I purchased an electric drill from a Lidl store back in 2012. The drill now has a fault, but luckily the drill came with a 3 year guarantee. I took the drill back to the store of purchase and they were not interested and informed me to contact Lidl headquarters, which I did. I was asked for my contact details and if I still had the receipt, which I have and I sent a copy via email. This is the last I have heard, sent a few emails about are there any updates, but no replies. I thought that it would have been the stores responsibility to handle guarantee repairs and not to be messed around trying to find out the guarantee process. Is it the store's responsibility?

I was the director of a company that had a trade account with screwfix. When the account was opened it was opened in the ltd companies name and I was never told about an directors guarentee. The application form that I signed had been photocopied that many times most of the writing on it was illegible.. Stupidly I signed it and opened the account. A couple of years later the company got into financial difficulties, became insolvent and folded. I soon received word from screwfix`s solicitors that I had signed a directors guarantee and was personally liable for the company debts to screwfix. I got a copy of the original agreement and it is totally illegible.. You can barely read any text on the agreement out it is that bad. Ive to go to court next month as I`ve contested the claim as I was unaware I was signing such a guarantee and am unsure if they can enforce this as what Ive signed is unreadable. Does anyone know if this can be enforced if its illegible and I wasn`t informed I was signing such guarantee ?? here is a copy of the guarantee drive.google.com/file/d/0B6TE6OZvjMKGSVVMLWY3NE9uUHc/view?usp=sharing UNfortunately I cannot post links so you will need to copy paste the link above bump Thanks in advance for any advice on this issue

Switched my joint current account from Nationwide to the Co op in November 2014, switch completion date was about 14th November. I had written a cheque a few days before to pay my credit card bill using my Nationwide cheque book as I had yet to receive my Co op bank cheque book and posted this to the credit card company. The switch completed on the due date and I received a letter from Co operative bank confirming this. On 9th December 2014 I looked online at my credit card account and was horrified to see that my payment had been reversed, because the cheque I had written had been dishonoured and a £13 late patment fee had been charged. I have pursued a complaint with the Co op bank who dishonoured my cheque and they have issued thier final response which confirms that the cheque was dishonoured due to a bank error, they have offered an insulting £100 in compensation and provided me with a "To whom it may concern" letter for me to use in correcting any damage done to my financial reputation with my credit card company and the credit referance agencies. I thought that under the current account switch guarantee the "new bank" was supposed to put right ant damage caused due to it's error. Seems like the Co op bank sees things differently. My choice now is either proceed to the Financial Ombudsman or make an appointment with a solicitor to sue them. What is the best course of action ?

I there any time limit on invoking the direct debit guarantee? Merry Xmas Nos

Hi I wonder if anyone can help? I had a business that went sour in 2006 and debts that had a personal guarantee attached. The debts are made up of historic overdrafts and a business loan. I have been paying about £800 a month off the debt fo:|r several years and thought the figure was down to about 5k. The bank has been reluctant to send me regular statements and even said they are not obliged to do so. The bad debt that has now become personnel (because of the PG) has a 8% interest charge on it. When I eventually got my statement I was horrified to discover that 28k is still outstanding! A book keep friend has now offered to help me but has asked for all the original paperwork including the opening balances (via bank statements) showing true balances when the loans and overdrafts closed, plus the original loan agreement including all terms and conditions. The only paperwork the bank now has is the statement that has now been constructed by the recoveries department. They say they no longer have the original paperwork and even if they could locate it they would have to charge me. As I am disputing the amount I need to get to the bottom of this and I would also like to know if their was any PPI attached another question they cant answer! Anyone know where I may stand?? Thanks if you can help, Roger

Hi everyone, good afternoon My boss owned a Ltd company which went into liquidation, a building supplier approached him last year with a claim for bunkruptcy if the debt could not be paid, so he entered into a payment arrangement with them to stop this from happening. Coming to the end of the agreement, the solicitor has wacked on the interest charges and is now requesting this be paid alongside the last instalment. So, i understand that if a judgement is over £5,000 or more, the claimant is entitled to charge interest. Fine, but the actual debt was £4,650.00 but then the claimants solicitor had put on their costs, which brought the debt up to £6,890.00 with the threats of bunkruptcy if no agreement could be made. My boss never actually got any judgement from court, but just threats from the solicitor this would happen, would the judgement class as the debt before the solcitors fees? or does the debt come as a whole amount therefore allowing them to charge interest as its over £5,000? It's been a really horrible situation for my boss because a customer (in the building trade) knocked us for £100k and he didnt reailse at the time of obtaining credit from the building suppliers that he signed a personal guarantee! Your feedback is much appreciated. Many thanks, Mehdi

Hi, I recently took out EE Home broadband, and elected to pay the line rental up front for the year, so £132 was taken by direct debit on 15th Oct. However, the swines also took a second £132 yesterday. I phoned them and they agreed it was an error on their part, but said all they could do was to put a £132 credit on my account (or else a refund would take over a month!), but they told me to call Barclays and claim it back under the direct debit guarantee (Indemnity claim or something they called it). I call Barclays yesterday evening, and they agreed to do it, but said it would take a minimum of 3 working days, plus if they need more details they will post me a questionnaire to complete and post back to them? Now the wording of the direct debit guarantee states: "If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society". how immediate does it mean? Does Barclays count 3+ working days as immediate? I now have next to nothing in my account, and have things that need paying. Who is responsible for overdraft charges if I need to dip into this whilst this is being rectified? Thanks in advance.

I am not sure if anyone can give me any advice on how I can defend a personal guarantee claim from Natwest? In 2006 the ltd company for which I was a director took out a bridging loan from Natwest for 2 months whilst we waited for funds from a secured loan with a different asset management company. The loan came through within 2 months and the Natwest loan was fully repaid. The asset loan has also since been repaid. However, the guarantee said it exists for perpetuity until the director dies and the bank referred to it as security in a subsequent overdraft facility. It is only cancelled when notice is given. The company then went into difficulty in 2010 and the bank forced the directors to convert this to a repayment loan for the same amount with much higher interest. The bank said they would force the company into liquidation if the directors did not comply. Again they referred to the security of the old guarantee. The company finally went into liquidation in 2013 and the loan went unpaid. The bank is now pursuing me for full payment of the loan. The company assets (including those covered by the original loan) were sold off to pay liquidation fees so the company is well and truly gone. Would a letter to or from the bank stating that the funds had paid off the original loan in 2006 be strong enough to infer we were notifying them that the liability under the original guarantee was being repaid and therefore should be taken as notice of the guarantee? Can I argue that the intent of the original guarantee as delivered as a deed was only for the purpose of securing the original bridging loan even though the guarantee itself was open? Can I argue anything to do with surety? The guarantee was accompanied by papers signing that I was an empowered director to remove a claim that I am a consumer in order to go for unfair contract terms - could I still claim this as they are chasing me personally now and not as a director? The terms are definitively grossly unfair. It was also accompanied by papers saying I waived legal advice. This was the case for the original guarantee but we had no option for the subsequent facilities. Could the fact that the directors were forced into converting the overdraft to a loan somehow invalidate the guarantee? We even wrote to the bank complaining about the bullying at the time as we were disgusted by their behaviour. I am at risk of losing my property as it was mentioned in the subsequent loan that the guarantee was "supported" by the property. I want to defend this but not to run up unnecessary debts in the process. I also don't want to respond hastily and jeopardise any defence I may have had. Please help.

I started a company in 2006 with another director, who resigned earlier this year. The company stopped trading in March this year, I am unable to afford the liquidation process. When we started trading we signed a personal guarantee for a 30k overdraft, but later took out a loan to pay 23.5k of the overdraft off a nd then later paid back 5k, leaving a 1.5k overdraft. We are now left with around 8k left owing on the loan, HSBC is demanding prepayment of the full amount of 9.5k, made up of the 1.5k overdraft and the balance of the loan, saying we signed personal guarantees for this loan. We did not sign any guarantee for this loan, only when we first took out an overdraft, but they say the guarantees apply to the loan as well. We were not made aware of this and would not have taken out the loan if we had known. A few years ago they did ask us to sign guarantees again which they sent to us, but we never signed as we did not understand why they wanted them and we never returned them. I do not have the funds to pay this, and I do not want to lose my house, we were told at the time that it would never be used anyway, obviously this was all to get us to sign it. Does anyone know what my options are, now the other director has resigned, this leaves me liable for the whole balance.

Hi all, unfortunately my company has gone insolvent due to a larger company going under on us and obviously we can not afford to pay creditors! im sure you have heard this many times, my question is one particular builders merchant has sent me a copy of a ''credit application form'' with my signature but also sent me a 2nd page and at the bottom that states ''Directors Guarantee'' which i can not remember seeing nor signing..!! is this valid?

Dear All I am just wondering if you can help me I had a loan to finance an equipment from 1pm in May 2013 and unfortunately due to the problems with the landlord we had to leave the premise and ceased trading. I contacted 1pm to collect their equipment with giving the landlord's contact details (as I don't have the technical knowledge nor the experience to dismantle the equipment)sent by recorded delivery and the same letter with 1pm's contact details and explaining the real owner of the equipment not received anything and sent them another email with attaching my previous letter and stating that company ceased trading I received a court paper that 1pm directly took me to the court based on personal guarantee, without responding any of my email or letter requesting £12k my question is shall I take a counter claim for the value of the equipment because the equipment has a second hand value of between £5k-£6.5k what is my liability? how can I resolve this matter? are they allowed to do? kind regards

Hi All, I have been reading lots of posts on this issue and have been finding it very helpful thus far, but would like some urgent advice on this worrying issue. Any help would be appreciated. I was a Director and secretary for a Company that I formed in 2006 with 2 partners. In June 2012 we took a hit for nearly 60k on an underground project we were working on, nearly £45k of this was owed to numerous companys who supplied materials etc. for the project. Anyway, numerous arrangements were made with all suppliers allowing us to continue to trade and therefore pay off the outstanding debt whilst our solicitors dealt with the outstanding debt owing to us. 12 months on with solicitors costs of nearly 10k chasing the original debt. we were forced into making a CVA. Closing the company leaving myself and what was left of my staff completely gutted along with 25k still outstanding from original project. I had never done anything like this before so was all very new to me, anyway, found a good solicitor paid the money which I had to borrow from the father in law and bobs your uncle, leave it to me, nothing more to worry about now, we will be in touch. kind of thing. A few weeks in, in December 2013 I received a telephone call at home from the Director of a main supplier telling me, basically he was going to take me to the cleaners as he had a personal guarantee signed by me. I disputed this as I had never signed any personal guarantees to any of my suppliers. He told me it was on the account application form. A few days later a letter arrived from them confirming our telephone conversation enclosing a copy of the Application for Credit Account. Please see both attached. I passed a copy of this onto the solicitor dealing with the company closure and was advised not to worry as nothing would come of it, if and when it did we can deal with it then. Anyway, 6 months to the day I receive a County Court Judgement in the sum of nearly 15k. and am absolutely mortified. My wife is giving birth in 5 days and I am on a morphine high from recent spine surgery so couldn't have come at a worst time really. Financially we have nothing. I had no wages for nearly 14 months before we closed and have been off work since, hence why I had back op that I had been putting off for 8 years. I had spoken to solicitor again and passed on all information, it now feels like I am being ignored but am rapidly running out of time. In my most recent email I have asked in what capacity he can help me and I am yet to get a reply. I have about 10 days before I need to file a defense and really don’t know where to start. I have read posts regarding boldness of headings etc. but thought someone may be able to give me some advice thats more specific to my problem. I Could go on writing forever as is such a complex situation but don’t want to give information that is irrelevant. Please feel free to ask if there is anything you would like to know. Thank you in advance, we really do appreciate it.

Hello all, This is my first forum post. I would like to get some advice on my legal position. Company A has an authorised overdraft with bank. Director A didn't sign renewed personal guarantee but signed previous guarantees. Company B buys 70% of shares in Company A and Director B appointed to Company A. No guarantee is signed by Director B as bank have not asked him to sign one yet. Bank policy is all Directors required to sign PG (joint and several liability). Bank decides to enforce personal guarantee against Director A. Legal questions: 1. Can bank enforce PG and rely on old PG agreements (precedence); 2. If PG can be enforced, can Director A invalidate PG on grounds that Director B did not sign PG, or if not invalidate, can Director A sue Director B for half of PG, or argue to bank that only 50% liability is due as they were negligent in not getting Director B to sign PG. Quite an odd situation this one... Thanks.

Ok this is going to be a long one so bare with me In 2006 my sole trader business got so big I needed to change to Ltd, I spoke with my bank regarding changing over the account to Ltd which as they said was not a problem and they would handle everything, when we got closer to changing the following happened Meeting with Bank Manager 2006 Bank manager said I would need to sign a debenture in order to still have the £20K overdraft facility that I had when I was sole trader Shortly after they said I would also need to sign a guarantee, I didn't question this at first until we met when I enquired to what the guarantee was, the response was "its just a formality really, its just you guarantee any short comings, although as you have provided a debenture it would never be called upon as the debenture guarantees we get paid first" We discussed the historical level of the companies assets and both agreed it would never come in to play, however I didn't feel hugely comfortable and said I wasn't really prepared to sign the guarantee, to which their response was, it really is just a formality I can assure you with the level of assets the company has it wouldn't be called on, but the bank insist and to be honest if you don't sign they will remove the overdraft with immediate effect and request payment in full (the account I believe was overdrawn at that time) I reluctantly signed as I had done a little research and discovered the debenture gave them a floating charge of the companies assets so confirmed what the bank manager had said, and also the company always had around £120K of assets. Also with the threat of immediate removal of the overdraft (which I believe was actually already in place) I really had no choice as the style of the company involved large projects and we could only survive with this short term facility. Now fast forward to 2011 and the company is in trouble and had to stop trading, the bank was overdrawn by £16K. The IP (who I now know to not trust a word they say) said "Oh no we will realise the assets and negotiate with the bank to pay this off" that said as soon as I sign the company over to the liquidators everything changes. After arguing over a year with the IP they inform that there was a legislation change in 2008 that meant that any one holding a fixed or floating charge (ie a debenture) comes second to the liquidators expenses, ie we will take all the money and there is nothing for anyone else. Of course fast forward even more the bank have now demanded I personally repay the £16K Now I have read a lot on these forums and done a lot of research and really need anyone who fancies playing the part of the claimant (ie the bank) to see if they can legally argue against my case, my case being Economic Duress - Even though I indicated I didn't want to sign the guarantee the position the company was in meant I had no choice Misrepresentation - This was going to by an argument however this is where the legal argument gets interesting. It wasn't misrepresented, what the bank told me and the subsequent findings at the time were legally correct, so had the company fell into liquidation in 2007 then at that time the debenture would stand and the bank would have been paid from the assets prior to the liquidators fees, however legislation changed and came into force in 2008 which meant the liquidator would be paid first and the debenture effectively became worthless, in turn this then shifts the element of risk on to me personally and where a contract is signed and then any part of the risk is shifted I understand it becomes unenforceable The other argument that they could say is I signed a document that clearly states I should seek legal advice (which as with a lot of people i didn't) as 1. Even if a 1000 solicitors told me not to sign, what choice did I have, the bank was holding me and the company to ransom on the threat of closing the overdraft 2. Even if I had seeked legal advice they would have only confirmed the exact legal position at that time in 2006 which is that with a debenture in place the bank was guaranteed to be paid first and their floating charge be the security over the assets and in light of the size of the assets the company held there was very little risk in me signing In a nut shell the situation would have been, had the company gone into liquidation in 2007 in exactly the same state it was in 2011 then the banks overdraft would have been paid in full, however as legislation changed the element of risk shifted considerably onto me and in turn goes against the terms of the contract as represented by the bank in 2006 and the facts to which I relied upon in entering that contract. Now I also believe there is an additional argument, that the bank had a duty under good faith to inform me and anyone else for that matter that the liquidation process had shifted and the debenture's they were putting in place no longer held as much guarantee to the bank as their own bank managers were telling people Oddly even in 2010 in a meeting with a bank manager, the position was reiterated where the bank manager (a new bank manager) said I noticed the debenture this is a "very shrewd move, as not many directors have this in place and this means that the bank is covered and we wouldn't ever come after you" that was his exact words!! So please come on people, please argue against my case as I feel its quite solid but I need to be tested to see if I am being biased!!

Hi, I have a new clutch put on my Vauxhall back in November at an independent garage in Rugby. The service was really not the best however it was the best price around. months have passed as the clutch is not feeling right again - its very floppy like its about to fail. Do I have any guarantee for the repair or do I just have to pay again? Thanks Scott

I under duress signed a personal guarantee to my CA for invoices outstanding by my limited company. He forced me to sign when he realised liquidation was looming. My company was liquidated by HMRC and he is now chasing the amount due personally. He has closed down his accountancy firm and assigned the debt to himself. He is seeking payment to him personally under this guarantee I made to his company. Can he do that??

Hello good folks, I bought a new digital kitchen weighing machine for Christmas (2103) which became unserviceable due to one of the feet coming adrift. I took it back to the shop where I bought it, and the shop replaced it with another unit of the same make - for which I was delighted. My question is, does this new unit carry its own guarantee for a one year (i.e. from the day I collected it as a replacement), or as suggested, the first unit carries on the original guarantee thus two months have been used and only another 10 remain for this new unit to perform flawlessly?

Hi, New to this forum, any pointers greatly appreciated. I foolishly signed a Personal Guarantee for 2 lease cars. 6 months after they had taken the car back they have wrote to me at home, marked 'final demand', this was on 20th Dec. I kicked off with them and said I had not received any previous letters or reminders and I disputed the account. On 24th Dec I then got an email from a debt collector saying they were now dealing with it (no response whatsoever from the company), 4 days after the 'final demand'. The debt collector sent me file copies of invoices that were (incorrectly) addressed to my work, along with a copy of the Personal Guarantee. They also sent me a copy of another persons PG, which showed his address, signature and DOB. I didn't really need to see this. I have looked at the PG document and it says that all documents will be sent to me by 'first class recorded delivery'. They definitely didn't because I would have seen them (and remember they even had my business address wrong). The company (not the debt collector) threatened in their 'final demand' to put a Default against me, but there is nowhere in the PG that mentions a Default. It does however confirm that it is regulated under the Consumer Credit Act, therefore do they not actually need to mention a Default'? Most of the 'debt' is for marks and scuffs on the cars. They were pretty mint when we sent them back. And after 6 months I am guessing it would be difficult to prove either way. Are they acting within their regulations here? Or do you think I have some good arguments? Many thanks.

Good afternoon to you all, My son has just joined the esa revolution and been placed under income related esa, in the support category. He had previously been on income support, with High rate care coupled with low rate mobility DLA. He has entered the main phase esa. He has been awarded, £71.70 living expenses £34.80 for being in the support category and £15.15 disability income guarantee. DLA remains the same. There is no reference to any disability premium, known previously as, 'enhanced disability premium' in his award other than a reference to a 'disability income guarantee' Having spent hours searching the meaning of 'disability income guarantee' it appears quite unclear, whether this terminolgy is a direct replacement of 'enhanced disability premium' found previously in his income support award. The sum of £15.15 for 'disability income guarantee' does match the rates published for 'enhanced disability premium' on the gov websites, but linking these terms is a little confusing. You may be aware of the free heating boiler schemes that are currently doing the rounds, providing you meet benefits criteria of which, esa with a disabilty premium attatched is a requirement. So to my question, is the "disability income guarantee" of £15.15 as of 01/12/2013 classed as a disability premium and was it previously known as the enhanced disability premium. Thank you all, The claimant

Hi, thanks for reading my post, and help and advise is welcomed. I have a PG in August 2008 which I didn't even know till my partner passed away last December for a business which now has been dissolved by company house. Basically my late partner paid all the repayment and dealt with the HSBC alone, I was a silent partner who lost all the saving to the failed business. I have requested and received a copy of PG documents which I have found some irregularities. First, there is no date on the 8 page documents, where is the date needed to be filled all written Do Not Date, it's the same on the second page and last page where the signatures are, all without date. The only paper with date on is on a form called Winessing of Security Forms Aide-Memoire but it's not part of the PG documents (8 pages), and without any original guarantors' signature on it, so it could be filled anytime and anywhere. To be honest, I didn't even know that I have PG, so no advice for seeking independent legal advice nor warning about the risk of PG by the bank representative. I have done some researches about some banks asking guarantor to sign a waiver of independent legal advice to prove the bank representative has done diligence. But in my case there is no waiver in my PG documents nor initial/date on the front page of explanatory note, even no initial where the checker's initial is needed. The total value of the business loan was 40K, now is 26K after my late partner passed away. Any help and advice I will be really grateful. Thank you.

Hi Hope someone can help.... . I had a new central heating system fitted (including boiler) almost three years ago. It has been serviced three times and has been fine up until about a month ago where I have had to top up the pressure every day. Yesterday I got the message on my thermostat saying boiler over run and then about an hour later there was the most horrendous noise which panicked me to the point I switched the boiler off. My problem is, I have got out my paperwork thinking I will ring them tomorrow but it says 'if you don't register your guarantee within 30 days, unfortunately you will only have a 12 month guarantee' I didn't do this for two reasons (and I do admit to being a bit dim here) The guarantee form was tucked away in the bumf. I assumed the boiler would be fit for purpose for at least 15 years.... I'm now without heating as I dare not switch it on and can't afford to pay someone to come out. Have I any rights at all? or just screwed and have to start saving to fix it myself? Thank you. Would appreciate anybody's wisdom or experience in the same or similar problem

If there is a claim for Pension Credit made, the amount of State Retirement pension is deducted from it. That seems totally logical to me. If however you choose not to claim the pension for whatever reason AND make a claim for Pension Credit you cannot enhance the level of that pension either to obtain a future lump sum or an increase in the pension. I then read that if you do not claim the pension AND claim Pension Credit, the amount of the pension you are deemed to be entitled to will be deducted from the Pension Credit award in any event? As there appears to be a cut off of 12 months to make a claim for your pension, what I would like to know is: If someone claims Pension Credit and does not make a claim for their State Pension for say 9 years and as you can only reclaim the past 12 months, what happens to the missing 8 years in that example? I do hope that the answer isn't that the government take it? The reason I ask is that the friend I am trying to advise appears to have this problem. I have tried to reconcile their total income, have looked at their Pension Credit award notice which shows a deduction for his wife's pension, yet she appears not to have claimed it for the past 9 years - she is 69 and older than my friend by 5 years. The current deduction level is £64.27 per week. They have an AIP that ends next February on the date of my friends 65th birthday. In round figures she is owed approx. £30,000, which if the claim is only limited to 12 months, she would only receive approx. £3300 - it's the missing £26700 that I am concerned about.

Hello everyone. My first post on here but have been reading various posts for months. I have a complicated one so bear with me but in summary, I am being pursued by a supplier (not a builders merchant) after my company ceased trading as they claim I have given them a personal guarantee. Five years ago, I opened a trading account on Pro-Forma and filled in a 'Trading Account Application Form'. At the time, I was a sole trader and signed a personal guarantee. That's the nature of sole trader - no protection. Six months later, I formed a LTD company and transferred stock etc over to this company. I informed the supplier of this change but they never asked me to fill in new forms for the company. So the forms they have are from when I was a sole trader and there is no mention of the LTD company anywhere on the forms. In their letters, the debt is in the name of the LTD company. Last year, this supplier and myself had a joint venture and I signed a new 'Terms of Trading' for this separate venture as Director of the company. This venture was being treated differently and separately to the core business and so a new form was signed where I gave a personal guarantee as a co Director. It gets more complicated. They have amended the original form from five years ago and added a tick in the box next to 'LTD Company' as the legal entity. The original was 'Sole Trader' - I didn't tick this second box. So in summary, they have added the agreement page meant for the separate entity to the initial account application form in the name of the sole trader, and ticked the LTD company box - without me knowing. Any idea as to where I stand?I would never have knowingly signed a PG in the name of the company for the entire company and its debt. As I said, they have taken a form and added it on to an old business account application form. The one document has dates that are 3 years apart. The wording of the paragraph is as follows: "In consideration of *Supplier*agreeing to open a trade account with the company named overleaf, the undersigned directors of the company hereby agree that should the company fail to meet its obligations of payments for goods, they shall take responsibility for the same" This paragraph is written above the area where you sign but does not have a title, heading, bold writing etc. I think this is incredibly misleading, given the docuement is titled 'Account Application Form'

Have a Prestige 2100 steriliser for my work - the heating element according to the warranty has a life time guarantee. The unit works fine and legally, but the heating element has a hot spot and needs replacing. Sent machine back for repair early September. It was received, but have had no response from the company despite having sent emails and letters. Suggestions?

John Lewis is to become the first UK electrical retailer to launch a minimum two-year guarantee on all its electrical products at no additional cost. The department store already offers five-year guarantees on TVs, and two-year guarantees on computing, tablets and domestic appliances, but is extending the offer to cover everything electrical from 10 October. Guardian Money has long called for all electrical items to come with a two-year guarantee, as is offered in Europe, but John Lewis is the first retailer to implement this here. The store says that until now more than a third of its electrical items came with the standard one-year guarantee common at most of its rivals. Many washing machines and dishwashers offered by some of the better European manufacturers, such as Bosch, automatically come with a two-year manufacturer's warranty here, irrespective of where you buy them. At most high street electrical retailers, such as Currys, the products on sale all come with a one-year warranty, except where the manufacturer offers two or more. Stores will often try to sell customers lucrative three and five-year extended warranty plans, which can cost £100 a year. John Lewis's Ed Connolly says: "There is a lack of transparency across electricals guarantees. The vast majority of consumers don't understand guarantees and are frustrated by the complexity that surrounds them. Our mission is to bring the John Lewis level of excellence and trust to electricals guarantees, which is why we're introducing a minimum two-year guarantee on all our products at no extra cost." http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/oct/05/john-lewis-two-year-electricals-guarantee