There are big advantages to bartering. It’s fun, as anyone raised on Swap shop will attest. It clears your shelves, as your rubbish becomes somebody else’s treasure. It’s also a green way to reuse products… we throw away an awful lot of stuff that’s still perfectly serviceable. And it costs nothing – you don’t need to put in hours of work to earn stuff (and pay tax in the process). You simply trade what you already have.

Check out swapz, the UK’s largest and best established swap site. Crucially with these sites you need critical mass – lots of people swapping in other words, as that way you’re more likely to find the stuff you want. Swapz has everything from Beanie Babies to laptop computers.

Related: www.swapz.co.uk

Tags: Swap shop, personal finance tips

Symantec voucher codes July 2008: A trio of useful Symantec voucher codes have popped up. For those of you who don’t know (you should) Symantec is one of the prime providers of virus protection software out there. A terrifying number of internet users are flying blind by not using any virus protection software, which is not only stupid it’s irresponsible – as you not only infect yourself but can pass on infections to other people (think of it as the online version of the measles vaccination).

Anyhow, there’s even less reason to not be protected now, as there are some good discounts to be had. Here are the Symantec voucher codes July 2008. You’ll get 15% off Norton Internet Security 2008 from Symantec when using Coupon Code 15NIS08. You’ll get 10% off Norton 360 Version 2.0 at Symantec when using Coupon Code 10N36008. And you’ll get 10% off any order at Symantec when using Coupon Code 10offsid.
For more on Symantec voucher codes July 2008 and lots of other great voucher code deals, check back on walletwatchershow.com regularly … there’s usually something new every day. You can check out voucher codes archive here. And don’t forget, please let us know if they worked.

Tags: voucher codes, online discount codes, discount coupons

Call it weltschmertz, call it morbid curiosity, but the propertysnake.co.uk website is horribly fascinating for us observers of the UK property market. Like watching a car crash in slow motion one knows one should turn away … but the eyes are irresistibly drawn back. The site does one thing only – charts individual price falls on properties in your (and every other) area of the UK. Prices are given, then percentage falls, then the stages of price fall (£50,000 in May another £30,000 in June and so on), with the highest percentage fallers at the top (currently there are properties nudging 50% falls). You can sort by biggest fall, area, most expensive to cheapest and so on.

Propertysnake is a staggeringly simple website, with a great deal of computing power behind it, and is made possible by the powerful database accessing abilities and fast data transfer speeds of the modern internet. It’s also made possible by the critical mass of properties on the agents’ sites these days (and also on the aggregated sites, such as rightmove.co.uk and findaproperty.co.uk). Propertysnake can hit those sites and, courtesy of the database, spot changes, calculate and rank. Unsurprisingly, it’s not proved a big hit with estate agents, and Propertysnake has been threatened with legal action, which is why many of the properties onsite no longer have photos. But for getting the ‘feel’ of price movements in an area, it’s unbeatable. Also note that Propertysnake lists changes in asking prices, not prices achieved. For that you’ll have to go to the Land Registry Figures.

For those optimists calling the bottom of this particular asset price slide, we’d caution there’s a lot more pain yet. I spoke to an estate agent this week who, yet again, told me this ‘credit crunch thing’ was nonsense dreamed up by pessimist journalists. If I were a fortune teller, I might point out that the stock markets generally give a good six month lead on the financial health of the economy – with the FTSE 100 dropping below 5300 on 11 July, to its lowest close in nearly three years, I’d guess that there’s more pain to come for the economy, and thus the UK housing market. Keep watching that propertysnake!

Tag: Propertysnake.co.uk, credit crunch, UK house prices

More on property investment.

Papa Johns voucher codes July 2008: Papa Johns is one of the largest pizza delivery operations in the United States, and fast expanding into the UK. Much as we’d like to advise you to tuck into your tofu and hemp salad, we have to admit they are rather delicious … there are just some things Americans do better, though whether this is a pizza a Neapolitan would recognise is something else again. They are keen for us to start sampling so they’ve joined the voucher code party. Go to the checkout at the Papa Johns website and type in JULYBOGOF and, we think you can work this one out actually, you ‘buy one get one free’.

Papa Johns website is at www.papajohns.co.uk. As ever, these Papa Johns voucher codes July 2008 are strictly delimited by time and availability, and sometimes, sad to say, these codes don’t work at all. So we’d like to hear back from you. Did it work? Did it work again? Did you like the pizza? Can we have some?

For more on Papa Papa Johns voucher codes July 2008 and lots of other great voucher code deals, check back on walletwatchershow.com regularly … there’s usually something new every day. You can check out voucher codes archive here.

Tags: voucher codes, online discount codes, discount coupons

Get free trades from Paddy Power: a lot of independent traders are staying out of the stockmarkets just now, spooked by the ‘will it won’t it’ behaviour of the FTSE 100 in particular. Over the last few days, the FTSE has repeatedly flirted with the psychological barrier of 5400 points, dipping below for coming back up for air. It’s not all bad (honestly), as there are some good deals on offer for us small fry. In particular, lots of the online trading companies are offering freebies just now, as they feel the chill too.

A very good one caught my eye today, with big online bookie Paddy Power offering you £75 in free trades to sign up for an account. You can get free trades from Paddy Power by going to their website and fulfilling certain conditions (but of course).

You have to place €250 (£170 in your account) and place four trades by 31 July 2008 and then you’ll get free trades from Paddy Power to the value of €150 or £75. Incidentally, if you’re a nervous newbie to training, the Irish bookmaker has a pretty good demonstration account to get you started. Trade for imaginary money – great fun if seriously addictive, and definitely the best place to learn.

Tags: spread betting

See our Walletwatcher financial deal of the week archive for more great deals.

The nice people at Pluto Books were so delighted with our review of the new Graham Turner book (see Review of The Credit Crunch by Graham Turner) that they’ve offered us a voucher code so you can get the book cheaper. Your Credit Crunch by Graham Turner voucher code is below.

Exclusive offer for Wallet Watchers readers. To receive 20% off the RRP of the book go to www.plutobooks.com and enter code PLUCRUNCH. A very good deal. Go to Walletwatcher for more regularly updated voucher codes. Related posts: Voucher codes and coupons

Tags: Online discounts, Free stuff

How to lose money on spread betting. This would be under reverse tips rather than tips right? I’ve read twice in the last week that 90 per cent of spread betting accounts lose money. Twice the information has come from insiders, people who work for the dealing firms who run spread betting accounts. Most spread betting accounts are with retail customers, individuals trying to game the markets. These are people who presumably are interested in shares, who think they know something about shares. Also, bear in mind that spread betting, while a very risky business, isn’t the same as doing the lottery or betting on the dogs or the horses. The first we can say is strictly luck, nobody’s going to argue with that; the second is so difficult to predict as to be a mug’s game … even the third is hugely loaded against you unless you have real expertise and inside knowledge. But the stockmarkets?

Now I know there are some who’ll say that the markets are a fix to compare with anything that goes on in sports, but who would be losing money shorting the FTSE? Or bank shares dropping? In recent months these have been as close to a one-way bet as you’ll get. What particular brand of reverse alchemy do people have to be losing 90 per cent of the time. And let’s get this straight – 90 per cent of spread bets aren’t losing bets, if they were the bookies would be changing the odds (or narrowing the spreads in this case) in our favour, because they don’t want us to lose 90 per cent of the time, they want the odds to shade them, so you keep coming back and spending money … think of the way fruit machines are set up in pubs. Without the regular kerching and clatter of coin spewing out, nobody is enticed to play. It’s 90 per cent of accounts that are losers. How to lose money on spread betting? The answer is simple according to the experts.

Too many bets, too many trades, too few people putting stop losses in place and sticking with them. Too little attention paid to moving those stops … so people are often closed out at the wrong time. Too little research done on companies you’re putting the bets on. Forget not catching a falling knife … some people are betting on the knife once it’s hit the floor and wondering why it won’t drop any further. In short, the way you lose on any share trading – too much impulse and not enough research – that’s how to lose on spread betting. Buck the trend, do your research and learn how to win your spread bets.

Read more financial tips at Walletwatchershow.com

Centrebet: free football shirt with £40 bet: This is basically the same as a ‘matched bet’ deal (because a football shirt costs aroun d£40), but worth it if you’re placing bets on Centrebet anyway. I quote the site:

Simply open an account with Centrebet. Then, place a £50/€40 bet on the WINNER of one of the following for the 2008/09 season: English Premiership; Spanish La Liga; Italian Serie A; German Bundesliga; Australian A-League; Norwegian Tippeligaen; Scottish Premier League; Danish SAS Ligaen or UEFA Champions League. Once you’ve placed your bet, Centrebet will give you a free official team shirt of your choice!

And restrictions on this Centrebet: free football shirt with £40 bet offer:

This offer is only available to new Centrebet clients who successfully open an account, enter the correct promotional code and place a bet on an outright winner of either the English Premiership, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga, Norwegian Tippeligaen, Champions League or Australian A-League
This offer is valid from 04/07/2008 to 30/09/2008.
This offer is only available to new Centrebet clients. Existing Centrebet clients are not eligible to participate in this promotion.
This offer is only available to residents of Europe and Australia
Your voucher code will be emailed within TWO working days of registering your account and successfully placing your qualifying bet successfully.
Voucher amounts: UK = £43.74, Europe = £47.99, Germany = €73.90 Australia = £49.99
All bets submitted are at the discretion of the bookmaker.
Not to be used in conjunction with any other offer.
Only one promotion per account and household.
Bonuses and Free Bets are intended for recreational gamblers only. Professional players or players considered to be abusing the bonus system by any means may have bonuses revoked at the discretion of Centrebet management.

Go to Walletwatcher for more regularly updated voucher codes. Related posts: Voucher codes and coupons

Tags: Online discounts, Free stuff

You can take all the digital photos you want, but they’re not a lot of use until you get the things printed out are they? Yet again we confront the limitations of new media and return to the good old days. Yes, call me a fogey but we’re talking paper, and few people put your photos onto paper as effectively as Truprint. These Trupint voucher codes will save you some money, while keeping granny and granddad happy … they really DON’T want to look at your photos in a slideshow on your laptop and you know it.

It’s not just paper in fact. Go to the Truprint website and you’ll find they’ll put your photos on mousemats, greetings cards, jigsaw puzzles, calendars … even photographic paper. At checkout, enter Truprint voucher code MEMORIES for 25% off photobooks (you have to buy two or more). Enter Truprint voucher code PRINTSALE for 50% off all prints.

A very good deal. Go to Walletwatcher for more regularly updated voucher codes. Related posts: Voucher codes and coupons

Tags: Online discounts, Free stuff

Spending money on holiday can be an expensive business – the problem is you often don’t know how much you’ve been charged for those cash withdrawals from the hole in the wall until you get home. Typically you get stung twice – first with a transaction charge (why?), secondly with a poor exchange rate. Alternatives to now have been travellers’ cheques (a nuisance to change and not very flexible), or changing all your money before you left home (not a good idea to wander around Naples with a thousand euro in your back pocket. The new generation of currency cards is a much tidier idea, and the FairFX.com currency card
is hard to beat.

Here’s how it works. The FairFX.com currency card is a debit card, but one you charge up with currency before you leave home. You can get one for euros or US dollars, and it will cost you £9.95 to sign up (though moneysupermarket.com are doing a deal where you get the card free if you sign up before 31 August. FairFX says it delivers savings of 10 per cent against cash bought from a bureau de change and 5 per cent against ATM withdrawals or buying things on your debit or credit card. Cash withdrawals cost €1.50 or $2. Another bonus – exchange rates are fixed when you load the money on, not when you spend it, so you can lock in a good exchange rate if you’re smart on your timing.

The reason we like it is that FairFX says it aims to undercut major rival CaxtonFX at all times. Not written in stone, but the FairFX.com currency card is certainly cheap compared to the competition, some of whom run rates of 4 per cent. Of course you could get burned by exchange rates turning against you, and note that the money on the card doesn’t earn interest, so you’re losing on money that could have been ticking up interest on deposit. Beautifully simple and secure though, chip and pin protected, and a good option for youngsters setting out on their gap year travels perhaps?