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Saturday, December 27
January Sales 2009
by
Carpetbagger
on Sat 27 Dec 2008 11:44 AM GMT
More shoppers have hit the stores after thousands of Boxing Day bargains were snapped up, giving beleaguered retailers a boost. However, analysts have warned the heavy discounting - including cuts of up to 70 per cent - might not be enough to boost the ailing retail sector. This follows on from boxing day when sales were estimated to be up over 30% on same time last year. These sites show some of the best of the sales So happy shopping and good luck finding the bargains!
Thursday, December 4
Top Selling Toy
by
Carpetbagger
on Thu 04 Dec 2008 09:27 PM GMT
With Christmas fast approaching a leader has emerged as the current top selling toy. It has the edge because it appeals ... more » Thursday, October 30
Best and Top Toys for Christmas 2008.
by
Carpetbagger
on Thu 30 Oct 2008 10:36 PM GMT
Well its is nearly that time of year so a very different blog from me. The Toy Retailers Association have ... more » Wednesday, October 29
8 Money saving tips to green up your life
by
Carpetbagger
on Wed 29 Oct 2008 08:25 PM GMT
With recession looming and money tight here are a few money saving ideas and tips that can help you save ... more » Monday, October 20
Zopa Peer to Peer lending September 2008 update
by
Carpetbagger
on Mon 20 Oct 2008 06:00 PM BST
Well i have finally got around to updating the figures for September 2008. On a positive note i have not picked up any bad debts and have just the 2 borrowers in collections and the value of them is far less than i had budgetted for after 16 months of lending on zopa. September saw me lend out £270 at an average rate of 12.56% which was down on the £600 lent out at an average rate of 13.18% in August and i received £370.93 interest and capital back from existing borrowers. Zopa in total seems to have lent out near 1 million in September so would appear my rates were on the high side this month although in October i am averaging to date over 14% and hope i can maintain it for the rest of the month. Since joining before fees (0.5%) and bad debts (none to date) i have finally reached an average rate of 10% which is satisfactory as some of my rates when i first joined were very keen as i tried to get money lent out. If you are after more on peer to peer lending (social lending) or zopa click the links below. Thursday, October 16
Savings Accounts to beat inflation
by
Carpetbagger
on Thu 16 Oct 2008 07:15 PM BST
Protecting your savings from Inflation. With RPI hitting 5% in September 2008 i thought it was time to see what ... more » Sunday, October 12
Financial Crisis continues
by
Carpetbagger
on Sun 12 Oct 2008 01:33 PM BST
I was going to do an update on how i had fared in September on Zopa today but with the financial crisis showing no sign of going away will concentrate on it instead. I keep being told by people that it makes no difference to the man on the street and we should let the banks (rich bankers go bust). Well here is some food for thought. Last week the knock on effect of it was that the FTSE 100 dropped 21% knocking 250 billion off share prices. This has lead to the pension pots of the UK's top 200 companies dropping by 45 billion. if you work for one of them it might well make a difference to you in the future. Employee share options in many companies have also taken a hammering. These are normally a fantastic perk that generates a lot of extra income for the staff who get them, so what you ask? well if you work for a car dealer, retailer, holiday company, are a tradesman etc you should be worried as 100,000's of UK workers won't be getting the £2,000+ bonus they normally pick up so they won't be spending it with you! Local Authorities have lost over 100 million in Icesave who is going to pick up the tab to replace these funds in local authorities? yes you the British Taxpayer. Small Business, work for one? well if you do ask if they have an overdraft as banks have recently been increasing the interest rates substantially to small businesses or even worse pulling them. Where will the money to pay the increased lending costs come from.....mmmm......maybe the rise you were expecting next year won't happen or worse they make redundancies. Government borrowing even before the bailouts of Icesave, Bradford & Bingley and the rest of the banks, was forecast to be maybe as high as 70 billion this year as against the 43 billion they forecast in the budget. Who will ultimately pay for this extra borrowing? yes the British Taxpayer. In Employment? how safe is your job? forecasts were for unemployment to increase by as much as 800,000 next year and this was before we had the meltdown in the financial markets. On Friday Sealine (upmarket boat builder) announced 297 job losses due to the economic downturn and this is on top of the earlier job losses other firms announced this week. And finally to top it all the IMF said yesterday that we could well seen a further 20% drop in global stock markets. A few days ago i mentioned the word world depression tongue in cheek but since then have lost count of how many times i have read or heard it from financial gurus. Well enough from me and if you are still reading this thank you and i am off to watch leicester v the Ospreys now. Wednesday, October 8
Grab the best savings rate while it is still available.
by
Carpetbagger
on Wed 08 Oct 2008 08:06 PM BST
So another day of turmoil with the FTSE100 another 238.53 points or 5.18%. The UK,US, European Central Bank, China, Sweden and Switzerland all cut interest rates in what i read by one commentator was to stop a financial crisis becoming an economic meltdown. Closer to home though we have lost two of the providers of high savings interest rates. Icesave and i am sure their savers are sleeping better tonight after the government guarantees today and Kaupthing who the UK government has passed control of over to ING. So the cut in interest rates plus the demise of two of the market leaders in terms of high savings, plus the guarantees the UK government gave the banks today leads me to suspect that savings rates may have peaked and the days of 7% fixed rate bonds might shortly be a thing of the past. But there is one star still shining bright although i guess not for much longer and today i have opened an account with them. It is the AA's 12 month fixed rate bond paying 7.21% and takes 5 minutes to apply for online, i am just hoping it is not stopped before they send me the paperwork. One word of warning is that it is underwritten by Birmingham Midshires, so it is under the HBOS/Halixax/Bank of Scotland/Saga/AA/Birmingham Midshires banking license so remember you are not covered by the financial services compensation scheme for any of you savings money across these brands that goes overs £50,000. Tuesday, October 7
Icesave
by
Carpetbagger
on Tue 07 Oct 2008 05:45 PM BST
Well just as i thought things could not get any worse we get the possible collapse of Icesave. With Icesave having almost 300,000 UK savers and the first 20,887 euros in an account being covered by the icelandic scheme and not the UK's (although the amount between 20887 euros and £50,000 is covered by ours) i wonder how long the savers will have to wait for their money? On our side banking stocks again took a hammering and RBS was down 39.23%, HBOS 41.54%, Lloyds 12.93% and Barclays 9.24%. HSBC bucked the trend and ended up. Gordon Brown is currently reported holding bank crisis talks with the governor of the bank of england so later might hear more. On the employment front things are getting worse as well with yesterday a caravan firm in hull confirming hundreds of job losses, Focus DIY announcing 750 jobs at risk and LSUK making 600 staff redundant. Time for a drink!
Monday, October 6
Financial Markets Imploding
by
Carpetbagger
on Mon 06 Oct 2008 06:20 PM BST
Well today we have just seen the FTSE drop by almost 8% to record the worst fall in history and as i type this the American S&P 500 is down over 6%. On the financial services compensation scheme we are seeing Europe's leaders acting unilaterally with Sweden, Germany Austria and Denmark following the lead of Ireland and Greece in guaranteeing all savings and the Spanish government saying they will do the same if the EU does not sort the mess out soon. In Britain we see the share prices of British banks collapsing and talk of tens of millions in deposits being withdrawn while the government procrastinates. The only positive i can find is that my pension pot is not needed for a few years yet although for those nearing retirement they must be dreading the next valuation letter. Away from the UK today we have had Iceland forced to suspend trading in the in the shares of six major banks, the rescue of Germanys Hypo Real Estate Bank collapsing and BNP Paribas taking 75% of Fortis to ensure its survival and Italy's Unicredit bank rumoured to be looking to raise funds to survive. Yesterday i mentioned needing to get the tin hat out but today i am starting to wonder how long it will be before talk of recession might become depression?.
Sunday, October 5
Time to get the tin hats out as recession looms
by
Carpetbagger
on Sun 05 Oct 2008 01:46 PM BST
Although the UK government is still expecting growth in 2009 of 2.25%-2.75%, economists are now expecting rapid deterioration in the UK economy. Citigroup is forcasting negative growth of 0.6% and Barclays 0.2%. RBS expects 700,000 job losses by the end of 2009 and unemployment hitting 2.4 million and the last two quarters of 2008 to show negative growth meaning that we will start 2009 officially in recession. Does this news surprise me...No, although the governments forecast does. Here are a couple of examples of how muti nationals are cutting costs. The first one is from a household name who announced along with a number of other cost cutting measures, that the traditional wine and chocolates their employees get at Christmas will be stopped this year to save £30,000.(they made over 2 billion profit in previous year) The second is from another FTSE 100 company that has cancelled all overseas travel, all UK meetings unless critical, recruitment freeze and a 20% reduction in hotel allowances where critical and a freeze on training. These measures i am sure are being implemented by many firms with the knock on effect that airlines, recruitment firms, gift companies, hotel companies etc are all being dragged down and will be forced to take similar measures only excacerbating the economic problems. With the problems in the mortgage market in part caused by the credit crunch leading to higher mortgage costs and monthly repayments taking even more money out of the household budget i am left wondering how many families are going into the christmas period with a feeling of anxiety and foreboding. For me i am still in the very fortunate position of having excess income over expenditure each month but i am still thinking about getting the tin hat out and have just cancelled sky movies/sport to increase my free cash and am looking at other areas i can cut costs as over the next 12/18 months i really do feel that cash is king. A good selection of money saving tips can be found here for anyone looking to do the same. Money Saving Tips Tuesday, September 30
Another Bank bailed out
by
Carpetbagger
on Tue 30 Sep 2008 01:04 PM BST
Looks like a busy week as the latest from the news service is that Dexia Bank has just been bailed out by the French, Belgian and Luxembourg governments to the tune of 6.4 billion euros. And HBOS shares are down 10.21% on talk that Lloyds are looking to lower the offer price.
Credit Crunch And Banking Collapse
by
Carpetbagger
on Tue 30 Sep 2008 06:02 AM BST
Well back from holidays and the financial system seems to be going into meltdown and credit crunch getting worse. Its difficult to keep up with what is going on as we get the largest US bank failure with Washington Mutual and then Wachavia being bailed out by Citigroup on one side of the Atlantic, then Glitnir being bailed out by the Icelandic government for 600 million euros and 75% stake. On the home front HBOS pushed to merge with Lloyds, Bradford and Bingley collapses and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme is triggered and an extra 4 billion pounds of taxpayers money has gone in to cover deposits over the 35,000 limit. Then to cap it all we then get 11.2 billion euros being poured into Fortis Bank by the Netherlands,Belgium and Luxembourg governments for a 49% stake and rumours that Hypo Real Estate a german mortgage bank is on the brink of collapse. I am just wondering who will be next as less widely acknowledged is the fact that both Cheshire and Derbyshire Building Societies appear to have been bailed out by Nationwide Building Society. (Derbyshire Building Society having made a 17 million loss in first 6 months) I am still digesting all the news after my holiday so still considering the implications the reduction of competition in the banking sector is going to have for both borrowers and savers in the years to come but in the meantime i would recommend everyone as a precaution to consider where possible, making sure they don't have more than the 35,000 covered by the financial services compensation scheme in any one organisation. (35,000 each for joint accounts). Further details can be found here.FSCS Thursday, September 4
Protecting your savings from inflation
by
Carpetbagger
on Thu 04 Sep 2008 05:55 AM BST
Protecting your savings from Inflation
With RPI hitting 5% in July 2008 and forecast to rise further i thought it was time to revisit what accounts allow a real positive return and it is not good.
RPI at 5% means a basic rate tax payer needs a gross return of 6.25% and a 40% taxpayer needs 8.33%. If you are not getting these rates on your current savings accounts your savings are losing value in real terms. Even many ISA's are paying less than 5% so also bad news.
The best of the bunch for ISA's is the Market Harborough Building Society paying 6.5% on £3600 minimum. If you don't have that amount consider the HSBC ISA paying 6.25% on minimum £1.
The best of the fixed rate bonds both require a minimum of £1000 and are ICICI 7.2% and National Counties Building Society paying 7.11% (launches Monday 18/08/2008. These will give inflation beating returns for a standard tax payer but not if you pay 40%.
For fully regulated regular saver accounts the best are Darlington Building Society requiring a minimum of £50 per month paying 8% and the Chorley Building Society santa Saver paying 8.25%. Great for a basic tax payer but not so good if you are a higher rate tax payer.
The Government backed NS&I savings certificates pay 1% plus the RPI over 3 years or five years-or 6% this is equivalent to 10% for a higher rate tax payer so well worth considering if you can afford to lock your money up for that time.
Two others but with greater risk are the Halifax International regular saver paying 10% but as it is offshore if disaster strikes you are not fully protected and Zopa, Zopa again has greater risk although i use it and currently over the last couple of months an estimated return of 10% after anticipated bad debts and fees is feasible. (again you are locking some of your money up for 3 or 5 years) If zopa interests you i blogged about it previously.
One final thought is that the Bank of England forecasts RPI tumbling next year and with swap rates falling it is unlikely many of the higher rate fixed rate bonds will be around much longer so might be worth grabbing one while they are still available. Tuesday, August 12
Inflation Busting Savings Accounts do still exist.
by
Carpetbagger
on Tue 12 Aug 2008 06:53 PM BST
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 RPI hits 5%Having previously discussed how Retail Price Inflation is eroding the value of savings for many 40% tax payers it is disappointing to see RPI rise to 5% today. For anyone who has not read my previous discussion on how to try to mitigate against it please read my blog entitled "Inflation Busting Savings Accounts" dated 31/07/2008 for details of some of the accounts that are worth considering. Thursday, August 7, 2008 ZOPAZopa UK have today announced on the lenders weekly email that they have had the best week for disbursals ever with £380,400 lent out.
Also 30 loans have already been completed in the new young markets. Finally for me it was a good week too as my average loan on ZOPA was 12.89% after the lenders fee. Thursday, July 31
Blog
by
Carpetbagger
on Thu 31 Jul 2008 09:22 PM BST
Thursday, July 31, 2008 Inflation Busting Savings AccountsThe latest retail price index shows a rate of 4.6% so i wonder how many of us realise what this means for the returns we get on our bank and building society savings accounts.
For a basic rate tax payer it means a return of 5.75% is required so no problem here, but for a 40% taxpayer a return of 7.67% is required just to keep even with inflation.
Currently no fixed rate bonds or instant or notice savings accounts offer this rate as the highest fixed rate bond only pays 7.20% so certainly not an inflation busting account.
Most of the accounts that do offer inflation busting returns have catches like the Alliance and Leicester Premier Account that is available if you are over 50 but only pays 8.5% upto £2500 and this is subject to you paying £10 per month for their bank account.
So what to do?
1/ Well first of all make sure you have used your ISA allowance for the year.
2/ Consider good old NS&I as the index linked saving certificates currently pay RPI plus 1% so 5.6%. Think this return sounds bad?? think again because as they are tax free this is equivalent of more 9% gross to a 40% tax payer
3/ Consider these 3 regular saver accounts from building societies.
Chorley Building Society Santa Saver pays 8.25% and you can pay in between £1 and £150 each month.
Darlington Building Society has recently launched its Monthly Super Saver and this pays 8% and you can pay in between £50 and £250 each month
Norwich & Peterborough have a Family Regular Saver paying 8% and you can pay in between £1 and £250 each month(only available if you have children upto 18)
Finally we have the Halifax International Regular Saver Account that is paying 10% and you can pay in between £100 and £2000 each month. Be warned though that as it is offshore you only have 75% protectionfrom the Isle of Man depositor' protection scheme upto a max £20000 so £15000. Further details on this are available on the FSA website.
Finally another option would be zopa. Zopa i will be discussing in more detail at a later date.
So Inflation Busting savings Accounts are available but you have to search hard to find them.
Think on Gas and Electricity Prices this will be last one i do Centrica said today it had been "absolutely necessary" to raise household gas prices as first half operating profit fell nearly 20 percent to 992 million pounds.
The company, which on Wednesday hiked household gas bills by 35 percent -- its second rise this year -- added that the results were good considering tough market conditions. "We are on track to deliver full year results in line with consensus. The forward price (of wholesale gas) for next winter made it absolutely necessary to put through price rises," Finance Director Nick Luff told Reuters in a telephone interview. He denied putting the business before its 16 million domestic energy customers, despite the group's near 1 billion pound profit in just six months. "The market is aware wholesale gas prices are significantly high. Profits are down on last year -- we are not immune to it," he said. British Gas makes up about a fifth of the overall company, but Luff said Centrica could not take profit from its other divisions to help out customers due to the need for future investment. "We need to make investment to stop the lights going out. To make an investment, it has to have a return. It's important that each part of the business makes a profit," he said. And he added that the group would work hard to help those in fuel poverty and cutting people's supplies would be "an absolute last resort". Shares in Centrica, down 14 percent this year, were up 1.7 percent at 324.5 pence by 8:27 a.m., valuing the company at 12 billion pounds. The company said first half profit at its British Gas unit fell 69 percent but other parts did better. British Gas Services operating profit increased 35 percent to 85 million pounds, while Centrica Energy -- which benefits from the higher wholesale gas price -- saw a 50 percent increase to 504 million pounds. If you have not looked at other supliers/possible fix rate capped deals. Still time to do so i think. Wednesday, July 30, 2008 Gas and Eletricity againFor those who have read my comments in the last two days i hope you have managed to get one of the few fixed rate energy deals that are left. If not look to do it asap as below is more bad news regarding energy prices.
LONDON (Reuters) - British Gas-owner Centrica said on Wednesday it would raise gas and electricity prices for households by 35 percent and 9 percent respectively, citing high wholesale gas prices. The company, the biggest household supplier in the country with over 16 million customers, said profits at its British Gas Residential unit had fallen 69 percent in the first half, while wholesale prices for the coming winter are up nearly 90 percent on the previous year. Centrica shares rose 1.5 percent to 314.75 pence by 3:09 p.m., valuing the business at 11.7 billion pounds. "We very much regret that we have had to make this decision at a time when many household budgets are already under pressure," British Gas Managing Director Phil Bentley said in a statement. He added that the firm would be contacting all its customers to show how they can save energy to offset the price rises. The bill hikes, which are 25 percent for customers who buy both gas and electricity from Centrica, will come in with immediate effect. Centrica is the second of the six major suppliers to the market to raise prices in less than a week, after French supplier EDF Energy hiked gas and electricity bills 22 percent and 17 percent respectively on Friday. The other four are expected to follow suit sometime before the winter months. They are RWE-owned nPower, Iberdrola-owned Scottish Power, E.ON UK and Scottish & Southern Energy. The trend of repeated rounds of price hikes by the main suppliers was criticised in a report by MPs on Monday, which said the market did not operate efficiently and that it was easy for companies to predict what their rivals were going to do Tuesday, July 29, 2008 Gas and Electricity price increases Again!!!The press seems to think very shortly others will follow EDF's lead.
Florian Ritzmann, of Xelector said it was no surprise that EDF had put up prices. "Suppliers have been watching each other closely for weeks, if not months," he said. "Most suppliers will now be looking to mimic the size of this increase, in very short order, and they will be announcing these price increases while a good number of UK citizens are abroad on holiday and unable to respond." Ritzmann said energy customers should sign up to capped rates with guaranteed rates now as the best deals may be pulled in the next few days. Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at price comparison website uSwitch.com, agreed other suppliers were likely to follow EDF's lead over the coming weeks. A spokesman for Scottish Hydro Electric, which has 8.8 million customers across the UK, warned that further price rises were a real possibility. He said: "We are resisting the pressure to raise prices at the moment, but it's more difficult with every day." Scottish and Southern Energy, which represents another 8.8 million consumers, warned this week that the full impact of soaring oil costs "has still to be felt". Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, said earlier this month that the average family household bill for heat and light could increase by more than £1000 over the next two years. Yesterday, British Gas could not confirm if any price rises were imminent. A spokeswoman for nPower said that it intended to hold its current price "for as long as possible". "The days of cheap energy are over – today's move means we are another step closer to seeing the largest ever increase in household energy bills in one year – we are potentially looking at a 61% or £555 increase in total this year," she said. If industry insiders are correct and the average energy bill hits £1,467 by the end of 2008 Robinson said spending on energy would account for 5% of the average household's net income. "We are in danger of seeing household energy becoming unaffordable for growing swathes of society," she added. Gordon Lishman, Director General of Age Concern, said: “News of yet more huge hikes in energy prices will horrify many pensioners who are already struggling to pay their rapidly rising household bills. It is an absolute disgrace that an estimated 2.25 million older households are now living in fuel poverty with thousands more facing the same fate. . “The help being offered to the poorest and most vulnerable energy customers by the Government and energy companies is woefully inadequate. As an emergency measure to help alleviate the problem this winter, the Government and energy companies should be working together to offer ‘fuel vouchers’ to the poorest pensioners. But as part of a wider package of reforms, the Government should also introduce mandatory social tariffs to put an end to the scandal of poorer customers on pre-payment meters being charged more than others." Energywatch estimates the average annual energy bill is now £1058. Predictions of a 40% increase in energy prices this year could see the average annual energy bill increase to £1481. The general advice being given by the industry to those consumers who are vulnerable to price hikes is to search for capped energy deals to protect against future increases. Mr Wolfenden said: “Fixed or capped price plans could be a lifeline for those who are more vulnerable to price rises. “These plans carry a premium, but if you’ve never switched before you will probably still save money immediately by moving to one. “However, the best fixed and capped deals are disappearing fast so consumers need to act quickly,” he advised. Monday, July 28, 2008 Gas & Electricity Price IncreasesSee EDF energy have increased prices by as much as 22% (and owned by the French company Electricite de France) so thought i would look around to see how to get a reduction in price and away from a French supplier.
To get price comparisons is very easy and even better some of them are currently offering cashbacks too.
Here are a list of some of the sites you might want to take a look at
energyhelpline (offer £15 cashback)
moneysupermarket (from £17.50)
U switch (vouchers for £40 off virgin wine)
A quick search of the internet will show many more too. It takes minutes to check whether you are paying too much for your gas and electricity and in these days of the press telling us on a daily basis that a recession is looming an opportunity to save a bit of dosh can't be bad!! Friday, July 25, 2008 Charitable AssignmentI am often asked by people about which building societies don't have them. So here is the list.
Swansea
Ecology
Cambridge
Saffron
Hinkley & Rugby
Shepshed
Kent Reliance
Vernon
City of Derry
Catholic |
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