Vaccine snobbery takes needling to a new level
WHAT IS that faint swishing sound you hear, accompanied by a small breeze whistling down the nation’s high streets? Why, it’s the sound of net curtains being twitched as we snoop on our neighbours, and this time round the cause is the humble vaccine, written about by my brilliant colleague Leo McKinstry on the opposite page.
Well, not so humble, actually: the two we have in this country are our saviours, our route out of purgatory, the kiss of Prince Charming on our national Sleeping Beauty, which will bring us all back to life. When I mentioned the vaccine in this slot a while back, someone wrote in a somewhat dubious manner: “Are you really going to have it?” Yes I jolly well am, as soon as it’s offered. But I haven’t had it yet.
Nor am I alone, of course. But as our fantastic vaccination programme sweeps on apace, there are various instances of vaccine competitiveness. For a start, there’s the Pfizer v AstraZeneca debate: which one is better? Both are pretty blimmin’ marvellous, actually, but give a population the choice between anything and instantly people will start saying, “My vaccine is better than your vaccine.”
Some people, offered one, are actually holding out to be injected with the other, including, it seems, large portions of the population of Germany, who were fed totally untrue scare stories about the AstraZeneca jab and are thus holding up that country’s route out of the pandemic even further than has been caused by EU incompetence. Try it with sauerkraut, love, I’m sure it will help the medicine go down.
Of course there are competitive side effects: some people feel as if their arm is on fire and yet wouldn’t admit it in a million years: “Didn’t even notice it go in!”
Then there are those who really didn’t notice it go in but are milking it for all it’s worth, behaving like the Marguerite, the beautiful courtesan dying of consumption in the film Camille.
“I’m sure I’ll feel better soon,” they say falteringly, just managing to bring the tea cup up to their trembling lips, despite having the constitution of an ox and never feeling healthier. “Only to be expected. Oh, dear, I think I’d better go and lie down.”
AND THEN there are those of us who haven’t had it. This elicits very different reactions all round.The reason I haven’t had it is that I’m in the level that the vaccinators have not yet got to, ie I’m not old enough (although bafflingly, my younger sister has had it). The pity the vaccinated feel for we untouched-by-the-needle lot soon turns to fury when they realise they’ve got a decade on us.
This fury is taken out on us in the form of faux concern: “Oh, dear, haven’t you had it yet? I am sorry. Do be careful. Of course, it’s too soon for any of us to think about a holiday yet, but by summer I’ll have had both jabs, so I should be ready to travel then, hmm?”
I jest, of course: the vast majority are grateful for the vaccine, whichever one they get, and the only people I really truly do not understand are the ones who refuse the jab. And as Leo writes opposite, that vaccine will, quite literally, be a passport into freedom.
Spring is nearly here. Hope coming back to life. is
IAM always telling consumers to use their credit card when buying goods or services between £100.01 and £30,000, due to the protection you are afforded by what is known as Section 75 if something goes wrong. I stand by this advice, but a new problem has started to emerge during the pandemic caused by the increased number of refunds.
This problem occurs when the refunds are returned to the credit card used for the purchase – which is perfectly normal as traders will always process them via the same method used for the payment.
Here’s what you need to know:
MONEY BACK ON CANCELLED CARDS
Express reader Jenny from Stockport booked a UK holiday on her credit card. The trip was cancelled due to the pandemic and the provider refunded her money.
However, Jenny had cancelled her card by the time the refund was processed.This has become a very common problem over the past 12 months. The good news is that your refund is safe, as the money will be put into a holding account by the card provider.
The bad news is that it can take a long time to retrieve the money. I advised Jenny to write to her card provider to request the monies be transferred to her bank account. This has now happened.
So, my advice, if you’re waiting for a refund for goods or services you paid for with a card you have now cancelled, tell the trader immediately and ask for the refund to be paid via an alternative method.
POSITIVE CREDIT BALANCE
When a refund is processed back to a card it can create a positive balance on your account, usually when you have paid the most recent card bill. This potentially presents issues as credit cards are not designed to “hold” money in the same way as a current or savings account.
For this reason consumers are not encouraged to hold positive balances on a credit card. So my advice is if you are likely to be using the card soon leave the balance as your next purchases will rectify the situation.
If you are not likely to use it in the short term, ask the card company to transfer the surplus to your current account. Do not withdraw the surplus via an ATM as this may attract fees.
CREDIT FILE AND RATING
Some financial experts warn that withdrawing a surplus amount from your credit card should be avoided as it can have a major impact on your credit rating.
There is therefore a very high interest rate attached to withdrawals and companies will flag cash withdrawals to the credit bureau which would impact your credit file.