If you visit the bustling county town of Lewes in East Sussex and go into of the shops or pubs, you will be offered the opportunity of exchanging your UK Sterling pounds for the local Lewes pounds. The exchange rate is one-to-one and there are no commission fees to worry about. In exchange you will [more...]
Answerfinder’s article about Burial Clubs reminded me that many people worry about burial costs. Funeral insurance is big business, with a funeral home generally being the beneficiary of funeral expenses policies. This insurance pays for the casket (coffin), the flowers, the funeral service etc. This enables the policyholder to pay “up front” for their own [more...]
There is a thriving wine investment market, and some people manage to turn a reasonable profit by investing in quality wines at the right price, and buying and selling at the right time. But there’s one way you almost certainly won’t make a profit—and that’s by buying into a wine investment “opportunity” that is offered to [more...]
Seven countries other than the United States use the U.S. dollar as their official currency. Most of them are Latin American countries or island nations with small populations. The country that has used the U.S. dollar the longest is Panama, which adopted the balboa, pegged directly on a 1:1 to the dollar, as its currency in [more...]
The pound sterling (GBP) is the legal currency throughout the United Kingdom, and the Bank of England prints banknotes for this currency. Due to a quirk of history, three Scottish banks and four Northern Ireland banks also print notes denominated in United Kingdom pounds. Before 1844-45, each bank issued their own notes. The Bank Charter Act [more...]
It’s a dreadful experience, that sinking feeling as it dawns on you that the pair of jeans you’ve just put in the washing machine contains two £20 notes. It brings a whole new meaning to money laundering. As you take them out of the machine, you find that they are creased, crumpled and soggy. [more...]
Credit cardholders According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 173 million credit cardholders in the United States in 2006 and that number is projected to grow to 181 million in 2010.(1) Number of cards There were 1,488,000,000 credit cards in use 2006 and that number is projected to grow to 1,618,000,000 in 2010. Number of cards 2006 2010 projected (mil) Total [more...]
The phrase “printing money” is loaded with all kinds of negative connotations. It’s something we associate with Robert Mugabe, destroying the value of Zimbabwe’s currency. But now “quantitative easing” is about to begin. How does that work, and is it really the same as printing money? Most of the money in circulation is not in the [more...]
The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street is a nickname for the Bank of England situated in Threadneedle Street, in the City of London. It is obvious as to why the name of the street forms part of the nickname, but why ‘Old Lady’? The nickname comes from a Thomas Gillray cartoon published in May 1797. The cartoon [more...]
Ethical banking is a sector of the banking industry which takes ethical considerations into account when making business decisions. Sometimes it represents little more than a marketing catchphrase, but at the other end of the spectrum there are financial institutions whose entire reason for existence is to further a particular ethical goal. Ethical concerns may include [more...]
Deflation is the opposite of inflation. Deflation is what we call it when things get cheaper. What could possibly be wrong with that? And yet some people argue that deflation is one of the worst things that could happen. How can that be? Suppose flat panel TVs keep getting cheaper. Some people will spend less on [more...]
Many mathematicians and economists have investigated the idea that optimum taxation rates can be mathematically derived. However, depending on the underlying assumptions different conclusions can be reached. We can illustrate the situation with a simple example. Suppose tax rates are nil. Zero tax causes no disincentive to work (and therefore to produce), however, the government gets [more...]
For those who have not heard of Mechanical Turk (MT), it is a marketplace for work, operated by Amazon.com, Inc. After registration and acceptance, as an MT worker you can work from home on your computer, choose your own hours of work, select the work you want to undertake, and get paid for it. Your dollar [more...]
If your employer is going bust then you will not receive any redundancy payment from them, and it is unlikely you will receive any advance notice. It is a traumatic time, but there is help at hand. You need to contact two government departments. First, the Redundancy Payments Office which is part of Insolvency Service. By the [more...]
If you’ve ever applied for a credit card, a mortgage or any type of loan, you probably know that your credit score is one of the factors used to determine whether you that loan. But what is it, and where does it come from? In the United States, your credit score is almost always a three-number [more...]
In the UK this information is available to the public. It is free in England and Wales, but Northern Ireland and Scotland requires payment. Information on those subject to bankruptcy orders and bankruptcy restrictions orders in England and Wales are found on the Individual Insolvency Register which is controlled by The Insolvency Service. You can access it [more...]
AdSense is Google’s advertising program which allows advertisers to put their ads on your website. In return for acting as middleman, Google retains part of the advertising fee, and passes the rest on to you. You must already have a website before you can sign up, but an active blog is enough. Many people sign up [more...]
Here are a few tips for saving money on your medications. 1. Ask your doctor if there is a lower cost generic drug available. 2. Shop around. Did you know that the price of commonly prescribed drugs varies significantly among pharmacies in the same city? 3. Purchase your medications from an online pharmacy 4. Use a drug discount card. 5. Check [more...]
Today’s announcement (2009-01-08) by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee setting the interest rate at 1.5% makes it the lowest interest rate since the Bank of England was established in 1694. In relatively recent times, 29 years ago, it stood at a record high of 17%. The Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time raised [more...]
You may come across a financial adviser in many different areas of the management of your finances: banking, mortgages, accountancy, tax planning, investments and pensions. It is always wise to check they are regulated before parting with any money or signing any form of commitment. Members of the public have open access to check them on [more...]