Archive for the ‘Recession’ Category

As we go into the new year we are going to see rail fares go up by an average of 5.9%, with some commuters even finding their season tickets rising by almost 11%. Chief executive Anthony Smith said they should not have to keep paying for a “fractured, inefficient industry”. Whilst the association of train operating companies (ATOC) claim the increases will help pay for better services.

The average rise for all rail tickets - including unregulated fares such as advance and business tickets - is 5.9%. However, the cost of a Chester-Crewe annual season ticket goes up 10.6%, as does a season ticket for travel between Llandudno and Bangor in Gwynedd and Port Talbot Parkway and Swansea, will increase by 8.7%.

With the price of UK train fares being the most expensive in the EU its hardly surprising the majority of the general public are in uproar at these ridiculous increases. The rises are bad enough for commuters who mostly cannot hope to match the fare rises with comparable salary increases. Yet things could have been even worse, as the Government had originally intended to raise the January 2012 annual increase for regulated fares from RPI inflation plus 1% to RPI plus 3%.

However the Government is apparently still planning to operate a RPI plus 3% formula for January 2013 and January 2014, leaving us hard-up passengers to hope that promises of a reduction in inflation will be fulfilled. There was a similar “reprieve” for London travellers who had faced Tube and bus rises of around 7% from today until an extra £136 million of Government was found to limit the London increases to an average of 5.6%.

Michael Roberts, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc), stats money raised through fares helped pay for improved services. “For a number of years, the government has sought to sustain investment in the railways by reducing what taxpayers contribute and increasing the share that is paid for by passengers,” he said. “The focus of the whole industry is to keep on reducing the overall cost of running the railways as a way of limiting future fare rises and providing taxpayers with better value for money.”

Campaign groups and transport unions have bemoaned the 2012 increases which come at a time when rail regulators have warned Network Rail about poor punctuality on some long-distance routes.

Last week, the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) released figures showing that passengers in Europe can pay between three-and-a-half times and nearly 10 times less for their annual season tickets on routes of around 23 miles than their British counterparts. But the Government, train companies and London Mayor Boris Johnson have all stressed that fare rises are necessary to sustain investment in Tube and main line systems that are attracting more and more passengers.

Giant tobacco firm Philip Morris is suing Australia for new laws set by their parliament, which have been set to ensure that after December 2012 all cigarette and tobacco products must be sold in plain olive-brown packets that will only display graphic health warnings.

Canberra quoted that the law was “one of the most momentous public health measures in Australia’s history”, but Philip Morris responded by saying that “the move breached a bilateral investment treaty” and “it had served a notice of arbitration under Australia’s Bilateral Investment Treaty with Hong Kong”. PMA’s Australian affiliate Philip Morris Ltd (PML) will also pursue claims under Australian domestic law.

Anne Edwards a spokesman for Philip Morris was also quoted saying; “The government has passed this legislation despite being unable to demonstrate that it will be effective at reducing smoking and has ignored the widespread concerns raised in Australia and internationally regarding the serious legal issues associated with plain packaging.”

Philip Morris is also expecting damages to be billions of dollars, but the legal process could take anything between two to three years to complete.
“We are confident that our legal arguments are very strong and that we will ultimately win this case,” Anne Edwards also quoted.
British American Tobacco Australia was also quoted earlier this month saying it would launch a challenge in the High Court as soon as the laws were granted royal assent, and that the company will argue it is unconstitutional for the government to remove its trademarks and other intellectual property without any compensation.
Under the new Australian law, the only thing that will distinguish tobacco brands on their packets will be their brands name in a standard colour, position, font size and style. Nicola Roxon from Australia’s Minister for Health and Ageing said – although the tobacco industry is “fighting to protect its profits, we are fighting to protect lives. We know that packaging remains one of the last powerful marketing tools for tobacco companies to recruit new smokers to their deadly products. In the future, cigarette packets will serve only as a stark reminder of the devastating health effects of smoking,”.

CV Writing - What To Keep In Mind

It’s that time of the year once again when the University year comes to an end and poor old students are thrown out into the real world with the sole task of looking for a job - it’s not an easy time for everyone…

Recessions aren’t exactly the most exciting periods of time to start searching for a job - you’re up against tons of people for a tiny amount of positions.  Do the math…not everyone’s going to be successful.

CVs - They’re important in case you didn’t know…

So you need to work on your CV - your CV will be your way of getting your personality and experience through to the potential employee through a simple piece of paper.  You have to get it right if you want to be called in for an interview…

You have just a few seconds of browsing time to convince the employer that you’re the right person for the job - this is what you should be keeping in mind when writing your CV.

Be Basic

When you write your CV, the first piece of information on the piece of paper should be your details like your name, email address, phone number, etc…

Make sure you use a permanent address - straight out of university you can find that you will be moving around a lot trying to find affordable accommodation in new cities - use a stable address that you will always be able to get access to.

You should also make sure you don’t put ridiculous email address accounts on your CV - spank21@hotmail.com doesn’t really interest potential employers.  Keep it professional.

Objective

You should include a section devoted to your objectives and skills directly following your personal information.  Remember to keep your writing directly to the point and don’t blah your way through…this will just turn potential employers off…

Style

Choose a style and stick to it - there are three main styles: chronological, functional and combination.

Chronological - emphasis on work experience listed from most recent to least recent.
Functional - a more skills based style.
Combination - more useful for first-time job seekers where you can actually list both experiences and skills rather than choosing one or the other.

Experience

Remember that any experience you have gained over the years is important, no matter what it is.  It can be volunteer experience, academic experience or professional experience - it all shows that you are a hard worker looking for a chance…

These opportunities will also be a good way to highlight any skills that you might have in a sly way - this is a great way to show what you can do through real experiences.

First Job?

Are you looking for your first, real job?  Are you worried with regards to the economic climate?  Leave us a comment and let us know what you’re thinking…

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably got a bit more debt on your credit card than you would like! With the Recession biting hard now would be a good time to be free of Credit Card Debt altogether.

I was looking on the internet for advice about ways to clear my Credit Card Debt, initially I was thinking about either another Balance transfer deal or a consolidation loan. During my search I started seeing companies offering to get my Credit Card Debt cleared by the credit card company - this didn’t seem right to me but (being that it could be worth a good few thousands to me) I started to look into this further and this is what I’ve found!

1. Basically these companies can only get your credit card debt cleared if your card was taken out before April 2007, (luckily for me I’ve got a couple of cards which were taken out before April 2007!) this is because the Consumer credit act 1974 was changed in 2007.

2. There are plenty of forums out there with people who have actually managed to get their credit card debts completely wiped out by either using companies like this or by challenging the credit card company themselves. The general consensus is though that due to some of the legal complexities in this process, you are more likely to succeed if you use a specialist company to do this procedure for you.

3. Most of these companies take an up front fee & then take a percentage of the total value of the debt which you manage to get cleared - but not all! There are 1 or 2 companies out there who only take a fixed fee with no further payment for success!

4. You can get tens of thousands of pounds cleared off your account - in fact I’ve seen information about a couple who got £100,000 of debt cleared (unfortunately they had to pay £100,000 in legal fees)!

5. This system relies on a loophole in the law and the fact that the required documentation to enforce the credit agreement is often not available.

6. If you keep up your minimum payments to the credit card company during your claim then this does not affect your credit rating.

7. The credit card companies don’t want to write the debt off so they will probably take a long time to write back to you!

So with all of this in mind I had a look at a few companies and read a few horror stories of companies taking thousands and not achieving what they promised!! I came across the following website www.paycreditcarddebt.co.uk who offer to clear your credit card debt. The don’t make promises which they can’t keep and aren’t making unrealistic claims on their website. They charge £495 to handle your case, they don’t take the payment until they have initially assessed your case and if they aren’t successful they will actually REFUND THEIR CHARGES! They have a really informative website which includes information about a case that has been tried using this system & there is a really easy to use conact form where you can tell them how many cards you’ve got which were taken out before April 2007.

Anyway I have contacted them and 1 of their consultants is coming to see me early next week, I asked if I needed to have all of my paperwork from my credit cards - apparently not as they will request it from the credit card company. I will let you all know how I get on hopefully my credit card balances will look at lot better in a couple of months!!

Has anyone else actually managed to get your credit card debt cleared? Has anyone used any of these companies? Maybe you could leave a comment to help others out?