From Yahoo Financial News interest rates are set to rise by 25pct to 5.75 on Thursday. They are expected to reach 6.00% by the end of 2007. ..it’s just as well I switched my mortgage from a variable rate tracker to a 2 year fixed rate product. My mortgage will now stay at 5.44% for the next 2 years. I can’t imagine rates will drop over the next two years so I will have to shop around in a couple of years for the best rate but in the meantime I stand to save by comparison to the tracker mortgage I
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Monthly Archives June 2007
A Truly Nobel Gesture
As you may or may not know Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts with micro credits (or microloans or microfinance) in Bangladesh. Providing small cash loans to people in thirld world countries enabling them to start their own small business. Now you can follow in the footsteps of Muhammad Yunus and make a real difference to the world. This has got to be one of the best ways to help under privileged people in third world countries, giving them the opportunity to work themselves out of poverty. The website www.kiva.org makes
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Fake Students Elligible for Loans
This is old news (as in the story came out last month) but I’ve only just found the article. Apparently around 1600 students enrolled across the UK don’t exist. Fraudsters enrol then use their fake status to obtain student loans. One such fraudster borrowed over £65,000 using 17 fake identities! “The government-owned Student Loans Company will not say how much money it has lost in this single fraud but investigators say the figure could reach £1.2m. ” Read the full story
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Time for a New Postcode
In the last week two things have happened in the last week that suggest to me my neighbourhood is in decline. Earlier this week I walked out of my front door only to notice across the road in the childrens park/play area were a small number of caravans, a few dogs and some makeshift washing lines. Lovely! Luckily, within a few days they had been moved on. This afternoon on returning home I noticed a friends car parked near my place which may not seem unusual but I wasn’t expecting them and I hadn’t seen them for some time. Turns out
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Quick Loan Round-Up
Some recent shifts in interest rates have led to a shuffling in the order of unsecured personal loans available online through affiliate programs. The current standings (correct as at 20/06/2007 – information sourced direct from the lenders websites). Ordered by typical APR: Moneyback Bank Loan – 6.2% Alliance & Leicester – 6.4% Halifax – 6.4% Bank of Scotland – 6.4% Liverpool Victoria – 6.7% AA – 6.8% Sainsbury’s – 6.9% Tesco – 6.9% Virgin – 7.3% Marks & Spencer – 7.4% Eskimo Loans – 7.9% Consumers wishing to find out more about each of these loans can find links to all of
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Right Royal Mail
The Royal Mail recently attempted to post an item to me that was too large to fit through the letter box. I don’t actually recall hearing the doorbell, I just found one of those little red notes on my doormat telling me someone had tried to deliver a package. I happened to notice the opening times had changed at my local collection depot to what first of all seemed like more sensible times. They used to be open during more or less office hours and they are now open from 6am to 12pm then from 5pm to 7pm. Seems logical because people can
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Amusing Quote for the Self Employed
The creed of the Inland Revenue is simple: “If we can bring one little smile to one little face today, then somebody’s slipped up somewhere.” — David Frost
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Persistence Pays Off – Your Unexpected Interest Costs
After reading a misleading advert regarding an M&S credit card offer, a UK consumer withdrew a number of Euros expecting to pay no interest until January 2008. Turns out the offer was for ‘brand new customers only’ and their subsequent statement revealed £20 worth of interest. Several calls and appeals later, M&S finally repaid the interest but not without trying to dodge the issue first. Read the full story at thisismoney.co.uk
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Who’s Responsible for Recycling?
I live in Southampton, UK. It’s not a small city and collectively we must produce tons of waste every hour and yet when I asked my local council for a glass bin (a plastic box some councils provide for people to put their glass in which gets taken away on a specific day and recycled. There have even been NATIONAL adverts about them and the benefits of glass recycling) I was told ‘we don’t provide them in Southampton’. Seriously?? What’s worse is the council representative even told me I could just put my glass in the non-recyclable bin. Naturally I asked if
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Google, Google, Google….
I’m not going to harp on about this because it’s known by webmasters around the world as ‘one of those things’, but one of my sites has suddenly dropped from ranking between 8th and 10th on Google to around 40th for a popular search phrase. I could rant on about this because yes, it makes my blood boil when things like this happen. Maybe because they are totally out of my control, or maybe because it suddenly removes a bit of extra income I was just getting used to…. Nonetheless it smarts and I just wanted to take the time to say to anyone
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