Browse content similar to 04/01/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Brothers, he had a string of hits in the 1950s and '60s. Now on BBC News, | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
it's time for this week's Your Money with Declan Curry. Hello and welcome | :00:00. | :00:14. | |
to Your Money, your weekly guide to making the most of your cash, here | :00:15. | :00:17. | |
every weekend on BBC News television - available all week on the BBC | :00:18. | :00:20. | |
iPlayer. This week - clearing up some of our | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
New Year hangovers. First, how to get rid of those hideous Christmas | :00:25. | :00:27. | |
gifts. We've got some tips that will strengthen our hand at the returns | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
counter. Then, some New Year's resolutions to get our money into | :00:33. | :00:34. | |
better shape. Nigel Cassidy has gathered some of | :00:35. | :00:39. | |
the best suggestions. And some tricks and tips to manage | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
our debts - how to keep the cost down, how to stop it becoming a big | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
problem. The debt charity Step Change shares its advice at no extra | :00:47. | :00:53. | |
charge. So what did Santa leave? Jumpers | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
that don't fit? That hideous lamp? That jewellery you wouldn't wear in | :00:58. | :01:02. | |
a darkened room? How do you get rid of it? Jasmine Birtles, everyday | :01:03. | :01:04. | |
money expert, runs the website moneymagpie.com. In some of these | :01:05. | :01:16. | |
cases we have right on our side. In others we are relying on goodwill | :01:17. | :01:22. | |
from the shopkeepers. First of all, the item does not work. Right is on | :01:23. | :01:30. | |
your site. You can take it back to the shop and the shop is your first | :01:31. | :01:36. | |
port of call. It does help if you have proof of purchase. If it is | :01:37. | :01:43. | |
broken, then you can go back to your aunt and uncle and say you love it, | :01:44. | :01:48. | |
just a bit of a problem in that it is broken. Do you have proof of | :01:49. | :01:57. | |
purchase? It could be a receipt or credit card statement. If it has the | :01:58. | :02:04. | |
name of the shop, then it is much easier. You can take it back and say | :02:05. | :02:10. | |
obviously it is yours. You should be able to get your money back. But you | :02:11. | :02:17. | |
have to have that proof of purchase? Unless it is branded. Who brings it | :02:18. | :02:28. | |
back? Is it the person who bought it or received it? Ideally the person | :02:29. | :02:36. | |
who bought it. If it is one of those chains and you have proof of | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
purchase, then you can take it back yourself. The shopkeeper deals with | :02:41. | :02:49. | |
this. The shopkeeper is the first port of call. If desperate you can | :02:50. | :02:55. | |
send it back to the manufacturer. You are entitled to a full refund | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
but they might say you are entitled to a credit note. You are entitled | :03:01. | :03:09. | |
to a full refund. Something you bought for Christmas did not arrive | :03:10. | :03:12. | |
on time. You bought something else instead and now the wretched thing | :03:13. | :03:19. | |
has turned up. If you bought it and it is supposed to arrive by | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
Christmas and it did not come when the sellers said it would come, you | :03:25. | :03:31. | |
can send it back. Does it have to have that agreement with the seller | :03:32. | :03:37. | |
beforehand, a contract that said delivery before Christmas? | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
Absolutely occurs otherwise you could have bought something and you | :03:42. | :03:48. | |
get it and don't like it. There has to be a reason. There has to be a | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
type of contract that it would be there in time. Of the rules | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
different if you ordered online? Yes. You have a seven-day cooling | :04:01. | :04:06. | |
off period from when you get the item and unlike with piling it on | :04:07. | :04:09. | |
the high street, if you don't like it, it is the wrong size, colour, | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
you can send it back for whatever reason. There is a time limit. You | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
have a cooling off period of seven days. The reason I ask is Christmas | :04:22. | :04:30. | |
was more than seven days ago. It does depend on the sellers. Some say | :04:31. | :04:38. | |
you have 14 days, 30 days. If you buy something from a high street | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
brand, sometimes they will take it 30 days back. Something you bought | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
on the high Street, there is nothing wrong with it, it is just a bile. | :04:50. | :04:59. | |
Yes, if you have some sort of proof of purchase, if it has the brand, | :05:00. | :05:07. | |
you are really going to have to take their goodwill and the goodwill now | :05:08. | :05:10. | |
is not quite as much as it used to be. | :05:11. | :05:17. | |
Train tickets have gone up in price again this week. There are some | :05:18. | :05:20. | |
useful tips to keep the price of train travel as low as possible. | :05:21. | :05:23. | |
Obviously, buying online, in advance is way cheaper than just turning up | :05:24. | :05:27. | |
at the ticket office on the day. And if you make the same journey over | :05:28. | :05:30. | |
and over, a season ticket is likely to be cheaper than buying each time. | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
Here are a few more. If you travel after the daily rush-hour or at | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
weekends, a network railcard could save you up to a third off of most | :05:38. | :05:41. | |
tickets. It costs 30 quid and is valid for a year. Sometimes two | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
single tickets are cheaper than a return ticket. Not always, but | :05:45. | :05:46. | |
sometimes. Some websites will let you set up an alert, so you'll get | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
an email when cheap advance tickets become available. That could save | :05:51. | :05:53. | |
40%. And it's worth checking for alternative routes. You may find | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
that a longer journey by an indirect route is cheaper than the direct, | :05:58. | :06:02. | |
express service. To find them, use the advanced search settings when | :06:03. | :06:11. | |
checking the timetable online. Ding dong! Some news about the | :06:12. | :06:14. | |
housing market. More than 6,000 people have applied for a mortgage - | :06:15. | :06:17. | |
under the Government's latest Help to Buy scheme. But only 750 homes | :06:18. | :06:20. | |
have actually been bought. The rest are still in the pipeline. The | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
scheme helps us buy a home if we've only got 5% of the price saved as a | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
deposit. The Nationwide, the biggest building | :06:30. | :06:32. | |
society, claims house prices rose by over 8% last year. Of course, that's | :06:33. | :06:35. | |
one average figure for the whole nation. London prices jumped by | :06:36. | :06:40. | |
nearly 15%. In the north of England, prices were up around 2%. And | :06:41. | :06:45. | |
typically, houses are still worth less now than they were in 2007. The | :06:46. | :06:56. | |
Bank of England's interest rate is unlikely to rise this year, say the | :06:57. | :06:58. | |
UK's top economists. The BBC rang them up and emailed | :06:59. | :07:02. | |
them, and 93% of those asked predicted no change to the bank rate | :07:03. | :07:05. | |
this year. Of course, the Bank's rate is one thing. Wat you actually | :07:06. | :07:09. | |
get for your savings, or pay for your mortgage is quite another. | :07:10. | :07:12. | |
Those actual rates were driven down hard as the high street banks were | :07:13. | :07:18. | |
flooded with cheap money. Many people who were left without | :07:19. | :07:21. | |
electricity over Christmas because of the weather are set to get some | :07:22. | :07:24. | |
compensation. UK Power Networks, which owns electricity lines and | :07:25. | :07:27. | |
cables in London, the South East and East of England, and Electricity | :07:28. | :07:30. | |
North West with customers in the north west of England both say | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
they'll stump up. So too will Scottish and Southern Energy Power | :07:36. | :07:39. | |
Distribution. It says it will pay ?54 to customers who were without | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
electricity for 48 hours. There's another ?54 for each full 12-hour | :07:45. | :07:47. | |
period that you didn't have electricity after that. If you were | :07:48. | :07:53. | |
cut off on Christmas Day itself, you'll get ?75. The company said it | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
will write to its customers over the next five week, but you can also | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
make a claim online. Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution | :08:03. | :08:05. | |
covers the area from Yeovil in Somerset to West London and from | :08:06. | :08:11. | |
Oxfordshire to the Isle of Wight. It also supplies northern Scotland. | :08:12. | :08:18. | |
New Year. Time for a make over for your money. Here's Nigel Cassidy. | :08:19. | :08:28. | |
Last month the post brought good cheer and Christmas cards. Now it is | :08:29. | :08:35. | |
mainly is bills. All the evidence is millions get into a financial mess | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
because of a poor grasp of the basic financial tasks. Judging by the kind | :08:41. | :08:48. | |
of calls flooding into debt lines like this one, Paul money-management | :08:49. | :08:54. | |
is as much a factor as reckless borrowing. People do not understand | :08:55. | :08:58. | |
their payslip, interest rates all the interest risks. Do you know how | :08:59. | :09:05. | |
much money is in your account? Not really. I check every fortnightly. I | :09:06. | :09:19. | |
check daily. Rarely. I let you check it. Checking your statement is one | :09:20. | :09:25. | |
thing. Understanding it is another. People don't know how much money | :09:26. | :09:31. | |
they have got in their accounts. One in six not knowing whether the | :09:32. | :09:36. | |
number at the bottom is the mud in their account or it includes the | :09:37. | :09:42. | |
overdraft. The new centre for the Public understanding of finance has | :09:43. | :09:45. | |
been setup to promote knowledge personal finance. You make a start | :09:46. | :09:54. | |
by not turning a blind eye to your financial position. Check your bank | :09:55. | :10:00. | |
statement and reconcile it, put together a household budget. That | :10:01. | :10:03. | |
will tell you if you have scope to save or whether you have a problem | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
spending more than you are earning. Think about what your long-term | :10:09. | :10:11. | |
plans are and how they need to be financed. We all live for today for | :10:12. | :10:18. | |
eight degree but eventually we will need a pension and if you start to | :10:19. | :10:24. | |
plan too late it is financially disadvantageous. With half of us | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
finding it hard to pay our bills, it is not surprising people are out | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
looking for bargains. Many will resolve to get a grip on our | :10:35. | :10:39. | |
finances but inevitably we will buy financial products we cannot | :10:40. | :10:42. | |
understand and borrow money we cannot repay. The advice is to get a | :10:43. | :10:48. | |
firm grip on your income and expenditure, make a budget, stick to | :10:49. | :10:53. | |
it and do not commit to anything unless you understand the cost, | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
benefits and risks. Let's get more advice on how to deal with those | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
Christmas debts. Edward is from the debt charity step change. The New | :11:04. | :11:09. | |
Year bills are only just arriving. What is the plan for dealing with | :11:10. | :11:15. | |
them? The first thing is to draw up that detailed household budget, that | :11:16. | :11:22. | |
list of your incomings and outgoings and covered your essential household | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
bills, your rent, mortgage, council tax, utility bills and then you can | :11:27. | :11:32. | |
work out what you can put towards repaying your debts. It is a good | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
idea to take a look at your bank statements and credit card bills | :11:39. | :11:42. | |
anyway because there might be things you are paying for that you have | :11:43. | :11:49. | |
forgotten. Absolutely. You can have that clear out of your finances | :11:50. | :11:56. | |
every year. Cancelled those direct debits you are not using. There are | :11:57. | :12:05. | |
some signs that your debt is running out of control. There are things | :12:06. | :12:10. | |
that people tell us that in retrospect they realise their | :12:11. | :12:13. | |
finances were getting out of control. Are you juggling your | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
household bills, are you borrowing to pay off existing debt? Are you | :12:19. | :12:27. | |
borrowing just to make it to payday? Those are signs that your debt | :12:28. | :12:31. | |
problem might be more serious and you really need to think and get | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
advice and support at that stage. That point about advice is important | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
because there are lots of companies that say they will help you deal | :12:42. | :12:44. | |
with your lenders but they will charge a fee and their risk free | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
advice available. There is high quality, free and impartial advice. | :12:51. | :12:59. | |
If people are struggling, those free and independent sources of advice | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
are the best places to go. If you are finding it a struggle to meet | :13:05. | :13:09. | |
your payments, there is no shame in going to your lenders and asking for | :13:10. | :13:18. | |
a deal. Absolutely. If your lenders are not as helpful as you would | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
like, come to one of the debt advice organisations. That is all from us | :13:24. | :13:32. | |
this week. You can go online to find out more advice and information. You | :13:33. | :13:40. | |
can also follow our feed on Twitter. Thank you for watching. More next | :13:41. | :13:42. | |
week. See you then. Let's bring you a statement from the | :13:43. | :14:02. | |
family of the British man killed in Libya. The family are shocked and | :14:03. | :14:10. | |
devastated to hear about his death in Libya. | :14:11. | :14:13. |