Having temporarily lost the use of my car to a severe case of head-gasketitus it was with absolutely no marked reluctance whatsoever that I resorted to using my motorbike. It’s true certain inanimate objects can spark emotion because I actually feel guilty about leaving it locked away for sometimes months on end! Maybe I feel guilty about the fact it’s money doing nothing? But I don’t think so. I know what I feel and it’s definately guilt over not getting out there and enjoying the freedom you feel on a bike! I recently replaced the slightly illegal exhaust pipe for
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Monthly Archives March 2007
How to Save Money Without Getting Your Hands Dirty
Over the next few days I will hopefully be saving myself nearly £200. If done correctly, not only will I save money but I should literally not get my hands dirty while doing so. This is not something that everyone will want to do and only something certain people may ‘need’ to do. I am in the process of replacing the head-gasket of may car myself. I bought a CD from ebay with workshop manuals for every car made by the same manufacturer of mine. It cost £0.99 with £2.75 postage (£3.74 total). Having searched the disc I have found full
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World Largest Credit Card Fraud Case – Find out more.
Fraudsters have stolen over 45 million credit card numbers from a well known retailer’s database. Hackers accessed the database of TJX (TKMaxx in the UK) several times over a period of 4 years and only stopped when suspicious software was discovered in December last year. The company revealed details in January about suspected fraudulent activity accessing customer card numbers but has only now revealed the full extent of the theft. Apparently customers’ names and addresses were not stored on the same systems as the card numbers, and it is not thought Pin numbers could have been compromised. People that have shopped in TK Maxx
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Compare Car Insurance Online
I just saved my mother £136.54 by using the moneysupermarket.com online car insurance comparison service. Compare Car Insurance She’s 65, retired and drives a ’99 Fiesta Ghia and was quoted £206.85 or £227.54 if paid over 12 months. This renewal quote was from Lloyds with whom she also banks and yet they still charge more for paying monthly. No incentives there….! By putting in all the information you would normally give over the phone, the moneysupermarket.com car insurance comparison tool compares a wide selection of some of the best known UK car insurance companies. Once you have filled in your
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Spring is Sprung the Price of Beer has Ris’
It’s the first day of spring and along the south coast of England it’s a glorious sunny day. (taken using Nokia 6233) The general feeling when the sun is shining is positive but despite the beautiful weather many of us also feel a little apprehension over today’s budget. It’s been announced that the cost of a pint of beer will rise by 1p and cider will rise by 1p per litre. Wine rises by 5p, sparkling wine sees a rise of 7p while there is to be no increase in the tax on spirits. Cigarettes will see a rise of 11p per pack and
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Mortgage Fees Rise Sharply
In the last two years the average fee for arranging a mortgage has risen by 83% from £334 to £611 with some fees potentially over £5,000. These fees can be paid at the start of the agreement but many people are unlikely to have an additional £5000 at the time of arranging a mortgage so the fee will be added to the total loan amount. This means the fee will also be subject to interest over the term of the mortgage. £5,000 is one of the highest examples of rising mortgage fees but fees of around £2,500 are becoming common.
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4×4 Car Tax Increase to Combat Global Warming?
Recent news suggests owners of the least efficient cars on the road are to incur much higher road tax costs over coming years in a bid to help tackle climate change and reduce the UK’s CO2 emissions. “Annual duty on the 225,000 least fuel efficient vehicles purchased brand new since last April, including most 4x4s and sports cars, is set to rise from £210 to more than £400 over the next two years, according to newspaper reports.” Source – Moneyfacts 19/03/2007 Is there a list available of the vehicles affected? How would you know if you have you bought a
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Pi to the Nearest 100,000 Decimal Places Please
Today is the day the Pi is celebrated by a unique group of people sometimes referred to as the ‘acolytes of the church of pi’. Once a year these followers of Pi gather to celebrate all things Pi. Falling on the 14th of March is also significant because in the US date format that would appear as 3.14 which are the first three digits of this well known seemingly infinite number. Although not recognised as a world record holder (for not submitting the required evidence to Guinness), Akira Haraguchi, a 60-year-old mental health counselor in Japan has after accurately recited
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Followus Uncovers Airport Car Park Scandal
FollowUs (www.followus.co.uk), the UK’s leading mobile location solutions service company, has aided BBC’s Watchdog to uncover how one airport car parking company was mistreating a customers’ car. Aired on the 27th February, the show followed the actions of an employee of a Meet & Greet service with the hidden FollowUs Win200 GPS logger device to track the movements of a bait car. It revealed the car was left on the side of a road and outside a supermarket for three nights when it was meant to be in a secure compound. The device also revealed the driver breaking the speed
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Transferring Credit Card Balances to Multiple Cards
In a previous post I mentioned the possibility of being able to strengthen an individual credit score by transferring a credit card balance onto multiple cards. I.e. a £5,000 balance transferred across 5 cards by putting £1000 on each. This may not be advisable in the UK. The information I was originally working from was based in the US and discussed something called ‘credit-utilization ratio’ which suggests that if you have lots of credit at your disposal, you’re only using a relatively small amount of it and you’re managing it successfully, you will be regarded as a fairly safe risk
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