What the DTI should do is insist the taper starts at a lower level, so a month's instalment might be fine for an early repayment but this could be reduced as the loan goes on until it is next to nothing towards the end.The DTI has another chance to ponder these points, because in the autumn it plans to publish a White Paper on consumer credit. This is to sweep up a lot of work being done by the Office of Fair Trading and others about the difficult problem of how to protect borrowers at the bottom of the heap, such as jobless single parents who need money to tide them over until their next benefit cheque. Such folk are the regular prey of the loan sharks, who will think nothing of racking up interest that far exceeds the original loan, and exact summary justice on defaulters.The trouble is that a licensing system for lenders, which we have at present, drives the real rogues underground. The main banks are trying to think creatively about this conundrum, by looking at ways in which they can reach the high-risk, feckless borrower.Back about 1978, when The Jam was jamming and the Rats were booming, NatWest experimented with street lenders. Copying a New York idea, they dressed in jeans and T-shirts and moved around the bars and clubs offering loans, mainly to people running small businesses.The banks should bring back the street lenders with the specific aim of taking on the loan-sharks, undercutting their crippling interest rates and introducing decency and dignity to struggling borrowers.* One of the revelations of Fidelity's summer party this week was Anthony Bolton, the legendary fund manager whose relentless attention to detail and tireless research enabled him to outstrip his peers in the bull markets of the past 20 years.At the start of this year Mr Bolton, 53, shed two of his funds to concentrate on Fidelity Special Situations and Fidelity European Investment Trust.

The effect has been dramatic.No doubt the party surroundings of London's Somerset House and the excellent wine had something to do with it, but the years seemed to have fallen away from Mr Bolton and rekindled his appetite for investment. "I'm only dealing with 200 stocks instead of 400," he said happily.If you are thinking of dipping back into the stock market, you could do a lot worse than tap into Mr Bolton's new-found buoyancy.w.kay independent.co.ukWilliam Kay is Personal Finance Editor of 'The Independent'. Have you made the Big Switch yet? I did in March this year when I moved from two large energy and phone suppliers to a smaller, cheaper one, and managed to shave more than £200 off my bills. The only trouble is I have been paying twice for the privilege. I had heard good reports about the company and liked its prices, so I decided to sign, filling in the forms and waiting for the change-over.TelecomPlus, which buys from the cheapest sources, duly contacted my suppliers, Seeboard and British Telecom, and a fortnight later both companies wrote to me saying how sorry they were I was leaving and that if I changed my mind they would be happy to welcome me back.Then I had a second letter from Seeboard. The company said it had raised an objection to moving my gas supply as the next bill was due. "We can only agree to a transfer when you have paid for your latest usage," the company said.

So I did just that, expecting my next little brown envelope to come from my new supplier.But I waited and waited and waited and it never arrived. Puzzled, I checked my bank statements and, to my surprise, found I was still paying Seeboard for gas even though all my electricity was now coming from the alternative source.When I contacted TelecomPlus, a spokesman said: "Seeboard objected to the move. It usually happens when a customer has an outstanding bill or change of address, though they never tell us precisely why. We should have sent you a letter explaining the objection together with a second 'change of supplier' form. I'm sorry it never arrived and you've ended up in limbo-land."I contacted energywatch, an independent gas and electricity watchdog. A spokesman said a third of all UK power switchers end up with one or more transfer problems and that, from April, 2002, to March this year, the organisation had dealt with 34,000 dissatisfied switchers."It's a pretty appalling state of affairs that's caused by the complicated IT back-up systems and administration teams of the large power suppliers," the spokesman said. "There are a staggering 40 problems that can arise when a customer makes a switch.

So it's not surprising suppliers are quick to raise an objection, because it helps to prevent further problems as well as the loss of valuable customers."Happily, the problem has been resolved and normal supply restored. I am now a fully-fledged member of the UK's new home supply club, together with 11 million electricity and eight million gas users, as figures from Ofgem, the power regulator, confirm.Naively, I thought telephone switching would be more straightforward. Ten million UK home users and 16 per cent of SMEs (small and medium-sized companies) have changed suppliers since the Big Switch began four years ago, some doing a double and moving their mobiles to cheaper suppliers at the same time.An Oftel spokesman said: "We haven't had many complaints. All the mistakes were made in the early stages of switching, and most of the lessons have been learnt." With one exception: billing. When I checked my bank statements, I found I had been paying BT two direct debits of £120 and £50 a month over the past four months, although I switched one phone line to TelecomPlus in March.I should have been paying BT £19 a month (£9.50 for two line rentals) as well as my call charges to TelecomPlus.