We still have our lovely Suzuki Ignis sitting in the garage as we drove it back when we returned from five years in France. It is only three years old, in excellent condition, the best car we have ever owned and yet there are decisions that need to be made as to how long we can actually hang onto to it here in the UK. We want to keep it if we can – that’s the long and short of it – but there are issues concerned i.e getting car insurance quotes for a car that has not been officially imported here yet, adjusting the headlights (something with seriously needs looking into soon…) and the cost of the importing process itself.

When you have a car that runs very well on diesel, never misses a beat and is a wonderful family car you feel lucky. I know people who have bought brand new cars in the past year and never seem to be away from the service dept. We love our ‘Iggy’ but the crunch is do we sell her and buy a UK standard vehicle – or – scrape together the money to import Iggy and make the adjustments needed to bring her into line with UK requirements…?

None of us want to see her go.

Popularity: 17% [?]

If you are not a financial whiz it would be easy to find a lot of those terms and phrases quite intimidating when you are trying to make sense out of a letter your bank or credit provider has sent to you. Even if you are considering which credit card to choose, or which mortgage to take you will encountered words that can make you scratch your head and make you feel inclined to give up. Here are some terms and phrases translated – there’s a lot so we will take this in measured doses.

Account: this is a facility provided to you by a bank or building society which holds your money. A Current Account is an everyday account which allows money to be paid in or taken out and also helps to budget and manage your money. A Basic Account is a special kind of current account which usually does not permit you to overdraw on your balance. A Deposit Account is generally specifically for your savings.

AER: This stands for Annual Equivalent Rate. This shows what the interest rate would be if the interest on savings were paid and added to savings at the end of each year. Actually, interest is generally paid more often than annually. The AER is calculated in a standard way so you can compare interest rates directly with each other. In essence, the higher the AER the better the return is on your savings.

APR: Stands for Annual Percentage Rate and you will see these three letters everywhere that you see loans or finance being offered. This tells you the costs of a loan, taking into account the interest you pay, any other charges, and when the payments fall due. You can use the APR to compare the cost of one loan with another – for example a loan with an APR of 15% will be more expensive than one with an APR of 11%.

Arrears: This is a word that most of us have seen printed on a bill if we are all honest – it simply means money that you owe and did not pay by the due date.

ATM: self-explanatory really – Automated Teller Machine – those blasted things which run out of cash just as you reach the head of the queue.

Balance: The amount of funds you have in your account at any particular time or the amount you owe on your store or credit card. Always shown on your statement.

Bankruptcy: Bankruptcy is a court order that you can apply for if you are in debt. Once you have been made bankrupt an official called ‘an official receiver’ takes control of your money, property, assets, and deals with your creditors. It might sound great to have someone take over and deal with those pesky debt collectors and phone calls BUT bankruptcy is a move you should not consider unless you have exhausted all other avenues to resolve your situation. Once bankrupt you can forget about applying for any more credit for a very long time afterwards.

CCJ: Stands for County Court Judgement. This is an order made by a judge which decides a claim brought in the county court.

Credit Report: The information stored about you with a credit reference agency. It will include electoral roll information for your address, how you have handled your credit over the previous six years and a record of any credit checks made about you with that agency. Whenever you apply for a loan, store card, etc, a check will be made on your credit history and each check will be recorded also information saying if you were approved or declined. Having a run of ‘declines’ on your credit report looks very bad so refrain from applying for too many credit cards, etc, within a short space of time. If you are declined twice for something then there is reason – wait at least six months to a year before you go filling in any more applications. You have the right to see your credit report at any time and you may correct anything you think is wrong.

End of Part One.

Popularity: 18% [?]

This issue has become a divisive one in culinary circles over recent  years but officially, from April 2010, restaurants and pubs in England and Wales have to provide diners with tap water when requested,and at no charge. One would have expected that a glass of tap water would not be a problem for a restaurant to provide – diners generally purchase bottles of wine, glasses of beer and spirits with a meal – and unless you are particular about the type of water you drink you would be happy with a sample of the same H2O that the chef is washing your seafood in and using to boil your vegies in as well.

This is where I have a problem with the excuse given to many diners, that they cannot have a glass of tap water due to ‘health and safety reasons’. Right, so you cannot have the tap water to drink…but them in the kitchen are using it to cook with.

In France a carafe of tap water is commonplace on your table and is even topped up – if you want speciality H2O you order fizzy mineral or still water and pay accordingly. Fair enough. Here in Northern Ireland, and as far as I have experienced in the Republic of Ireland, diners wont have a problem getting a glass of tap water however in England and Wales the law will be behind you if some restaurant manager or waiter/ress gets hoity-toity with you and refuses. Having run a hotel/restaurant myself I can understand that restaurant owners these days are anxious to make a profit and selling only meals makes that difficult – they depend on you buying drinks to reach that margin. Of course you would not sit and demand carafe after carafe of tap water, if you do why bother eating out at all, but after half a bottle of plonk – and pricey plonk at that – plain ordinary tap water should be available on request. Maybe if all restaurants and cafes simply provided a carafe of tap water on each table at the start of a meal it would avoid the difficult situation of the diner needing to request – it wont stop most people from buying alcohol or soft drink and seeing as restaurants need bums on seats now more than ever it makes for customer-friendly policy.

Better still, when reserving a table simply ask…and have a small bottle of water in your bag if they sound fussy.

Popularity: 51% [?]