Yesterday it emerged that the website Paperticket.co.uk, a website selling concert tickets, had been shut down by the Metropolitan Police under suspicion of fraud under the ‘Proceeds of Crime Act’.

As a consequence, thousands of people have been warned they may not receive their tickets – except for the lucky proportion that used their credit cards and will so likely be covered by section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.

However, it’s not just fraudsters that could cause consumers to be left out of pocket in these hard times.

The governor of the Bank of England today predicted that the UK economy is likely to slump into recession in 2009, which will likely cause some businesses to collapse, or suffer from severe difficulties.

Indeed, we have already seen plenty of examples of this so far this year what with the collapse of the UK’s third-largest tour operator, XL Leisure Group in mid-September and the last-minute buyout of furniture chain MFI to save it from bankruptcy three weeks ago.

But, did you know that by using your credit card to make purchases you can protect yourself from losing money on the goods and services you buy, in the event of the company not delivering what they promised?

This is all thanks to Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

According to Consumer Direct, a government funded advice service, if you have purchased goods or services using a form of credit, e.g. a credit card, “you may have an equal liability claim against the credit firm under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 provided the contract amount is over £100 but less than £30,000”.

What’s more, if you pay for part of the purchase on your credit card and then pay for the rest in cash, you will still be covered for the purchase as long as it was for a product/service costing between £100 and £30,000.

One of the things likely to put you off using a credit card in these hard times is the thought of getting into debt. But, if you are sensible about it you can bear in mind that it was probably a purchase you were already planning to make and so you should already have the money budgeted for it. This means you can pay the credit card bill off straight away, meaning you won’t accrue any interest charges and won’t be left with debt. The only difference with using a credit card in this case is that you will get the added protection of section 75 for free, which could prove invaluable in the coming months.

If you did need a bit of time to pay off the debt, you could get a 0% purchase credit card and, with a bit of discipline, pay it off in monthly instalments, without paying any interest, for around 6-12 months.

Credit cards, like many other things in life, do serve a very useful purpose, but ONLY if they are used sensibly and the protection offered by section 75 is one obvious plus point for considering getting a credit card.

Click the link to compare credit cards

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The last two weeks have seen some major events in the world of banking, including the collapse of two Icelandic banks holding around £4.5bn belonging to British Savers.

As a result, we are wondering how you are feeling about the current situation and where you currently feel it is safest to keep your money.

Do you feel it would be safest in a Northern Rock bank account, the bank featured a lot in the news at the end of last year when its customers did a run on it and also in February when it was nationalised?

Or, maybe you feel your money would be best off in the government scheme: National Savings and Investments.

Perhaps you still have confidence in other high street banks for whatever reason, perhaps because they have received recent help from the government when it pumped £37bn into three main UK banks or they haven’t featured in the news at all during the recent banking crisis.

Maybe you are one of those people who have lost all confidence in the global banking system and feel your money will be safest under your mattress or hidden somewhere else in your home.

Alternatively you may still have confidence in the property market and so think your money is safest invested in brick and mortar.

Whichever scenario best suits your feelings on the subject, we would like to know as part of our new compareandsave.com poll.

Have your say in our safe savings poll.

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Just yesterday Uswitch.com predicted that 1.7 million people in the UK will resort to taking cash out on their credit cards to fund Christmas.

If you are one of those 1.7 million, STOP, put the credit card down slowly and read on.

It is all too easy to reach for the credit card and the cash machine when some quick cash is needed, but drawing cash out on your card isn’t the only way of freeing up some money to use for Christmas.

One good way of juggling your finances is to pay for everyday items, such as your grocery shopping and fuel, on your credit card, which would ideally have some sort of 0% purchase offer or a long-term low rate, and then set aside the cash you would have used ordinarily to pay for these items to go towards your Christmas shopping budget.

It would then be sensible to set yourself an affordable repayment plan so that you can aim to have the credit card balance paid off before the end of the interest free purchases offer or low rate deal.

Currently, the longest 0% on purchases offer you will find is on the Capital One Platinum Credit Card, which is offering interest free purchases until November 2009.

If you don’t think you will qualify for a platinum credit card, the longest offer on a standard card is 6 months. Click the link to see ourinterest free purchase cards.

Just in case you can’t get a long enough 0% purchases offer it is worth bearing in mind the difference in interest rates between a cash withdrawal and using your card to make a purchase at a standard purchase APR.

Cash withdrawals are typically charged at an interest rate of around 27.9% from the time you withdraw the cash. This is pretty much the same as a store card or paying for the item on store credit. However, typical purchase rates are around 16%, which is almost half that charged on cash withdrawals.

If you don’t want 6 months 0% on purchases and then an interest rate of around 16%, you may want to consider a long-term low rate credit card such as the Barclaycard Simplicity Credit Card which offers a low typical APR of 6.8% on both purchases and balance transfers for as long as you have the card. This will work out to around 0.5% a month, so your repayments shouldn’t be eaten up too much by the interest charges and it should be achievable to pay this off before next Christmas.

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According to the AA, the motoring organisation, the average cost of comprehensive car insurance cover has exceeded £700 for the first time. Worse still, it is likely to increase further in the coming months.

However, did you know that you could save some money on your motor insurance premiums simply by changing the way you describe your job?

Insurers use claims experience for different job descriptions to set their prices. If there have been more claims by drivers with a certain job description the insurer sees a higher risk and therefore offsets this risk with higher premiums.

You can legitimately reduce the quotes you are given by trying out different descriptions of your job on car insurance quotation forms at insurance websites.

Will Thomas, head of car insurance at Confused.com describes the practice as “quote massaging” and recommends motorists to give it a go when they are looking for car insurance policies.

“You must not be dishonest, but many jobs fit a number of accurate descriptions,” he said.

For example a 30-year-old “delivery driver” living in Glasgow will be quoted a premium of £467.25 by Broker King for cover on a Fiat Brava. However, an identical “courier driver” would be quoted a premium of £499.91.

Another way to save some money on your car insurance is to seriously consider the mileage you enter in on your quote form because this too can affect the price of cover.

Cover tends to increase in price when the mileage hits, or is just below, the 1,000 mile marks. As a result, a motorist who enters in a mileage of 8,950 miles a year will pay less than a motorist who enters in a figure of 9,000 miles.

This does not mean that you should be dishonest about your estimated mileage; you should not underestimate, but rounding up to the nearest thousand could be an expensive overestimation.

Click the link to compare car insurance

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New customers will now receive 16 months 0% on balance transfers with the Virgin Credit Card.

The great thing about this offer is that customers will get the interest-free offer for 16 months from the date the account is opened.

Plus, as a Virgin customer, you will get discounts at other Virgin companies – including Virgin Media, Virgin Holidays and Virgin Wines – when you use your new credit card to pay and you will receive vouchers to get you discounts in leading High Street stores.

What’s more, you will receive 0% on purchases for 6 months from the date your account is opened.

The card comes with a typical APR of 16.6% (variable) and no annual fee.

There are a couple of conditions around the balance transfer offer; any transfers need to take place within 60 days of the date the account was opened, and a 2.98% handling fee applies.

The minimum repayment on the Virgin Credit Card is slightly different to most other cards – it there is a balance of £25 or more on the card, the minimum repayment will be whichever is the greater of £25; or the total of any payment protection insurance charges, interest and default charges plus £5. This is worth bearing in mind when considering whether or not this card is for you.

To be eligible for this card you must be at least 18 years old.

Click the link for more information about the Virgin Credit Card.

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Did you know that at the end of 2007 there were 73.2 million credit cards and charge cards in circulation in the UK compared with around 60 million people?

Credit cards now have a vital role in the world of personal finance, and have for some time, yet there doesn’t seem to be a comprehensive guide about them anywhere online.

Well, now that has changed because we have just launched our brand NEW Guide to Credit Cards, which comprises of over 90 pages of information about the little pieces of plastic that we all seem to carry with us wherever we go.

We have covered the obvious, such as “What is a credit card?”, and the not so obvious, such as “How to check a webpage is secure”, to compile a guide to answer everyone’s questions.

However, we are aware that everyone’s needs are different and would like to take this opportunity to invite you to make suggestions for any other topics or questions you would like to see covered in our Guide to Credit Cards. Just click on the link to contact us.

The guide is designed to be either a very comprehensive piece of information where you could know nothing about credit cards, read the guide and be able to use credit cards sensibly thereafter, or each section can be used on its own as a mini-guide about the subject title of the section in question.

Each page has a link back to the contents page so, if you go to the wrong section, you can find your way back to the information you need.

Intrigued? Click on the link to view our Guide to Credit Cards.

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