Friends and Money Blog

Budget Predictions

2008-03-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow (Weds 12th March) Alistair Darling will deliver one of the most critical budget speeches in a decade and it will be his first speech as Chancellor.

With the UK economy slowly grinding to a halt all attention will be on his announcements and the hope that he can kickstart our sluggish UK economy back into life. This year has been a difficult year for the global economy, firstly with the collapse of the sub prime market in the US, where US banking corporations lent too much to many people with too few concerns about their capacity to repay these sums. This on top of an increasingly competitive market that has seen China, Russia and India demanding more materials to feed the demands of their rapidly expanding consumer societies. Instability and rogue trading in the European banking sector has also caused banks to reduce the amount that they are prepared to loan to each other and as a result almost certainly contributed to the run on Northern Rock bank, which first in British society for over 100 years.
So in light of all this doom and gloom what can we expect from Alistair Darling's first speech?

Here are my hot picks:

- Tax on alcohol is almost certainly due to go up. This seems popular with the current anti binge drinking arguments that are kicking around at the moment. I think that it is more likely to happen on beers than on wines and spirits, so expect your weekly night out to cost you a few more quid.

- Fuel - I think this will remain the same, even Alistair Darling wouldn't be stupid enough to increase tax on petrol prices in the current climate that has seen wholesale oil prices raise dramatically. It would be political suicide to increase this!

We'll find out more tomorrow!!!

friendsandmoney Competition Thread

2008-02-04T02:32:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our first friendsandmoney competition where you can earn points just for contributing to our site and help the friendsandmoney community to grow. We want to reward your efforts in return.

Please read the full competition details here:

Please post details of your activities on this thread so that we can correctly attribute any points to your hard efforts and include your email address in the post so that we can contact you if you win any of the prizes on offer. If you would prefer to email us directly with this information that's no problem at all just send an email to prizes@friendsandmoney.co.uk.

Please be clear about any activity that you think qualifies for points.

Depending on the success of this competition we may make it a regular monthly feature.

Paid Survey Sites Feedback

2008-01-25T11:28:00.000-08:00

We want your opinions and views! Your experiences of a paid survey site could really help other members of the friendsandmoney community make an informed choice about which paid survey sites to join.

We welcome any feedback, even of a negative nature, providing that it is constructive and helpful. Any abusive comments will not be published.

Here's a few ideas about how to structure your response:

How frequently did you receive paid surveys?
How interesting were the paid surveys themselves?
What was the incentive and rewards scheme like?
What was the online support like?
How quickly were you paid and how smooth was the payment process?

Please only comment if you have actually used the paid survey site in question, do not base your comments on another person's experiences.

Important:

By posting your comments on our blog you agree to letting us use them in the paid survey section of our website. If you include a website/blog address on any comments you make on this blog thread, we will happily place this under your comments on in our paid survey section, enabling you some fee advertising for your site.

Thanks in advance for your comments, your feedback is important and valued.

Money Saving Offers - Weekly Round Up

2008-01-18T06:08:00.001-08:00

Building Your Financial Safety Net

2008-01-17T11:40:00.000-08:00

The new year is often a great time to re think our financial circumstances and consider just how prepared we are for future uncertainties. For example ask yourself this question “Could I and/or my family cope with an unexpected financial crisis?”

If you have any doubts about paying the bills or meeting monthly mortgage or rent payments then now is a good time to sit back and think about building a financial safety net. Unfortunately many people don’t think about how they will deal with unexpected financial difficulties like illness or loss of employment until it happens and by this time it’s too late to make arrangements to have your financial commitments taken care of.

So how easy is it to build a financial safety net and where exactly do you start? There are actually many ways in which you can do this but different people will favour different options depending upon their personal circumstances and the level of risk they are willing to except. Anyone can build a financial safety net regardless of their income and we have written a comprehensive article to help you consider some of the major ways in which you can do this including Savings and Investments, Budgeting, Insurance Polices and Antiques and Collectibles.

You can read our full article here: http://www.friendsandmoney.co.uk/financial-safety-net.html

Also Pinyo at Moolanomy has written a superb post with a host of money related giveaway why not check it out: http://www.moolanomy.com/463/free-ebook-taxcut-giveaway-carnivals-and-dave-ramsey/

Save Yourself Thousands Before You Buy a Property

2008-01-15T11:39:00.000-08:00

I want to reveal a relatively new but superb money saving tool that could save property owners or buy to let landlords, thousands of pounds in extra costs such as insurance premiums, house devaluation etc. If you’re think of buying a house or looking to move home please read this money saving tip first!

http://www.homecheck.co.uk/ is a website that is designed to help make potential buyers aware of environmental or planning risks BEFORE they buy a property. Those of you who have ever bought a property only to subsequently discover a major planning application was not picked up by the land search survey, or that you were in fact right in the centre of a flood plain will know how much the value of your property can be affected.
The difficulty with land search fees is that you often have to pay them up front and if you discover a problem you don’t a get a refund on the £45 or £95 fee that you paid. In essence it’s dead money.

Our advice is do your own research first and don’t rely on the professionals getting it right for you. http://www.homecheck.co.uk/ makes checking environmental and planning risks easy and straight forward and what’s more it only takes a minute and it’s free!!!! So that’s between £45 - 95 saved already!

How It Works

Firstly I stress the point again, it’s free to use.
The site simply requires you to input the postal code of the property that you intend to purchase and it returns a risk assessment of the following factors:

Flood
Subsidence
Radon
Coal Mining
Landfill
Pollution
Neighbourhood Summary - including crime rates and a demographic profile of the area
Planning Summary - The planning applications have been lodged recently and how could this affect the area

The website is keen to stress that these values are not specific to one individual property but cover properties in the immediate vicinity, but this is sufficient for the purposes most people often require.

The best asset of this website is that it helps house buyers to make informed decisions or flag up potential problems Before you spend a penny and could also help save you thousands in the long term.

If you have any experiences of this site or any feedback on this tool, please let us know by leaving a comment

Getting The Best Mortgage Deal

2008-01-15T03:29:00.000-08:00

Mortgage Misery for hundreds of thousands

This week the bank of England decided to leave UK interest rates unchanged meaning more misery for UK mortgage holders. Whilst on the face of it their decision makes some kind of sense because lowering interest rates might encourage increased spending which could further push up inflation, it is little comfort to those of us with large mortgages.

It is likely that the low interest rates we experienced since early 2000 are gone forever, however this does not mean that interest rates are likely to rise significantly. So as money gets a little tighter, particularly after Christmas excesses, is it time to consider finding a new mortage deal and if so where should you start?

Our advice to mortgage owners is always to seek out some independent financial advice rather than dropping into your local bank branch. Independent financial advisers are often well acquainted with the current mortgage market and where the best mortgage deals can be located and what's more they often do a lot of the ground work for you, trawling through thousands of mortgage products to get you the best mortgage deal that will save you money.

It's always worth considering switching your mortgage if you've had your current one for a few years, as mortgage products change regularly, but only change if you an gaurantee a good rate.

We've written a more detailed article with the title "How To Find The Best Mortgage Deal" .

How To Save Money On Credit Card Costs

2008-01-14T03:05:00.000-08:00

Credit card costs are often complex, difficult to understand and at times, downright misleading. Trying to get your head around balance transfers, late fees, international charges, over limit fees and the dreaded APR (Annual Percentage Rate) can leave you with a serious headache. And what’s worst different credit cards have different terms and conditions and charge varying amounts for the same or similar service!

Credit card companies relish the opportunity to make it difficult to compare and contrast their figures so that in the end, we as the consumer decide to dispense with a like for like comparison and opt for the most advertised credit card or the one a friend or family member has. The problem is that this is exactly what credit card companies want and as a consumer you are likely to pay over the odds for not shopping around.

At friendsandmoney, we’ve written a detailed article on the cost of credit cards, the aim of which is to arm you with enough information to help you make a more informed decision, from a position of strength and in the process we hope to save you thousands in interest payments.

You can view the full article here: http://www.friendsandmoney.co.uk/credit-card-costs.html

If you have any feedback on this article or have some other links or information you think it is missing please leave a comment and if it's relevant and appropriate we'll add it to the article, your comments matter!

A Step By Step Guide To Get Out of Debt

2008-01-13T06:38:00.000-08:00

I heard on the national BBC news today (13/01/2007) that home repossessions have sudenly increased in number nearly three fold since November. This is a horrible situation for any individual to find themselves in.

Whilst it is sometimes easy to blame individuals for over committing themselves financially, is this completely fair?. Yes we all have a responsibility to borrow within our means but with house prices rocketing over the last five years, credit becoming increasingly easy to obtain and the recent credit crunch in international markets brought about by the collapse in the US sub prime mortgage market is it any wonder that repossessions and debt problems are on the increase.

Many lenders, including The Abbey National were still promoting 120% mortgages during september, when the financial markets were already picking up signs of a slow down.

We have written an extensive article on how to get out of debt, that provides some practical advice to help individuals caught up in debt to move forward. It must be stressed that I am not a financial advisor and the information provided is no substitute for seeking professional help and support to help you move forward in a positive way.

You can view the full article here: http://www.friendsandmoney.co.uk/get-out-of-debt.html "A Step By Step Guide To Get Out of Debt"

About friendsandmoney.co.uk

2008-01-13T06:26:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the friends and money blog. Feel free to browse our site or this blog and leave any feedback on any of our blog posts. Anyone can leave a comment or provide further information, you can even do it anonymously, you don't have to register to do so, we even post even negative feedback as long as it is constructive.

Please note that all comments are moderated before being posted on the site. Also, this is a "Do Follow" blog, which may not mean much to some of you, but means that if you leave a comment and your website name, this will be indexed by Google and gain you valuable page rank, unlike many blogs which do not have this feature.

Our Aims:

- To find a host of money saving and making or financial hints and tips that everyone can benefit from.

- To create a friendly and informative community where people can share ideas, exchange helpful money saving or money making tips.

-To place an emphasis on fun and friendship as well as money.

- To be the definitive directory for locating paid survey, social networking and cash back shopping links and reviews.

- To provide reviews and information on the latest money making/money saving sites to save others time and effort having to trawl the internet.

- To encourage feedback and contributions from visitors to the friendsandmoney site.

About Us

Having experienced a period of ill health, I was keen not just to sit at home and dwell on how ill I was feeling but instead channel my energies into something creative and helpful to the wider online community. I found that there were hundreds of paid survey, social networking, paid review, cash back shopping and other money making sites but many of them placed profit above friendship building and fun. I felt that it was entirely possible to have both, and hence our site theme was born "Make Friends, Earn Money."

I also decided that I wanted to research as many money saving tips as possible to pass on to visitors to this site and the wider friendsandmoney community, and also provide helpful advice and information from a personal perspective on a variety of financial matters. It must be stressed that I am not a financial advisor and the information I provide is no substitute for good independent financial advice, but I have many years experience of working with individuals from all levels of society facing financial hardship.

In the last 6 months I have taught myself HTML and JavaScript and started this site from scratch. I actively encourage visitors or users of this site to make contributions so if you have a money saving idea, information about paid survey sites, review or social networking sites or cash back shopping sites feel free to leave a comment.

Happy Posting!