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By Julia Kukiewicz Staff Writer
Friday, 12 December 2008
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HAPPY nearly Christmas! And for your early-Christmas present I give you… a money news roundup. Oh, don’t make that face.
Joy for Joy. And Mary and Rudolf…
YOU should give your baby a festive name if you want them to get more money in their trust fund according to some slightly barmy research from The Children’s Mutual this week.
According to the study festively-named children are more likely to get bigger trust fund contributions than their normally-named counterparts.
This is a little bit obvious since I’m guessing that the Gabriels and Rudolfs born in July are thin on the ground but still it’s almost Christmas so let’s try not to think about it too much.
Josephs and Marys receive £122 and £135 on average respectively while Gabriels receive an angelic average of £162. On the other hand, those named Ebenezer typically receive just £5.
On the other hand again, no-one has been called Ebenezer for about forty years so that £5 actually represents a year’s rent.
Live it up in London… maybe
IN other Christmas-related money news London’s Christmas shopping has been under a spotlight this week.
I blame Boris Johnson. Since he complained in his column in the Daily Telegraph that the slump in prices hadn’t hit his Christmas tree which set him back – egad! - £50 and three US dollars other newspapers have been on the trail of the rising price of the capital’s trees.
Meanwhile, the slump in the value of the pound plus pre-Christmas sales has made London popular with foreign visitors according to the Daily Mail.
Up to 10m overseas visitors are expected in the West End, most of them from Europe and the UAE. According to Selfridges in Oxford Street 90% of fashion items are cheaper there than in Paris, Milan and New York.
Holiday
BUT while visitors to the UK are cashing in it’s the opposite story for those of us hoping to take a winter break.
On paper the price changes look minimal but they soon add up, as a survey from the Post Office shows.
The survey added up the cost of holiday essentials such as a cup of coffee, a bottle of suncream and a postcard & stamp to the UK.
It found that Italy’s holiday basket was up to £81.25 from £66.12 last year while Spain’s climbed to £65.56 from £53.35.
And Finally, if you only do one thing this week...
AND finally, if you only do one thing this financial week then try to save the money that you’ll lose on holiday by eliminating any extra costs.
Compare credit cards specifically designed to for use abroad, and you cut down on usual foreign transaction fees – Post Office credit cards, for example, waive the usual foreign transaction fee.
You also need to be aware that you can be charged for getting money out of ATMs whilst abroad except with some banks. Most Nationwide cards, for example, don’t charge for ATM transactions abroad.
If you’re a frequent traveler and you always pay off your credit card balance at the end of the month it might also be worth taking out a credit card that rewards you for going on holiday.
Try the British Airways credit card which gives BA miles as you spend or the Virgin Atlantic white credit card which offers complimentary upgrades to card-holders.
 Compare credit cards to use on holiday
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