crazy rewards

The finalists from this year's X-Factor have all contributed to a rendition of Hero, recorded for the charity, Help for Heroes, which provides support for wounded serviemen and the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal.

The song is expected to become 2008's fastest-selling single and is currently the top seller on play.com and iTunes.

And Chancellor Alistair Darling has said that he will refund tax on sales of the single, commending the efforts of the X-Factor contestants who have contributed to it.

The six main energy suppliers have seen an 8% drop in customer satisfaction levels in the last year. According to USwitch, in October 2007, 33% of customers weren't happy with their gas/electricity providers. The figure currently rests at 41%.

In January, npower were the first provider to raise their prices, putting gas prices up by 17.2% and electricity prices up by 12.7%. Edf followed suit, as did British Gas, both putting up both supplies by 15%.

The big six energy suppliers have seen an eight per cent drop in customer satisfaction levels in the past year, according to research from uSwitch.com. In February, Scottish Power and Eon also increased their rates, and in March, Scottish and Southern raised theirs. To make matters worse, by August, all six had raised prices even more. On average, bills have risen 42% this year - around £381 per household.

All the changes propsed by the Prime Minister and the government seem to be a little too late. 41% of consumers are unsatisfied, and the figure doesn't surprise me. 55% don't believe they are getting value for money and 59% think their supplier isn't even offering them the best deal. I'm assuming they won't offer the best deals on a plate - the consumer will have to chase them.

Approximately 20,000 children are to receive computers and broadband internet access as part of a government trial, to try and bring the benefits of the Internet to low income families.

The Prime Minister has announced the £300m programme, and will commence in February 2009 in Suffolk and Oldham. If it proves to be successful, the scheme will roll out across the country later in the year.

Families must earn less than £15,000pa to qualify or be on income support. It should prove to help the education of schoolchildren, especially as the Internet is gradually becoming an essential requirement for homework.

Figures have shown that the value of secured loans approved by lenders rose last month - mortgage lending in September increased by £3.6bn.

But the secured loans approvals still remain lower than they were a year ago - the total of all loans being down by over 40%. The figures don't take into account support from banks, so the low levels are unsurprising.

Unsecured loans were also found to be at a low level. The government rescue plan could help towards a rise in approvals in the future, but this is still to be seen.

Those at uni have been advised to approach budgeting in the same way as coursework - by breaking down money matters into achieveable goals. Or, at least that's what somebody at Debt Free Direct thinks. It was also recommended that students should sit down and work out incomings/outgoings for the academic year, taking account of food, clothing, bills and travel. Then what's left should be allocated to social spending/luxuries for the rest of the year. Easier said thank done, methinks.

The student website, Push, also outlines sevral ways that students can look after their finances successfully.

There are two types of people in this world when it comes to money and debt management - those who budget, and those who don't. In good times, both ways can work. In turmoil, the need to budget is vital. Knowing your income/outgoings will help you to plan ahead and avoid the sticky situations that so many people are finding themselves in of late.

The vast majority of financial difficulties in the UK, minus those associated with property, are brought about by lack of planning, such as:

• Allowing credit card debts to increase
• Missing loan payments
• Over-extending your overdraft

Just by doing a simple budget, you can avoid these problems and know how much you will have spare after you have paid these important bits.

According to one law firm, separating couples are being forced to remain living together because the housing market slowdown is making it impossible for them to sell up.

Divorces and career breaks both seem to be being put on hold as a result of the crunch and the housing market grinding to a halt.

The government is pushing for lending liquidity to return to 2007 levels, in exchange for bailing out a number of the UK's largest banks. And the move has been welcomed by consumer groups. But when will the markets begin to move?

5 million loan and credit card applications were rejected in the UK over the last 6 months - reflecting just how delicate the markets are. This equates to 3.27m credit card applications and 1.56m loan applications - 27,000 refusals every day!  And it seems that these refusal figures will only worsen in the near future, as more and more people enter financial hardship. And as the financial sector is adamant that the days of increasing bad debts and low quality loans are gone, how will things get better?

According to figures from the Daily Echo, more than 36,000 cars are being driven in Hampshire without insurance. The stats used figures for accidents involving uninsured vehicles in the past year to calculate the lack of cover on Hampshire's roads.

In some areas of the county, more than 1 in 10 motorists had no car insurance. Southampton city centre was reported to have the worst black spot, where 12.5% had no cover - that's 1,426 vehicles.

Areas of major concern were shown to be:

• Portsmouth/Highfield (7% - 548 cars)
• Sholing/Thornhill (6.8% - 2,039 cars) and
  
• Shirley/Milbrook (6.5% - 1,423 cars)

The report also found that uninsured drivers were also ten times more likely to drink-drive and 3X more likely to be convicted of careless driving. Police have said that more than 10,000 drivers without a licence/insurance have had their vehicles seized since July 2005.

It might seem like the easiest option when you are faced with a credit card bill - pay the minimum repayment each month. It barely strips anything off the balance, but it also leaves you with money for other things. Well, that's my way of thinking about it. But when, a year down the line, you only see a small drop in what you owe, you kind of wonder, What's the Point?

A minimum repayment level on a credit card can lead to larger debts and psychologists from the University of Warwick have recently found that customers become fixated on these repayment levels, which act as an "anchor" to lower the actual amount people repay. There research has shown that 35% of consumers make partial payments each month, causing arrears to grow. Only last month, uSwitch slaimed that a balance of £1,384 could take up to 31 years to pay off if the consumer stuck to paying the minimum.

One option to help you out of this mess, and also help with other debts, is opting for any of the secured loans that there are out there. By applying for one of these, you usually get a lower rate of APR than a personal one, and you can use it to consolidate your existing debts as well as anything else you may need to use the money for. That way, you'll pay a fixed payment each month, set over a fixed time period, and all your other debts would be clear.

More and more parents are being tempted to commit fraud when it comes to their car insurance, by putting themselves down as the main driver when it is their offspring who use the vehicle the most, in order to reduce the cost of their car insurance.

If the insurer is thinks you are the main driver when you are an occasional user, they could turn you down for claims and insurance will be more expensive in the future.

The practice where a parent uses their own name on the insurance quote for their offspring's vehicle is known as 'fronting'.

EDF will take the lead role in the development of nuclear power in the UK with a £12.4bn agreed takeover of British Energy.

They have also signed a memorandum of understanding for Centrica, to take a 25% stake in British Energy, although the deal is unlikely to be signed for a few more months.

Research by the HSF Health Plan has found that half of Brits put off important medical checks due to the expense. The figures show that 48% of Brits don't conduct medical check ups like trips to the dentist due to the rising costs. A trip to the dentist has risen by 30% since 2006.

Detecting dental and optical conditions early on save money in the long run and increases the chance of successful treatment. But with the cost of living ever-increasing, will the consumer see that?

The water companies have handed OfWat a report, which will see water bills rise 9% above inflation by 2015. This will add an average £355 a year to consumer bills, before even accounting for inflation.

Why this much? Even though the water companies claim that they don't expect consumers to cover the total cost of replacing faulty pipes and improvements to the network, they do suggest part of the cost should be covered, by increasing the bills. But if the bills are increased to cover this over the next few years, they will never return to the levels of today - in effect the consumers will be paying long term, for a short term investment.

OfWat will be submitting its proposals in April 2009. Final figures will be confirmed in November 2009.

As employment figures for women continues to grow, it seems that attitudes to life insurance and income protection are the same as they were in the 1970s.

According to research from AXA, nearly half of all working women haven't invested in any kind of financial protection, such as life insurance, critical illness insurance or income protection insurance.

By 2018 it is expected that the number of women of working age in the UK will overtake the number of men of working age, yet they still lack in protecting their finances and their families.

As many as 8m women in the UK don't have life insurance or any other financial protection in place, putting their families as well as themselves at risk.

Car insurance can be a complete rip off at the moment, but there are ways of keeping the premium down while still retaining cover that is applicable to you:

• Travel fewer miles - Many policies will give you a reduction if you travel under a certain amount of miles, just ask them!
• Add security - By adding a car alarm, you can reduce the cost of your policy. It won't be much of a saving, but it's still something!
• Drive a smaller car - It will save you petrol and will be cheaper to insure. Not always possible, but worth a thought if it is.

Sainsburys are doing their latest stint of saving 5p/litre of petrol/diesel for every £50 you spend on food in store. Pretty much like the Tesco ones that have recently expired.

So get down to your nearest store and grab yourself cheap petrol whilst the offer is valid.

For those renters out there (that includes me), mydeposits.co.uk are urging us to stick to our contracts to prevent us from losing out on money.

The deposit protection scheme have warned that we could end up seriously out of pocket if we go and break the contracts. Approximately 12% of July disputes ruled in favour of the landlord, meaning collectively, tenants lost about £15,000 a month in deposits. One of the reasons for witholding money is because tenants are falling behind on their payments.

Some places in the UK are paying more than others for their gas and electricity, and is being put down to where they live.

Yorkshire and Humberside are paying 28% more than those in the South East and with an average bill of £1,248 a year, this can equate to a big difference!

The average annual energy bill for customers of EDF energy now stands at £1,190 a year, following a 17% increase for gas and 22% increase for electricity earlier this year. However, in a survey of 2,000 people, it was found that there is a gap of 28% between the highest and lowest monthly spends - the cheapest being in the South East, where it is at an average of £46 ap erson, while the average per person in Yorkshire and Humberside is £59. That's one heck of a difference for the same product!

It's not just the bog-standard homes out their that are losing value... Buckingham Palace has reportedly lost £57m of its value in the last year as well.

Property valuation site, zopla, has found that the royal home was worth almost £1bn last August, coming equipped with 775 rooms including 52 bedrooms, a cinema, a swimming pool, a private post office, 19 state rooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 78 bathrooms, 92 offices and 40 acres of land.

The £57m fall in value has seen the palace drop from its peak of £992,285,909 but it's still the most expensive home in Britain. It was bought for £21,000 in 1761 by George III.

Windsor Castle has also also been valued, at £180m.