BT Total Broadband Online - Offers wireless for less

December 17th, 2008

BT Total Broadband - The UK’s most complete wireless broadband

BT Total Broadband gives you lightning fast download speeds up to 8Mb (that’s over 100x the speed of dial-up), so you can get everything the Internet has to offer, including downloading music, movies and playing online games.

What you get with BT Total Broadband

The wireless BT Home Hub
Unlimited UK Evening & Weekend calls
5GB secure online storage with BT Digital Vault
Free 24/7 customer support
Extra help from BT Home IT Support
BT Yahoo! email accounts with unlimited storage
Our best-ever security packages

Plus an unbeatable wireless connection compared to other Service Providers

Which lenders are passing on the interest rate cuts

December 11th, 2008

Great news, another 1% reduction in the Bank of England base rate to 2%, but before we all get too excited, exactly how will this latest interest rate cut affect us. Well, the good news, unless your on a fixed rate in which case your stuck with your existing rate until the end of your fixed rate term, is that most of us will see some reduction in our mortgage payments, although it is unlikely that all banks and building societies will pass on the full 1% reduction.

Why is that? Well the rate at which banks lend money to us is governed by the rate at which they can borrow money from each other and at the moment bank A doesn’t trust bank B so they will only loan them money at a relatively high rate. As a consequence, because the banks are paying more for their money they are charging us more for it.

However, if you are already on a tracker mortgage, the good news is that you will get the full 1% reduction in your mortgage rate as your lender is obliged to pass it on. Most lenders will apply the reduction from the 1st of the month following the rate cut (i.e January 2009). Variable rate mortgages will be at the discretion of the lender with Lloyds/TSB and HSBC already confirming the full 1% reduction off their standard variable rate.

As a guide we have published a snapshot of some of the major lenders and their decisions but to be sure how these latest changes will affect you, contact your mortgage lender.

(Click on the image to enlarge)

Save on Tesco Car Insurance quotes plus up to 15% online discount

December 8th, 2008

Up to 15% online discount and up to 70% No Claims Discount

If you’re a new customer, you’ll get up to 15% discount in your first year, when you buy Tesco Standard Car Insurance online. Excludes Value Car Insurance. Minimum premium applies
Earn up to 65% No Claims Discount plus an extra 5% on top if you are over 50.

Multi-car discount and discounts for named drivers

If someone in your household is already insured with Tesco and another household member insures his/her car with Tesco, they will be entitled to a discount off their premiums.
Plus, a named driver on a Tesco policy will be entitled to a discount when they take out a policy in their own name provided they have driven claim free.

Note
Discount is based on the number of continuous claim-free years as a named driver (min. 1 year) and the policy you are named under being live when the discount is applied. This benefit may not be applicable on policies with other insurers.

Company car and motorbike no claims discount

If you’ve earned no claims discount driving a company car or motorbike, we’ll take your claim free years into account and give you a discount on your premium when you insure your own car with us.

Available to customers 25 years or over who have been the main user of the company car or motorbike; given up their company car; enjoyed sole use of the car (not a pool car), including social domestic and personal use. The driver must have proof of claim-free driving (irrespective of policyholder’s age).

New drivers - Pass Plus discount

If you’ve improved your driving skills by successfully completing a Pass Plus course, we’ll reward you with up to 40% discount. Drivers must be claim free, have held a full license for less than one year and have no convictions.

Exclusions apply. You may not be eligible for all discounts on a single policy. Discounts are applied consecutively.

Cheap UK Health Insurance Quotes from award winning PruHealth

December 4th, 2008

The benefits of PruHealth Insurance
PruHealth has an innovative approach to health insurance that recognises and rewards healthy living. By actively looking after their health, PruHealth members could make significant savings on their premiums.

PruHealth cover:
- Choice of three plans to suit your budget and needs.
- Access to all registered UK private hospitals.
- Access to 15,000 specialists and 4,000 therapists.
- Access to a 24-hour Call-A-Doctor service
- Bills settled directly with the hospital wherever possible.

PruHealth savings:
- Save on your first years premiums by answering five simple questions.
- A No Claims Bonus of 25% of this years premium towards the cost of next years renewal, providing no claims have been made in the current year.
- By looking after your health through PruHealths Vitality rewards programme, this saving could increase to 50%, 75% or even more.
- Discounts with PruHealths health and wellbeing partners.

Save on Tesco Finest Home Insurance quotes - 50% off premiums

December 4th, 2008

Tesco Finest Home Insurance Get 50% off your premium when you get a quote for Tesco Finest Home Insurance by 7th January 2009 and then buy that policy. Offer applies to new customers in first year only when you get a quote for Tesco Standard or Finest Home Insurance by 7th Jan 2009 and then buy that policy. Quotes are valid for 90 days. With a wide range of very high cover and benefit levels, Tesco Finest Home Insurance has been awarded a prestigious 5 Star Rating by Defaqto – a leading independent provider of financial services research. Benefits available as optional extras on Tesco Standard policy are included automatically with Finest Home Insurance: * Buildings and Contents Accidental Damage. * Personal Possessions Cover. *

Making money online - Is it really that easy?

December 2nd, 2008

                                 10 ways to make money online

We’ve all thought about it, we’ve heard about people who have done it, but how easy is it to actually make money online. We take a look at some of the best ways

1. Start your own online business

Don’t worry it’s not as difficult as it sounds. There are plenty of business opportunities out there and most of the good ones will take care of the difficult stuff for you, like building web pages, sourcing products etc. Quite literally all you do is sign up and start selling. Do you homework, be prepared to put some effort in (anyone who tells you that you can make money doing nothing is lying) and you can make some serious money.

2. Get involved in affiliate marketing

You will need a website for this one, but even as a complete novice you can have a simple website up and running in a couple of hours. The internets full of FREE  website templates for you to use. Once you’ve got your site up and running sign up for some good affiliate schemes, most big companies offer them. You will then get paid each time a visitor to your site clicks on an advertising link and takes a particular course of action (usually completes an online enquiry form or makes a purchase)

3. Set up a Website or Blog

One of the simplest ways to make money online is to set up a website or blog which will earn you money from the display of adverts of products. Just think of a topic that will interest people and write about it. There are a number of  different ways this can work, one of the best and most effective being Google Adsense whereby google place ads on your website, relevant to the content of the site and you get paid each and every time someone clicks on the ad. Sounds simple,but you are responsible for getting traffic to your site, and that’s the tricky bit.

4. Sell things on ebay

Selling what? Well anything. Have you seen the stuff that gets sold on ebay. The great thing about this one is you don’t even need a website. Just set up an account with ebay and start selling. Once you get the hang of it, why not start selling other peoples things for a commission.

5. Sell photos on stock photography sites.

Fancy yourself as a budding photographer or maybe you’ve got some nice pictures in your album that you wouldn’t mind sharing with others. Put them on a specialist site like http://www.istockphoto.com and each time someone downloads your picture you get paid. Remember, try and be original with your shots as there’s a lot of competition out there.

6. Sell your knowledge

Are you a bit of an expert in a particular field or do you just have something interesting to say. Why not record a DVD or write and e-book and sell it online. You don’t need to be a professional actor to record a DVD, just get yourself a webcam and talk about anything that people might be interested in. And there’s plenty of good software out there that will take care of the trick bits for you. The best part about this one is, that once you have recorded the DVD or written the e-book, you can sell it over and over again at no cost to you, just profit!!

7. Get paid to write reviews

If you run your own blog and regularly write articles on a particular subject, the chances are you could get paid to write similar articles for other peoples websites or blogs.

8. Trade the Stock Market

I know what you’re thinking, why would you get involved in the stock market when every day you read that shares are crashing and the FTSE is at an all time low. Well, quite simply you can make money out of the markets which ever way they go. It’s  called spread betting. The real art is predicted which way it will actually go. There’s fortunes to be made (and lost) here, and it isn’t for the faint hearted. Again, plenty of sites out there that will tell you how it’s done, but before you jump in, try a demo account which will allow you to trade the real markets with pretend money.

9. Get paid to complete online surveys

Even if you don’t have your own site, you can still go online and get paid to take surveys or test new products and then write reviews about them. Not a bad earner with companies offering up to £30 for each survey completed.

10. Online Casino

If you’re a bit of a gambler, why not try your luck at one of the many online casinos. Most will give you an incentive to open an account and get you started and contrary to popular belief, they do actually pay out! Again, why not try a demo account and play for fun.

Recession or Depression? More bad press!!

December 1st, 2008

There is an old joke among economists that states:
A recession is when your neighbor loses his job.

A depression is when you lose your job.

But seriously, I don’t know about anyone else, but I am pretty fed up of hearing all the bad news at the moment. Another bank in administration, another business filing for bankruptcy, another 2000 people losing their jobs. The whole country seems to be in a right mess. But what is the real problem? Well, i’m no expert but i’ve talked to enough people to know that the general opinion is “too much negative press”. When I say general opinion, i’m talking about normal people in the street like me and you. Ok, so maybe we’re not really qualified to have an opinion, but as I am now a part owner of the RBS and probably a few others that I don’t even know about, I think I deserve a say in what’s going on if the government have decided to use my money to try and sort it out.

I know i’m probably being a bit light hearted here and not really suggesting that there aren’t any economic problems, but really would it be too much to ask to read a bit of good news from time to time.

I recently came across an article quoting Halifax and Nationwide reporting a slight increase in house prices for the month April 2009 and the Land Registry figures reporting an increase for the First quarter of 2009, but as you would expect they weren’t exactly spread across the front page of the newspapers (that space was reserved for all of the bad news). I for one have stopped buying newspapers because of all the bad news. Maybe we should all get together and start a campaign for a “good news newspaper”.