The great rail-europe.com rip-off for British TGV passengers

Schipol to Antwerpen travelling on 24/10/2012.

Searched on 29/10/2012.

TGV.com gives one purchase option which is rail-europe.com.  You must first click your country of residence.  The 12:01 hrs train costs GBP£44 one way.  This is €56.24 in Euros.

TGV-europe.com via the pay in Euros option gives €29 Euros one way for the same train.

€56.24 ÷ €29 = 1.939

Conclusion:

rail-europe.com can be twice as expensive as tgv-europe.com for the same reservation.




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UK PAYG SIM card Research 12/06/2011 - Asda vs lebara vs vectone

	ASDA	Lebara	Vectone
Landline p / min	10	5	5
Mobile p / min	10	10	5
0870 p / min	10 + unspecified	10	10
0871 p / min	35 + unspecified	25	25
0844 p / min	Not online	25	25
Internet p / Mb	50	50p per day up to 10Mb + 15 p/Mb thereafter (10Mb/day free until 30 Jun 2011)	5 (10Mb/day free for 30d after top up).  128k billing.
Same network free call limits	No free calls	£5 gives 100 minutes and this expires in 30 days.	£5 gives 100 minutes and this expires in 30 days.
Stings	0870, 0871, and 0844.  A more detailed breakdown could be put online.	50p per day minimum internet charge after 30 Jun 2011 so very poor for small amounts of data e.g. activesync. (Updated to 31 Aug 2011).	070 is 50 p / min, and premium SMS is £5 / text. Two sim card requests have not yet compared to Lebara which was quick.

Winner: Lebara, because the Vectone SIM didn't arrive.
Loser: Asda, because unspecified non-geographical call costs could easily be put online.

Tyre price research 5th June 2011 e-tyres vs Kwik-Fit

My tyre size is 185/65 R15 88T

Vendor	e-tyres.co.uk	Kwik Fit prepaid
Manufacturer and model	Continental Eco Contact 3	Continental Eco Contact 3
Fully fitted price	£76.40	£63.80
Poor seal warranty	None - £25 for reseal	Unknown - at least I can go to the garage and ask

Winner: Kwik-Fit