Powered by Max Banner Ads
HSBC Bank Account pays 6% on your cash
HSBC has launched a new promotion on its Bank Account, which allows account holders to earn a market-leading rate on their money.
When I was at school I worked at Next in my spare time so, for me, the phrase ‘January sale’ conjures up images of people desperately rifling through racks of clothes, barging each other out of the way in order to nab that £10 top.
But it’s not just the high street retailers that are at it – even banks now launch January sales, with enticing offers on select deals. And HSBC’s sale has included the launch of a current account paying an amazing fixed rate of 6% on balances! Banking with HSBC
As part of its January Sale, HSBC has revamped its current accounts, and now has a number of extremely attractive deals.
My favourite is the simple Bank Account. Whether you are a new or eligible existing customer, you can secure a whopping rate of 6% interest fixed on balances up to £2,500. However, in order to secure the deal, you will need to get your switching forms over to HSBC by 5pm on the 31st January.
You can also get this rate if you go with the HSBC Advance account or the HSBC Premier account.
With the Advance account not only will you get 6% on your money, but also life insurance cover up to £3,000, worldwide travel insurance, roadside breakdown assistance and exclusive deals on a rate of products and services. It will set you back £9.95 for the first 12 months, and £12.95 thereafter though. However, I’m not a big fan of packaged accounts like this, and the FSA has its own concerns too, as we highlighted in The new bank mis-selling scandal.
With the Premier Account you’ll get wealth management advice from an HSBC IFA, family banking accounts and all sorts of other personal services. However, to qualify, you’ll need to meet any of the following criteria:
• Joint savings or investments of at least £50,000 with HSBC in the UK. • An annual income of at least £100,000 paid into your HSBC Premier Account, as well as either: 1) a mortgage of at least £300,000 with HSBC or 2) a product taken out from the bank’s independent financial advisory service, excluding mortgage-related insurance.
In other words, it’s not an account for everyone.
Not a long-term answer
The HSBC Bank Account is a pretty incredible deal for the vast majority of us. However, it does have one rather significant fault to be aware of.
That enticing 6% rate does not last forever. Indeed, it’s gone after 12 months. And what’s more, the rate doesn’t just fall to something smaller, but still acceptable, like 2% say.
No, at the end of the year, that rate of interest falls to a bit fat zero. So if you want to continue earning any interest at all, let alone a market-leading rate, on your cash, you’ll need to switch accounts again.
The best of the rest
The next highest rate on offer comes from an old favourite of lovemoney.com readers, Santander, with its Preferred current account. You get a rate of 5% on your cash (again only for 12 months), but you can also nab a free overdraft for the first year too, of up to £5,000 (depending on your circumstances).
What’s more, Santander has extended the welcome bonus of £100 for another couple of months – that’s cash you get simply for signing up to the Preferred account and switching over your direct debits. Indeed, you could get a bigger welcoming bonus if you’re already a Santander customer – £200 if you have a Santander mortgage, or £300 if you have a mortgage and at least £10,000 in savings with the bank.
Of course, banking with Santander is unlikely to be a stress-free experience, with the bank notorious for its dreadful customer service. That said, I banked with Santander for a little over a year and had no complaints, so things are at least improving.
After that, the rates on offer fall off sharply. You can get 3% from the Lloyds Classic Account with Vantage, so long as you maintain a balance of between £3,000 and £5,000. Otherwise your rate will be 1.5% for balances under £1,000, or 2% for balances between £1,000 and £3,000.
Get £60 a year from an empty current account
But even if you don’t tend to have much cash in your current account by the month’s end, you can still secure a decent return from your current account, thanks to the very clever Halifax Reward Account.
So long as you pay in £1,000 each month, then you shall receive a lovely monthly reward of £5. That’s irrespective of your account’s balance. So you could finish the account £1,000 in credit, or even in your overdraft, and you’ll still get that £5.
What’s more, you can currently secure a £100 welcome bonus as soon as you apply for the account.
Article by John Fitzsimons Lovemoney.com
Four ways the supermarkets increase your spending
This article courtesy of Yahoo Finance
In marketing and retail, the price of a product is often the most important factor in determining the product’s success. Sure, quality and appearance play a large role in a customer’s decision, but shoppers are being manipulated by the pricing, and they’re often not even aware of it.
Ideally, every retailer would determine their costs to provide goods or services, and then tack on a modest surcharge to those goods or services to make a profit. But in the reality of your local Tesco or Morrisons, shopping is not that simple.
Finding the true cost or value of an item is muddled in rewards programs, rebates, discounts on multiple items, etc. More than ever before, retailers and service providers understand that a mix of the following pricing strategies will ultimately produce more profits than selling exclusively with a variable cost-plus pricing method.
Prestige pricing
Also known as “premium pricing,” this method capitalises on societies’ generally accepted belief that the higher the price paid, the greater the quality received in return. Most often, the premium price is accompanied by other suggestions of superiority to justify the inflated sticker price.
The car industry is ripe with examples. Nearly every major manufacturer creates a luxury line of cars that are founded on the same chassis and engine as lesser-priced models. Nissan uses the Infiniti badge to put a refined touch on mainstream models such as the Pathfinder, and Honda created the Acura label to change the perceptions of standbys such as the Civic.
Loss leader
This strategy seemingly undermines the moneymaking goals of every businessperson, as it dictates that you sell an item at an unprofitable price. However, the reason for making the item so affordable is that the sale of that item will lead to the sale of other high-profit items. Retailers will often create loss leaders to get customers into the store.
For example, supermarkets occasionally sell everyday goods like toilet paper and nappies at unbeatable prices because they know that customers are likely to buy other items that will produce a profit, and it gives them an opportunity to gain future business from those customers.
The shrewdest loss leaders are products like razors, mobile phones and video game consoles. Companies such as Gillette, Vodafone and Microsoft are happy to sell razors, phones and gaming devices, respectively, at or below cost because each company knows that customers will continually buy highly profitable razor-blade refills, data plans and video games.
Bundling
This pricing strategy involves grouping goods or services together to sell them at one price. For the most part, bundling is used either to attract customers by providing a truly discounted offer over the regular cost, or to confuse the customer so that it’s hard to determine the true value of the bundle.
An example of a true money-saving bundle might include combining your internet and cable with one provider for a discount. If the combined rate offers identical service to what you were getting with two separate companies, and it does it at a discount, common sense dictates that you sign on for the bundled discount.
However, bundling is often used to create a false sense of value, such as when infomercials will proudly announce, “But just wait, there’s more!” and begin to toss in “bonus” items with the featured product and then announce an inflated retail price that you of course will only have to pay a fraction of … if you act NOW!
Even if the advertised retail value is an accurate reflection of the bundled items’ value, you need to value or have use for everything in the bundle. As with any purchase, if your perceived value doesn’t reflect the price you paid, you will feel ripped off.
Decoys
This tactic succeeds because it reduces a customer’s ability to use logic when making a purchase. Product decoys are meant to promote the purchase of the product the retailer actually wants you to buy.
So, when Apple offers the new iPad in six different formats and price points, it isn’t to satisfy lovers of 32GB tech as well as 64GB fanboys. Customers see the £608 version and feel that they are getting a good deal if they snap up a £368 version with less than half the memory and no 3G capabilities. In addition, you could argue that the entire line of iPod Touches is a decoy to sell more iPhones, as the lowest end iPod Touch retails for the same price as the new iPhone 4S – £169.
Unless you’re adverse to data plans or mobile phones, it makes sense to buy an iPhone 4S and enjoy all the features of the iPod Touch, plus phone and 3G capabilities.
The bottom line
The competition for your money is hotter than ever, and in light of the current economy, your willingness to part with your cash likely hasn’t been lower. With that in mind, it’s understandable that companies are working hard to employ every retail trick they can imagine.
To keep as much of your money as possible, while ensuring as much purchase satisfaction as possible, you need the ability to spot a pricing strategy and assess whether you are truly saving money or just being duped into unnecessary spending.
The Pro’s & Con’s of Installing Solar PV Panels
As a result of the government promoting green energy there are many companies that now provide a full installation service for solar panels. There are 2 types of solar panels, the solar heating panel which simply has water pipes running through it to heat your water (not very popular) and the solar PV panels (photo voltaic) that actually generate electricity. The PV panels are the ones that are currently being installed to take advantage of the government pay back scheme and this works in the following way.
You pay for installation of solar panels (works best on south facing roofs, but can be installed on east/west facing), the average cost would be £10,000 to £14,000 pounds, depending on various factors.
The government guarantees to pay you for each Kw of power you produce for the next 25 years.
The electricity you generate is free and offsets that supplied by the power company, thereby reducing your electricity bill.
Any surplus power you generate over & above what you are using at any point in time goes into the national grid & you are paid extra for this.
The payback period for this is around 6 to 8 years depending on cost of installation, how much power is generated etc. and this is judged to be a good return on investment considering the current interest rates.
Alternatively, some companies are now offering free solar panels and this works in the following way.
An investor pays for all equipment & installation costs and effectively rents your roof for 25 years.
The investor receives the government grant and also the payment for any surplus energy that goes back into the grid.
You receive the free electricity when it is generated to offset your power bill and after 25 years the installation is yours.
This option is pretty much win/win as you pay no money out, you get any free electricity you generate and if the sun rarely shines you have lost nothing.
Which option do you choose?
Well if you have the capital sitting in the bank, you get a far better return investing in solar panels than you will get in interest (hence the availability of investors willing to pay for the installation), but you don’t have the money to fall back on for a ‘rainy day’.
If you don’t have the capital it is not a good idea to borrow it as the interest charged on the loan would negate any return you would get on the installation and so a free installation becomes attractive, as you get some of the benefits without any financial outlay.
A couple of points to bear in mind
You only produce electricity when the sun shines, and therefore you would always pay for any power you use during the hours of darkness during the evening/night and first thing in a morning and whenever the sun does not shine.
The return is calculated using the 3 major factors a)How much power you generate b)How much you save on your electricity bills c)How much surplus power you sell back to the grid
All these factors will differ dramatically, not least of all the weather.
So do you want to join the ever increasing number of homeowners generating their own power?, the choice is yours !
Satellite Direct Brings Thousands of TV Channels Straight to Your PC
What if there was a way for you to watch thousands of television channels, any time you want… and never pay another cable bill again? With Satellite Direct, there is.
Satellite Direct is a new way to watch TV- from the convenience of your own desktop PC or laptop. Why pay every month for a cable or satellite television subscription with limited channel availability, when you can get a lifetime of unlimited access to over 3,500 channels for less than half of that?
Just some of the benefits of choosing Satellite Direct over cable:
• 24/7 unlimited access to over 3,500 channels
• Hard to find international channels, as well as all the best movies, sports and news shows- at no additional cost
• No hardware to install
• No bandwidth limits
• No subscription or installation fees – EVER
• Automatic channel updates
And best of all… You’ll never have to pay another monthly cable or satellite bill again!
Why settle for other TV for PC services that deliver poor sound and picture quality, or come loaded with hidden fees? With world class customer service and support, making the switch to Satellite Direct will be one of the best decisions you’ve made for your family in a long time. (And with no hardware to install and no waiting around for hours for the cable guy to show up… it will be one of the easiest, as well)
Switching to Satellite Direct is simple and straightforward: Just answer a few questions using our safe and secure registration process. After your one time payment, you can download our easy to use software directly onto your PC or laptop.
Then sit back and enjoy thousands of premium channels, any time you want. That’s it!
Check it out at Satellite Direct, now available in UK
