Free extra year's warranty available on some credit cards



http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insura ... warranties

Give that a proper read before jumping into anything, but there's no doubt it could be handy if you can make it work for you...

Homeowners warned of return to 5% interest rates

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010 ... rest-rates



It is good that they are priming people for the inevitable increase.

But after they have blown loads on xmas.

Watch those automatically renew your insurance letters.

My daughter had hers through and they wanted an extra 12 per month, nothing has changed on it. So I did a quick check around for prices, then phoned them up.

Ended up with a £2 per month increase on last years price because I switched her from third party to fully comp. Sorted

My home insurance was on automatic and was going up a lot, but I've cancelled it and went elsewhere just last week.

I went with eSure. Went down from £400 a year to £150 for pretty much the same home / contents / accidental / legal cover!

Even the "customer retention" dept couldn't come vaguely close, only about £380 and some Marks&Sparks vouchers.

Yes loyalty clearly no longer pays. You would have thought that it has more benefits for the supplier what ever it is being supplied. Costs of maintaining a service are considerably lower than for a new customer. Though I suspect that they work on the basis of a certain percentage of customers leaving.

Petrol duty and VAT rises to increase price of fuel

Looming petrol duty and VAT rises are to push record petrol prices higher.

On New Year's Day, a government fuel duty increase put another 0.76p on to both petrol and diesel. And on 4 January, the rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20% will mean another price rise.

The AA estimates that the two increases will add around 3.5p to the cost of a litre of both petrol and diesel.

The average price of unleaded petrol in the UK stands at 124.16p, according to Experian Catalist.

This time last year, petrol was at 107.74p a litre and diesel at 109.46p.

Diesel currently costs, on average, 128.35p a litre - some five pence below its record high of July 2008.

'Tempting'
The AA estimated that in total, motorists are spending almost £10m more a day on petrol than this time a year ago.

And the RAC Foundation pointed out that fuel tax would rise even further in April.

"Given that each penny increase in fuel duty raises about an extra £500 million for the Exchequer, it is easy to see why the chancellor is tempted to hike rates," said the foundation's director, Professor Stephen Glaister.

"But if the nation's 34 million motorists are pushed too far they will drive less and the Treasury could actually see their tax take fall.

"At the election there was much talk about a fuel duty stabiliser. Drivers will rightly be wondering what happened to that idea."

The Freight Transport Association (FTA) said lorry drivers in 2010 had been paying an average of £3,800 more on fuel than in 2009.

It said the 1 January rise alone would add another £1,200 to annual fuel bills.

"Diesel is not an optional extra for industry. It is essential to keep shops stocked and businesses supplied with materials," said Simon Chapman, the FTA's chief economist.

The head of a haulage company based in Stoke, Barry Proctor, said the rises were unfair.

"This is a huge blow to the haulage industry. We've had horrendous weather conditions over the last few weeks, but yet again this industry has managed to deliver Christmas, unlike an awful lot of other industries that have failed their customers miserably.

"And instead of a pat on the back from George Osborne, it's another body blow."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12098981

And the amount of people who know I'm saving to move out and still think I should be learning to drive...

Money saving tip for the New Year ahead:
Try spending less.

No need to thank me.

B0llocks, I'm holding out for that lottery win

Actually, must bring that up again in work (wasn't my idea though)...

Yes I must thank you. It was not clear to me before.

I am planning to get a few things but this year I will bargain hunt a lot more than before buying. I may not even want or need it by the time I am in a position to buy. I was looking at getting an Apple TV but since its output tops out at 720 I decided to delay for now getting it. Saved me £100.

Families need £1,800 extra a year by 2015 to pay credit cards

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/pers ... cards.html

Paid all my credit cards off this month <smug>. As of now the only debt I have of any sort is my mortgage.

Jon

My one condition for owning a credit card was paying it off in full every month - I knew I couldn't trust myself otherwise

Happily, I recently discovered I had more money than I thought I did

Same here. I only have one loan outstanding and will be ramping up over payments as soon as possible.

In the next few months I may be totally debt free (though if that happens its will because Ive been made unemployed ) or halved my debt (due to bonus )