Save yourself some money this Christmas

Whilst Christmas is now only around the corner there are still plenty of people that simply haven’t had the time or spare cash to get their Christmas shopping done as early as they may have liked to have done it. Read more

Tags: Gift economy, Retailing, Credit card, online shopping, New Year's Day, christmas, shopping, Loyalty program

Bogus pricing at centre of crackdown

Supermarkets and travel companies have found themselves at the centre of a crackdown over bogus discount pricing after a number of complaints were made by consumers. Read more

Tags: whilst, bogus discount pricing, official, price crackdown, sound, office of fair trading, Pricing, bogus discounts

Interest rates ‘may drop to 4% in 2009′

Although recent predictions suggested that the Bank of England interest rate would remain unchanged, an expert has said that it could drop to four per cent in 2009.

Howard Archer, chief European and UK economist for Global Insight, said that the Bank of England will almost certainly keep interest rates at five per cent this Thursday.

Mr Archer predicted that rates are unlikely to drop before August at the earliest, however he also said that they may drop next year.

“We still believe that interest rates could eventually fall as low as four per cent in 2009, but it will be a gradual process,” he commented.

However, he also said: “The bank will want clear evidence that wage moderation is continuing and that reduced demand is undermining companies’ pricing power.”

In related news, net credit card lending rose by £100 million in April, although this was still below the increase in March, according to the bank.

Tags: bank of england, credit, March, Pricing, Credit card, credit card lending

Insurance needed even for ‘breakneck breaks’

More and more British people are jetting off on short duration long-haul foreign trips, new research shows.

Some 3.7 million people travelled more than 5.5 billion miles to take a long-haul (more than seven hours) flight for a holiday of a week or less, a survey by the Halifax found.

And in spite of concerns about the carbon footprint of air travel, the numbers planning to take what has been dubbed a “breakneck break” in the next year are rising.

The study found that 4,987,000 Britons will take such a trip during 2008.

Travelling to less familiar, further flung destinations while attempting to cram in ever more to less and less time increases the need for travellers to have proper levels of travel insurance.

Paul Birkhead, senior manager of pricing and underwriting at Halifax Travel Insurance, warned: “Holidaymakers should not risk travelling without adequate insurance just because they are taking a short break.

“Things can go wrong whether you are taking a break for two days or two weeks. Travel insurance will cover you for the unexpected, making it vital that everyone has it. Lost baggage, delayed flights or illness can prove expensive, especially if you are 1,000’s of miles away from home.”

Tags: duration, travel, footprint, air travel, carbon footprint, Pricing