A couple from Weston-super-mare have been sentenced for claiming thousands of pounds in benefits for 16 non existent children. Danny Wilshaw claimed over £75,000 over four years whilst Nancy Stevenson claimed £11,000 in child tax credits over the same period. The couple managed to exploit a loophole in the law after they realised they didn’t have to send children’s birth certificates to tax officials in order to prove their existence. He used the money to fund his gambling habit whilst she used it to buy as many as two bottles of brandy a day. Well, I’m glad my taxes are going to a good cause.

I was sent a link to this website the other day that offers a cashback reward scheme called WePromiseTo Cashback. It covers a number of retailers both on the high street and online and gives you a range of offers on which you can earn some money back. To use it you sign up for an account online and when you purchase anything from the links on the site you receive the cashback amount indicated. It works by the retailer paying WePromiseTo a commission for driving new customers to their services. They then pass that commission on to you in the form of a BACS payment or Amazon vouchers. Among the offers that caught my eye were 5% cashback from Majestic wine and 7% cashback from Drink Stuff. The only problem I think I would have is remembering to go to the WePromiseTo website to order things rather then the to the individual retailers website that are already saved in my favourites  list, still it seems like quite an interesting idea.

This article suggests that around 75,000 households could face negative equity. Areas of Manchester, Glasgow, South East London and Birmingham appear to be most at risk because the value of an average home in these areas is only a small amount over the mortgage on the property. This useful map shows the areas that are considered to be most at risk from a fall in home prices and at a risk of people having their homes repossessed. The figures are based on analysis from Experian one of the largest credit reference agencies. The research also shows that 78,394 households have less than 20% equity in their homes and that if house prices were to fall by 20% as some experts predict that these people would face negative equity.

If you have a bit of spare cash you might want to put it into a cash Isa so you don’t have to pay tax on it. This article from This is Money highlights what they say are the 10 best cash Isa’s around at the moment. It’s also worth remembering that this year you can put a bit extra into a cash Isa, £3,600 as opposed to the previous limit of £3,000.

Personally if I won the lottery the first thing I would do is give up work, or at least pay people to run my businesses for me. One man who won the lottery, however, missed his job at McDonalds’s so much that despite quitting, he asked to go back. Despite the fact that he is £1.3 million richer after his lottery win Luke Pittard still gets up every morning and goes to his £5.85 per hour job where he spends his time flipping burgers. Surprisingly he earns more money in interest on his winnings per week than he does from his job. He must really love his work.

I have long been disgusted by the number of people in this country who feel that it is their right to claim benefits. Whilst I realise that there are some people who cannot work due to illness or disability, what really annoys me is the growing number of people who could work but choose not to. I read this article that sums this up nicely.

It highlights a case of one family where three generation have never worked and from their comments it seems they never intend to. In this particular example the family of ten people consists of four adults, none of whom work. They do not see this as a problem, instead they are dissatisfied with their three bedroom council house and feel that they should be provided with a ten bedroom home, no doubt so they can produce yet more children who will also have to be provided for by the state. The grandmother says that the reason they cannot work is because there are so many children to look after. Call me stupid if you like, but does it really take four adults to look after six children? It seems to me, that at least three of the adults should be able to get a job. What I find shocking is that there are 20,000 similar households in Britain that pocket more than £30,000 a year in benefits.

Another example in this article highlights the case of a lady who has not worked for over 40 years. She has three grown up children, two of which are also on benefits and seems to think that this way of life is acceptable. In fact she says of her situation "My own dad worked down the pit, but my mum didn't work, so I suppose I wanted the same life that she had when I grew up. I just wanted to be at home and live off other people.” Her son Steven has a similar attitude. Although he did initially have a job as a plumber he gave it up because “They paid £27 a week, but it was so boring looking at pipes and sinks all day. When I told my dad I was bored, he said I should never stick with a job I didn't like.” He also says “So, eventually, in my 20s, I thought: "I've tried security work and plumbing and I've even been a taxi driver for six months, but I just don't like working" and “It's my right to claim benefits. We're all entitled to do what we want in life.” I completely sympathise with this view (sarcasm) I don’t like working either but what about the right of the tax payer not to have to subsidise these people who just can’t be bothered to get a job. We see the pattern continuing with Stephen’s daughter who seems to think that it is normal to live off of benefits. She too has left school without any qualifications and has claimed benefits ever since. She says "Because my gran, Jean, didn't work either then I suppose it's just normal in our family not to have jobs” and "I don't like the idea of having to be bossed around at work and I don't want to go to college or anything because I like to stay in bed in the morning. In the meantime, it's my right to claim benefits. One day I'd like a council flat." There is little hope, then for the fourth generation of this family.

The article has reinforced my view that there is a new underclass (rather than working class) of people in this country that feel they have a right not to work and should still be provided for by the rest of us that do work. The question is can we change the way these people think, especially when the attitude is passed down through generations. I suppose it annoys me so much because I was brought up with a strong work ethic and personally would rather take a job, no matter how menial or boring, for me claiming benefits is fundamentally wrong. I have been mulling over how the problem can be solved. Should benefits be reduced to such a level that are no longer adequate to support a family and thus encourage people to get a job, or would this just hurt the people that do really need them? Perhaps a form of tax relief for those on lower incomes might help, after all it is near impossible to live on an income of £12,000 or £13,000 and that’s before the tax man takes his cut. I also wondered what would happen to these people if the benefits system was suddenly withdrawn. If they had no income, would it force them into work? What I find most surprisingly of all is that this issue seems to be largely ignored by politicians. Perhaps the money spent on benefits is small when compared with other issues such as defence spending of money put into the health service but it can’t be good for a country to have such a large proportion of its potential workforce being supported by state and in effect by the hard working taxpayer.

This article suggests that balance transfer deals are disappearing in what appears to be a clamp down on easy credit. Research has shown that there are only nine credit companies offering a long term 0% balance transfer deal. This is compared with over 200 companies a year ago. The research which was carried out by www.fool.co.uk found there are now only 20 cards from 9 providers that offer a 0% balance transfer for a minimum of 10 months. It looks like it could be time to pay off that credit card balance.

Nationwide have increased the minimum deposit required to secure its best interest rate. Previously anyone putting down a 10% deposit could secure its best rate but this has now been increased to 25% of the value of the property. The move will mean that anyone with less than a 25% deposit will pay 0.2% more interest.

A house in Kensington has sold for £80 million making it London’s most expensive home. The previous record was £67 million for a property in Kensington Palace Gardens. This property is five storeys high and has an underground swimming pool, a sauna and a gym.

Further to my article about the proposed changes at eBay it appears some sellers are planning a week long boycott of the auction site. Sellers are angry over higher fees and other policy changes which mean they can no longer leave negative feedback for a buyer. According to eBay sellers this means that they cannot keep track of scammers and untrustworthy buyers. The new policy changes went into effect on Wednesday.

I have noticed that eBay have been making a few changes recently. The first is that they will be introducing higher charges for selling items. Although the fee for listing an item will decrease from 15p to 10p, EBay’s cut of the final selling price will actually increase. This will mean that the fee charged will increase from 5.25% to 7.5% that’s roughly 68p extra per item sold. It doesn’t sound like a lot and perhaps it isn’t if you just list the odd item every now and again. For those people that make a living selling on eBay however, it is likely to mean they will have increase their prices in order to make it worthwhile. Personally I have stopped listing on eBay altogether recently because it is expensive to keep relisting products and I often find that I spend more on fees in a month that I actually make from the listings. Not only do you have to take into the listing fee, the final value fee but if your customers pay via Paypal (owned by eBay) then they take a another cut for the transaction. There is good news, however for power sellers who will get discounts of up to 40% on the final value fees, but it does make me wonder if eBay is pushing out the small sellers.

The second change is that eBay are making changes to the way their feedback system works. The change means that eBay sellers will no longer be able to leave neutral or negative feedback for buyers although buyers will still be able to leave negative feedback for sellers. eBay are introducing the changes because they believe that it will encourage buyers to be more honest when leaving feedback as they will not fear receiving negative feedback in return. On a quick visit to the eBay forums I noticed that this change has left many sellers wondering what they should do if a buyer proves to be untrustworthy. The majority of comments are from people who have experienced fraudulent transactions from buyers in the past and feel that the new feedback changes will leave them unable to highlight these fraudulent buyers so that other users know to avoid them. It will be interesting to see how these new changes affect eBay but one thing is for sure there are certainly a lot of very unhappy people out there at the moment.

If you need a new suit but are a bit short of cash then you might want to head down to your nearest Asda. They are currently selling a pair of black boot leg trousers and a classic women’s white shirt for just £5. The outfit will be on sale until the 26 February. Asda also sell a men’s suit for only £15. At that price there is no excuse not to wear a suit although personally I wonder how well made the items are at this price. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has purchased one. I might see if I can purchase one so that I can review it here.

A few weeks ago my main bank account was compromised causing me quite a few problems. I am now pleased to report that I have a new working debit card again and that all the fraudulent transactions have now been refunded.

I am always very careful when shopping online and tend to use Paypal rather than my debit card when visiting any unfamiliar websites. I was quite surprised then to find that my debit card has been compromised. On looking at my statements the other day I noticed a number of Paypal transactions which I had not made. The odd thing was that they didn’t show up in my Paypal account. Naturally the first thing I did was call Paypal who confirmed that I had not made the payments from my Paypal account. On doing a check against my debit card, however, they did find the transactions. It appears that someone has managed to obtain my debit card number and set up a Paypal account with it under a different name. Of course the payments they make come straight out of my bank account. Paypal are unable to give me any details regarding this other Paypal account and their best advice is that I should cancel my debit card. They say that the payments will eventually be refunded back to my account, (watch this space to see how I get on with this).

In the meantime I have called my bank and cancelled my debit card. This leaves me in  a bit of a fix, as it is my only account. To withdraw any money I would have to go into the branch (there isn’t one in my town) and produce a passport or driving licence. I am also unable to carry out any transactions until my new debit card arrives which is most inconvenient, especially in the run up to Christmas. During my phone call to my bank they also had the cheek to try and sell me some sort of fraud protection cover for £6.99 a month. Personally I think it is the banks responsibility to protect your account details, I find it laughable they want to charge people for something that in my opinion they should be doing already. Anyway needless to say I didn’t take out this additional cover. I am still no wiser as to how my account has been compromised, whether it is the fault of Paypal, the bank or the result of me purchasing something from another website that has disclosed my details. One good thing that has come out of the whole mess is it has forced me to save money because I can’t get to it. On a trip to Tesco today I went into the store with £30, added the items up as I went round and spent £28. Usually I would go to the store needing just a few items, end up purchasing a lot more and finding I didn’t have enough cash, put the balance on my debit card.

From Friday bank account holders will earn more interest on cheques paid into their account. UK banks and building society will have to pay interest on money paid in by cheque after two working days. Customers will also be able to withdraw money after four days if they are paying into a current account. The cheque will also be guaranteed even if it bounces after six days. Some banks like Lloyds TSB already pay interest on cheques once they have been deposited but the new rules will make the practice common place.

I read this article that suggests some parents are so desperate to get a Wii console before Christmas that they are paying up to £500 for the console on ebay. The console is priced at £179 but is currently unavailable in most UK stores. When stock does become available it has been selling out as soon as it hits the store. The Wii is a great console but I don’t think I would pay £500 for one.

A Dutch teenager has been arrested for stealing virtual furniture in Habbo Hotel, a social networking website. He is accused of stealing around 4,000 Euros worth of virtual furniture. The furniture although virtual was brought with real money. It was stolen when the accused teenager managed to access a user’s password by creating a fake Habbo website to obtain their log on details. The teenager then moved the furniture into his own hotel, effectively stealing it. A spokesman said "It is a theft because the furniture is paid for with real money. But the only way to be a thief in Habbo is to get people's usernames and passwords and then log in and take the furniture."

A chocolate sundae served by a New York restaurant has been declared the world’s most expensive dessert with a price tag of £12,500. The dessert is infused with edible 23 carat gold and served in a gold lined goblet with a box of Knipschildt chocolate which retail at £1,300. It also includes an 18 carat gold and diamond bracelet on the goblets base which you can take home. I would think so at that price.

I read this article that suggests some pet owners pay up to £10,000 for operations for their pets. In one example open heart surgery costs around £10,000 and a hip operation £2,500. One thing is for sure vet bills are really expensive. Just to see the vet costs around £15, although I must admit the vet gives the pet their full attention. A few years ago when my cat Ollie hurt his tail it cost us just over £300 for an overnight stay. Ollie has stitches and a small operation which saved his tail. However, at the time Ollie was not insured so we had to pay the full bill… Ouch. One thing I will say though is my cats seem to get better attention from the vet than I get when I go to see a doctor. Perhaps I should move to private healthcare.

There has been a lot in the news recently about unfair bank charges. If you are looking to claim back some of those charges and get a bank charges refund then you might want to have a look at this website. It takes you through everything you need to do if you want to claim back charges including how to find out what bank charges you are owed and how to threaten your bank with court action. It also goes through how to take your bank to court if necessary. The website contains a lot of really useful information and is definitely worth a look.

Barclays have penalised thousands of students with charges this week by accidentally removing their overdraft facilities. Usually at this time of year any graduates would be moved to a standard Barclays account but a processing error meant that around 20,000 people had the facilities removed by mistake. This could lead to costs of around £35 a day or £175 a week. Barclays have said that all the charges will be refunded but I doubt that any consolation for those graduates that have rent to pay.

Debt experts have said that around one million people use high interest credit cards to cover their mortgage or rent payments. Six per cent of householders have put their mortgage or rent payments on their credit card in the past year according to the housing charity Shelter. Credit card companies often charge interest of around 15 and 18 per cent which is up to three times more then most mortgage rates. The problem seems to be worst among 18 to 24 year olds. It certainly seems like a very risky way of managing your finances.

Travelodge is offering rewards to members of the public that suggest new sites for development. To suggest a site you can visit their website and fill in a form with your contact details and your proposed location. If your tip results in a new opening they will then pay you £500 per bedroom up to a maximum payout of £150,000.

As a long time supporter of Tottenham Hotspur it’s nice to see them doing better financially. They have just announced record pre-tax profits of £27.7m. The profits are a result of new sponsorship deals and kit manufacturer deals. I wonder whether the club will pass on some of their new found wealth and reduce ticket prices for their loyal fans.

I was reading an interesting article about virtual money. The concept seems to have started with the popularity of virtual worlds and role playing games and the need to trade within them. A few examples spring to mind such as the QQ coin, a virtual currency created by a Chinese company. The currency allows you to buy and sell things such as magical swords for use in online games. Other online communities use similar currencies for example Second Life uses Linden dollars and World of Warcraft uses something called warcraft gold. It’s interesting that the idea has now become so popular that people are prepared to spend real money in order to obtain virtual goods for use in these various role playing games. World of Warcraft for example now has over 9 million players worldwide who seem happy to spend their money on these virtual goods. With online role playing games becoming more and more popular the market for virtual goods and services is predicted to rise to $4 billion by 2008. There are even companies that specialise simply in selling these virtual products such as GameGoods a European based company that sells among other products World of Warcraft Gold. It is certainly a very interesting concept, although personally I prefer real money.

Ikea has started selling flat-pack homes. The homes are on sale at their Gateshead store. They have a timber frame and come with their own plot of land. The concept started in Sweden in the 1990s with around 1,000 flat-pack homes being sold every year. The homes are called BoKlok and are made using renewable materials and featuring solar panels so are eco-friendly. The properties will all be south-facing in order to catch as much sunlight as possible to help warm the house. An area of land has been set aside near Gateshead for an estate of 90 homes. The homes cost between £100,000 and £125,000 for a flat, £132,500-£139,500 for a two bedroom house and £150,000 for a three bedroom house. First time buyers on low incomes will be given priority in the allocation process. If the project is successful Ikea will expand to 12 more sites over the next 18 months. The homes are provided ready assembled, which seems a shame, half of the fun of Ikea’s products is building them.

I read this article the other day that suggests one in ten British adults has been a victim of mass marketing scams. The most common scams include Nigerian pen scams and notifications of winning a foreign lottery. More than 3.2 million people have been conned out of their hard earned cash by one of these scams according to the Office of Fair Trading. Many of the gangs who run these scams are based in English speaking parts of Nigeria and West Africa and use their profits as funding for drug trafficking, according this article. In a month long investigation in Nigeria investigators seized more than 4,500 fake cheques, postal orders and bank drafts with a value of around £8m. Most of the scams involve the victim having to pay an advance fee to claim a prize or to have a large amount of money transferred to their account. As always if it seems too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

In the latest news surrounding Northern Rock it has announced a cut back on the range of mortgage products they will offer. Two thirds of its mortgage product range is going to be axed in what seems to be a major product overhaul. This change is unlikely to affect the banks risk profile because it is still prepared to lend up to 125% of a properties value, something which is the root cause of its present problems. Despite the changes rates on their fixed rate and variable mortgages are likely to remain unchanged.

I read this article that suggests some mortgage brokers are encouraging homebuyers to lie about their finances. Some lenders are giving people up to eight times their salary. Experts have warned that this type of irresponsible lending could drag Britain into a US-style subprime mortgage crisis. Brokers have been pushing first time buyers to take out “self certification” mortgages that let people state their income without any proper employer checks to see if they qualify. Self-certification home loans now account for one in every ten mortgages as opposed to one in twenty four years ago. It just seems silly to me to encourage people to borrow more than they can afford to pay to back, and personally I find it hard to believe there are companies that do this.

In the wake of the Northern Rock crisis Barclaycard has been reviewing the spending limits for many of their customers. They have also been rejecting more applications for new cards, in what could signal a crackdown on consumer credit. About half of all applications for new Barclaycards are now being rejected. Barclaycard have also seen a 17% fall in profits due to problems with bad debt. I have always thought it much too easy to get things on credit and can see how people can build up huge debts that they can't pay back. I think this seems like a wise move from Barclaycard.

Tesco are to launch a comparison website called tescocompare.com. The website will allow users to compare insurance from a range of providers. Whilst initially geared towards car insurance, the website will also cover other financial services such as mortgages, homes loans and credit cards in the future.

Lloyds TSB is the first high street bank to introduce plans to cut overdraft charges. The banks will introduce the new charges on the 2nd of November. They plan to cut the interest rates for unauthorised borrowing by a third as well as reducing the charges for going overdrawn. They will also reduce the charges for bounced cheques. Lloyds say they are reducing charges in response to customer feedback. They will still charge customer £15 a month for going overdrawn and then a daily rate of between £6 and £20 depending on the size of the overdraft. I think the fact that they are reducing charges is a positive step, it will be interesting to see if other high street banks follow suit.

Many things affect the cost of your insurance but the main reason you are paying more could be your post code. I was reading this article that suggests residents in South Norwood pay more than three times as much for building and contents insurance as someone who lives in Barnstaple. The website also provides a post code checker so you can see how the area in which you live affects what you pay. The results show you a typical annual premium for a house in your area, as well as where it ranks in the country. My breakdown was as follows:

Your postcode breakdown:  
•    Your league position: 1365 out of 1659
•    Your premium: £190.25
•    The national average is £169.45

I have reading with interest the news surrounding Northern Rock and the fact that is has recently had to ask for the Bank of England for emergency funding. As a result its shares have now fallen by 25%. Customers have also been unable to access their accounts on the website to increased demand. There have been reassurances that the business is stable but in some areas worried customers have been queuing outside branches.

If there is one thing I can’t stand its sales calls. Usually its people who are quite obviously based in an Indian call centre trying to sell me a mobile phone contract that I don’t need or wanting me to consolidate all my debts into one easy payment. Despite registering with the telephone preferences society I still receive a huge number of these calls.

I have now started to make a game out of it, by generally asking as many stupid questions as I can think of and getting the sales person to repeat the information over and over, until they get bored and hang up. When I see an international number come up on the phone, I often answer with “Battersea Dogs Home, how can I help you”. Pretending you are deaf is always fun, as is asking them to speak slowly so you can write everything down. I have even started trying to sell things to the sales people and now actually look forward to making their life difficult, mean I know, but so is calling me at 8am on a Sunday morning. It seems some companies, have now stopped using real people. Instead of getting a person who you can have fun annoying, there is simply an automated message. These really annoy me, what’s the point in getting sales calls if you can’t have a bit of fun? Bring back real people I say.