Sparkey

This has always been the case. Not sure why the Daily Mail is making it appear that it is a recent development. Section 75 means that the retailer and credit provider are jointly liable if the product purchased contravenes any consumer legislation (Sale of goods act etc) by being faulty/not as described etc... This applies only to accounts which are subject to the Consumer Credit act and generally for purchases over £100. This means that items purchased with credit cards/ Hire Purchase agreements and store cards generally qualify. It does not apply to debit cards, however, since these are not a form of credit. When using a debit card there are other schemes (such as Visa chargeback), though these are not usually as comprehensive as Section 75. Another caveat is that it only applies where the credit card was debited by the retailer directly. In circumstances where a 3rd party took payment on behalf of the retailer (e.g. travel agents, paypal etc...) then section 75 does not apply. In short - if you want an additional level of protection when buying goods, always use a credit card (but pay it off immediately to avoid any interest accruing!)

QE3 of course!!!

I think the best "description" I've seen from an EA has to be the dining room being punted as an extra bedroom, that really makes me laugh!!

I think they were relocating them

Hands shaking from the nerves!!!.

Hands shaking from the nerves!!!.

I'm an HP employee, and just got the email this morning. Most of this announcement stems from the recent acquisitions HP has made. They use the "economically challenging environment" as an excuse to slash the employees of companies they have recently acquired. To prove my point, the numbers they have published are as follows: Technology Solutions: 93 EDS (Acquired in 2008): 1151 Global Functions (admin): 55 On a separate note, there are 1000s of HP employees (myself included) woking on central government public sector projects, so I'm fully expecting this to be just the tip of iceberg! At the moment, my job is the only thing stopping me from emigrating!

An example could be properties advertised as "Share of Freehold". If you have a share of the freehold, you must still grant yourself a lease for the property you are living in. Most people just grant themselves 999 year leases, because it means they don't have to worry about renewing it again.

I'm in a very similar situation. The house i'm looking at has been on the market since March. I put in a reasonable offer (15% below asking) and was outbid by some plum. 3 months later, the plum pulls out because of "problems with mortgage financing". I did the honourable thing and submitted a new offer (slightly higher - this ime only 10% below asking). Got outbid again by another plum. Few weeks later 2nd plum pulls out because of "mortgage problems". I reminded the EA that my offer still stands and politely reassured her that I have an AIP in place and that we won't have any trouble with finance. The EA spent a considerable time trying to convince the vendor that my offer was reasonable, and that they should take it (I actually felt sorry for the EA at one point!). But vendor's wife wants to hold out for full asking price. Some people are just greedy.............. Saw the asking reduced by 5% on Rightmove today ..... might have to give the EA another ring. If I was you, get an AIP in place, and make yourself look as attractive a buyer as possible. Keep reminding the EA of that. Then wait. If noone else shows interest, sooner or later they are gonna snap - especially if the negative sentiment keeps up in the media.

Depends what the RPI was in between. Assuming the RPI hovered between 4-5% and didn't change, you would be in for a nice healthy return after 12 months (4%+0.8% ish) . If the RPI started at 5% then went negative for the next 11 months, you would simply walk away with your capital + 0.8% after 12months

I, along with a whole load of other people on this site, understand perfectly well how NS&I certificates are calculated. If some people are naive enough to believe that they will get the current RPI rate +1% for the life of the certificate, then they are likely to get a nasty shock at the end when their certificate matures. But there are equally those who fail to understand exactly what RPI is and how NS&I certificates make use of it to protect savings against inflation. And the window for those people to catch up has come ..... and gone .......

RPI + 1% is still far higher than any savings account out there at the moment. While RPI might be going a bit wobbly right now, I'm sure the pending VAT rise will give a nice helping hand, without considering the other factors. 1% return worse case scenario ... still better than 60% of savings accounts currently lingering out there ... so worth the risk in my view

Personally I would stash it into the highest paying savings account you can get. I'm in a similar situation. Got 50k of cash. Managed to push 30k of it into NS&I certificates back in April (thank god!!!) and the rest into a p1ss poor instant access savings and ISAs (3.1% was the best rate i could find!). A lot of people get twitchy about inflation taking a bite. Inflation is only a problem if the price of item you are saving up for (e.g. house) is inflating. We've all seen whats been happening to HPI over the last couple of months .. and it don't take a rocket scientist to predict what's coming next......

World War III Bring it on!.

Agreed. This is pretty much my understanding of it too. Not sure where people keep getting the "change in RPI" thing from. Seems pretty clear to me.