ma-ku

Sounds like a desparate threat doesn't it? Quick! Buy property, or else you could lose all your cash!

Sounds to me like the meter is not recording the units that are being billed for. I'll bet its measuring cubic meters and the charging is in cubic feet. This happened to me and my bill for a similar spec property was about 3 times what it should have been. I got a refund of about 2K when I finally realised why the bills were so expensive. Definiately something wrong with that setup (especially with the thermostat set at levels that Mr Scrooge would be proud of). I am with EDF too. If you check the bills, you can see what units you are being billed for. Make sure this is the same as those being measured by the meter.

I think they will ditch this policy once the electoral cost becomes clear. The conservative leaning friends and colleagues that I know that are going to be affected by this are seething and definately looking to kick someone in the nuts at the ballot box. ho hum

I have my mortgage with them. At the time I took the mortgage (about 5 years ago), they offered me a maximum of 3.6 * times my salary. So I think they were not one of the irresponsible lenders. You do make an interesting point about them buying up a lot of the failing building societies however, and I wonder how much this has damaged their business. Their savings rates are not great, but their standard variable rate for borrowers coming to the end of fixed rate deals (like myself) is a very agreeable (if you are a borrower) 2.5%. So this must be having an impact on their ability to offer competitve saving rates.

Fancy that! Families helping each other? Almost like a functioning, normal society should be. Would do anything for my father, as I am sure he would (and has) for me. Talk about a good news item. There was I thinking that Labour had all but killed off the family. There's hope yet..

For who? Think the banks will pass that on to savers? I doubt it.

Interesting idea although it might push those on the edge over it. I guess if they brought it in for new debt, it might work.

Starters for 10. Whoever wins.. - VAT is going up. - Higher rate tax payers to lose the 40% supplement on pension contributions. - Road tolls (hear the sound of silence on that one in the current campaign). - Phased withdrawal of tax credits (probably via fiscal drag) - Freeze on recruitment in "front line" public sector staff - Big cuts in back office public sector staff

It might spur my wife and I to take the plunge and move over there.. My career is going nowhere over here, and we have lots of family over there to help with childcare whilst a do a McGaijin job teaching English or start a pie and mash shop or something.. ho ho. Visiting our relatives out there has become incredibly expensive over the last couple of years. I would welcome a return to my purchase power when visiting at least..

I think some of these contracts need to be bound. Say a devout catholic signed a clause that says "no kids", gets raped, pregnant and then thrown out of their home minus deposit for contract violation? hmm.. Personally, I think "no kids" clauses should be illegal with the exception of specialist accomodation such as granny flats.

That sounds like a gaping tax loophole that I am suprised Brown hasn't closed yet.

It's hard to say. I read somewhere that basically you should "pay yourself" at least 10% of what you earn every month. Paying yourself means setting at least 10% of your income aside each month. (If you can afford to, clearly you should aim for more than this anyway). The difficult question is where to put this money. On the one hand the government (and some employers) offer a generous top up to any contribution you make to a pension plan (particularly for higher rate tax payers). However, the problem with pension plans is that there is no guarantee that the governent won't change the rules later and claw a huge wedge of it back. Brown infamously changed the pension rules shortly after he became chancellor for example and it wasn't to the benefit of people paying into a pension.. Basically save as much as you can whilst still being able to enjoy a good standard of living. (Easier said than done, but you want to steer a comfortable middle ground between being a debt laden spendthrift and a miserable old scrooge that never buys a round or goes on holiday). Also, make sure you get the best return on your investments, which means at least an annual check on savings rates etc (preferably much more often).

For how long I wonder. I would not be surprised to see compulsory "insurance" (tax) for riding a bike soon. The line will be "This is to compensate injured pedestrians from those few irresponsible cyclists that mount the pavement and ignore traffic lights.". (Dog owners have recently been targeted in a similar fashion). Coming soon... the window tax, the school pack lunch "Health Check Monitoring" supplement (and associated penalties for illegal mars bars and dairylea dunkers). Never underestimate the imagination of the champagne socialists... Those bankster bills must be paid after all.

Well, my wife and I are in the process of booking flights and we were going to use BA - until this strike was announced. So, they just lost 1800 quid of business to another airline.

I can only say what I'd do. I am on track to clear my mortgage within 5 years (assuming I don't get made redundant). This will be 16 years ahead of schedule on what was a 25 year mortgage. Once the mortgage is gone, I will save up any money required for us to move to a bigger house should we need to. Having got rid of a mortgage, my plan is to never borrow another penny again. You have the chance to be debt free. I would save up and never pay another penny of interest to the banks again if I was you. Anyway, congratulations! You are in a fantastic position. Buy a property to live in as a home and not as a route to quick riches and be happy.

A good question, but arguably society is better off with this subsidisation model than without. If you apply a "pay-per mile policy " to post, why not to health care, education or anything else that generally is paid for via subsidies. I guess it depends on what sort of world you want to live in. Personally, I think the cost of stamps is too cheap. 39p is nothing. If they scrapped 2nd class and increased the price of a 1st class stamp to say 50p, they would probably be in better financial health. Don't understand why they have 2nd class anyway. Generally, if your costs are not covered by your expenses you either have to increase your prices, or your market share. Increasing the price of a stamp is the most sensible solution. I really don't understand why people get so outraged when a penny is added to the cost of a stamp, yet think nothing of paying 4 quid for a birthday card from Cliftons.

:-) I like your thinking. I would gladly work 1 day less a week for a 20% pay cut because I live well within my means. If 4 of my colleagues did the same, there's room for another employee. A bit simplistic perhaps but with inducements to employers in terms of reduced NI contributions or otherwise, it could reduce unemployment and improve quality of life. Of course, the ridiculous price of housing in this country means that I would have a hard time persuading 4 colleagues to take up the deal..

Utterly preditcable reaction. I think this will be a big vote loser for them because it will be introduced very soon. Whilst I agree that this is a good money saving measure, they will lose a lot of support from people in their late 50s.

Just how weak though? We had a departmental meeting with our senior manager last week. I work for one of the biggest IT firms out there. The subject of security of employment and pay rises was brought up. It was also pointed out that the weakness of the pound should be a good thing for us in this regard. The reply was "'Global' thinks the UK is too expensive, regardless of the recent currency situation". Needless, to say it was a dispiriting meeting and we were left with the basic message (although not expressed so directly), "Be grateful you have your jobs... for now". Talk of 80k jobs feels like pure bunkum to me unless there is a total currency collapse... oh wait..

I doubt very much he is going to announce his resignation and since those are the only words I could bear to hear that awful man utter, I will be giving his rambling speech of nothingness a wide berth.

Oh good. So finally they are gonna crack down on the banks then? Labour have been banging on about anti-social behaviour for 12 years ffs. What exactly have they achieved? Sweet FA. It's the same tired old tune. Just resign with whatever dignity you can scrape together please. We have had enough.

Haha. Nice. Methinks they haven't thought this through. People will just shuffle around once they are on board. Twits.

Agree. A family member who is an accountant in their early 50s was very happy to tell me that they didn't have any pension provision other than a few BTLs about 3 years ago. I told them that I thought a property crash was inevitable given affordability and the insanity of the housing boom. Was given a patronising smile and a "you could be right" response. Roll forward 2 years. Said family member had been made redundant. Couldn't sell any of the property portfolio (new build flats) and was in a terrible way. They now fortunately have a new job, (paying less for more work) and life is pretty tough compared to before. We used to get invited to their place quite a lot for family dos etc, but now the family has retreated from the world and we hardly ever hear from them. I wouldn't fancy being in my 50s and having to basically start a pension from scatch.

This is one of the problems. I don't see why selling a family home should be free of capital gains tax. It absolutely encourages speculation, flipping and corruption (MPs and their second home allowances etc) and this wretched boom-bust cycle.

Did you hear his line "money doesn't grow on trees any more"? That raised a smile on a dreary Monday morning.