Mark Schmid from the TalkTalk Blog goes 60 seconds with Michael Phillips, Product Director at Consumer Choices. The popular online self-help service supports customers’ decisions when selecting broadband, home phones, financial services (loans, credit cards, savings accounts and mortgages), gas and electricity, digital television, and insurance.
What is your favourite money saving tips?
Don’t pay for added extras you don’t use. I saved £9 a month by cutting my Sky Sports package down from Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3 to Sky Sports 1. For me, I don’t really miss Sky Sports 2 and 3
What was your first experience of the web?
Someone recommended Hotmail to me in 1998; email you could access anywhere it seemed like a brilliant idea. How things have moved on
What’s your biggest web annoyance?
Websites that make you register for one off purchases.
What are your views on social networking?
I’m a bit of a social media Luddite I’m afraid. I can see the benefits, but I prefer old fashioned text messages and meeting for a pint.
What is your favourite website and why?
BBC.co.uk is great for sport. As a suffering Norwich City fan, I can watch the goals on iPlayer
How long have your worked at Consumer Choices?
Four years, the company has nearly been running for 5 years
If you didn’t work at Consumer Choices, what would be your dream job?
Running a digital web-based business, just working in a different sector I suppose
What’s the best way of getting in touch with Consumer Choices?
We have just opened a call centre, so customers can call us for a comparison. If you want to do business, then check out the contact us page on consumerchoices.co.uk?
Twitter or Facebook?
Err, fancy a pint and a chat?
Have you ever Googled yourself?
Yes, although there are no shortages of my namesake. As it happens there is a picture of me from a campaign we ran with Computer Active Magazine.
How many computers do you have in your household?
Three laptops and one desktop, but we are binning the desktop
What laptop do you own and would you recommend it to your friends or family?
My favourite is the Dell XPS 13. It’s easy to use and the support from Dell is amazing
Where do you get more news content – newspapers or the web?
Radio 4 – the Today programme. I listen up until 7.30am and it leaves me well informed for the day. Otherwise I just read the sports pages
Do you stream music across the internet via sites like LastFM or Spotify? If so, which is your favourite?
Call me old fashioned but I still buy a lot of CDs. I like the feeling of owning a “hard copy”
What was the first computer you or your family owned?
ZX spectrum with rubber keys. Don’t iMacs have rubber keys, have we come full circle?
Do you have a landline telephone at home?
I need it for the broadband, otherwise it’s strictly for the weekly call to my parents in Norfolk
Which do you think you’d struggle most to give up, your mobile phone or the internet?
The internet, otherwise I would have to go back to selling GIS systems
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