Whether a stabbing was the best cliffhanger for the domestic abuse storyline on Radio 4’s The Archers is still being hotly debated. But for us at Money Fight Club the screaming and the violence mask a more pernicious and malevolent type of abuse that leaves no bruises but scars its victims in ways that may never heal. Financial abuse Financial abuse can start quite subtly and often masquerade as sensible money management. Sharing the bills and sharing a bank account can make perfect financial sense for couples saving for a home. Cutting up credit cards or curbing independent spending decisions […]
Category: Money Fight Club
Fuel prices – measly reductions just add to the confusion
The final two members of the Big Six energy suppliers, British Gas and EDF, have announced that they will reduce gas prices by… wait for it… a measly 5.1% and 5%, respectively, from next month. The six have all reduced their prices in a narrow range (from 5% to 5.4%), with the first reductions on February 1 and the last ones coming in on March 31. Yet wholesale gas prices fell a whopping 57% last year. The energy giants always say that they buy their gas or oil years ahead of selling it on to us – pre-buying – and […]
E.on and Age UK in the hot seat
Some 50 gas and electricity fixed rate tariffs will have expired in the two months to the end of February 2016. Customers are supposed to be told by their supplier what is their cheapest new tariff. Yeah right… E.on and Age UK As the story breaks today about Age UK allegedly earning millions each year to recommend one of E.on’s less attractive tariffs, it seems – yet again – that suppliers do not want us to save money (or, at least, as much as they want to make money for themselves). What should happen… and does Customers nearing the end […]
Why spending money feels good
There are various ways of slicing and dicing consumers according to their psychological profiles. Instant gratifiers and deferred gratifiers is one broad cut. Deferred gratifiers are prepared to wait. Instant gratifiers less so. Fine when it comes to chocolate, more of an issue when it comes to high end consumer durables and credit cards. Why spending money feels good Chocolate and money are not so very different in terms of the impact they have on our brains. Think about our response to chocolate as it melts in our mouths… Long before chocolate has actually started to act on our body […]
New rights in time for Christmas shopping
From today we all have new rights under the Consumer Rights Act. This new legislation bolsters the Sale of Goods Act and should make it easier for all of us to get a better deal if something we pay for is faulty. The new shopping rights arrive just as the shops get busy for Christmas. But it will still be up to us to shop well as there will be plenty of cowboys trying to pass off substandard goods to the unwary. It will also be up to all of us to use these new shopping rights whenever something goes […]
Insurance renewal beware v.2
For the second time in a month an insurance company has tried to rip me off with its auto renewal notice. Hundreds of thousands of other drivers are likely to be at risk of being caught out. Now that car owners have to insure a vehicle whether it is used or not, unless they provide a statutory declaration that it is off the road and will not be driven, the motor insurance companies provide the helpful service of auto renewal to make sure none of us fall foul of the law. Insurers take the opportunity to rip us off The […]
Get down and give us 10! Training to be money smart
If you’ve read the Money Fight Club book you already know that every chapter starts with an inspirational quote, most from boxers. As the great Ali once said: “I’m a fighter. I believe in the eye-for-an-eye business. I’m no cheek turner. I got no respect for a man who won’t hit back. You kill my dog, you better hide your cat.” Wise words and just as applicable to your finances as your potential prowess in the ring. But, for the purposes of this blog, we want to focus on another quote in the book; from Smokin’ Joe Frazier: “You can […]
Being human
Behavioural economics – no, don’t yawn yet While the rest of us get on with paying the bills and going to work, economists are slugging it out in grand intellectual style. What are they arguing about? Well, little old us, of course. At the centre of the fisticuffs is a big debate about whether we can be totally logical when it comes to money – weigh up the facts at hand and make coolly rationale decisions – or whether we are bound by our emotions and the merry dance they lead us across our personal financial landscape. Economic nudging This […]
Loyalty schemes. Are they pointless?
Sainsbury’s recently captured the headlines with its decision to halve the points your can earn on its Nectar card, so you have to spend twice as much to earn the same number of points as you did before April 2015. But whatever plastic loyalty cards you have rattling around in the glove box, or the bottom of your shopping bag – there’s a much bigger issue here. The fact that loyalty doesn’t pay. In fact, loyalty never paid but supermarkets (in particular) and other major retailers managed to trick us into thinking it did. Loyalty cards explained There are 3 […]
PENSIONS FREEDOM – top tips to help you avoid mistakes
1. WAIT Ignore anyone who offers help with liberating or investing your pension pot. Unless you have an urgent use or stupendous idea for how to use your pensions freedom right now – wait. Time costs a lot less than bad decisions. Everyone over 55 has the right to a 45 minute free consultation through PensionWise. Be wary there are plenty of organisations that will pretend they can give you the same free advice. 2. THINK TAX The tax man is banking on getting an extra £3 billion from people liberating their pension pots over the next few years. While […]