It’s no secret that our gas and electricity bills tend to grow a tad larger during the festive period. Now is the time when friends and family get together, share a mince pie or two and stick on a Christmas film. With the heating on, of course.
But while energy usage inevitably increases, millions of UK residents are now expecting a far more expensive utility bill than usual. Rising wholesale gas and electricity costs, coupled with further green taxes, now mean that the average cost of gas and electric may go up by as much as £100 over the next 12 months.
Why exactly? Well, many large energy suppliers are putting the price hike down to a knock-on effect from Brexit. Raw energy is generally priced in US currency, which makes the pound’s collapse against the dollar particularly significant for large energy providers.
How can you cut down your energy bill over the festive period?
There are quite a few obvious steps you can take to cut down your energy bill over Christmas, most of which are probably common sense and best practice all year round.
If you or your family are walking around the house in a T-shirt with the heating on, it’s time to heed your father’s advice and invest in a woolly jumper. Of course, if you do decide to turn the heating on when you get home from work, make sure you turn it off once your ideal temperature has been reached. Keep doors and windows closed to keep the warmth in. A draft excluder always helps.
The same goes for lights – switch them off when you leave a room! Energy saving bulbs are well worth the investment and can cut down on cost over the course of months and years.
As for Christmas lights, perhaps it’s best to set a limit for when you turn them on each evening. A few hours here and there is certainly better for your budget than leaving them running all night long, which can also be a major safety hazard.
Evolution Money wishes you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
Credit cards have been the norm in the UK for a while now – since 1966 in fact, when Barclays first introduced their inaugural Barclaycard to the masses. It quickly proved popular with the public and the credit card network has been expanding ever since.
Fifty years on, over half of British adults own a credit card, but now our concept of credit, and indeed money, seems to be evolving yet again. And we’re not just talking about contactless payment.
Several consumer spending experts, including current chief executive of Barclaycard, Amer Sajed, have recently been talking about the gradual demise of the traditional plastic card in favour of seamless payments and wearable technology.
No doubt that future generations will have little practical use for coins, cash or cards; so, what will payment methods look like in 50 years?
Wearable technology
One very interesting prospect is the advances in wearable technology and how this might feed into our daily routines.
Barclaycard themselves have already developed prototype rings, bracelets and keychains which all contain a microchip that allow the wearer to make a payment with a simple swipe. It’s a novel idea for a few reasons, especially when you consider that it’s a lot harder to lose a ring or a sturdy bracelet compared with a wallet or purse.
Even though these items are currently little more than display models, it’s exciting to think that such technology is already well on the way to being introduced.
The immediate future
For the time being, it’s unlikely that credit cards will go out of fashion anytime soon; but the question of whether they will eventually become obsolete is certainly more when than if.
In fact, at the rate which digital technology is currently developing, it wouldn’t be a surprise to find the shift happens a lot sooner than we think.
Manchester-based secured loan provider Evolution Money has been ranked 29th on this year’s annual Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 list.
Published annually since 1997, the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing sales and provides a definitive league table of companies in the UK by their rate of growth.
Founded in 2011, Evolution Money has seen a substantial 90% increase in sales over the past three years. Having moved to a new office space on Portland Street, the firm now employs over 100 people and has set its sights on matching that growth over the coming years.
Steve Brilus, CEO of Evolution Money, said of the announcement: “Evolution Money are delighted to have been featured in the most recent Sunday Times edition Annual Virgin Fast Track 100, as being the 29th fastest growing private company in the UK.
“Clearly we are extremely pleased to have achieved this and we are fully appreciative of the role all of our staff, investors and customers have played. We are looking forward to continued strong growth over the next three years and beyond.”
In order to qualify for inclusion in the Fast Track 100 list, companies have to be registered in the UK and be independent, unquoted and ultimate holding companies. Sales growth is measured by compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the last three financial years.
Evolution Money forms part of Darwin Loan Solutions, alongside its sister company Progressive Money.
With another Black Friday just past, we take a look at the origins of this relatively new tradition and how it has become an ingrained marker for the start of our festive splurging.
The concept was first introduced by American retailers keen to capitalise on the Thanksgiving holiday, a time when many people are off work and looking to shop for presents in the build up to Christmas. Big chains like Walmart and online retailers such as Amazon started the trend, which has continued to snowball every year for the past decade.
Having gradually made its way across the pond, the Black Friday tradition has well and truly set up stall in the UK. This day has once again shown that more and more retailers are embracing the idea, but are extending the discounts for the entire weekend rather than just a single day.
Black Friday goes digital
However, if this year has taught us anything it’s that there’s beginning to be a slight shift in attitude, with less brawling in the department store aisles and more online bargains popping up across the web.
In an increasingly digital world where people can now browse and buy items within a few clicks on their mobile, perhaps future Black Fridays will see retailers investing more in their online presence and less on front door security.
A classic marketing ploy
Don’t forget that Black Friday is designed by retailers for retailers, particularly those looking to sell more electronic goods like TVs, laptops and video game consoles.
It’s unlikely that customers will keep tabs on the sale of electronic goods at other times of the year, which means we are left to assume that the Black Friday deals are by far the best out there. Not necessarily. Often there’s not too much difference in price, if any.
So, if you feel like you’ve missed out on the best bargains, or if you’re planning on rushing out to the shops next year, make sure you do your research and don’t spend for the sake of it.
Think carefully before securing debts against your home your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage or any other loan secured against it. If you are thinking of consolidating existing borrowing, you should be aware that you may be extending the terms of the debt and increasing the total amount you repay.
