Georgie Frost of Share Radio named Headlinemoney Financial Broadcast Journalist of the Year 2016 Here at the Money Fight Club dojo we’ve been cracking open the champers in honour of Georgie Frost at Share Radio. Every Tuesday at 11am we join Georgie on her Consuming Issues programme for Share and are blown away by her grasp of tough topics and her ability to ask the real questions that consumers want answering So we popped the laces on our gloves in delight when she was named Financial Broadcast Journalist of the Year 2016, against a highly competitive field. The judges were […]
That’s a (home) improvement – getting the best out of your builders
Listen to our recent radio broadcast on this topic Spring is peak time for home improvements as we try to add space and value to our homes and we are increasingly eschewing DIY in favour of DIFM (Do It For Me). Around 40% of us would rather get in a professional. Retired people spend the most. Younger people are least likely to DIY. But while we are prepared for problems with planning authorities, financing and getting the entire family to agree on what colour to paint the walls, many of us fail to do enough prep when it comes to […]
Bye bye Brand Match – Sainbury’s price comparison with Asda hits the dust
Sainbury’s price compari-gone So farewell then Brand Match. Sainsbury’s has announced that from the end of April it is no longer going to compare prices with Asda for customers who buy ten or more items. It says that this is because we shoppers are less likely to buy 10 or more items in the stores. Hmmmmm… Maybe they should look at their research more closely. If we are all filling our baskets and trolleys with only nine items they are in trouble. It could be because the store is also ending its Bogof – buy one get one free – […]
Financial abuse – the hidden storyline
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 […]
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 […]
The money diet challenge
We’ve been talking a lot recently about how easy it is to confuse a “want” with a “need”. The fact is we need very little – food, water, somewhere to shelter and rest. Everything else is a want (yes, even new shoes and fast cars). Christmas spending is just around the corner (Black Friday, identified as a pre-festive spending peak, will take place on November 27 this year), so how can we get fighting fit and avoid wasting money on purchases that don’t really bring us any real, lasting benefit (or joy)? Welcome to the money diet challenge The aim […]
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 […]