So, it seems the trend for silly stats is spreading…

A few weeks ago I brought you research that actually claimed that the date of your birth could determine your competence behind the wheel. Crazy indeed!

(If you missed that, check it out here…)

The statistics I have for you today are, to be fair, not quite as silly. This research from moneysupermarket.com lists the least and most likely professions to have a car accident/crash and the results are not quite what you would have expected.

GPs, surgeons and nuclear scientists are in the top 10 professions most likely to crash. To think, we trust them with our lives! And top of the list it’s, wait for it, BUS CONDUCTORS, with almost one in six of them causing crashes whilst in their own cars. Well, that makes my journey home look a lot more frightening…

The top 10 professions least likely to crash are less surprising. At number eight on the list its driving examiners practising what they preach with less than 1.5% responsible for motoring accidents. Luckily for busy parents, au pairs also feature on this list, along with butlers and milliners. For those of you who are as naïve as me, a milliner makes hats (apparently).

Other interesting professions we see grace the lists are party planners, gravediggers, chimney sweeps, golf caddys, ice cream vendors and bingo hall staff. See if you can guess where they featured…

While these statistics are interesting, your profession will not necessarily have an affect on the cost of your insurance policy. However, from older drivers to younger drivers and from those with driving convictions to those who are lucky enough to own a high performance car, there are specific insurance policies which depend on certain criteria.

When looking for the cheapest insurance policy, make sure you shop around and remember that you can sometimes get cheaper deals from certain companies, just for fitting into certain categories.

Top ten tips for cheaper car insurance >>>

Compare car insurance >>>

As we all feel the blast of the current financial tempest, it appears that many of us are getting sneaky!

I’ve just read an interesting piece of research, conducted for Norwich Union, which suggests that the economic slowdown has pushed people into some rather unusual and occasionally illegal (!) means of saving money.

Four out of five of those surveyed said they had been forced to be thrifty in the last six months. Though not surprising given the circumstances, some of the tactics used by these “stealth savers” certainly were. They included:

• Stealing toilet rolls and stationery from work
• Stealing food from shared fridges
• Avoiding tipping
• Dodging rounds in the pub
• Cadging cigarettes and drinks from friends
• Taking items from hotel rooms
• “Borrowing” neighbours’ internet connections
• Downloading music or films illegally

Hands up, who’s guilty?

Now I’m all about getting frugal, but stealing food from shared fridges? That’s just desperate! Indeed, these results do pose an important question:

How far would you go to save money?

Well, luckily you don’t actually have to go very far at all. There are plenty of things you can do to save money that won’t leave you blushing (or handcuffed) if caught.

If you want to preserve your cash, a good place to start is with our top ten essential saving tips, which will help ensure you’re on all the cheapest deals for your finance, energy and utilities needs.

Then, if you missed them, you should definitely check out Olivia Buck’s top tips for saving money this Christmas and Becca Talbot’s thoughts on munching your way through the credit crunch.

Plus, if you fancy making a bit of extra cash or just getting things for free, you can get some great ideas from making money in a hurry and money for nothing.

See, you can dodge the crunch and keep a clean conscience!

Grannies and Grandads across Great Britain have proved there’s more to retirement than just knitting scarves, watching Countdown and pottering around in sheds.

Yes, according to new research from banking giant Alliance & Leicester, many “silver surfers,” as they’re now known, rely on the internet to help organise different areas of their lives, from their finances through to their love lives.

These days, more than half of men and women over 50 use the net to manage their finances, two fifths book their holidays online, and one in five regularly log on to social networking websites such as Facebook and Friends Reunited.

It seems the days of having to explain to our elders that a floppy disc is actually hard, a keyboard is not just a musical instrument and not all mice are vermin, are long gone.

Proving that they’re just as tech-savvy as the PlayStation generation years younger than them, the over 50s are also the age group most likely to be aware of online security and fraud.

Well done Grandma and Grandpa, I love you!

I’ve just read a very interesting press release from American Express, which calls for consumers to “ditch the debit.” It claims that we are all missing out on “cashback millions” and “warns” that we should all be signing up for the latest cashback credit card pronto.

It uses the fact that living costs have increased to argue that cashback credit cards are the way forward, allowing us to earn money just for putting everyday purchases on our card.

So should we really “ditch” our debit cards?

I agree that cashback credit cards can be profitable; indeed the American Express Platinum Cashback Credit Card is currently offering a massive 5% cashback for the first three months, up to the first £4,000 of purchases. If you spent the full £4,000 you could essentially receive £200 back.

(After this introductory period the cashback falls to a tiered system of 0.5% to 1.5%)

So, if you have a good dose of financial discipline, and always pay off you monthly credit card bill in full without fail, then yes, using a cashback card is a fantastic way to earn some extra cash.

(If you are this person, you should check out my article Money for Nothing from your Credit Card for other money making tips)

However, “ditching the debit” completely is not a good idea. Debit cards are still very much a necessity, if only for withdrawing cash.

Research from uswitch last week revealed that consumers have racked up a massive £161 million in interest charges by withdrawing cash on credit cards. This is no great surprise as, since 2005, credit card companies have on average increased the APR on cash withdrawals by 41%, from 21.22% to a whopping 29.97% (almost double the average purchase APR of 17.2%).

Plus, unlike the interest on purchases, the interest on ATM withdrawals starts adding up from the moment you take out the cash.

If you use a credit card then it’s essential you play by the rules. Use your cashback credit card for purchases but NEVER to commit the Credit Card Deadly Sin of withdrawing cash. If you really need to borrow cash, it would most likely be cheaper to get a loan.

Plus, if you think having available credit on a cashback card could tempt you to spend more, then save yourself from debt and stick to the debit!

I haven’t much of an appetite anymore…

With the credit crunch eating away at us, and our purses, you really should forget about watching your waistline. The only diet you need to be on is one that’s going to save you pennies, not lose you pounds.

Living in the digital age, we’ll often spend ages on the internet trying to find the best deal on anything from car insurance to better broadband. But when it comes to our weekly groceries, old habits die hard.

Whether we like it or not, one of our biggest expenditures is food shopping. According to a recent price comparison by MySupermarket.co.uk of a basket of 24 staple items, the cost of our weekly grocery shop has gone up by 14% over the past year. This equates to a hefty £743.60 annual price increase on the average family’s food costs.

Seven hundred and forty three pounds and sixty pence!

So, what is the best credit crunch grub to get you through the hard times? And how can you dodge the price hikes without leaving your rumbling tummy?

Well in short, if you want to live off items that are going to save you pennies, you should be buying bananas, tomatoes and oranges. A diet rich in vitamin C that is as good for your body as it is for your purse; bananas saw the biggest decrease from £0.85 to £0.77 - a 9% reduction.

With these goodies already in your trolley, you’ll need to have a think about what you can cook up with them. The first answer is obvious: add the tomatoes to a jar of Dolmio (which hasn’t risen in price), so you’ll have a pasta sauce that actually tastes of tomatoes. As meat has gone up in price by nearly 30% (even Bernard Matthew’s turkey ham has gone up in price, although why anyone would want to buy the processed meat after it was subjected to the wrath of Jamie Oliver is beyond me…) this will have to be a meat-free dish. As will most of your meals I’m afraid.

Unfortunately, you’ll undo all of your budgeting if you pour your sauce over pasta, and sprinkle on some grated cheese. The cost of a bag of fusilli pasta has nearly doubled over the year, and cheese has gone up in price by an average of 32%; neither can you have it with bread, as a medium white sliced loaf will now set you back almost a £1. You should think of this as a kind of vegetarian Bolognese, à la Atkins diet.

The figures also show that Basmati rice is up by 101% in 12 months, from £0.90 for 1kg to £1.82, while garden peas have gone up in price everywhere except Tesco.

Us girls can’t even enjoy a homemade skinny latte now, as semi-skimmed milk has also gone up. Six pints will now set us back £2.25.

All this talk of price increases is enough to put anyone off their food, but there is one way you can avoid paying over the odds when you reach the checkout:

Start using MySupermarket.co.uk.

Comparing products from Tesco, Ocado (Waitrose), ASDA and Sainsbury’s, the site is worth checking out just to find out how much you could save simply by buying your shopping from different supermarkets. You can then either head on down to your finance-favourable retailer and buy your food in store; or ‘proceed to checkout’ and avoid the hassle of shopping entirely by ordering your goods online, having them delivered straight to your door.

Quite literally, a piece of cake.

My other top money saving tip is to avoid the penne, and if you want to eat like its still 2007, you’ll have to essentially think like a vegan.

A vegan that doesn’t eat many vegetables I might add.

Pretty please…

Dearest Darling,

Now that you will be “managing” some of our country’s biggest banks, I would like to put in a few requests. I can see that you are a very busy man but now that you are effectively the big boss, I would be very grateful if you could please sort out my banking bugbears and make life easier for us all.

You are making a good start, banning those giant bonuses previously awarded for irresponsible risk taking, but I believe you can do more. The banking system has become a maze of complicated products and deceptive debts so I think it’s time you gave it a spring clean….

Please ensure your new “Darling Banks” do the following:

• Make all financial products as clear and easy to understand as possible.
• Stop trying to confuse the customer with complicated bonus rates and withdrawal penalties on savings accounts, instead just offer good interest rates in simple terms.
• Provide a free (or at least local) customer services number, with real people at the end of the line.
• Treat customer complaints seriously and efficiently, reporting back to the customer frequently until the problem has been resolved.
• Stop offering loans to customers who can’t afford to repay them.
• Justify their penalty fees and charges or reduce them to a reasonable level.
• Reverse negative payment hierarchy on credit cards.
• Ban credit card cheques – the fact these poor value debt inciters are sent out unsolicited is a shocker.
• Train your staff to give quality advice, rather than pushing unsuitable sales.
• Try encouraging people not to get into debt.

Yes, I understand that banks do need to make a profit (especially now all us taxpayers are effectively collective shareholders!), but this should be done with transparent terms and conditions and fair fees and charges.

If you could just work your magic and make these changes pronto, I would be most grateful.

Best Wishes,

Hazel Cottrell

  Iceland faces a meltdown

With the global credit crunch now battering down the doors of banks around the globe, I’m sure the people of Iceland, all 320,000 of them, are wondering what on earth will happen next.

In last 48 hours the country’s banking system has been teetering on the brink of collapse, leaving many British customers with money invested in the country’s biggest banks worried about their savings.

Monday saw Iceland’s largest bank Kaupthing Edge in crisis talks with the government, over fears the economy was about to nosedive.

Yesterday, Iceland announced emergency legislation and plans to help the financial situation. But by the afternoon, the country’s second biggest bank, Landsbanki, was facing a mammoth-sized meltdown, about to be declared insolvent.

British customers who have savings with Icesave were then told they will have to claim compensation from the Icelandic government and the FSCS to get their money back.

Since this, prime minister, Gordon Brown, has promised legal action against the Icelandic government to get the money back, and Chancellor Darling said this afternoon that he will guarantee all UK savers’ money in Icesave.

So, what should be done? Well firstly, if you’re an Icesave customer you may want to read my Q&A article, which will hopefully answer all your questions about the Icelandic banking crisis.

Secondly, if you’re worried about any savings you may have, be that an ISA with Abbey or a HiSave account with ICICI, now is the time to consider spreading them around.

It is not a good idea to have all your savings with one institution, especially if the amount exceeds the £50,000 guaranteed compensation from the FSA. It’s all very good taking advantage of the high interest rates that are on offer; just make sure you play the game wisely.

It’s yet to be seen what will happen with Icesave, but as its parent bank Landsbanki faces liquidation, it’s certain that whatever move is made, the Icelandic economy will need serious reparation after this week.

And what a week it has been. Oh wait, it’s only Wednesday!

  Asta la vista Endsleigh!

After reading Olivia Buck’s blog entry about Endsleigh mis-selling her Payment Protection Insurance, and hearing that Churchill Insurance have had their knuckles rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for misleading claims, I wonder how many other insurance companies are out to trick us into paying for services we don’t need, tempt us with enticing offers that don’t exist, or plain and simply, how many just don’t do what it says on their tins?

Churchill Insurance is the latest culprit to join a long list, with one of their ads actually being banned by the ASA after a customer complained that it was misleading.

The ad, which stars the infamous talking dog, asks game show contestants to challenge Churchill on his insurance claims, with one man asking “is it possible to make a claim without filling in any forms?”

“Ooooohhhhh yesssss,” came Churchill’s response. That notoriously annoying catchphrase mimicked by many a middle-aged man thinking he’s even slightly funny…

However, one viewer really did challenge Churchill, pointing out that the ad was misleading because a form was sent out after he’d made an insurance claim.

Defending itself, Churchill Insurance said it does try to sort claims over the telephone “wherever possible,” but added that a fifth of cases required a declaration form or statement to be completed by the claimant.

So, is it possible to make a claim without filling in any forms? “Ooooohhhhh nnoooooo” doesn’t quite have the same ring.

The company apologised and said the claim was used “in error” and that it wouldn’t be repeated in future TV ads.

This isn’t the first time Churchill’s dog has made headlines though. Earlier in the summer the company were criticised, when it was reported that their canine front-dog said a rather offensive swear word immediately after his catchphrase. Of course, a Churchill spokesman denied the swearing.

Churchill isn’t the only bad egg in a battery farm of insurance companies though. Staff at Carphone Warehouse were caught by undercover researchers from BBC One’s Watchdog last autumn, after misleading customers about insurance for the Apple iPhone. The BBC researchers found Carphone staff made false claims about what would happen if a phone was stolen and hadn’t been insured.  According to the BBC, these false claims were made in the hope that “customers would take out the store’s own insurance”.

And back in January last year, a number of firms were slammed by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for misleading customers, and told that they must stop using savings claims in their advertising that could be deemed misleading.

So are any other insurance companies misleading us? Is anyone safe? Have you fallen foul to a deceptive advertising claim or discovered that your insurance policy wasn’t all you thought it was? Have your say in our forum.

And the moral of the story: Don’t believe everything your told. Especially if it comes from the mouth of a talking dog…

Today I discovered a piece of research that actually claims that your date of birth could determine your competence behind the wheel. No joke. Tell me, is this the most outrageously wasted time of a research team ever?

Just to clarify, this is not about which decade you were born in (which perhaps would be slightly more credible), but the actual date you were born - the month and day of your birthday.

Yes, those clever people at elephant.co.uk have managed to produce a list of the “safest” and “worst” drivers, according to their birthdays. I bring you the top five:

Safest drivers

1. 31 May
2. 1 February
3. 1 June
4. 1 September
5. 1 March

Worst drivers

1. 16 September
2. 29 February
3. 24 December
4. 9 December
5. 9 March

But what do these lists mean? If our friend falls in the second list should we politely decline any lifts they offer? Should we inquire of our driver’s DOB every time we hail a taxi? How can you possibly judge someone’s motoring skills based solely on the day they were born?

Clearly I think these lists are a load of rubbish, but then again, maybe I’m just bitter - you see, I appear rather high on one of these lists (and not the good one!).

But seriously, if you crunch enough data you will always find that some form of pattern emerges (just like if you give enough monkeys typewriters you will get the entire works of William Shakespeare). This is all well and good – I have a soft spot for Shakespeare and monkeys - but it means nothing.

You can’t get a cheaper insurance policy based on your birthday, and I can’t see them introducing them any time soon. However, there are other factors which can affect your policy premium…

From older drivers to younger drivers and from those with driving convictions to those who are lucky enough to own a high performance car, there are specific insurance policies which do depend on certain criteria.

When choosing your insurance policy, make sure you shop around and remember that you can sometimes get cheaper deals from certain companies, just for fitting into certain categories.

Ten top tips for cheaper car insurance>>>

Compare car insurance >>>

So today I have one very useful piece of information that you need to know…

It appears that those people flogging store cards are not happy with their already extortionate interest rates and have decided to increase them even further - just in time for Christmas shopping!

Figures from Moneyfacts show that the store cards from Karen Millen, Oasis and Principles have had their rates increased by up to 4.3%, now charging a whopping 28.9% APR on purchases.

This is shocking when you consider that the average credit card interest rate is 17.45% and the best cards on the market offer rates as low as 14.9% and 0% purchase periods as long as a year.

Many store cards have also cut the minimum repayment required, which is clearly another sly ploy to make more money from customers. Although it reduces the monthly payments you are required to make, it could lead to you paying literally hundreds of pounds more in interest!

When you start your Christmas shopping this year, please do think twice before succumbing to these devilish cards. An introductory discount on purchases may seem tempting, but unless you are 100% positive you can pay off the balance in full at the end of every month, you are likely to lose out in the long run.

Even if you can pay off the balance in full, you will probably reap more rewards from a best buy cashback credit card, or if you are really savvy with your money, using one of these money making tricks…