While pet owners can book alternative means of travelling like the rest of us, they do face a different number of problems. For example, what alternative pet friendly travel methods are there out there? The number of countries you can reach is going to be limited. And, most importantly, how do you keep a ferret entertained on a 2 day car journey to the south of Spain?

But the big question everyone is asking is, where does insurance come into all of this? It’s something that the media have tried to cover over the last few days, but it’s something that really depends on the insurance company themselves and sadly there is not straight forward answer.

If you had taken out travel insurance prior to Eyjafjallajokull making international headlines you may be covered, but you will need to speak to your insurance provider to double check. While whether or not those who took out insurance prior to Eyjafjallajokull erupting is a bit of a grey area, airlines are certainly not covering any recent policies.

Your pet insurance policy isn’t going to prove to be a big help either – at least not with getting any money back. However, if you are still planning to go abroad – perhaps by an alternative means of transport – it will still provide you with overseas cover, if this is something that was in your original policy.

This is something more and more pet owners will be thinking about as the journey time which was once a quick flight to the continent has now become considerably longer and a lot more complications and pet-induced problems are likely to occur.

And what about volcano insurance? Well, this is probably only necessary if you live in Iceland although should it ever hit the States, one man is suitably covered.

Related personalfinanosaurus posts:

1. Life insurance fears following the London bombings tragedy
2. The worried thoughts of a dinogroom
3. What to do if the flood comes to your house

Oh, how the mighty banks have fallen.

Since Goldman Sachs started around 80 years, the phrase ‘Long-term greedy’ which was used by Sidney Weinberg, who was managing partner during the 1930s through to the 1960s, has been a sort of guiding mantra.  This ‘Long-term greedy’ attitude helped the company grow from being a simple unknown brokerage to become the world’s most profitable and powerful financial institution.

While most people would not describe being greedy as a virtuous trait, according to a highly controversial comment last year by Goldman Sachs’ current chairman and chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, he believed the bank was doing ‘God’s work’.

The recent announcement by the America’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the bank and one of its vice presidents, Fabrice Tourre, was being charged in relation to claims that investors were mislead over its collateralised debt obligations, a complex financial product sold by the bank during the boom years of the Noughties, must have been seen by him as some form of blaphemy.

According to the Motley Fool, “The watchdog alleges that the bank mis-stated and omitted key facts about the CDO, and failed to reveal that a major hedge fund had a hand in selecting the underlying portfolio of securities– even though Paulson & Co. had bet its value would fall by shorting the CDO.”

With the mantra, “No one ever got fired for hiring Goldman Sachs”  still persisting to ring true for many in the financial markets, it seems that the current claims and various other allegations over the past few years may have partly tarnished the wings of gods financial messenger, or as Rolling Stone magazine once described it, a “vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money”.

The news of the SEC charging the bank with civil fraud has meant that the most profitable investment bank in the world saw its shares plunge by 12.5% to $160 over the weekend, taking off a whopping $12 billion from the market cap of the firm.

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Well it seems as though the deal is going through after management announced they would support the Kraft proposal to takeover Cadbury. This is despite comments by Gordon Brown and, the trade union, Unite’s warning that Kraft plans at least 10,000 job cuts worldwide to slash costs and repay the cash it will need to borrow for the deal. This assertion is predicated on Kraft’s history when it bought Terry’s, another well-know British chocolate company, in 1993 and then closed its York factory shortly afterwards.

In advance of the take-over, a professor at Henley Business School also publicly expressed fears over Cadbury’s UK jobs, the possible ‘food security’ implications, as well as highlighting that, “the company has rejected fair trade as a model for their coffee and chocolate” and that this “may impact on the reputation of the UK in areas of strategic importance such as India and Africa.” If this is the case, then it may also significantly affect the highly respected Green& Black’s brand which Cadbury’s currently own.

Worries over the deal appear to be widespread, with few people actually welcoming the news.

The main fear of this old dinosaur though is whether the good old bar of Dairy Milk will end up tasting like American chocolate. Yeuch! I changed to munching on chocolate some time ago after I gave up eating tourists because it seemed that most of them were now American and I am not really a fan of fast food. Now it looks like I may have to find something else again.

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This announcement comes after 350 years of cheque usage, however because of the use of credit, debit and contactless payment cards, alongside online shopping and banking, it seems that in recent years the cheque has fallen into a ‘terminal decline’.

The council stated that as long as the needs of the vulnerable and elderly are met, then, “The goal is to ensure that by 2018 there is no scenario where customers, individuals or businesses, still need to use a cheque.”

With an execution date decided for the cheque, and a rise in the use other forms of payment, it looks as though cash may be next to face the block. While the advent of a cashless society has been widely heralded for around 40 years it has not seemed possible until recently.  However through the successful widespread use of mobile phone sims for small contactless purchases in countries like South Korea, it may just be that cash may also finally be coming to an end.

Related personalfinanosaurus posts:

1. Nokia to enter world of finance with Nokia Money
2. Praying for the death of credit card cheques
3. Don’t let the bank use the postal strike as an excuse to take your money

It’s been a long time coming and will lead to major changes for those seemingly ‘white knights’ of the finance world – the price comparison sites.

In the finance world, there is a little known black art used by these sites which mean a lot of price comparison websites will rank certain financial providers sites at the top of their lists of recommended best buys based on the commission they’ll get from these providers, even when they are not the cheapest.

This gives a false impression to the user that the provider is either cheaper than everybody else or, for some esoteric reason known only to those with the combined secret finance knowledge of the Gnomes Of Zurich and the Bilderberg Group, that it a better product. This means you could potentially actually end up with a worse deal for taking the best buy advice than you could have got by choosing a different product or going direct to another provider.

Related personalfinanosaurus posts:

1. Volcano-Friendly Travel – Insurance and Pets

The new ad will feature an opera singer called Gio Compario. The website gio-compario.com has been registered by GoCompare but, at the time of writing, isn’t currently in use.

The first ad airs tomorrow on UK TV and will feature Gio Compario signing the classic Over There by George M Cohan but will insert the words “GoCompare” into the lyrics.

The new ads will replace the current run which keeps the focus on GoCompare’s star rating system. The stars are actually quite controversial as they edge the “price comparison” service closer towards giving out financial advice. Financial advice is a dangerous thing to give out and requires all sorts of checks and passes (one of the reasons why Cashzilla never does it).

… and for the curious, here’s the actual chorus to Over There. We imagine Gio Compario may simply switch “Over there” with “Go Compare”.

Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
The drum’s rum-tumming everywhere
So prepare, say a prayer,
Send the word, send the word to beware
We’ll be over, we’re coming over
And we won’t come back till it’s over, over there

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It seems as though everything just keeps getting worse and worse for the 20 and 30 something generations.

As I look around at the economic landscape I just have to dispair these days. On the one hand the government suggests a bright future with great high paying jobs available for all graduates, and on the other hand there is the reality of Britain’s and the indeed most of the rest of the world’s economic situation.

- Difficulties getting onto the first rung of the property ladder
- Younger workers representing the majority of those losing their jobs in the current economic climate
- Increased debt at the start of working life due to the removal of student grants
- Few genuine “graduate” level jobs which actually provide the increased pay rates and prospects widely touted
- and now announcements about pensions deficits meaning companies can no longer provide decent final-salary schemes to either new or existing members of staff and that the retirement age will have to rise too.

Even the safety net of the public state pension, and all those index-linked civil service pensions, which have for a long time been seen as sacrosanct, are in serious difficulties due to shortfalls. The Adam Smith Institute seems to be despairing at the situation as well, “The government’s pension schemes would not even pass its own laws and regulations. Indeed, if the cabinet were private-sector pension trustees, they would all have been carted off to Pentonville Jail long ago. Now there’s a thought to keep you happy in an impoverished retirement.”

This dinosaur knows that there have always been financial difficulties for those just starting out on their working lives, but currently it seems as though almost everyday something new comes along to compound the issue.

There must be some good news out there? Surely.

Related personalfinanosaurus posts:

1. FSA to tackle lack of financial knowledge in the UK – about time too.
2. A house, a house, my kingdom for a house (well its close enough)

According to Al Arabiya, “Two men were arrested in Abu Dhabi for swindling a large number of people with claims they possessed ‘magic powder’ that doubled bank notes“.

It seems that these 2 ‘magicians’ managed to con their victims into handing over large sums of money so that that they could sprinkle their magical powder over it and make it double.

However the magic powder was actually mad up of flour, washing powder and colouring, and while in possession of the cash, the con men would swap the money with fake notes.

Colonel Maktoum al-Sharifi, the director of the Criminal and Investigative Directorate, commented that, “They would put some of the powder on the notes they want to double. They would then put the notes in a bag and ask their victims not to open the bag until the blend takes effect.”

He also went on to say, “A massive number of people, not some, lost to them”. One victim is reported to have lost as much as Dh6 million (US$1.6m).

The cunning ruse continued until the 2 men tried to con an undercover policeman in an Abu Dhabi hotel who was posing as a potential customer.

The prevalence of such scams in the UAE has lead the Supreme Judicial Council to call on Abu Dhabi’s courts to take a tougher stance on black magic cases, and deport non-nationals found guilty. So Grand Wizard Alistair Darling the White (with black eyebrows) be warned.

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When Roger came to ask for mortgage for a $385,000 property in Mapua the bank refused. On top of his NZ $190,000 in cash Roger was also going to sell his $110,000 campervan. That would leave the bank with about $90,000 to loan and that’s well more than the %20 deposit they require.

So why did Westpac refuse the mortgage? They pointed out that Roger Griffith is an artist without a regular income and therefore doesn’t qualify at all.

The last straw for Roger Griffiths was when Westpac lost $110 million in a loan to Lane Walker Rudkin. He told press;

“They can lose $110 million with LWR but turn down a normal customer who has never missed a loan payment,” he said. “If they don’t have the trust in me after 25 years, there’s a problem for Westpac.”

Roger’s response was not only to withdraw his entire $190,000 savings but to do it in $20 notes.

After a discussion with the bank they finally agreed to have all the money ready in his local branch for 9am. They counted each note out and provided bags for the artist to takehis money away. He did so and carried to the Nelson Building Society.

Griffith’s reason for picking Nelson was that he felt it was part of the community. His final message to Westpac was;

“If you don’t support the community, the community won’t support you.”

Related personalfinanosaurus posts:

1. Tories label bank charges as unfair
2. Bank of England rate has risen yet again

Interesting news stalwart Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing is to be thanked for bringing this to our attention.

Visa have recorded a $23, 148, 855, 308, 184, 500.00 charge on a prepaid card.

The Consumerist, who broke the story, point out that’s 2,000 times larger than America’s national debt of $11 trillion and that the ever-vigilant billing team at Visa remembered to add the $20 charge for being in the red. Yes; the card was also suspended.

Prepaid cards are an interesting idea. They work in a very similar way to credit or debit cards except you can only spend the balance that has been assigned to the card. In theory this means it is impossible to run in to debt (as there’s no overdraft option) and therefore ideal for giving to teenagers.

Cards are usually assigned a PIN number and can be used at ATM machines, online or even over the telephone.

They’ve become popular with travellers as they’re seen as being a handy as plastic but much less of a risk. They’re often more discreet than cash as well. Normally, that is, unless a drug store tries to charge you all the money in the world and the bill ends up on the internet. When that happens they’re not so discreet.

Related personalfinanosaurus posts:

1. It pays to query your credit card APR
2. Don’t let the bank use the postal strike as an excuse to take your money
3. Credit card interest free periods may not be all they appear