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Commission Creep

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2009-04-08 16:39:43 - Graham Ellis

"Please sign this and return it - it confirms our telephone conversation". Fortunately, we're small enough to know who we have spoken to, and sharp enough (I think) to pick out rate changes in such documents which could so easily slip by in a larger office.

We're noticing commission creep. The well known hotel booking service that tried the trick described above (I am tempted to name and shame them) want to have us pay them 12.5% rather than 10% on hotel bookings. Our credit card commission rate had crept up - or perhaps leapt up (as an illustration - NOT the real figures - 2.5% to 2.7% looks tiny but is an 8% increase) and loan rates add "just" a couple of percentage points above base rate - so the interest has gone down from this time last year, but the bank is making sure that what it gets has rocketed.

We *did* adjust our prices last December to pass on to you - our customers - the 2.5% saving that Alastair Darling provided as a boost to help the economy. It looks like the services behind our service feel that the 2.5% should not have been taken off your bill, but rather should be gathered by them to help them put their own books in order.