Is your pet insured against Christmas chaos?
There is evidence to suggest that over the past year many cash-strapped consumers have been trying to save money in what is still a difficult financial climate, and one way in which some have done this is by reducing or cancelling insurance policies that are not legally required such as health insurance and pet insurance. Read more
Tags: christmas, pet insurance, dogs catch sight, pet accident, pooches, treatment, pocket, anything
Consumers’ impulse buys costs them
January 25, 2008 by admin
Filed under News, News-Credit-Cards
A love of impulse buying helped by credit cards and the internet is leaving Brits financially out of pocket, according to new research. 
Findings from swiftcover.com show that 91 per cent of respondents made a regrettable impulse purchase last year with a further 60 per cent admitting to spending in excess of £100 last year on spontaneous buying.
A fifth of consumers blamed credit cards for their impulse spending while a further 26 per cent said the convenience of online shopping made them susceptible to
Tina Shortle from swiftcover.com. said: “Whether it’s a pair of killer heels, or the latest ‘must-have’ gadget, it seems that we’re addicted to spending now, paying later.”
He added: “But that means that we’ve also dropped our guard when it comes to ’sensible’ habits like shopping around and as a result we are getting stung by shops’ returns policies.”
The survey showed that seven out of ten people admitted that they do not bother to read returns policies before buying.
Meanwhile, Which? has reported that shoppers are opting for cheaper supermarkets as Asda and Lidl entered the top ten of stores used by consumers in a recent survey.
Parents should open bank accounts for children ‘as early as possible’
January 23, 2008 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
Providing children with bank accounts as early in life as possible will enable them to have a better understanding of money say independent financial advisors. 
MDM Associates said that opening a bank account as early as possible parents can then talk children through statements and show them where interest has been added.
Older children could receive an account with a debit card said the company.
Lisanne Mealing, managing director of MDM Associates, said: “That then starts to give them the idea of some financial responsibility – you’re trusting them because they’ll have access to that account themselves.”
Providing monthly pocket money to children can also be a good way to teach children about budgeting, she added.
According to an article on the Times Online, a recent survey by NatWest suggests that 51 per cent of young people want more advice from parents about how to manage money.
Many respondents said they were frustrated by well-trodden cliches such as ‘money doesn’t grow on trees’.
Hips earnings ’sliced in half’
July 13, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Mortgages
Pack providers have cut the earning potential of home inspectors implementing the new Home Information Packs (Hips), it has been claimed.
Interviewed on BBC Two’s Working Lunch, home inspector Alyson Cadd said that her potential earnings could now have been halved, thanks to meddling by high street providers.
“The pack providers… have now basically driven themselves between us and our clients, which would have been the estate agents or even the self-seller, the seller of the property, we now have the pack providers and these panels that we have to contact.”
She added that providers were “not just taking the commission or a cut; they’re actually taking half our fee in many cases, certainly the larger pack providers which really seem to have cornered the market with a lot of people”.
Hips, sometimes known as seller’s packs, will become mandatory for sales of homes with four bedrooms or more in England and Wales on August 1st, before being extended to cover all properties over the next year.
Ms Cadd also strongly criticised the delays to the scheme, which was originally to have been implemented across the country earlier this year.
Describing herself as “angry and stunned” by the hold up, she said that she knew of people who had given up jobs to become home inspectors in time for the original start date who had been left badly out of pocket as a result.
