Londoners have a new ATM to contend with – a Cockney ATM. Most of us have seen multilingual cash machines which give users the option to have the on-screen languages in a number of languages, however this is the first time that Cockney has been used as an alternative.

Bank Machine, who own and operate 2,500 ATMs across the UK, is hoping that the success of the Cockney ATM will see cash machines using other UK dialects too such as Brummie, Geordie, Scouse and Scots.

Messages that the Cockney ATM shows include:  Read more... (132 words, estimated 32 secs reading time)

• Some Moolah for ya sky rocket?

With savings account rates currently low and with many investors losing confidence in other types of savings and investments, there is one market which appears to be booming – the funeral plan market.

The Co-operative Funeralcare has recently announced that it has seen a 28 percent increase in like-for-like sales of funeral plans during the first half of 2009.

Experts believe the rise is due to two reasons: the first is because people are losing confidence in their normaly savings and investments and are concerned that they won’t have enough in their savings to pay for their funerals when they die.  Read more... (187 words, estimated 45 secs reading time)

According to the latest figures from the Pension Protection Fund, 88 percent of the UK’s 7,400 defined-benefit pensions schemes are facing a short fall. The problem is driven by two major factors – the fall in the stock market and the fact that people are living longer. The deficit in company schemes is now thought to be over £200 billion.

The figures are a stark contrast to the figures two years ago when pension funds were seen with a surplus of more than £100 billion. In the space of a year, the surplus had been wiped out and funds were seen with a deficit of £13 billion. This figure has now increased to a deficit of around £200 billion just one year later.  Read more... (242 words, estimated 58 secs reading time)

Consumers are being urged to be on their guard when booking their holidays online. Attempting to cash in on the internet boom and bargain holiday seeking, some scam websites have been defrauding people of cash.

Morairaway.com was a website promoting holiday villas. Estimated to have taken around $2 million this summer, consumers paid their money for luxury villas only to discover when arriving at their destination that the villas did not exist.

Some holidaymakers have been stung for thousands in the scam. Some enterprising souls even drove to Morairaway’s ‘head office’ only to discover it was nothing more than an office with post boxes.  Read more... (461 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

There has been plenty of publicity over the King of Shaves ‘shaving bond’ over the past few weeks. But is it really worth investing in?

The shaving bond offers 6% interest with a ‘shave and save’ scheme in the form of a ‘Shaving Bond’. This is actually a form of corporate bond and if you choose to give the company money, you are actually investing in the King of Shaves company. Interest of 3% will be paid every 6 months and you will need to declare this interest to the taxman. The small print also states that anyone buying into the bond will not be able to release the bond until the three years are up, or ‘to obtain reliable information about the risks to which they are exposed.’  Read more... (308 words, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)

According to a report just released by Scottish Widows, a quarter of women are not putting away any savings towards their retirement and just 47 percent of women are on track to have a ‘comfortable’ retirement.

Men fare slightly better with 59 percent of men saving the recommended 12 percent of income each month.

There are many factors why women can’t save more for their retirement with the most common reason being a large family. 25 percent who have three children or more said they were not saving any more for their retirement. Women over 50 also are unable to save with many reporting that the recession has made them less well off hence their inability to put money away in a savings account.  Read more... (257 words, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)

Phishers are increasingly turning to retail-based e-mails in an attempt to scam unwary internet surfers.

Phishing is a scam where criminals attempt to lure unsuspecting people into entering their details into a website which looks like an official website but is in fact the fraudster’s own website and is designed for capturing user details such as passwords. Phishers will send out mass e-mails asking users to visit a website and enter their details. The e-mail and website often looks almost identical to the official site the phishers are mimicking, catching unwary surfers out.  Read more... (306 words, estimated 1:13 mins reading time)