The big story of the day is government’s vote to ban smoking in all confined public places, such as pubs and restaurants. The government predicts that 600,000 people will quit smoking as a result of the ban, but apart from the obvious health risks, smoking can put a serious dent in your finances. I was […]
Category: Featured
Costly Financial Mistakes
The Scotsman has ten common financial mistakes that people make. Of the ten, my ‘favourites’ are: Failing to understand credit card interest rates – 80% of cardholders do not know what rate they are paying or think they are paying a lower rate than they really are. But let’s face it, with about 14 different […]
Remortgaging Tips
Get yourself a lower rate, then overpay your mortgage to reduce the term and overall outlay.
Guide To ISAs: How Much Can I Invest?
Individual Savings Accounts investment limits and rules.
Calculators Added
Calculators for doing basic sums added to the site.
Zopa Borrowing & Lending Gains Momentum
“eBay” of lending gaining users.
Guide To ISAs: What Is An ISA?
An ISA, which stands for Individual Savings Account, is not a financial product itself. Rather it is a “wrapper” in which you can put either a cash or shares investment, which helps keep the money you have invested away from the tax man. Martin Lewis uses a cake analogy: Imagine a couple of cakes, a […]
Guide To ISAs
We’re in the run up to the “ISA season”, where those who have yet to invest their ISA allowance for this tax year panic about finding a suitable ISA product to help keep their money away from the tax man. Over the following week or two (depending on how many things I can think of, […]
More On American Express Red Card
I my post about the new American Express Red Credit Card, I mentioned that I was a little unsure how I felt about a large company like American Express having such a product. Having read more about the Red Card on the Motley Fool though, it seems like it may actually be a reasonably competitive […]
A-Day: Checklist
Things seem to have gone a little quiet about A-Day, when pension regulation undergoes a major overhaul, since the government’s U-turn on property in SIPPs. But that’s not to say that the changes in the pension rules are to be forgotten – indeed, these are said to be the biggest changes to the way pensions […]