Best ways to buy and how to complain: what I’ve learned as a consumer champion

Miles Brignall has tackled a constant stream of readers’ letters and solved their problems, Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

After 20 years of writing for the Guardian – at first on Jobs & Money and more recently as one of the Consumer Champions – this is my last week before I cycle off into the sunset. Over that period I have seen, and reported on, the 2008 financial crash, the boom in bank fraud – and, more recently, the crazy time in people’s finances that was Covid.

This is what I have taken from the experience – and how it has informed the way I manage my own finances.