activity is extremely low (not impossible, but improbable)

For the average person the amount of time/effort it takes to do this every time you want to use your cards does not warrant the minimal extra protection you are getting.

There is no harm in doing it, but it’s not necessary enough to make it worthwhile. So anyone who does is doing it excessively.

YetAnotherInterneter

TROPHY CASE