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Home » Business And Finance Articles » Avoiding The Sound Of Jingle Bills

Avoiding The Sound Of Jingle Bills

The Commons Trade and Industry committee has stated that the recent rises in UK gas prices has lead to increased suffering by many of the most exposed groups such as the elderly and, "non-elderly vulnerable groups, particularly disabled people, whose difficulties in relation to fuel poverty have been known for a long time".

A lack of gas supplies from Europe, and dwindling North Sea production has been blamed for the price increases by most of the major energy suppliers leading to average bills being put up by as much as 15% recently, with fears that costs are likely to rise even higher if the UK experiences a cold winter.

The Committee report also added that: "If fuel prices continue to rise it will be essential to provide further assistance to the elderly."

The news also appears to be bleak for many non-elderly or disabled groups, following research commissioned by Egg.

The results of research by the online bank Egg has shown that the average household monthly income is just £1,953 in the UK while the average monthly spend on bills is £888. After all bills and regular monthly costs have been included, Egg calculated that the average Briton spends about 23 days a year, effectively without any money, and living on overdrafts and credit cards. A survey by YouGov earlier in the year found that 4 out of 5 people were not saving enough for a comfortable retirement, and personal debt was seen as a major factor for many in preventing future saving.

Egg suggests that a reliance on credit cards and poor budgeting are proving to be expensive for many consumers, who are currently borrowing to cover the short-fall at an average authorized current account overdraft rate of 12.6% and at an unauthorized rate of 24.3%. To add insult to injury, almost a third of consumers have been penalised by their current account provider during the last 12 months, at an average cost of £27.

The financial comparison site Moneynet ( http://www.moneynet.co.uk/ ) has also recently warned that when finances are stretched to breaking point then store cards and unsolicited cheques sent by the credit card companies can be very seductive, "just to get through to next pay day". Moneynet chief executive Richard Brown says, "We have always advised consumers to avoid credit card cheques like the plague. Many people have no idea that these cheques carry extra charges and do not work like the credit card in their wallet. It's unethical and irresponsible."

Mr Brown also feels that, "Store card charging structures also need to be radically reformed. The worst offenders are invariably some of the most prominent names on the High Street, and government watchdogs need to properly show their teeth and crack down."

Following the festive period overspend a lack of financial knowledge and inadequate budgeting skills can lead to a very poor new year. The growth in the number of financial products and advice can lead to an information overload and a fear of taking any action, however the organisations such as the BBC provide some useful sources of information and several financial help sites like http://Moneynet.co.uk and Fool ( http://www.fool.co.uk/ ) have sprung up in recent years to enable consumers to get over their financial phobia and easily compare the rates of credit cards, loans, bank accounts, gas and electric suppliers as well as other financial services.

Until statutory legislation is put in place to control rates charged for credit, and other financial services, consumers need to take control of their own personal finances. While little can be done by most to significantly increase their income, most people can reduce the amount of unnecessary spending that occurs on a continual basis through the use of over priced financial services.

Disclaimer:

All information contained in this article, is for general information purposes only and should not be construed as advice under the Financial Services Act 1986.

You are strongly advised to take appropriate professional and legal advice before entering into any binding contracts.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Secondary Ticket Market

The Internet has become a major playing field for buyers and sellers of http://event.ixs.net/ tickets. One industry that's arisen as a result of this is the secondary ticket market worth an estimated dollar10-dollar12 billion. This is the part of the market that includes tickets bought by professional brokers as well as extras that season ticket holders can't use. A huge market with tons of small players ranging from global to the local, everybody's getting into the act.

The practice of reselling tickets was once done by street-corner hawkers and fly-by-night ticket brokers. Street vendors, who took positions outside stadiums and concert halls, often dealt in counterfeits.

Of course, buying and selling or reselling tickets isn't new. The only difference is that now many primary ticket companies, music venues, and even professional sports teams are either jumping into the business or partnering with one of the top secondary companies; the demand for Chicago Cubs tickets is so high that the team set up their own secondary event ticket market with a team-owned ticket broker.

There was and to some extent still is a strong criticism on the existence of the secondary ticket market. In the past many laws have been passed against ticket reselling. The justification for all those laws has been the desire to prevent fans from paying exorbitant amounts for tickets.

To better understand how things work, we shall first identify the key players of a secondary market, and examine their part in the whole scenario.

One of the key players of a secondary market is the producer who authorizes the tickets to a given event, assigns its face value (as opposed to the actual market value), controls the number of tickets released to the public, and may make restrictions on how many tickets one person can purchase.

Equally or rather more active are the ticket brokers who use several different means to secure premium and previously sold-out ticket inventories (often in large quantities) for events such as concerts or sporting events. The broker buys the tickets at face value with the intention of reselling them at a higher price.

It has been argued that individuals who genuinely wish to attend a popular event will find themselves unable to get tickets, as they have already been bought by ticket brokers. Whereas, these brokers believe that people who were too late to buy a ticket at let's say dollar50, some of them will be willing to pay dollar100 for a ticket near the opening of a hit show. If they are right, they claim a dollar50 profit on each ticket.

One would think that all this can be prevented if only the producer would assign the ticket a higher face value. The problem is that in order to make a reasonable profit, the producer wants to make sure that all of the tickets are sold. So keeping in mind the law of demand and supply and forgetting or ignoring the fact that a large amount of revenue is generated through discounts and souvenir sales, he makes the face value of tickets lower than the market value. This creates an opportunity for brokers to buy the tickets at face value and resell them for profit.

The reason that ticket brokers are still quite a sought after entity, is because they get people hard-to-find and previously sold-out tickets that are no longer available through the official box office. Often these brokers are sought out by fans who had not planned in advance for a show hoping for a last minute deals, though at a higher price.

However, it is argued by some fans that brokering has clouded the already fine line between the individuals who genuinely wish to attend a popular event and those who just want to make a hefty profit out of it all.

Clearly, a secondary market will remain in existence and will keep on thriving because the demand for tickets at face value is far greater than the supply of those tickets. On the other hand, people who buy tickets with the intention of reselling them create an open market where the value of the tickets is more closely determined by the demand for them. So there is no point in criticizing it.

For true fans the ideal situation would be where they have a choice of either standing in lines to get some tickets from producers at face value early or/and get some tickets from brokers above face value closer to the show. This way everybody would be happy!

For More Information About Secondary Ticket Market: http://www.ticketmy.com/Secondary-Ticket-Market.php