InvestmentInformer.com

We've started publishing a new blog called Investment Informer with the aim being to post news about relevant information for the personal investor. We'll also includes information on how to make more from your saving and investments and hopefully offer a few tips like this one.

Please do visit and if you have any tips of your own let us know or leave a comment.

MBNA Platinum Card: Rate Change

Please note that MBNA have increased the interest rate on their platinum card from 12.9% to 15.9% apr.

Win A Car With The AA

AA Motor Insurance is offering it's customers the chance to win a car just by getting a quote online! Every customer that gets a quote online will be in with a chance to win a Ford Focus worth £12,500.

The competition ends on 30th November so there is only a short period of time left to enter.

So, get your AA car insurance quote today.

Tesco Car Insurance Offer

Here's news of new car insurance offers from Tesco Financial.

Tesco Car Insurance – 15% Online discount, FREE 15 Point Car Safety Check, FREE Car Essentials Pack worth £5.95

Tesco Value Car Insurance – Multi-car discount if someone in your home is already insured with Tesco.

Visit our Tesco Insurance section to find out more!

Egg Card Offer 14 Month Balance Transfers

We're able to let you know that EggCard is launching a new offer from November: 0% on Balance Transfers for up to 14 months.

Please find the full details below:

PROPOSITION

• Balance Transfers*: 0% until 1 January 2009
• Purchases: 0% until 1 February 2008
• APR: 16.9% APR typical variable
• 0% anniversary offer for up to five months on balance transfers (plus fee**) made in November 2009 and November 2010
• See your various online accounts in one place for free with Egg Money Manager
• Great offers with our selected online retailers

*On all introductory balance transfers there is a 3.0% handling fee.

** On all balance transfers made in anniversary periods there is a 2.5% handling fee.

MBNA Chelsea FC Credit Card – Free 07/08 Home Shirt Offer

MBNA are offering consumers a Free 07/08 Chelsea FC Home Football Shirt when a customer takes out an MBNA Card and makes a purchase within the first 90 days of the account being opened.

The MBNA Chelsea FC Credit Card also offers:

• 0% on Balance Transfers for 12 months [3% handling fee applies]
• 0% on Purchases for 3 months
• 15.9% Typical APR

Additionally, every time these customers make a purchase on their Chelsea FC Credit Card, between now and February 28^th 2008, they will receive an entry into a prize draw to win the Chelsea FC Ultimate Fan Package. See the application for full details and terms.

Click here to read more.

Tesco Pet Insurance: 50% Discount

Tesco Pet Insurance are offering customers a 50% discount when you buy online pet cover between 8th October and 13th November.

Click here to obtain your free quote.

Tesco Home Insurance 50% Discount

Tesco are running an offer until 11th December where you will receive a 50% discount on their home insurance.

Shares Magazine

Happened to spot a mention in the financial press yesterday that the popular Shares Magazine has been put up for sale by its owners for up to £10m. So, if you've been sucessful enough with your share trading perhaps this might be your next trade?

Barclaycard Tightens The Belt

Today the Telegraph reports that Barclaycard is rejecting about 55% of new credit card applicants and is also cutting the credit limits for users. Although the widely reported credit crunch may be to blame for the increase in rejected card applications, Barclaycard are reported to have been lowering credit limits for 500,000 of its customers over the past 18 months.

Online Banking Continues To Grow

According to the latest figures from the banking payments association Apacs, the use of UK internet banking has grown by 174% in the past five years. In 2006, a total of 17 million people used online banking services compared to only 6.2 million in 2001.

If you're looking to bank online, pay a visit to our online banking section where you'll find an overview of online current and savings accounts plus links to online banking services.

Touch And Pay Card Arrives

We've blogged before about touch and pay cards when we posted about the OnePulse payment card from Barclays. Today we read that Mastercard have launched their PayPass system - a touch and pay card for low value transactions.

The PayPass card is to initially be available in London within the next week and nationwide within the next 12 months. Coincidentally, the OnePulse card is also expected to be introduced next week too.

Whilst there are both supporters and and critics of such cards (convenience v fraud concerns) it's expected that by the end of this year around 500,000 consumers will have a touch and pay card and about 1,000 retailers will have the required terminals to accept the payments.

Barclays OnePulse

Barclaycard's three-in-one Oyster, credit and contactless payment card will be called OnePulse, it has announced. We've blogged before about Barclaycard and Oystercard and this annoucement confirms our suspicions.

The OnePulse card has three separate functions; an Oyster smartcard for travel on the tube, bus and some national rail services; ‘wave and pay’ technology for purchase of low-value items (under £10) and a standard chip-and-PIN credit and debit card.

Expect to see the OnePulse card this Autumn.

No PIN Required

I stopped for a coffee this morning at Pret-a-Manger in Cheshire Oaks with my wife.

She paid for the coffee and cakes by credit card. Interestingly, she didn't have to enter her PIN - apparently transactions under £15 do not require a PIN to be entered at Pret-a-Manger, your card is just plonked into the terminal and the transaction is completed. First time we've had a transaction that didn't require a PIN.

Coffee and cakes were great by the way. Service was fine too. Nearly went to Starbucks but changed our minds after passing a busy Pret.

I've previously talked about the introduction of wave-and-pay cards and whilst todays transaction wasn't exactly that, it does highlight than non-pin card payments are now here!

Killer Sandcastles More Dangerous Than Sharks

I love unusual statistics and a recent story in The Telegraph caught my eye.

The personal insurance industry is awash with statistics and they are used as a main element in the equation to determine the cost of a policy premium. The insurance companies know for example statistically how many people receive novelty slippers as a Christmas present and not too surprisingly manage to fall down the stairs in them that very day. I doubt however that the following statistic is factored into the calculation for personal accident and life cover.

Research by a leading doctor (published here) shows that Americans are more likely to die from sandcastle holes in the beach than being killed in a shark attack. Dr Bradley Maron (Harvard Medical School) has undertaken research that shows that since 1990 in the US 16 people have died as a result of falling into holes dug in the sand but only 12 people have died from a shark attack. Dr Maron says

Typically, victims became completely submerged in the sand when the walls of the hole unexpectedly collapsed, leaving virtually no evidence of the hole of the location of the victim.

Not a nice way to go!

Welcome Nationwide

We're pleased to announce our latest partnership over at cardtart - we now partner with Nationwide.co.uk and we can now keep you up-to-date with their current mortgage products offers. Nationwide are the biggest building society in the world and within the UK they are currently the largest online mortgage lender.

We'll keep you posted as and when we partner with other mortgage providers.

NatWest Credit Cards

NatWest are one of the latest credit card providers to offer a 13 month period for balance transfers at 0% (2% transfer fee applies). There is a 3 month period for 0% purchases. You can find out more here.

Tourism Card Fraud

Insure and Go, a travel insurance company recently published the details of a survey it undertook relating to overseas credit card fraud.

It appears that the number of British tourists falling victim to credit and debit card fraud overseas is on the rise. About 1.3 million UK overseas tourists have been card fraud victims over the past five years, a third of those being defrauded within the past 12 months.

Although we tend to be more relaxed when on holiday, do not forget to follow the same precautions as you would at home when using your cards.

Barclaycard Breathe Credit Card

We've received notice from our partner networks that Barclays are to replace their charity credit card with a new card entitled the Breathe Card. The Barclaycard newsroom describes this new product as such:

Barclaycard has announced plans to launch the first UK credit card that donates 50 per cent of its profits to give people across the country a greener card option. The Barclaycard Breathe credit card will see Barclaycard:

- Donate 50 per cent of Barclaycard Breathe profits to environmental projects dedicated to reducing carbon emissions around the world.

- Offer cardholders discounts and lower rate borrowing on green products and services.

- Take a greener approach to account management including online statements and recycling of card plastics.

Barclaycard Breathe states that it is donate a minimum of £1 million to environmental projects in its first year. The company will then donate 50 per cent of profits from the card in following years.

Barclaycard Breathe aims to help consumers make greener choices by offering discounts and lower rates on green products, for example energy saving products and greener transport options.

The card itself offers a greener customer experience with no paper statements - though note that the egg card has operated this way for several years. Marketing will be directed online and the cards themselves are made from PETg - a more environmentally friendly alternative to current PVC cards. A recycling scheme for old cards will be available when new cards are issued.

We're expecting to offer the card soon. When it's available you'll find it on our dedicated breathe card page.

Happy Banking Returns

Its internet banking 10th birthday this week. Nationwide Building Society was the first UK finance organisation to offer an internet service on May 27, 1997. Hot on their heels was Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) who launched their internet bank facilities the month after.

So Happy Birthday to them both!

Post Office Financial Reaches 1m Customers

Post Office Financial Services reports that it has now acquired their one millionth customer. The joint venture with Bank of Ireland was setup three years ago to offer various personal finance products. The Post Office now sells 1 in 50 of all car insurance policies in the UK. In 2006, it issued 1 in 25 of all new credits cards. We promote the Post Office credit card in our credit card centre.

Managing Director Alan Cook said:

Post Office Financial Services entered the market with the aim of challenging what other financial services providers were offering. Gaining one million customers in about 1000 days confirms we were right. People want easy to understand, good value products.

I'd find it interesting to see the figures detailing where the customers came from. How many came via the counter and how many cam via the internet?

Off On Holiday? Then Get Home Insurance

A report from Halifax Home insurance suggests that more than 1m holidaymakers return home to find:

• their homes burgled
• vandalised
• spoilt by burst pipes
• damaged by storms
• fire damaged

The annual repair bill from the above and others is expected to be as much as £2.3 billion this year the bank said. Unfortunately for homeowners in The Midlands, they are most likely to return home to encounter a disaster of some sort whilst Scots are least likely to.

So, either move to Scotland or make sure that your home insurance is up-to-date! And while we're on the topic did you know that if you still have home insurance from the bank or building society that provided your mortgage then the chances are you'll find cheaper cover elsewhere?

7 Yachts To Die For At F1 Monaco GP

So here we all are attempting to better manage our personal finances in order to save a few hundred pounds each year! Meanwhile in the Cote D'Azur there are some incredibly expensive boys toys bobbing in the water in Monaco Harbour. Here are 7, not-so cheap yachts you'll see if you were in Monaco for the 2007 F1 Grand-Prix:

AMEVI

A sparkingly new yacht owned by the steel industry magnate Lakshmi Mittal. Image

AVIVA

A £62m motor yacht owned by billionaire currency trader Joe Lewis. Image

ECSTASY

An £86m boat owned by the Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich. Image

FORCE BLUE

Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore's £62m vessel. Image

KOGO

Mansour Ojjeh, co-owner of McLaren Mercedes owns this £72m baby. Image

INDIAN EXPRESS

Dr Vijay Mallya, India's 3rd richest man is the owner of this £95m super yacht. Image

TIARA

Just £54m for this boat, complete with outdoor cinema and mega sound system. Owned by Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil. Image

Note to self: Keep saving!

10 People You Know Will Commit Suicide

The UK television company Channel 4 recently broadcast a programme entitled The Human Footprint and it graphically represented average statistics about a British resident. Remember here that the keyword here is average. I don't smoke, yet the statistics indicate that on average I smoke 77,000 cigarettes. Worringly, I do drink beer and wine!

Also worringly, apparently 10 people I know will commit suicide. If this means people I know of then I can believe it - my maths teacher hung himself, another teacher was decapitated on a train line and a friends sister jumped in front of a train. Grim.

Anyway, as I quite like statistics, I've sought out the statistics detailed in the programme from various sources and collated them here.

It would be interesting to see the stats for other countries such as America. Some items on this list are probably peculiar to us Brits. Do they have baked bins and drink tea in The States?

The stats....

Food

Milk: 15,951 pints To produce this amount of milk for the population, 2.1 million cows are needed, eating 100 kilograms of grass a day.

Meat: 89% of us will eat meat.

Including:

• 4 head of cattle
• 21 sheep
• 15 pigs
• 1200 chickens
• 13,345 eggs.

Potatoes: 2327 kg
Bread: 4283 loaves
Apples: 5272
Carrots: 10,866

95% of our food is imported.
Food packaging: 8.49 tons

Chocolate: 8.2kg a year. 10,000 chocolate bars in a lifetime.
Bake Beans: 845 tins.

Beer:10351 pints
Wine:1,694 bottles
Tea:74,842 cups in a lifetime.

Waste and Sewage.

Human wind: 1-1.5 litres of gas a day, 12-25 times a day (farting, belching), 35,815 litres
Toilet rolls: 4239 to cope with 2,865kg of faeces.
Sewage: 150 litres per day per person,

Disposed of across the country in a day are:

• 270,000 condoms
• 2.5 million tampons
• 1.4 million sanitary towels
• 700,000 panty liners
• 3,800 nappies (diapers)

2.5 billion nappies are disposed of each year in the UK making them the largest contributor to landfill, taking a huge 500 years to decompose. At age five we will have produced more carbon dioxide than that of a person in Tanzania over their entire lifetime. 40 tons of waste is sent to landfill over a persons lifetime.

During babyhood we produce 254 litres of urine.

Relationships

Language: average vocabulary is 25,000 words, only 4% of the English Oxford Dictionary.

We speak on average:

• 123,205,750 words in a lifetime.
• 2,000-4,000 words spoken by a man per day.
• 6,400-8,000 words spoken by a woman per day.

We will have 300 people in our social group at any one time.

• Partners: 10 different partners.
• 1,700 friendships made.
• 4,239 times having sex. About twice a week
• Love: we will fall in love 3 times.
• Marriage:11.5 years
• 70% will attempt a marriage once.

Personal Hygiene

• 7163 baths in a lifetime using 1 million litres of water
• 656 bars of soap
• 198 bottles of shampoo
• 272 deodorants
• 276 tubes of toothpastes
• 78 toothbrushes
• 411 skin care product
  
• 37 perfumes
• 35 tubes of styling gel
• 25 bottles of nail polish
• 21 sticks of lipstick
• 11,00 tampons/sanitary towels
• 5.6 bottles of fake tan

Shower gel components take 800 years to disappear from the water system. We wash our hair 11,500 times in a lifetime.

Wealth and Expenditure

£1,537,380 spent in a lifetime. Housing, food and clothing £552,772, tax £286,311, leisure and entertainment £236,312.

Consumer goods:

• 3.5 washing machines
• 3.4 fridges
• 3.2 microwaves
• 4.8 televisions
• 9.8 DVD players
• 15 computers (240kg of fossil fuels, 22kg of chemicals, 1.5 tons of water needed to produce a home computer)

£920 spent per person on the average Christmas.
628 Christmas gifts received over a lifetime.

Clothing

• Clothing market is worth £23 billion in the U.K.
• £385 per year spent on clothes or £3,222 pounds spent on clothes over a lifetime.
• 500 litres of water and 40g of pesticides needed to produce a t-shirt.
• 570kg of chemicals added to the water system through washing clothes.

Travel

• 197 miles walked per year
• 15,464 miles walked in a lifetime.
• We will drive 452,662 miles in a lifetime. 135,950 litres of petrol will be needed.
• 8 Cars owned
• 59 foreign holidays. 737 tons of carbon released into the atmosphere.

Information and Culture.

• Television: 148 minutes a day. 900 hours a year. 2944 days in a lifetime.
• 533 books read in a lifetime.
• 3% cannot read in the UK
• 40% choose not to read
• more households own two cars than two novels
• 2455 newspapers read
• 24 trees will be used to make the books and newspapers you need.
• 6 acts of worship a year, 390 over a lifetime.

Democracy

You will vote in fifty elections.

Health

• 1,980 babies born a day
• 78.5 years: life expectancy. That's 2,475,576,000 seconds
• Cigarettes: 77,000 over a lifetime. 1/3 of all cancers are from smoking.
• Vomit: Twice a year, five buckets over a lifetime.
• 314 visits to the doctor.
• 30,000 pills in a lifetime.
• Tears shed 61.5 litres.
• 104,390 dreams in a lifetime.
• 9.42: Hair length in metres if it is not cut
• 9.14: Beard length in metres if it is not cut
• 415m blinks of an eye
• 121 pints of tears
  

Death

1700 people we know.

Death rates include:

• 305 heart disease
• 179 stokes
• 111 flu and pneumonia
• 99 from lung cancer
• 92 from lower respiratory diseases
• 63 from dementia
• 49 cancers of the colon
• 32 from breast cancer
• 10 from suicide
• 9 in road accidents
• 1 in a fire
• 1 in 3 will know a person who has been murdered.

GM Cards

No, not genetically modified cards but the credit card from GM Motors.

We've promoted the GM card for several years now and it is probably fair to say that it one of the more interesting reward cards on the market today. Here's why:

• The GM Card reward scheme has been rated one of the top reward schemes in the country by Martin Lewis - offering 3 Rebate Points (worth £3) for every £100 spent, which could lead to a saving of up to £2,500 off a new Vauxhall/Saab.
• There are about 400,000 GM Cardholders
• Hundreds of thousands of account holders have saved £000s on new cars with their GM Card Rebate Points.
• The average cash saved last year for people with The GM Card was £1,089 on their new cars (source: Daily Mirror)

So, if you are interested in accruing rewards while you spend on your credit card it might well be worth considering the GM card.

cardtart.com Revamp Goes Live

We've published the revamp of cardtart.com today. It's not the complete article yet but publishing on a Bank Holiday Monday when traffic volumes are lower gives us the chance to fix any errors.

We'll be working hard this week finishing off the pages that still need some attention.

Swiftcovered: Quotes In 60 Seconds

For those of us that can't abide call centres (like me for instance, I can't stand waiting in a call centre queue), a totally online car insurance offering is just what we need.

Swiftcover are an internet based company that don't do call centres or even the post - you deal with them online, via email or by text. The savings that they make by not having call centres are passed on to policy holders via cheaper insurance premiums. Swiftcover suggest that 7/10 people save money when getting their cars swiftcovered. The quote engine provides you with an insurance quote within 60 seconds - so that's fairly swift too.

So, if you want to avoid call centres there is an alternative to consider.

Debt Blogs

One of the latest trends in America is to blog about your debts. Debt blogs are rapidly springing up as people who find themselves in debt post about their struggles in maintaining the credit card bills, loans and other finance. Typically, such blogs are not online begging letters but more of a way to let the debt blog author relieve themselves of the pressure, even guilt, that debts can sometimes create. Many authors feel that the blogging process helps instill discipline and discourage them from increasing their debt. A kind of online, debtors anonymous I suppose.

One popular debt blog is authored by a woman named Tricia, who posts to bloggingawaydebt.com. She describes why she blogs about her debts...

I’ve debated for some time whether to let others in on my financial life. After all, it is a very personal thing. I’m not proud to be in debt and I am rather ashamed. I shouldn’t have let things get as far as they have. Granted, I am not in debt as much as some others are; I do not have bill collectors knocking at my door. But I am very close to having that happen, and I have to do something about it.

I’ve decided to take all the steps that I need to take to finally become debt-free. I am going to use this blog to chart my progress as well as share information that I have learned along the way. I think debt is something that is crippling many of us. Once we get in debt, it is so hard to get out of.

I hope the information that you learn from me will help you become debt-free. Or, if you are free of debt, it will make you think twice before getting a credit card. There will be humor, there will be anger and I am sure some of my posts will be written with tears streaming down my face.

I'd be interested to hear about any UK debt blogs - please comment if you are aware of any.

i24 Credit Card

We've spotted that Morgan Stanley are promoting a new credit card called the i24 card that is very much targetted at the premium end of the card market. It comes with a whopping annual fee of £275 though they suggest that you get over £1,000 of benefits with the card.

Morgan Stanley are obviously targetting a particular market that is different from say the Mint Card or the Virgin Card but I'm not personally swayed by airport lounge benefits and the like in return for a £275 annual fee.

What Does MBNA Stand For?

Now part of Bank of America, MBNA stands for Maryland Bank, National Association and is regarded as the world's largest independent credit card issuer, specialising in the affinity card market. It should be noted that in Europe the MBNA name is still used. MBNA Europe headquarters is in Chester England.