http://www.richmondway.co.uk John Richmond's musings on insurance, financial planning, and life in general Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:06:21 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The way people save has undergone a fundamental shift, but not a lot of people have noticed the change. Traditionally, people would put their savings away into a savings account, generally a higher interest  account, with the highest rate accounts offering higher returns the less you touched your money (ie, notice ... http://www.richmondway.co.uk/2009/10/28/how-savers-are-unwittingly-becoming-investors/ Well, it looks as though I'm finally moving ISP from Zen back to BT broadband, as I just called Zen for a MAC code. It's a shame, really, as Zen has a far better reputation for service and support than BT, but the problem of wireless interference is a constant and ... http://www.richmondway.co.uk/2009/10/20/changing-back-to-bt-for-broadband/ The more I read about the impact of the financial crisis in the UK, the more it feels that the UK is doomed economically, and that the best option now while you have cash in Great British Sterling is to cash out and move aborad to somewhere more financially sound ... http://www.richmondway.co.uk/2009/10/20/does-the-uk-face-economic-collapse-like-japan/ I don't normally write about technical issues. Though I can use computer technology, it all goes over my head and I don't have a clue how it all works. I've come across an interesting problem while setting up my home office, though - wireless interference. I was originally with BT as my ... http://www.richmondway.co.uk/2009/08/22/broadband-vs-phone/ One of the more highlighted features of the financial crisis is that savings rates have plummeted on savings accounts. Anyone who has diligently saved over the past few years now faces being punished by existing low interest rates for savers. However, now that the threat of financial collapse is receding, ... http://www.richmondway.co.uk/2009/07/30/comparing-savings-rates/ This spring’s green shoots are being increasing shown to have misplaced optimism, with economic conditions continuing to worsen within the UK – GDP continues to fall, and expectations of a recovery for next year remain muted. While it’s easy to just look at the UK in isolation, there are a couple ... http://www.richmondway.co.uk/2009/07/30/adverse-economic-conditions-continue-to-build-up/ The BBC reports a disturbing trend of mortgage providers raising their rates. Just to prove I was right about the recession. This is especially disturbing because the Nationwide originally offered the most competitive rates on the market, as if using its competitive position over the weakened HBOS and Lloyds to claim ... http://www.richmondway.co.uk/2009/06/25/mortgage-rates-continue-up/ A lot of interesting stories coming up today, showing the continuing turmoil in the financial world. First up, Edmund Conway claims the recession is over, which is about as optimistic as you can get. Much of this unfounded optimism seems focused on the fact that the property market has seen a positive ... http://www.richmondway.co.uk/2009/06/15/no-the-recession-is-not-nearly-over/ As the economic crisis continues to unroll, one of the minor news items to emerge from this is the increasing problem of insurance fraud. The trouble is, this also affects everybody because policy premiums are simply increased to pay for the costs of fraud. We've already seen reported in the news that ... http://www.richmondway.co.uk/2009/04/24/car-insurers-see-big-rise-in-fraud/ There are a number of well known ways in which you can reduce your premiums on your car insurance. Simple obvious ones include having an alarm system, steering lock, and other immobilisation devices fitted. Others include parking off the road in your garage, or having advanced driving training. Fairly common sense stuff. Interesting enough, ... http://www.richmondway.co.uk/2009/02/08/is-vehicle-tracking-ready-to-go-private/