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Are You Being Chased for a Debt That Isn’t Even Yours?

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With a consumerist culture encouraging us to spend our money, getting into debt is unfortunately a pitfall for many people. Not only is this bad for your quality of life, but being in debt has all sorts of negative mental effects – it may get to the point where every time you get a letter through the post, you are filled with a sense of stress, doom, and despair. Debt is so easy to get into, but so difficult to get out of again.

You can imagine the despair of those then who receive demands for debt repayments when they haven’t borrowed any money. Companies can make this mistake due to computer issues, human error, or disorganisation in the workplace. Even though you know these debts aren’t yours, it can be surprisingly difficult to convince these organisations to back off.

With big names like Scottish Power, you are lucky enough to have a thorough complaints procedure but good luck to you if you are involved with the payday loans sector.

The Office of Fair Trading

Yet, there is still hope: recently the Office of Fair Trading has been given the right to grill any rule-breakers, and this month alone, issued a £554,505 fine to payday lender MCO Capital Limited and took away their consumer credit license.

Unfortunately, this company had failed to double-check the identities of the people they were handing out loans to and fraudsters used the details of over 7,000 people to borrow millions of pounds of money. Even though MCO Capital Limited knew they had blundered, they still hounded the victims for repayments.

Another company that is guilty of unfair accusations when it comes to money is the online site Wonga.com. It told its customers that they had committed fraud by asking for a payment to be reversed, through their banks.

What Do You Do If You Are Contacted?

The first thing you need to do is write a letter to the lender so there is documented proof that you dealt with the situation straight away. Remember, you can’t be sued for money you don’t owe, so don’t worry about that. Companies won’t take you to court until they have explored absolutely every other avenue.

Whatever you do, don’t just pray that the letters will stop – do something about it as soon as possible. These accusations can be negatively affecting your credit rating, meaning you will struggle to apply for a mortgage or loan in the future, or maybe even be denied tenancy in a rented building.

Request

Ask the company to conduct an investigation into your debts and that all the letters coming through are stopped for the time being. If they get shirty with you, calmly say that failure to disclose will be brought to a judge’s attention in a court of law.

Respond

Keep in touch with every company involved: unfortunately, the lending business may have contacted a debt collector, so send a letter to them too. You are protected by The Office of Fair Trading, and debt collectors must deal with you fairly – download a complaint form from their website and fill it in.

This guest article was submitted by Francesca on behalf of IVA Expert. If debt problems are getting you down, read more about how an IVA could help by visiting their website.






How to Plan for an Outdoor Fall Wedding

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An outdoor fall wedding can be a wonderful experience for everyone involved. Not only is the weather much more enjoyable, but there’s no beating the beautiful views that fall has to offer. However, there are some things to keep in mind. Whether it’s the venue you choose or when you send the invitations, you need to consider how the season will affect your wedding plans. Here are a few tips on how to plan an outdoor fall wedding.

Choose a Venue That Has a Backup Plan

While fall weather can certainly be comfortable, it can also be rainy and cold. While you may hope for the best, that doesn’t mean the weather is going to cooperate. That’s why you must choose a venue that can accommodate the bad weather with an indoor location or a gazebo.

Pick a Date Around Peak Leaf Season

If you want your wedding to be stunning, do the research to determine when the peak season is in your area. This ensures that you get great color in the leaves rather than a bunch of bare trees. Just be sure to book your wedding well in advance.

Keep Temperatures in Mind When Dress Shopping

Getting married outdoors in the fall requires choosing a dress that can accommodate the cooler weather. A long-sleeve dress is certainly recommended and you may even want to find a shawl that matches the color scheme of the wedding.

Go with a Fall Color Scheme

There are so many beautiful colors in the fall. Whether you choose a burning red or bright orange, you’ll want colors that evoke the feelings of fall. However, for the wedding, you’ll want to keep the colors to a minimum so they don’t compete with the real fall colors that surround you. For the reception, you’ll want to decorate the hall in your choice colors making sure to incorporate fall plants for splashes of color. As for your dress, you’ll want to stick with an ivory or other warm shade of white. If you do want color in your dress, consider a copper or auburn colored dress.

Incorporate Fall Elements

Pumpkins, leaves, mums, and other fall elements should be used throughout your design. For example, you might have hay bales throughout the reception hall paired with potted mums and pumpkins. You might also use miniature pumpkins as place card holders.

Plan a Fall-Inspired Menu

Of course you can’t forget the menu. You’ll want to incorporate all your favorite fall foods. For example, you might serve hot apple cider, pumpkin pie, turkey with all the fixings, and other delicious, cold-weather foods.

Send Out Invitations Early

Last, but not least, make sure to send out your invitations early. Many people travel in the fall, especially as it gets closer to the holiday season.

An outdoor fall wedding can be a wonderful experience, but it does take some special planning to make sure it goes off without a hitch.

About the Author: Kendrick Kings and his wife had an outdoor wedding during the early fall months and enjoyed every moment of the planning. They recommend checking out OC corporate events and locations to find the perfect view for your special day.

5 Ways To Reduce Your Food Bill

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There are 1001 different ways to reduce your food bill. However, in this article the focus is on the 5 most practical ways to save on food expenses. Of course, food prices have really shot up in the recent past. The economy is contacting and households around the country have to come to terms with such words as budgets, cut back, necessities among others.

Anyhow, food is one of the necessities one cannot do without. As a result it takes up the larger part of most expenses. The great thing, however, is that it is possible to use the following 5 ways to reduce your food bill.

1. Stick to a Food List

As you are shopping for groceries, you will come across lots of food that are on offer. Additionally, you will be tempted to buy some foods simply because they look tasty. This is especially the case when you go shopping on an empty stomach.

Therefore, the best thing you can do to cut back on these unnecessary expenses is to create a workable food list. This list should be adhered to irrespective of the temptations that come your way.

Also, you should never do your shopping if you are feeling hungry. In fact, research shows that this is one of the leading causes of impulsive shopping. Once you manage to stick to a list and shop on a full stomach, it will be easier for you to make cut backs on your food expenses.

2. Walk Away from Popular Food Brands

As you select food items, you will be tempted to pick those ones that have popular brand names. This is due to the unfounded belief that these products taste better or are more attractive due to their glossy adverts.

However, it is more prudent to stick to regular food and product names. This could help you save anything between 10 and 15 percent every time you go shopping. After all, it is common knowledge that in- house items cost considerably less than other popular brands. In a couple of cases, also, most of these products are manufactured within the same factories so you will still get high quality irrespective of the brand you choose.

3. Accumulate Loyalty Points

Most food stores will award loyalty points/ cards. Therefore, you can make great savings by building up on these points over a couple of months and weeks after which you will get good cash back or amazing discounts in return for the points.

4. Stock up on Lentils and Pulses

Lentils and dried pulses can be used to bulk out on meals. They cost considerably less than other foods within the same groups. Therefore, they will increase your protein intake without the added cost.

5. Use Discounts

Always double check any bill you get after buying food to see if you got a discount. Supermarkets will often advertise deals and discounts at the point of sale. Unfortunately, most shoppers do not enquire after these discounts meaning that they miss out.

All in all, the above 5 ways to reduce your food bill should work well for you irrespective of your physical location. Use them and you will end up making greater savings while sill eating right and living healthy.

Roger is a contributor for ppi claims where you can get some tips to help you manage your finance better.

10 Cost Saving Ideas to decorate on a budget

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Wouldn’t it be lovely if we had as much money as necessary to decorate our homes any way we’d like? Unfortunately, for most of us, we have to scrimp and save for the furniture that we really want in order to make our homes feel comfortable and inviting.

While you’re waiting to win the lottery or for a designer friend to find you some cast of bargains there are a few things you can do on your own – inexpensively – to make your home beautiful.

1. Use a few splashes of bold color in your decor. Now I don’t mean go nuts and paint your whole room red and only have red furnishings. No … I’m suggesting that if you’re current decor is basically earth tones, perhaps white or beige carpeting and white or cream walls and beige or light brown colored furniture then a splash of bright bold color would brighten that room right up.   It’s as easy as simple painting one accent wall a bright color, or adding a large colorful painting or print to the room.  You could even buy a colorful throw rug or area rug to the room.  It will make a difference.

2.  You can make or buy textured or colorful throw pillows for the room that you are decorating.  Pillows of different shapes, sizes, colors and textures can add to a rooms look and feel.

3.  If your furniture is a worn and you can’t afford to replace it at this time you might look into purchasing slip covers to give your couch or chair a new look or to cover both pieces to unify their look.  There are some very cool slipcovers out there these days. You can really change the look of your furniture.

4.  If you want to give the room a touch of romance or a softer look adding a few well placed candles is a budget worthy idea.  If you enjoy scented candles you might use one or two in the room.

5.  There’s nothing wrong with going out to yard or garage sales to do a little shopping. You can find some lovely lamps, light fixtures, side tables, coffee tables and other furnishings. Sure sometimes you might have to clean them up, sand or paint them but it’s worth the work.

6. Just cleaning up a room can make a huge difference! You might decide that it doesn’t need a change in decor once you clean and organize the clutter if it was really bad.  Perhaps purchase some wicker baskets or hideaway storage boxes for your nick nacks and mementos.

7.  One thing that I enjoy doing when I’m bored with the look of a room is to simply rearrange the furniture. It’s amazing how moving a bed or a chair from one side or a room to another can make a room feel so different.

8.  If the room you are redecorating has a TV perhaps think about putting the TV in a cabinet so that it’s not the first thing everyone sees when they walk into the room.  TV’s seem to become the highlight of the room that they are in and frankly they aren’t all that pretty, are they. Find ways to minimize their impact on the room they are in if possible.

9. If you’re feeling creative you might try a new painting technique or applying a wall covering to either all of the walls of the room or as I stated above just one accent wall in the room.  There are many different types of painting techniques that you can try. There are even some interesting plastering techniques such as Venetian plaster which makes an interesting feature wall.

10.  If the room is dark or if you have dark curtains or drapery by all means open it up and let the light in. Your room will feel larger when you open things up.  Now if you don’t like bare windows try sheer curtains, they will allow quite a bit of light in and still give you that nice open feeling.

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