How much can you have an acceptable Christmas for? If new research carried out by the charity Family Action is to believed, it could be less than £200.

This survey, conducted by the charity, has shown that the poorest families will spend around one-third of the amount that the average family will during the festive season.

The average family in the UK will spend between £530 and £690 on items related to Christmas including; gifts, decorations, food and drinks. However, when questioned, the majority of families with a smaller income said that they would be spending around £182.

This breaks down as approximately: £34 on food and drink, £28 on decorations, £6 on cards and £114 on gifts, for a basic Christmas.

Many of the parents asked felt that there was an increased level of pressure on them to provide gifts for their children that, normally, would be more expensive than they can afford. (more…)

This may prove an interesting week of parallels. A recent post on our sister site’s Finance Blog in Australia compared details of how fee-driven banking products have come under scrutiny in both countries.

Another area of comparison is to be found in what we might call household efficiency or discipline savings. How much could we be saving by organising our food shopping more carefully to reduce wastage, or by switching off our electrical devices rather than leaving them on standby? Quite a lot, as it happens.

[Read more at Which4U]

Christmas shopping trip to Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Vienna, New York, anyone?

We could all do with taking some of the stress out of the Christmas shopping period, which only tends to add to an already manic list of commitments.

A trip to one of Europe’s finest Christmas market towns might be just the ticket.

Anyone planning to shop overseas for Christmas, though, even from the comfort of their own homes, should note the duty-free limits, which have been amended slightly in November.

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Revolution is a more powerful term than most people realise. It implies a rising order to be witnessing – and even delighting in – its overthrow of an old and failing order.

So, how does that work exactly for a savings account?

Santander’s new Upfront Interest Bond has caused some controversy across the web this week, so perhaps it’s time to investigate this particular product a little closer.

[Read more at Which4U]

Everyone loves a bargain and many people pride themselves on getting the best deal they can when they shop on the high street. Amazingly, those same people are not using their bargain hunting skills to full effect when they shop online – because they aren’t using voucher codes.

Voucher codes are the best money saving tool on the net and there are thousands upon thousands of deals to be found just in time for the holiday season, if you know where to look.

Finding voucher codes is incredibly simple, with tons of great sites which offer fantastic bargains. You will even find that most sites tweet regular updates or send email alerts for new vouchers, meaning you never have to miss out on the best deals.

Once you have found a site you like you can search for bargains on all types of purchases, from camping to computing and everything in between. You can also search for the site’s top offers, or vouchers just for Christmas. Some of the best and biggest online retailers like Very, Littlewoods, Argos and Tesco offer great deals, all you need to do is simply search for Very voucher codes in Google and you’ll be astounded by some of the incredible deals you can get. (more…)

They say that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Yet, in an age of digital technology and mobile apps, the older generation are still able to teach the young one of the most fundamental financial tricks: saving.

Stats from Halifax’s ISA report shows a striking correlation between age and average ISA savings. The average ISA balance stands at roughly £8,500.

The results show a remarkable contrast in the amounts that different age groups hold in their ISAs.
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Savers should check the interest rate paid on their Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) to avoid being caught out by bonus introductory offers.

Generally speaking, the best ISA rates available on today’s savings market come with a catch – the high rates on offer are likely to fall after 12 months.

This is due to providers offering bonus rates in order to attract more custom. However, once the bonus rate expires, the level of interest paid on your savings is likely to fall significantly, leaving you earning less than you could be elsewhere.

A report from the Office of Fair Trading found that just 11% of savers that hold an ISA will switch to a new provider each year.

Savings plan (more…)

Any savers prepared to lock their savings away for an extended period of time have the potential to earn the best interest rates on the savings market, according to the financial information company Moneyfacts.

The firm has revealed that interest rates paid on fixed rate bonds with relatively short fixed terms have been rising since last August.

However, despite increasing rates savers are still worse off than they have been in recent years as decent returns are still had to come by due to record lows to the Bank of England base rate which has been sat at 0.5% since March 2009.

The encouraging movement suggests the Bank rate will rise in the coming months which would be passed on to savers through improved returns on savings accounts.

According to Moneyfacts, savers can expect to lock in on a rate of 2.85% with the average one-year fixed rate bond which marks the highest levels in over a year. (more…)

The replacement to the Child Trust Fund – announced at the end of last year, will be launched on 1 November 2011.

According to the government, the tax-free Junior ISA will allow parents to make contributions of up to £3,000 per year into these savings accounts – substantially higher than the recently scrapped Child Trust Fund which allowed just £1,200 of deposits per year.

In last year’s May Budget we leaned that Labour’s Child Trust Fund was to be axed, which soon became a highly controversial and high profile spending cut enforced by the coalition government. (more…)

Share Dealing Accounts

Share dealing accounts offer an effective tool to manage your stocks and shares from one easy-to-access place, making it simple to track the progress of your investments giving you the potential for earning money online from the comfort of your own home.

With a share dealing account you can get access to shares listed not just on UK markets, but also on international stock exchanges.

These account can not only be used to buy and sell shares, but also provide the option of trading in many other types of investment including Funds (such as OEICS and Unit Trusts), Corporate Bonds, Investment Trusts and Gilts, helping you to make the most of the stock markets. (more…)