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Personal Finance

We've never been in financial trouble or hardship, but have picked up some useful pointers in a few specialised areas.

Money Transfers

One of these is How to Wire Money Across the Atlantic. It certainly isn't straightforward, and don't expect anyone to help - even those you're paying for the service.

Tax Credits

We also hope to put up some pointers on Tax Credits, which were introduced in 2003 and have been criticised ever since. The biggest problem was initially getting through to the helpline, and later on the system managed to make mistakes if circumstances changed. All in all, a bit of a mess, with some people getting nothing when they needed it, and others getting far more than they were entitled to (but having to pay it back of course!).

Mortgages

We certainly aren't mortgage experts, but we are happy with our choices made and would like to explain the rationale behind our decisions.

Savings

Saving money is very important, but do we do it enough? Probably not.

Moneymadeclear
Keydata Investment Services Ltd	Lifemark announced on 2 March 2010 that there has been an event of default on a number of the Lifemark bonds. The Lifemark bonds underpin a number of retail investment products provided and administered by the UK company Keydata Investment Services Limited (Keydata) to UK consumers. This means that investors with these Keydata products will not receive income payments due to them at this time.
Wills & Co Stockbrokers Limited	Wills & Co has written to its customers to explain the action taken by the FSA and to explain to those customers who have accounts with Wills & Co that their accounts will be transferred either to Pritchard Stockbrokers Limited or to The Share Centre Limited. Customers do not need to do anything in respect of the wind down of Wills & Co.
Update on Upton & Co Accountants Ltd - the 'Currency Plan'	Further to our letter to investors dated 21 January 2010, here is an update on the latest developments in the proceedings against Mr Upton and Upton & Co.
Northern Rock	The Chancellor has announced that the Government guarantee for retail deposits in Northern brRock plc will be lifted three months from today. Fixed-term deposits in existing accounts will brbe guaranteed to maturity.
Warning - Cantwell International	Cantwell International has been cold calling people to promote shares in SK Resources Inc, Pioneer Exploration Inc and other companies. They are not authorised to provide financial services in the UK. If you have been contacted by this firm, please contact us.

Green Shoots of Recovery
[07 May 2009 19:27]
This Bonsai went through a spell of complete neglect, and only a massive injection of water allowed it to start sprouting the smallest shoots ...

ING Direct Savings Deal
[16 October 2008 21:38]
ING Direct has agreed to take over the deposits and accounts of almost 200000 UK savers, from two banks: Kaupthing Edge and Heritable Bank. ...
An Inconvenient Financial Truth
[22 September 2008 21:44]
Peter Hargreaves, Chief Executive of discount broker firm Hargreaves Lansdown, has his say on who bears responsibility for the recent and sudden ...
Investing in Oil
[24 June 2008 21:54]
Where to invest for making the most of the surge in crude oil prices, and to mitigate the extra expense in buying home heating oil? Sectors ...
Tracker Funds
[26 March 2008 21:28]
List of Tracker Funds at Tracker101.com. iShares contain the same risk as a unit trust, but are listed as stocks and have intra-day trading ...

Financial BMI from Lloyds - Bank Mass Index
[16 March 2008 13:07]
Lloyds TSB has created a 'financial obesity' index, similar to the body mass index for our health, to determine what our financial health is ...
Google Finance Portal
[01 February 2008 22:35]
Google has released a UK oriented finance site, featuring stock and fund prices, exchange rates, news and blogs. It naturally features a search ...
Jupiter Ecology Fund
[20 November 2006 21:19]
My own figures for the performance of the Jupiter Ecology Fund don't quite seem to tally with Jupiter's own figures, shown here. .printing3 ...
Banks 'prey on customers in debt'
[15 December 2007 16:54]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/7145579.stm Banks are being accused of pressuring customers into taking out costly loans to try to clear ...
Time to Clear a Cheque
[15 December 2007 10:44]
With effect from 3rd December 2007, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) will introduce a new 'customer promise' that aims to clarify the banking ...
Store card shoppers 'pay more'
[08 December 2007 22:01]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/business/7133979.stm Store card shoppers pay an average of 62% more interest than those using credit cards ...
Making a Small Claim
[07 November 2007 21:38]
Here are some snippets of information if you are owed a small amount of money, and initial efforts to be recompensed have proved a dead end. ...
Processing International Payments
[04 May 2007 20:15]
This is an exerpt of a message I received from Smile, regarding international money transfers: As from the start of business Monday 14th May ...
Tax Situation for E-Traders (UK)
[28 February 2007 20:34]
Here's an important message from Buy.at: At buy.at, we care about our affiliates and want to ensure that you are up-to-date with the latest ...

About Us:

Julii is finishing up work as an Environmental Economics Researcher at the University of East Anglia to give more time to the children.

John is lead developer of Blurtit.com, Qhub.com and other exciting Web projects.

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