I have heard a lot about cash advance websites recently but not really being sure what that was, thought I would check it out. It seems that it’s basically a short term unsecured loan. They are often called payday loans due to the fact that you are most likely to take them out when it is nearing payday and you are a bit short of cash.

You can apply for a loan through the internet and can borrow anything from $100-$1500 (it appears most of these types of loans are currently US based). Often the loan will be approved straight away and needs no credit check and the money is sent to your account overnight. It seems like an interesting alternative and I can see how it might be useful if you have an unexpected expense come up. It seems to me that if you pay the loan off quickly it could work out quite well, but I think the catch is if you fail to pay the loan off after the agreed time. I could be wrong here but from my reading it looks as though the fees are doubled if you need to roll the loan over until the next payday. Still, its quite an interesting concept.

In the latest news surrounding Northern Rock it has announced a cut back on the range of mortgage products they will offer. Two thirds of its mortgage product range is going to be axed in what seems to be a major product overhaul. This change is unlikely to affect the banks risk profile because it is still prepared to lend up to 125% of a properties value, something which is the root cause of its present problems. Despite the changes rates on their fixed rate and variable mortgages are likely to remain unchanged.

I seem to be running out of most of stationary at the moment, so thought it might be a good time to stock before things get busy at Christmas. As usual I thought it might be an idea to head down to couponchief.com to see if there were any special offers I could take advantage of. They currently have some Dell coupons which should help save a bit of cash, especially as I seem to get through toner at an alarming rate these days. I also found some Staples coupons that offer amongst other things free shipping and some cheap deals on paper.

The Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn has said that he wants to see traditional lightbulbs phased out by 2011. He wants to see 150 watt bulbs withdrawn from sale from next January, with a plan to phase out less powerful bulbs in stages. It is estimated this would save five million tonnes of CO2 a year.

Tesco have been selling New Zealand lamb packaged as British Lamb. One customer brought a product labelled as British slow cooked lamb shanks only to find when she opened the packet that the small print described them as tender lamb shanks of marinated New Zealand lamb. New Zealand lamb is around half the price of British lamb, so it seems this is a cost cutting exercise by Tesco. Tesco said the meal was described as British to indicate the type of cuisine rather than the origins of the ingredients. This seems a rather poor excuse for misleading packaging.

Following the launch of the Barclaycard OnePulse card, other banks are also going to offer tap and go payment cards. The cards allow you pay for cheap items with a tap of a card rather than having to look for loose change. Halifax and Barclays are expected to launch tap and go debit cards next month, followed closely by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

You might find the price of your Christmas dinner will be more like year after turkey farmers have announced they will need to increase their prices. The move comes because there has been a huge increase in costs recently, with the price of poultry feed going up from £181 a tonne to £240 a tonne. This increase is likely to put around 10 to 20% extra on the cost of your Christmas turkey.

Barclaycard has been reviewing the spending limits for many of their customers. They have also been rejecting more applications for new cards, in what could signal a crackdown on consumer credit. About half of all applications for new Barclaycards are now being rejected. Barclaycard have also seen a 17% fall in profits due to problems with bad debt.

A McDonalds customer in the West Midlands had an unpleasant surprise on finding a bolt in their sausage and egg McMuffin. The bolt had apparently come away from a kitchen grill and ended up in the food. McDonalds pleaded guilty to producing food that did not meet the required standards and were ordered to pay £3, 578 in costs.