Thermal

Given the state of the international finance sector right now, and all the difficulties people are facing as a result of bad debt and bad advice, it’s no surprise that that there are a raft of companies seeking to make money from other peoples money worries.

Here in the UK, you cannot watch the TV for more than 15 minutes without seeing an advert for yet another ‘debt-consolidation’ company, full of famous faces, or slick half-truths and over-generous promises. The recent hot topic for these people is IVA, or Individual Voluntary Arrangements, whereby the ads paint a picture where something like 75% of your debts are wiped out at a stroke, and you can pay your remaining creditors back at a very low rate. These ads are often accompanied by shots of a depressed family in poor clothes and under grey skies before the IVA, and after it they are happy & smiling with a new car on the drive, a fabulous house extension and loads of new consumer goods. The reality is often quite different, as although an IVA can be a good solution, it is not a magic wand to go spending all over again.

But how do you find out the truth? Given that the IVA is effectively a product to be marketed in different ways, and that the company marketing it to you will be making money out of it, how do you find an organisation you can trust? Well a good way to do it would be to talk to a non-profit organisation that can provide you with all the free information you need: Myvesta UK Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA). If you want free advice from a UK social enterprise, who will not make a penny from you whatever they advise, then try talking to Myvesta. Their website has a ton of useful information on it, along with a freefone number where you can chat anonymously to a trained adviser. Along with some audio and visual presentations, they also have some forums where you can chat to people in a similar situation. In a diffcult financial position, this could be just the source of information you need.

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I’ve never really got into poker, but a friend of mine used to play online poker a lot, and was always bragging about how much he’d won the night before. Of course he’d lose as well, but he reckoned he always came up in profit simply by not spending more than he could afford, and as the song says, knowing when to walk away!

If you’re looking to get into online poker, a great place to start would be Full-Tilt Poker, from InsideBet.com, especially as they’re currently offering their Full Tilt bonus code, which means you can get free cash just by adding your stake. It’s a 100% bonus, right up to a maximum of $600, so if you put up $250, they will make it up to $500, and if you put up $600, well, you do the maths! The site is open to players from the states as well, so if you’re lokking to give online poker a try, why not bet with some free cash?

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One of the blog writers many staples for a quick post is a poll or quiz, and for very good reasons: they’re quick to write and for your readers to participate in, they’re fun to do and they often provoke a good debate.

There’s lots of different places you can obtain them from, but if you’re looking for a central place to create your own fun quizzes or polls, or take part in other peoples. then Quibblo.com is the place for you.

You can add your own creations, or other peoples, to your own blog or site, and Quibblo provide a range of different code options to suit your platform. The results are held centrally and if your quiz is popular, it could hit the front page of Quibblo and gain you some serious exposure, so there’s an element of social networking too. Just to see what it was like, I registered and created the following poll in about 5 minutes. Have a vote, and I think you’ll agree that I set up the questions in an unbiased manner

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I’m not for the moment, as I much prefer it in Aberdeen for one thing, but Edinburgh’s a lovely city, far superior to London in my opinion, and if you are looking for jobs in Edinburgh, look no further than Gumtree.com.  They have a massive range of positions on offer, everything from IT to teaching and construction to sales.

You may be reading this a long way from the city itself, and wondering what Edinburgh jobs could offer you, and the answer is simply the chance to work in a beautiful historic city, near the coast, and only half an hour away from some beautiful countryside, that only Scotland can offer. An international airport, and train links to London, Glasgow and Aberdeen means that you are in the middle of a great transport network, not marooned in the middle of nowhere. All this results in a much greater quality of life than that experienced in other capital cities of the world. So if you’re looking for a new job, check out the jobs in Edinburgh, and change your career and maybe change your life.

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If you’ve been involved in buying a house in England or Wales this year, or if you’re just about to, then you’re sure to have heard of Home Information Packs (HIPS). From the 1st of August 2007, anyone selling a four bedroomed or bigger property, and from the 10th September a three bedroomed property will be required to provide a HIP to all prospective purchasers. Typically these packs must contain a sale statement, stating the nature of the property eg whether it is free hold or leasehold etc. Additionally, the packs need to contain an energy performance statement for the house so that you can see how efficient it is, the standard searches, along with proof of title.

These packs are supposed to reduce expense and wasted time during the sales process, as instead of each prospective purchaser generating this information for themseleves, only the vendor will have to do the legwork. Whether or not this is the case remains to be seen!

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Should you ever visit the UK then personally speaking I think you need to get out and see the countryside, and how it changes from one end of the country to the other, from mountains to moorland, and from coast to forest. However you should also make the most of the cities, for their history , culture and also as a base for exploring further.

For exploring the whole SE of England, you can find some good deals in London Hotels, and use them to go further in, and further out. Despite it’s size, London is relatively compact, and as long as you’re not in a car you can cross it pretty quickly, and soon find yourself in the English countryside. By all means see Big Ben, Buckingham Palace etc. but make time for the great parks, museums and the quieter stretches of the Thames further west.

From the capital of England to the Capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. Probably my favourite of all of the UK’s cities, thanks to it’s beautiful architecture and sense of history. Once you’ve taken your pick of the Edinburgh Hotels, be sure to explore the shopping in Princes Street, the winding alley ways and twisting streets of the Old Town and of course the huge castle. One of my favourite areas is Princes Street Gardens, below the castle. Once a Loch, it was drained in the 1800’s and became the site of the beautiful gardens you see today.

At the western end of the ‘central belt’ lies Glasgow, actually the largest city in Scotland. Whilst Glasgow and it’s image has suffered over the years as a result of heavy industry, it has been staging a comeback over the last 10 years and is now something of a modern destination. I haven’t explored it as much as Edinburgh, but in places it has architecture to rival the capital, and the Kelvingrove Museum has to be seen. Across the road for those more inclined towards internal combustion is the museum of transport which will be a firm favourite with little (& not so little!) boys. There’s plenty of Glasgow Hotels to choose from, and if you tire of the city, the amazingly beautiful Loch Lomond lies only 30 minutes north.

Plenty to choose form, why not pay us a visit?

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Important documents. Hundreds, if not thousands of digital photographs and video. Even backups of your blog - I bet you have this and more on your PC, but do you backup any of it? If you’re in a position where losing any of these things wouldn’t bother you, then you’re very lucky. If, however, the thought of losing all of your precious data fills you with dread, then you need to have a look at IBackup Online Backup.

IBackup is an award winning online data backup service, aimed at small businesses, but also affordable enough for individuals looking at protecting their digital archive. Starting at just $9.95 a month for 5Gb of storage, and with fully configurable plans right up to 300Gb and beyond, it’s a very simple means of backing up your data. There is a range of services available from simple uploading, and ‘drag & drop’ copying, as if the backup was just another drive on your PC, right through to full scheduled and fully automated backup. The service supports ‘Open File’ backups, necessary for copying in-use files such as MS Outlook etc. along with full SQL or Exchange server databases. Can you afford to be without it?

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Marks & Spencer (M&S) have been known as a quality brand in retailing for many years, and are making the most of that reputation by branching out into home insurance. They have a range of products available, with different levels of cover on their buildings and contents insurance, including Premier & Standard. The major difference between the two is the level of cover offered for accidental damage, so if you’re really accident prone, you’d best go for Premier cover!

With the recent flooding in the UK it came to light that a large number of people didn’t have any home contents insurance at all, which is just amazing to me - the cost of replacing all of your homes contents (and don’t forget this includes curtains and carpets as well) typically runs to tens of thousands of pounds, versus the few pounds a month that insurance will cost you. I think you would have to be crazy not to insure your home and it’s contents to be honest, so why not get a contents insurance quote today - you may be glad you did.

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We have a wooden bed and it’s really comfy, but it’s pushing 10 years old now, and it may be time to think about a new one shortly, so finding this website couldn’t have come at a better time: WoodenBeds.com.

They have a huge range of beds stocked, and as an example, just take a look at these Oak Beds starting from just £299 which is a steal for a double. They also stock mattresses, pillows and childrens beds, all in a range of colours and designs. The mattress is the most important part of any bed, and they have the latest memory foam models available as well as the more traditional types. This is all offered with their price promise, where if you find the same product advertised cheaper on the internet, they will beat it. I’m definitely book marking this site, and may well be shopping there soon…..

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Much like death and taxes, insurance is another inevitable part of life: some like car insurance is compulsory, others like home insurance is optional in name only: can you afford to rebuild your house? But there’s lots you can do to shop around and save money before buying insurance, like using a website such as NationsFinance.co.uk. Compare car insurance? No problem. Travel insurance, home insurance, life insurance, it’s all there, along with a wealth of interesting finance related articles, to help you make more informed decisions.

I know from experience that shopping around can save you a ton of money, and I’m sure that the wide variations exist only to catch out people who don’t shop around. I have had quotes for home insurance that have varied by as much as £400 over the course of a year, which is a huge amount! Had I gone with the first quote, it would have been like taking the money and just throwing it away-not something I’m a fan of! Whatever type of insurance you’re after, it pays to shop around!

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