Consumer Tips

The Jersey Consumer Council were concerned to read the results of a recent cost of living survey by Island Global Research. The survey reports very worrying statistics such as 10% of Jersey residents having to go without their essentials, 36% find it difficult to keep up with the rising grocery prices and over 50% strongly agree that they are feeling the impact of the rising costs of living. In times like this every little helps so we've compiled some top tips for saving on your grocery bills. Depending on your circumstances, we know not all of these may suit you or be possible, but we hope you can use some of them. Top tips for saving on grocery bills 1. Prices.je – Use our price comparison site and find out the best price. We compare around one hundred grocery and household items in the six main supermarkets (Alliance, Co-Op, Iceland, M&S, Morrisons and Waitrose). 2. Make a list and stick to it – Supermarkets might put their essential items across different sections of the shop, making sure customers walk past as many shelves as possible, even if they’re only intending to get the basic items. Keep to your list and don’t be distracted by other products, we know it’s difficult, but it is a good way to save money. 3. Create a weekly menu – Planning what meals you will be cooking for the next seven days, will help limit the chance of over buying and reduce the amount of unused food that you bin. 4. Leftover food – Look up recipes that you could use leftovers in. Vegetable soup is a good use of leftover veg, and a chicken carcass can be boiled to create a perfect stock or soup base. Jamie Oliver has a great range of leftover recipes. 5. Own-brand options –  Most stores will have a couple of differently priced options from the cheapest ‘value’ item, usually their ‘own-brand’, a ‘mid-range’ and ‘premium’ selection. You can make a big saving by going for an own-brand product. Don’t be put off, many supermarket brands are actually made at the same factories as branded items and in some cases branded items taste better! These cheaper options might not be displayed where you would expect them to be and could be on the lower shelves, so make sure to look around. 6. Supermarket promotions – Keep a look out for promotions and, if you can afford to, bulk buy. The most important point about promotions is not to be tempted to buy just because something is on promotion, especially if you can’t afford it or don’t usually eat/use the item. Sometimes promotions are not exactly as you might expect, so the easiest way to keep track of how much an item usually costs is to keep and compare your receipts. Don't be fooled by supermarket trickery - two packs of 5 might be cheaper than a pack of 10.  7. Batch cook and freeze – If you can afford to make the most of promotions, it’s a great way to bulk buy so you can batch cook. Whether it’s tins of chickpeas to make a large vegetarian curry or kilos of minced meat to make a Bolognese, you will have your own family favourites and there are loads of ideas online. 8. Be flexible with best-before dates –  Don’t be confused between use-by and best-before dates. Food with a use-by date must be used by midnight of its expiry date otherwise it’s unsafe.  Best-before dates can be a looked at a little more flexibly. If an item is at it’s best-before date it will usually be fine to eat over the next day or so. Supermarkets will mark the food up with a yellow sticker and it will usually be significantly cheaper. 9. Look around to find the bargains – Sometimes supermarkets will have promotions of products at the end of the aisle or other different areas than you would normally see it. For example, cheaper rice, coconut milk and chickpeas might be found in the world foods shelves, than in other parts of the shop. 10. Grow your own – Whether you have a garden or a windowsill, growing your own food is always fun and is significantly cheaper than the supermarket version. Tomatoes, peas and herbs are all very easy to grow and taste better than shop bought. You don’t even have to buy the plant pots. You can recycle the plastic supermarket food containers. Nobody wants to pay more than they need to on their basic grocery items. Always shop around and use Prices.je to help with this.

The colder months are on their way and service cost rises imminent in 2025, so now is the time to think about how to make some energy-saving changes. With the help of Jersey Electricity and Island Energy, we’ve compiled a long list of energy saving tips which may help counteract some of the increased costs of running your home.   Heating Turn your room thermostat down by 1 degree Set your heating to come on at the right times Bleed radiators to prevent cold spots Close your curtains and blinds at night Use draft excluders – make your own! Put draft-proofing strips around window and door frames Use blankets and layers of clothes to keep warm   Hot Water Turn your immersion cylinder to 60 degrees Take a quick shower instead of a bath (uses 5 times less water) Take one minute off your shower time Use a washing up bowl rather than leaving the hot tap running Lag your hot water cylinder   Electricity Turn lights off when you are not in the room Don’t leave appliances on standby – turn off at plug, including TV’s and game consoles Unplug phones, tablets and laptops once fully charged Use a kettle to boil the amount of water needed for cooking or hot drinks Change lightbulbs to energy saving LED ones Fill washing machines and dishwashers to capacity and reduce the temperature to 30°C Limit use of tumble dryer by putting clothes on washing line or leaving to air Dust down fridges and radiators for best efficiency and heat flow We have tips on saving laundry costs on our website: Cut your laundry costs this autumn (ConsumerCouncil.je)   Cooking Cook several items at the same time (a set of steamer pans uses less water) An air fryer can be cheaper than putting the oven on especially if you’re cooking smaller amounts Use a microwave when possible Make toast in a toaster rather than under the grill Cover your pots and pans to reduce steam and use less energy Freeze spare or bulk cooked food (once cooled down) Consider turning your stove/hob off a couple of minutes before food is fully cooked as the heat from the pan will continue to cook your food   Options which cost money but will help Insulate your loft Only purchase energy efficient appliances (A++, A+, A) Consider replacing old boilers with a more energy efficient one Consider buying a smart heating control which put you in control of heating   Help with Bills If you are struggling to pay your energy bills, please contact the relevant company’s support lines (see below) who may be able to offer a flexible payment plan to help you.     Jersey Electricity The JEC have a free downloadable app called ‘My JE’ which can be found via the App Store or Google Play. They are also lots of energy saving tips on their website Saving energy in your home - Jersey Electricity (jec.co.uk) Their contact details are:Telephone: 01534 505460Email: jec@jec.co.uk   Extra support for customers - Jersey Electricity (jec.co.uk) Island Energy Island Energy offer a tailored payment plan to help with bills and give free energy advice and safety checks. Their contact details are:Telephone: 01534 755500Contact form:  Priority care (islandenergy.je)

We’re delighted to launch our new Price Comparison website. You can access it via a banner on our website, or by directly visiting prices.je We stopped updating our previous Price Comparison website at the end of last year and have this year been building a new, in-house site, which we soft launched in the summer and is now fully live. Thank you for bearing with us during this transition period. Our new site includes weekly fuel and oil prices, fortnightly grocery prices from all the Island’s major supermarkets, and will also include occasional themed seasonal price comparisons, such as at Christmas, Easter, Pancake Day, and certain awareness days. As ever, our advice is to shop around for the best prices and to vote with your feet if you feel prices at one provider or store are too high. We hope you’ll find our new site to be a useful tool to help you make informed decisions on where to shop, with categories featured ranging from bakery and dairy products, to tinned, dry and frozen goods, as well as gluten free and baby products. We worked with Digital Jersey to develop our new site, which we will now operate and run ourselves, in house. Anthony Dearie, Executive Officer of the Jersey Consumer Council, said: “We’re thrilled to now have our new price comparison site up and running, and we thank consumers for bearing with us during this transition period. “Featuring the prices of almost 100 grocery products at six local supermarket chains, as well as the unleaded and diesel fuel prices for all 25 Jersey garages, prices.je is your one-stop-shop for prices in Jersey. “As with our previous site, we hope that this service will help Islanders to make informed choices about where they shop. By highlighting the, often significant, variances in the cost of everyday products, we hope to encourage consumers in Jersey to think about where they spend their money – and whether the places they ‘usually’ do their shopping really provides them with the best value for money. “We’re very grateful to Digital Jersey for the advice and support that they’ve given us to help us bring this valuable service in-house, at a lower cost to our organisation.’ Sebastian Lawson, Head of Projects at Digital Jersey, said: “We were delighted to work with the Jersey Consumer Council to help them develop a new price comparison service for the Island. “This has been a great example of partnership working between Government ALOs, and the new site, prices.je, can be run and managed by the Council in-house, at a significantly lower cost than their previous price comparison site. “We hope that Islanders will benefit greatly from this new site, and will be able to shop around with ease to ensure that they are always getting the best prices.” Throughout this year, our volunteers have continued going up and down the supermarket aisles every fortnight to gather the latest prices, meaning that our archive of prices won’t have a gap from when our previous site closed to the launch of this new site.   Accessing Prices.je When accessing our new Price Comparison page on a computer, simply type prices.je into your browser (you must type it into your browser, rather than into a Google search window).  Or click here:  Prices.je Alternatively, you can access it via the link on our main website.   If you’re using our new site on your smartphone or tablet, it’ll work most effectively if you use it as a web app on your home screen. Simply type prices.je into an internet browser, and you will see a message pop-up saying ‘Install Prices.je – Add this app to your home screen for easy access and a better experience’. It will then prompt you to press the centre button below the browser (a square with an arrow pointing up out of it). Tab the relevant button below the browser, then scroll down and select the option to ‘Add to Home Screen’. A screen saying ‘Add to Home Screen’ will then appear. Click the ‘Add’ button and Prices.je will then appear on your device as an App, which you can move to the most suitable folder or screen. If you still have our old PriceComparison App installed on your phone, please delete it as we will no longer be updating it. Similarly, if you still have our old price comparison website saved as a favourite on your browser, you can now remove it and replace it with our new site, prices.je. If you have any queries about, or issues with, our new Price Comparison service, please email contact@consumercouncil.je  

It may not be something you want to think about just now, but do you know what will happen to your digital assets after you die? From your photographs, videos, purchased songs and media, to your social media profiles and online accounts – when you list them all, you may be surprised just how many digital assets you actually have. However, a new survey by Which? has found that the majority of people are not adequately planning for what will happen to these things when they are no longer around. And you should never just assume that they will be safe and that your loved ones will be able to access them. The consumer watchdog has issued a warning that digital assets are ‘at risk of being lost’ due to a ‘lack of planning for death’. Their poll found that fewer than one in five people have drawn up instructions for how to access their online accounts when they pass away. As well as emails and photos, some digital entities may have elements that could be classed as major financial assets. For example, social media accounts that receive royalties. As a result, Which? is urging people to share the details of their online accounts with loved ones, and to consider putting together a letter of wishes to accompany their will. Which? is also pushing for the UK government and social media giants to make the process of accessing dead people’s accounts simpler. Out of the 14,631 subscribers Which? polled in April 2024, 76% said they had no plan for what would happen to their digital assets after their death. Just 18% had drawn up directions for how to access their online accounts, with only 3% having included them in their will. In their report, Which? said: “Whilst being able to access profiles allows people to retrieve digital items of sentimental value, such as photos and emails, there is often a financial element too. For example, you may need to access particular websites to stop payments for subscriptions or services. “Significant assets may also be held in the online space. People could lose control of online businesses and self-published works if they fail to pass them on correctly through a will or letter of wishes.” Which? also warn of other grey areas that could prove to be challenging for beneficiaries. For example, since the rise of influencers, people can make money from social media adverts and other posts. But Which? say that what happens to these revenue streams after death is unclear. The consumer site says that anyone benefiting from such an arrangement should check their agreement with each social platform, and what the protocol is for passing these assets on. For example, on Instagram, Which? found that users need both the birth and death certificates of the dead person, as well as proof that they are their lawful representative, to access the account of the deceased. Which? also say that people should be aware that, while royalties can be specifically gifted by an estate, benefits derived from digital assets may not be classed as royalties. This issue is something Which? wants the government to provide greater clarity on, given that more and more of people’s lives are being played out in the digital sphere. It urged lawmakers to come up with a legal framework that would deal with digital assets after a person’s death. Which? added that it had received multiple complaints from bereaved people about accessing their loved ones’ digital presences. It had received reports of serious issues with accessing accounts, transferring files and dealing with unhelpful customer services.

We’re often asked how best to complain about a service. Sometimes it’s not easy to know the right way to go about it, to get the best results. Here's what we suggest: Find out if the company have a complaints procedure Go through the process according to the procedure – you will need to submit an explanation of what went wrong. You can do this using our letter below. Find out how long they take to process complaints and wait for the allocated time to get a response If you do not get a response, find out if they are regulated by an ombudsman or other regulatory authority Send the letter below to that ombudsman explaining that you have not had a response   Here is our suggested letter of complaint: Name of the contact person Name of company Address Postcode Your name Your Address Postcode                                                                                                            Your telephone number                                                                                                            Your email address   Date   Formal complaint about [name of company] Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms [name of the contact] I am writing to make a formal complaint against XXXXX. [add in who you are complaining about a person or the company] My complaint is that [describe any issues or mistakes that occurred. Be as clear and concise as possible. Keeping it brief and to the point can be helpful]. Use bullets to keep it to the point     This situation has caused me [explain how this issue has affected you, your family, or others] Use bullets to keep it to the point     This could be resolved if you could [tell them how they can put this right - Apologise? Return documents they’ve been holding on to? Do more work? Compensate you? – what do you from them?] Use bullets to keep it to the point     As this is a formal letter of complaint it is my understanding that you are required to respond to me. Please can I ask that you do this by XXX [seven to ten days is a good length of time]. I can be contacted on the telephone number and email address at head of the letter should you need any further information. I look forward to hearing from you in the very near future. Yours sincerely [sign your name] XXXXX [type your name here}   Other help Trading Standards can also help you. Free help from the Consumer Advice Service (gov.je) They will talk through your consumer problem and advise you on your consumer rights and how best to resolve your dispute.   Remember that service providers love to get positive feedback too. So, if you have experienced something really good, let them know.

Some retailers are preferring to give an email receipt rather than a paper receipt, and most other retailers now ask if you need the receipt before automatically giving it to you. Automatic paper receipts as we knew them are becoming a thing of the past. It is a more environmentally friendly way of working, but do you say no to a receipt when you really mean yes? Remember if you need to return anything your receipt is still usually required. We’ve been contacted by some consumers who are concerned about requesting a paper receipt and about giving their email address over the counter for the email receipt. Others have said their supermarket self-service machine repeatedly will not print a receipt when they want one and they feel silly waiting for someone to come and help. The Jersey Consumer Council would like to empower Jersey consumers to ask for a paper receipt should they want one. Do not be put off by an assistant who is reluctant to provide one. If you feel uncomfortable about giving your personal email address to an assistant, well you don’t need to do it. Most retailers have the policy that they will provide a paper receipt if asked.  The Jersey Consumer Council have contacted the retailers New Look and Dunelm who now prefer to issue email receipts. Both shops have confirmed that they will happily give a paper receipt if the customer asks for one.   We’d like to hear about your experiences. How do you feel about asking for a paper receipt? Have you had a problem getting one? Email us at contact@consumercouncil.je