crazy rewards

Millions of UK households are paying energy tariffs that the energy minister believe are unjust.

Pre-payment tariffs can be up to 70% higher than the lowest rates available said National Energy Action. Ofgem are now investigating.

Soaring oil prices could push energy costs up further, by more than 60%, within the next few years, which has led to concerns that some consumers having pre-payment meters installed because they can't afford their energy bills.

The charity, National Energy Action, believe the number of people struggling to pay their bills will rise in the next year.

The National Housing Federation, which represents 1300 housing associations, estimated the difference between the best regular tariffs and the worst prepay tariffs to be £330 a year.

This isn't happening very often at the moment... Nationwide will be lowering their rates for fixed and variable mortgages by just under 0.5%. The better rates will still only be seen by those able to pay a deposit of at least 25% on a property purchase.

This is encouraging news, but these changes have been followed by conditions, often relating to deposits and what the customer can provide financially. Those that can fulfil the criteria can make substantial savings short to medium term.

Hopefully there will be unconditonal mortgage rate reductions in the coming weeks and months, but nothing is certain yet.

If you go to their website, and look for the 20% off banner, click on it, and fill in your details, you will have a voucher emailed to you which can be printed off and spent in store.

Just in time for the summer holidays!

Up to £1.5bn in tax credut payments was lost to fraud, accidental overclaims and other errors in 2006/07 says the National Audit Office.

This accounted for 7.2% and 8.4% of all money given out in credits.

The figure for 2006/07 was between £1.28bn and £1.5bn, down from between £1.3bn and £1.64bn in 2005/06.

Earlier this year, it was found that rightful tax claimants had been overpaid £1bn in 2006/07/

If you are planning to fly with Ryanair and are opting to pay via cradit or debit card, be aware that they have increased their charges.

To pay via debit card now costs you £4 (It used to be £1.20)

To pay via credit card will also cost you this much, up from £3.20

It is still free to pay with a Visa Electron though...

On Tuedsy 8 July, Barclays announced it's closing down FirstPlus, which you can probably remember from TV commercials featuring Carol Vorderman.

The ongoing crunch has caused a massive reduction in mortgage and other lending applications. Although FirstPlus have agreed that they will continue to serve its existing 128,000 secured loans, it will stop lending to new customers as of 9 August 2008. Although this will secure 130 jobs, 300 employees are at risk.

FirstPlus isn't the first lender to exit itself from the secured loan market. It is the largest. The customers who have gone with FirstPlus usually have unhealthy credit records and struggle borrowing from mainstream lenders. This is why they go for FirstPlus and choose to pay the higher interest rates they offer.

But, despite some lenders such as FirstPlus pulling the plug, there are still loan providers out there. Just search online to find them.

Play.com are doing a pretty good offer at the minute for Wii lovers - They have a range of games on offer from just £9.99, including:

• Prince of Persia: Rival Swords
• Cranium: Kabookii
• Sonic and the Secret Rings
• CSI: Hard Evidence
• The Golden Compass
• Super Smash Borothers: Brawl

The Pass Plus scheme, designed by the Driving Standards Agency, costs approximately £180 to do, lasting 6 hours, with 6 modules being covered:

• Town driving
• All weather driving
• Driving out of town
• Night driving
• Driving on dual carriageways
• Driving on motorways

There's no examination - you get a certificate of completion when the instructor is happy with your progress.

But is it worth doing? 15 insurance companies offer discounts for people who have the certificate, between a 5 and a 35% reduction. But this doesn't necessarily mean a cheaper premium. If you don't have the certificate, you can still get a better deal on insurance as long as you shop around for the best deals. Don't just accept the first one you find and expect them all to be priced similarly. Policies can fluctuate by massive amounts. For example, as a 24 year old driver with 6 years no claims, my insurance policy cost about £250 last time i renewed it, and that was for fully comprehensive, with monthly payments (not bad eh?). But, some companies were asking over £700 for one. This just highlights the importance of looking around.

Extra bonuses which can help lower your premium include using your car for social purposes, rather than using it to drive to work (reduces the risk of public car parks), choosing an older less powerful car (instead of a Max Power'ed one!), taking out third party insurance instead of fully comprehensive, and having off road parking at night. These all lower your quote, so get shopping.

It has become such a major issue that it has been entered into the latest edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (OED), where "crunch" carried a definition of "a severe shortage of money or credit".

The dictionary has been in print since 1911 and now contains 240,000 words, phrases and definitions.

The squeeze on mortgages has led to the entry of "credit crunch" along with "sub-prime" in the context of the US home loan to those with a poor credit history.

The confidence of British businesses has fallen to its lowest level since June, 1992, according to BDO Stoy Hayward.

Its Business Trends Report showed confidence about the next three months had fallen to 97.7 in June, from 98.3 in May - the lowest figure since Black Wednesday, when the pound was removed from the Exchange Rate Mechanism.

The report comes at the same time as we are seeing low consumer confidence due to falling house prices, the credit crunch and the slowing economy.