Online Money Management Service for the UK

Kublax,a new money management service got in touch with details of their new money management service – could this be the Mint for the UK?

Details from their Press Release below:

A new online financial service has been launched in the UK, set to pioneer the way forward in personal finances by simplifying the way people manage their money. Called Kublax, the service works by aggregating all financial information in one place, such as bank, building society, and credit card accounts, and presents them in an easy to understand way.

Kublax aims to make money management an easier procedure, while helping users to save money and create better budgets in the process. The service offers a great alternative for anyone who finds budgeting and balancing their finances difficult, or those who are looking for a free online alternative to expensive desktop financial software.

In addition to pulling together all financial details to a central source, the new service features many useful interactive features, including alerts and budgets. Once a user has uploaded the details of their financial institution, the advanced software automatically categorises the users’ expenses in order to see exactly where money is spent each month.

By setting up a budget on the service, users can track their fixed budget against their actual spending. The handy alerts system also means users can be quickly notified of any usual account activity as well as always be reminded when bills are due to avoid paying late fees.

The new service also features a unique ‘compare me’ function. This tool allows users to anonymously compare their spending with others throughout the UK, and could help users identify clear budget categories they could cut down.

Displaying data visually in easy to read graphs and charts, the product aims to make budgeting a faster and easier process for the UK consumer.

Kublax’s initiative to help consumers have better control over their finances may also help them to save. Throughout the site, users will find suggestions on where they could save via switching account providers.

Users can also feel safe using the service, as it is completely secure. The site uses bank level security and is verified to be hacker proof by McAfee. The site has been qualified by the VeriSign security seal, while their privacy policy has been approved by TRUSTe. Because the site offers a read only service, no transactions can take place via the online software.

Although only launching the product a few short weeks ago, the original concept had already won the Seedcamp 2007 startup competition, and has been well received by the media.

The free financial management service should come as a relief to the millions of Brits who have found balancing their finances and building budgets to be a time consuming and difficult process. For more information or to use the product, visit www.kublax.com

Sounds interesting, I’ll be having a look around the site and reporting back if its any good.

Money Advice for 16-24 year olds in the UK

Guest Post from What About Money? a website run by the FSA of the UK to help 16-24 year olds understand money.

Savings and investments

In our grandparents’ generation, saving a good chunk of each pay packet was standard practice – and the reason why was very simple. In those days, there were no such things as credit cards or store cards. And personal loans and bank overdrafts were not normally available to the average man on the street. This meant that if you wanted to make a large purchase, such as furniture or even a motor car, there would only be one way to do it – save.

Saving: A timeless habit

But despite the borrowing options open to the over 18s today, saving is still the best way to buy anything you need. Not only do you stay out of a debt (which means you won’t have to pay interest), but by saving you can earn interest instead on your money making you richer still.

Even if you are not saving for anything in particular, putting money aside each month – even if it’s just £10 or £20 – is a great habit to get into. Having a little bit of cash to fall back on gives you choices and freedom.

But stashing your cash under your mattress, or even in your every day current account, is no good as you won’t be earning interest on it. Instead put your money into the right savings account.

Where should I save?

As soon as you hit 16, you will have to save in an adult’s account where, unlike a child’s account, tax is payable on any interest you earn. However, the tax man does allow every resident adult in the UK to save a certain amount tax-free in what’s called an ISA (Individual Savings Account).

For this tax year (to April 2009), the amount you are allowed to save before you have to pay tax on interest is £3,600. For this reason, an ISA is always the first place to start saving. But make sure you find an account that pays the best rate of interest by doing some research online first.

What’s best for you?

If you are lucky enough (or just work hard enough) to have more than £3,600 each year to put aside, it’s time to look at other kinds of savings accounts. A regular saver with instant access to your funds is the most straightforward – though it may not pay the best rates of interest, especially if you do not save the minimum required per month.

If you don’t want access to your money for a year or two, fixed rate bonds tend to pay better rates of interest. But if you change your mind and withdraw your money during the term of the deal, the interest earned could be wiped out entirely.

You may also prefer to use an online savings account but – especially if you are already prone to internet spending – bear in mind just a click of a mouse could undo all your hard work.

Most people never have to worry about this but if the bank or building society you are saving with goes bust, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will protect the first £50,000.

Investing on the stock market

When it comes to money management, saving is always the best place to start. But while the process is rewarding, it is slow and steady too. That’s why, in addition to their savings, some people choose invest the money. Essentially, investing is saving for the long term (usually over five years) but with the hope of getting a better return..

You can invest in different ways, for example buying shares in companies. But there are other options such as property and fixed interest investments (these are where you loan money to companies or the government and you get interest in return). But investing is a complicated process and novice investors usually don’t pick these investments themselves.

Instead they invest in a fund, like a unit trust, that pools your money with other investors and spreads it out in different areas on the stock market. The fund could invest just in shares, sometimes focusing on specific sectors such as large UK or European companies. In addition to funds that invest in shares, some focus on property or fixed interest whilst others may spread across all three types. But the detail is left to a fund manager whose job it is to literally manage everyone’s money.

Depending on this fund manager’s choices, and the state of the markets in general, the value of your investment can go up and down. But, as you would expect, the service is not free. The fund manager will charge a percentage of the market value of the fund every year.

If you find that you get the hang of the markets, you can even ‘stock pick’ yourself. But, to use a familiar phrase, you’ll have to do your homework first.

There are various places you can review internet banks to see which will be best for your needs.

Economy 7 – save money on fuel bills?

According to research carried out for Guardian money, if your household is a high consumer of electricity it could save £300 a year on bills if you switch to Economy 7 electric tariff.

Economy 7 became popular in the 60s and 70s when consumers were encouraged to use a cut price tariff at night to use excess electricity generated by coal and nuclear power stations that have to be kept running at night even when demand is low.

It has fallen out of favour recently, mainly being used by flats with night storage heaters that charge up during off-peak hours – typically from midnight to 7am. This time could be used by appliances such as washing machines, dishwashers or bread makers.

Suplliers maintained that if you use 20% of your energy needs during the off-peak times, you would make a saving. However, TheEnergyShop.com foudn that figure is closer to 40%

It takes habits to change – switching on your washing machine as you go to bed for example, but some households swear by it. Some maintain it also means a lower carbon footprint.

Do your sums before hand though – I had Economy 7 in my old flat for the night storage heaters, but found no significant saving due to the daytime charges being typically higher than normal, to offset the cheaper night rate.

The power of “No”

Last month I spoke of going onto pay-as-you-go on my mobile to try and cut expenses, they offered me an £18 a month contract which despite hard work from the TSR at the call centre I said no to. Pleads included “This offer is only going until next week!”

Well today I was phoned up by another salesman from 3 (My mobile phone provider) asking for me – nowadays I always answer “Is this Robert Brown?” with “Who’s speaking?”, and I was about to launch into a murder scene interrogation…..

…but as I was lining it up with grunts and obscure mutterings (I doubt I could of pulled it off with the Tom Mabe style) the guy at 3 offered me £10 a month for life for 500 minutes anytime/any network. 

This works out over £300 a year less than what I was paying for up till this month, with 100 minutes more text/calls.

Just goes to show how desperate companies are to fix you into a contract – no doubt the iPhone is taking away a lot of business so they get me locked in for another 18 months, hell they even threw in a new phone (Nokia 6500 Slide), which I read a few reviews of and it breaks a lot, but I could always sell it on ebay.  I’m pretty happy today since I would have probably used about £10 a month in top-ups.

Anyway, a good lesson for me: never accept the first thing they offer you.  Just by saying “no” I’ve saved probably £100 a year.