If you still haven’t secured a university or college place for the current year then you might want to check out the University of Bedfordshire’s clearing service. They still have places available through their clearing system and can offer you advice even if you are not sure what course you want to apply for. They have a dedicated University of Bedfordshire - Clearing 2008 team who are on hand to offer advice and talk through the options with you. You can give them a call on 0800 013 0925 and can also check out the list of available courses online before hand to see if there is something to suit you.

The online ticket company Xclusive Tickets is about to go into liquidation. Around 4,329 people who brought tickets from the company are likely to be left out of pocket. However, those who paid by credit card should get a refund. The company hit problems after 18,000 tickets for the Reading, Leeds and V Festivals and the Beijing Olympics did not arrive. A creditors meeting has been called for next month and a helpline will be set up offering advice and information for customer.

Boots has opened its first drive through chemist on the site of a former McDonald's outlet. The chemist aims to fill prescriptions in under two minutes whilst customers wait at the window. It is targeting busy mothers and commuters who need to pick up their drugs quickly. Whilst drive through chemists are common in the US, they are relatively new here in the UK. This branch in Colchester will run as a pilot. If it is successful Boots are likely to  open other branches across the UK.

If you have a lot of outgoings that need to be settled before you get your pay check, then you might want to look a payday loas The loan as the name suggests is a short team loan designed to give you a bit of extra cash to see you through until you get paid. You can apply for a payday loan online using the three minute application form and it can often be approved within the hour. You just need to have proof of a steady income, proof that you have a bank account and proof of residency. Because Payday Loans are different to personal loans they do not require a credit check so even if you have a poor credit history as long as you meet the criteria you should still be approved.

BT is going to invest £1.5bn in fibre optic cables to give around 10 million households access to faster broadband. Under the plans 40% of homes would be able to receive a faster service by 2012. They are also planning on putting fibre optic cables into 1 million homes giving those customers an even faster service. Remaining customers would be offered broadband speeds of between 40 and 60 megabits a second.

I was thinking of getting a new car, perhaps something that has a lower fuel consumption to try and cut down on the fuel bills. Before I consider the car itself I thought I would check out an auto loan. Looking around I came across this website called up2drive that specialise in auto loans and say they can lower my payment. They finance all makes and models and have no hidden cost or application fees. You simply complete their secure online credit application and submit it online. The website also has a handy payment estimator so you can input the loan type and amount that you require and get an idea of what the rate will be before you even apply.

Laws banning hidden costs on air fares are likely to be in force by the end of the year. The move would mean that airlines would have to include all airport taxes, fees and charges in the basic ticket price they offer to customers. The laws would mean that all costs must be clearly set out making it very clear the final total that the customer will pay. The new laws are currently waiting the final approval from Euro MEPs.

Boris Johnson has quashed the proposed rise in the London congestion charge. The former mayor Ken Livingston has planned to raise the daily charge from £8 to £25. Boris Johnson has said that the £25 charge would hit small businesses and families the hardest and this is why he is scrapping the rise. He also said that his aim is to achieve a "fairer and more effective congestion charge".

If you are looking for a new pair of prescription glasses you might want to check out zennioptical.com. They have a wide range of frames includes tinted sunglasses, bifocal and progressive frames and even goggles. Personally I quite liked their range of rimless frames. Most of their frames come in a choice of colours and once you have selected one you can also select the lens size and shape, add an anti reflection coating, choose whether you want a lens tint and also add a clip on sunshade. You also need to enter your prescription. They currently ship within the US at a cost of $4.95 per order and most orders are received within two weeks of ordering. 

The AA has scored rather badly in a survey of roadside breakdown firms coming just seventh out of eleven. The poll included 32,000 drivers and rated breakdown firms on value for money, friendliness, helpfulness and overall service. GEM Motoring Assist came out top with Churchill coming bottom. In response the AA has said that 95% of people would recommend the service to family and friends. Personally when I have used the AA I have also found the service to be very good.

The full list, in order of overall rating, was:

1. GEM Motoring Assist;
2. Autonational Rescue;
3. RAC;
4. National Breakdown;
5. More Than;
6. Green Flag;
7. The AA;
8. Norwich Union;
9. Tesco;
10. Direct Line;
11. Churchill

I found this website the other day that sells a range of personalised jewellery. One thing that they have which is slightly unusual is a section devoted to medical ID jewellery. The nice thing about this site is that you can pick a medical id bracelet and then customise it. You start off by selecting the bracelet type from a traditional design or a charm bracelet. You can then select what sort of chain you would like to have on your bracelet and you can even select which clasp you would like. You can also choose the length of the bracelet and can add an alert charm. The next stage of the process allows you to choose what you want engraved onto to your bracelet. Once you have entered the text to be engraved you can run it through the spell check and preview it before checking out. Despite the fact that all the items are made to order you can still get them fairly quickly, the standard service takes approx 3 weeks or the rush service costs £5 extra and items are made with 3-5 days. Shipping to the UK costs an additional £4.00 by Royal Mail first class or just £8 on the DHL express option.

Carphone Warehouse will offer a free laptop with broadband. Customers will be able to choose from six different models of laptop when they buy a broadband package from one of seven providers. Customers will be able pay more if they want a higher spec laptop. The offer is currently available at 100 of their stores but will be rolled out across all 800 stores this summer.

I read this article the other day that suggests its worth shopping around for your car insurance. Apparently lots of people fall into the trap of staying with the same insurer rather than looking for a better rate. The problem is that often the insurance company will only offer its best rate to new customers so people, who stick with the same insurer year after year, tend to lose out and often end up paying more. The only problem I have is finding the time to look around for a better deal. Comparison websites such as www.autoinsurance-4u.com can save quite a lot of time. You just have to enter your zip code and the website brings up a whole list of cheap auto insurance companies in your area. Then you just fill in the online form to complete your quote.

HSBC are latest company to admit to losing customers’ personal data. The information was on a disk that was password protected but was not encrypted. The disk contained the personal details of 370,000 customers including names, dates of birth, policy numbers and details about their insurance cover. The disk was lost after being sent by courier to the groups Southampton office.

BT has been named as the worst landline provider in a customer satisfaction poll. In a survey of 11,000 customers BT got the lowest score for all but two categories for home phones. uSwitch.com claims that around three million of BT’s 10 million landline customers are dissatisfied. Other surveys have found that BT offer poor value fro money and fail to sort out problems. Citizens Advice also found that 89% of all landline complaints are about BT.

Just five months after putting 200 lines of clothing on its Tesco Direct website the group has abandoned the service. Tesco say that they only intended to sell clothing online for a trial period but will not say whether the service will resume.

If you want to improve your time management skills then you might want to have a look at timethoughts.com. They have a lot of useful information on personal goal setting including 15 useful time management tips to help you manage your time better. They include advice such as writing things down on a to do list and prioritising your list so that you can spend your time on the things that are most important. There is also a useful section on setting your career goals. There is plenty of useful information on the website but if you feel you need more help they also offer a free start up kit which includes a video and workbook.

I have been aware of payday loans for some time but until now I thought they were only available in the United States. It appears that there are now companies such as Payday UK offering the service within the UK. For those that haven’t heard of the term a payday loan is basically a short term loan that is designed to help you though the month until you get paid, hence the name. The idea is that you can get immediate access to cash and the amount is fully repayable on your next pay day.

To get a payday loan all you need to do is fill in an online application form detailing your income, how long you have been with your company and how often you are paid and within a few minutes you will know whether or not your application has been approved. Then you just enter your bank details and you should receive your money within 48 hours. You can borrow anything from £80 up to £750 for a small charge, just £25 based on a £100 loan. On the agreed pay day your bank account is then debited for the balance of the loan. If you do need to defer the loan then you can also do this but you need to repay the charges on the original loan.

Scottish and Southern Energy will raise its domestic energy prices by an average of 14.2% for electricity and 15.8% for gas. The company is the last of the big energy suppliers to announce a price increase, following announcements by Npower, EDF Energy, Scottish Power, British Gas and E.On. They blame the increases on the rise in wholesale energy prices. The increases mean an average electricity bill will rise by £50 whilst a gas bill will increase by around £85.

The Sat Nav trolley could soon be coming to Britain. The device will help shoppers by guiding them around the store to the items they want to buy. It will also suggest recipe ideas based on the food that you put into them. The trolley is made by Media Cart in conjunction with Microsoft and could be in UK supermarkets by 2009. It will also be able to download your shopping list and plot the quickest route around the store, depending on what you want to purchase. The trolleys are fitted with a location device so they know where in the store, they can they work out what the best route is from the current location to the product the customer requires. It seems like an interesting idea, I wonder how well they work in practice.

If you play a lot of golf you might want to consider getting some golf insurance especially as there are around 12,400 golf related injuries every year. Golf Care offers a package that covers you against damage to property, personal injury and personal liability. It also covers you against the theft, loss or damage of you equipment. The prices start from only £29.99 a year for their bronze package which includes cover for equipment of up to £1,250 and personal accident cover of up to £50,000 as well as cover for third party equipment and dental treatment.

Household water bills are set to increase by 5.8% on average across England and Wales. The regulator Ofwat said that the increases will mean the average combined bill will be about £330 a year, a rise of about £18. However, in some areas of the country the combined bill rise is as much as 8% although the increase is actually lower than last years average price increase of 7%. Customers of South West Water will see the smallest rises of 3.7% on their annual water bill meaning and increase of £18. Southern Water customers will see an increase of £26, whilst Wessex Water customers face an increase of £29.

PC2Paper have just launched their virtual printer. The product has launched initially at a beta version but if early indications are anything to go by, it should make sending a letter from your computer much easier. Previously you had to log in and go through the process of uploading your letter or writing it online. The virtual printer, however, acts just like a desktop printer. Once you have installed it you simply select the PC2Paper printer option from your list of printers, add the address you want the letter to go to and choose your print options from the different types of paper and formats available. Then just enter your user name and password and the letter is automatically transferred to PC2Paper who take care of the printing and posting for you. What a great idea.

Weather balloons could be used to provide mobile phone and broadband services to rural Britain. An American company called Space Data has already used small phone masts attached to balloons to provide wireless internet access to remote areas. The group has supplied military and commercial clients for four years but is now preparing to link with broadband companies to offer services to residential customers. Space Data has patented the service in 41 countries and is now considering the US as a potential market. The service uses a small transceiver attached to a balloon which then rises to an altitude of 30,500m after it has been released. The company says that one balloon can beam a signal to an area equivalent to 80 mobile phone towers. The service does have one drawback, the balloons only last for 24 hours before bursting which means a constant supply has to be released to maintain the connection and the radio equipment on the burst balloon has to be retrieved by a team using location devices.

Vodafone and Orange have announced a plan to share mast sites. The deal will see the two companies working together to ensure better coverage for their customers. Sites across the UK will host both Orange and Vodafone equipment. Both 2G and 3G coverage will be involved in the scheme which is likely to mean that the total site numbers are cut by about 15% meaning 3,000 fewer masts. The move is not a merger and both companies will continue to compete with each other.

T-Mobile and Orange are to launch a new service that will give customers a live TV service on their mobile phone. They aim to start a trial service in west London in the summer. They plan to broadcast 24 TV channels and 10 digital radio stations although have not yet said what sort of tariff customers would pay for the service. The service will offer both conventional TV channels and some premium channels.

The energy provider E-On has put up its gas prices. The German owned company has said that from tomorrow gas prices will go up by 15% and electricity will go up by 9.7%. The announcement follows price rises from other energy providers including British Gas, Scottish Power, Npower and EDF. The rise means that a customers annual fuel bill will go up from £931 to £1031.

A new high speed train has been launched in France. The train which is called the AGV will replace the TGV. The new trains will travel at a top speed of 224mph compared to 186mph, the top speed of the TGV. This would mean that the journey on Eurostar from London to Paris would now take only 1h42 minutes compared to the current 2h15 minute journey. Eurostar whilst interested in the new train have no plans to replace its current fleet of trains for the next ten years, so those who are looking forward to getting to France in less than two hours will have a to wait quite some time.

A new website has been launched to help people claim back money from forgotten bank accounts. The website www.mylostaccount.org.uk will allow users to cash in 52 building societies, 42 banks and National Savings accounts. If you think you might have a bank account you have forgotten about all you need to do is complete an online forms giving details such as any previous addresses. The form is then passed onto the bank or building society. Sadly I don’t think I have any forgotten money hiding anywhere.

BT has announced that it will give all of its customers free weekend calls. Its not all good news for customers though as they plan to raise charges elsewhere. Line rental will go up by £9 a year whilst daytime calls will be 23% more expensive. Customers will pay 4p a minute rather than the current 3.25p per minute. BT have also scrapped its evening price cap meaning an hour long weekday call will cost 90p rather than the previous 4.5p. The changes are likely to mean a huge increase in BT’s income.

There seems to be a debate going on at the moment between doctors and ministers regarding whether GP’s should extend opening hours. The government is pushing for longer hours because it says it will meet patient demand. Doctors, however, say that longer hours could affect patient care during the day. I think most people would agree that doctor’s surgery should be open at least one evening a week or perhaps a Saturday morning. There is nothing more frustrating than to arrange to take time off from work to see a doctor especially if the appointment is for something routine like a check up. Often the time taken amounts to half a day by the time you have travelled to and from the doctor’s surgery and this is usually time that your boss at work will require you to make up elsewhere.

I read this article that suggests millions of BT customers could reclaim charges imposed on them because they do not pay via direct debit. The charges were brought in last year and mean that customers who not pay by direct debit are subject to a £4.50 quarterly fee. However because many of these customers were with BT before it implemented the charges they may be able to reclaim them. The Office of Fair Trading believes customers who were with the company before it brought in the charges have a strong case to argue against paying them.

EDF have announced a 12.9% price rise for gas and a 7.9% increase in electricity prices. They are the second firm to announce they will raise prices, following npower’s announcement that will raise prices by up to 27%. EDF blame the increasing wholesale and distribution costs for the rise which it says will add about £1.92 each week to the average fuel bill. Other energy providers are not expected to follow suit with similar announcements.

It can be difficult to know who to turn to if you need a loan but have credit. That’s where websites likes BadCreditOffers.com can help. They specialise in offering bad credit loans from many of the major loans providers. Their website offers a free resource for consumers who have a poor credit rating. It allows you to compare different loans from several different providers so that you easily work out which is the best loan for you. They also cover a range of different types of loan from home and auto loans to loans that can help you repair your credit rating. The website also allows you to apply online for a no obligation assessment.