Britons Selling Body Organs to Gain Cash to Pay Bills

The threat of losing their homes because of the inability to repay their mortgage payments has forced many people in Britain to use extraordinary means of finding the cash they need. Many have resorted to selling one of their kidneys as a way of clearing their debts and paying their mortgages. Read more

Tags: lodgers, getting out of debt, body, mortgage debts, term, sell body organs

Be Wary of Christmas Clubs

Christmas Clubs are advertised as a way of saving money for the expenses you incur during the Christmas season. You invest an amount of money each month during the year and get your money back in December just in time to buy your Christmas presents. Actually you don’t receive cash that you can spend wherever you wish, but you get the money back in the form of cash vouchers that you can only use in specific stores.

Budgeting for Christmas is something that everyone should start doing in January of each year. By setting aside an amount of money each month, you will have the money you need for the season to cover the expenses of extra groceries and decorations as well as gifts for family and friends. In this way, you can avoid the headache of having bills coming due in January for the purchases you made on your credit cards during December and for which you have to spend the rest of the year making payments to bring down your outstanding balance.

When the Fairfax savings club collapsed just before Christmas in 2006 there were about 15,000 families who never saw any of the money they had paid into the club during the year. As a result, they incurred a lot of extra expenses for Christmas that year.

The Christmas Prepayment Association has reduced the possibilities of such a fiasco happening in the future. This is a regulatory body that has been established to oversee the operations of such savings clubs as Country Christmas, Family Christmas, Park Christmas, Variety Christmas and Post Office Christmas.

The regulations in place will ensure that if any of these clubs do encounter financial difficulties and have to declare bankruptcy, those who do have savings with them will get the cash vouchers they were promised.

One of the main problems with using such a club as a way of saving money for Christmas is that you can only take out the money in December. If you have an emergency at any other time of the year, you will not have access to the cash you have saved because it cannot be withdrawn during the year. Thus if you lose your job, as is the case with many UK families during the recession, you cannot get back what you have paid in to tide you over.

Another disadvantage of the savings club idea is that although you do get all the money back that you paid into the scheme you don’t make any money on the savings. The club does not pay any interest. Even though the amount of interest paid on savings accounts by banks is very low at the present time, at least you do earn some money.

When you want to save money for Christmas, it is better to open a savings account. There are many such accounts available in which you can make deposits of any amounts during the year from £10 to £250, such as that offered by Skipton Building Society Christmas Savers Account. You earn about 3.23 % interest on your money, but like the other Christmas clubs, you can only withdraw the money after November 25 of each year.

Tags: office christmas, christmas clubs, need, Banking, outstanding balance, saving for christmas, family and friends

Ofgem figures show consumers are using “their buying power”

Data from Ofgem showing that over five million energy customers have switched supplier in the past year is a sign that customers are using “their buying power”, according to a consumer advisory service.

Which? said that energy customers need to keep looking out for the best deal as there are significant price differences between companies.

Siobhan, Parker from Switch with Which? said: “The fact that 5 million people switched last year shows that consumers are using their buying power and taking their business elsewhere if they’re not on the best tariff.”

She added that there are still improvements to be made as the research showed that nearly half of UK households have never changed supplier while even those who have already switched may find that new tariffs could offer further savings.

Figures released showed that 5.1 million consumers transferred their business to a different company in an attempt to find a cheaper deal.

This is the highest number of switchers for five years, said the body.

Tags: uk households, supplier, half, body, price, Green electricity in the United Kingdom, attempt, ofgem

More consumers concerned about safety of personal details

More consumers are concerned about the safety and security of their personal details than ever before, an information body has claimed.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said this fear of identity theft is driven by various factors including the recent data losses, particularly by the government, as well as the rise in the number of incidences of identity theft being recorded.

David Smith, deputy commissioner at the ICO, said: “As we all give more and more information out to all sorts of organisations, they build up bigger and bigger databases with pictures of our lives and the risks get greater all the time.”

He added that consumers should not panic, but should question organisations as to why they may need personal information.

Research carried out by consumer advisers CPP found that London is the top worst location for credit and debt card fraud theft, with 20 per cent of Londoners say that they have had their cards stolen before.

Tags: location, debt card, number, london, information, deputy commissioner, identity theft, body

Home insurance should cover new installations

Homeowners could benefit from increasing home insurance cover to cater for the increased value of their homes following renovations advised an industry body.

The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) said that the reassessment of the contents value and building cover is dependent on what work has been done and its size.

Steve Foulsham, technical services officer for BIBA, said: “If it’s an expensive, state of the art new kitchen worth £10,000, then you may wish to increase your sum insured to cater for that.”

He added that BIBA gets many queries from members of the public asking for clarification on what falls within home and contents insurance.

The “general feeling” among insurers is that once a renovation has been fixed down, it becomes part of the building, Mr Foulsham concluded.

According to the British Retail Consortium, citing figures from Datamonitor, in 2008 the UK DIY and hardware market is estimated to be worth £16.1 billion.

This is an increase of 17.7 per cent since 2003.

Tags: building, economics, part, cover, industry, public asking

Mortgage lending hits record level, says CML

Mortgage lending has hit a new high, according to latest statistics from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

Gross lending hit an all-time July record of £34.4 billion, according to figures released by the industry body today.

Although the amount is slightly down on June’s results, this nevertheless represents a 13 per cent rise on the equivalent figures for 2006.

A CML spokesperson said that the record figures did not mean that the trend was set to increase: “As we move into the autumn the cumulative effects of [interest] rate rises will become more pronounced, and we expect this to feed through to lower levels of mortgage lending as the year progresses.”

Interest rates were raised by the Bank of England in July to 5.75 per cent, the fifth such increase in a year.

Commenting on the CML’s figures, chief economist at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), Simon Rubinsohn, also counselled caution, saying that “the turmoil in financial markets will push up mortgage costs for in vogue longer term fixed rate deals and will further slow the residential property market.

“With 90 per cent of borrowers opting for fixed rate security, those who are already financially stretched will find themselves paying a higher price for the added peace of mind,” he added.

Tags: body, Institute, year, peace, council of mortgage lenders, chief economist