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For years I have campaigned for the inclusion of ‘personal finance’ into the National Curriculum. It is tragic to think that our youth are now expected to stay on at school till they are 18, an age when they can legally sign a contract, without the slightest knowledge as to how the finance systems work and how to manage their debt.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

They are seduced into taking out loans and HP for all sorts of goods from phones and computers to cars and even mortgages without fully understanding the commitment they are entering into and the consequences.

In my book Car Finance – A Simple Guide I have a whole section relating to ‘when things go wrong’. It shows you what your rights are and how to deal with debt, something that most lenders would prefer you didn’t know. But it is important that everyone knows, especially school leavers.

So I am delighted that personal finance has now been included in the new National Curriculum for England. This move means that financial education will be included in Mathematics and citizenship education lessons in all maintained secondary schools from September 2014.

This will make a huge difference to the future lives of millions of youngsters. The only downside is that it isn’t compulsory in all schools. Academies and free schools are not bound by the National Curriculum, we need to work on them to complete the circle and encompass all of our youth.

In my opinion financial health is as important to kids as physical health, both can destroy you if you don’t take good care of it.

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I have to say that my enquiry levels are up a little at a time when I normally expect them to be dropping off as we find ourselves in the midst of the holiday period. I must have had a million ‘out of office’ bouncebacks following deal of the week last week so it isn’t the fact that many aren’t taking holidays so maybe it is that shard of light we’ve all been waiting for, moving us up from a glimmer of light.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

OK I lied about the number of bouncebacks, maybe a million is a bit of an over estimate but the point is the same. I then read that July saw the fastest growth in the service sector since late 2006.

Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ index for the UK Service Sector climbed to its highest since December 2006. Underlying demand was stronger with market conditions improving both home and abroad.

They pointed to good weather and a pick up in the housing market as reasons why the upward trend continued. New business growth lead to an increase in backlogs with the highest backlog of work reported since February 2000.

July’s survey marked the 7^th month of growth and with payroll numbers increasing also the panellists suggested there are plenty of reasons to start feeling a little more optimistic about the future as businesses start to make longer term plans. Hear hear to that one!

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• Growth of services sector bodes well for economy (thetimes.co.uk)

Call me old fashioned but I still find it amazing how easily individuals part with their personal details to companies they know nothing about. I write about this time and again and still people are dopey enough to part with every piece of information a crook needs to open a bank account in your name or take out a credit card.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

If I wanted details from a number of high net worth individuals I would offer a great car deal on say a BMW X5 or M3, either car for say £299 + VAT per month. Absolutely impossible to get to those figures. I would then set up a dummy web site and wait for the enquiries to flood in.

I would have a very believable person answering the phone explaining how the boss has committed to a number of cars in order to achieve the very low rates on offer, all we need to do is take a finance application from them and away we go.

I would ask for some proofs such as a copy of a driving licence and passport along with a few bills and for good measure a copy of the front and back of a credit card. Oh and by the way last 3 months bank statements wouldn’t go amiss when applying for credit!

It would be that simple as people are greedy, they want everything on the cheap and that is what the crooks rely upon. Oh and by the way the scenario I described isn’t far fetched, it actually happened!

This leads me to the latest figures released by fraud prevention service, CIFAS. In the first 5 months of this year nearly 60,000 people were victims of identity fraud. There were more than 46,000 cases of impersonation over the period where fraudsters used individual identities to open new accounts.

They also showed that more than 13,500 were victims of ‘takeover’ when an existing account is broken into and hijacked. Around 96,000 confirmed frauds were reported to CIFAS in the first 5 months of this year.

By the way the identity theft I referred to earlier was on BMW X5’s, the same company carried out the same fraud when advertising Vauxhall Astras at well under the market rate, so you don’t have to be a high net worth individual.

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Tonight those lovely old ladies that present the BBC 1 programme called Rip Off Britain had a piece about Log Book Loans. In most respects, contrary to my usual complaints about the press and consumer programmes, it was surprisingly accurate but it missed a few very key pieces of information.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

First of all Log Book Loans, as pointed out in the programme, are what are known as Bills of Sale, regulated not by the Consumer Credit Act but The Bill of Sales Act 1878 and the amendment act of 1882. This Victorian act was created in the days when rights were with the lender, not with the borrower, as they are today.

A loan is secured against a car at a high APR, normally around 300% – 400%. In a case highlighted a lady had a recovery company call late at night to recover a car which they said had money owed on it on a Log Book Loan. The collection at a late hour was questionable but in a panic the lady handed over the keys and having already bought the car in good faith was later told that she would have to settle the outstanding finance if she wanted the car back.

The fact is that the finance company was acting within the law. In fact contrary to much of the rubbish written on the Internet, on various consumer sites, by people who have no knowledge of the law, they don’t even need a court order, which is the case once you have paid off a third of the debt on HP.

They can even enter your property, break down the doors of your garage and remove the vehicle. Unless of course, as one very smart chap suggested on a famous consumer blog, you remove the battery and two of the wheels! Nice idea unless you actually bought the car to drive – you dope!

The strange thing is that in 2010 the Government carried out a review of the act and amazingly did nothing to it leaving ‘innocent buyers’ in the cold. If you buy a car on HP or PCP, i.e. a loan secured against the car, and you buy the car not knowing that the car had finance secured against it, having asked the owner, title still passes to you as an ‘innocent buyer’.

So until log book loans raised their ugly head you didn’t need to fork out for an HPI check that tells you if finance is secured upon the car. The HPI guarantee covers you up to £30,000 against losses as a result of the finance not being recorded.

This was in fact a bit of a sleight of hand because as a consumer you were covered up to £30,000 under the Consumer Credit Act anyway so when the debt collector comes calling for the £15,000 worth of finance outstanding on the car you bought and HPI save you this money they simply phone the HP company and explain that you were an innocent buyer and the finance company, in most instances, will simply go walkies. But now that you have log book loans recorded also we are in a different ball game.

It is now worth paying for an HPI check (the full online check) if you are to protect yourself against the fraudulent selling of a car to you that has a log book loan secured upon it. What they didn’t make at all clear in the programme was that you should never simply hand over keys to anyone who turns up at your door with a piece of paper, that could be a forgery, saying they are the owners of the car.

And if the paperwork does not mention ‘bill of sale’ then the chances are that they are trying to recover a car that was on HP or PCP and as long as you don’t hand anything over you will be considered as an innocent buyer of the car and entitled to keep it. Once you forfeit the car you give up your rights.

Remember, if you feel at all intimidated call the police. I award 8 out of 10 to the kindly ladies of Rip Off Britain.

Are Ya Thirsty (Photo credit: Roy Montgomery)

As the weather continues to keep us in our shorts and the ice cream salesmen wring their hands with glee how are you keeping your drinks and food cool when taking the family to the beach or the park. The latest range of cool boxes allow you to keep everything cool whilst in the car via the car’s electrics. You can normally plug the unit into the mains then when you get into the car plug it into one of the auxiliary outlets in the back of the car or in the boot. These types of cool boxes don’t come cheap but could save a fortune in cold drinks when out. Auto Express have tested the best of the bunch and found that the Campingaz PowerBox 28L Deluxe priced at £89.95 to be the best. The capacity was good and the design of the inside made it one of the best to store cans and food. It also had a neat battery monitor in the plug. In second place and recommended came the Sealey 22L Cool Bag 12v. More of a bag than box it has non chilled pockets for items you don’t want cooled, maybe fruit and utensils. Priced at £50.34 it was good value albeit smaller than the winner. Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back. Don’t forget that with these units they are not refrigerators, they take time to cool so would benefit if the food and drink you put into the box is chilled already. Having said that the Rolls Royce of those tested, the Waeco Tropicool TC-21 will cool much lower than others and it ca also be used to heat. Good use of the 21 litres capacity made it a favourite of the judges. The cost is £169. Finally if there is a large group of you then you may want to consider the 40 litre Halfords Electric Coolbox. Because of its size it is fitted with wheels and a nice feature was the ability to set the level of temperature reduction. There is no power light or switch and at £129.99 it was expensive although, at the time of writing, there was a promotion on reducing the price to £79.99, that’s more like it.

Car Radio (Photo credit: nedrichards)

You know when you are on your computer and you start searching for holidays then by the magic of technology every time you open a page or carry out a search for something else you suddenly see holiday ads flash in front of you on the screen?

Well the same is about to happen on your radio. Instead of hearing general ads during programmes you will start to hear targeted ads.

Known as Aha Radio they say that instead of you hearing an ad for We Buy Any Car.Com you could hear we’ll buy your car for £8,900 based on your car being a 2007 BMW 320d with 80,000 miles on the clock, which of course is your car.

The new radio is in fact an Internet platform that will be bundled into infotainment systems in new cars from Porsche, Mazda and Ford so far. Their aim is to target the customers as they do on the Internet rather than scattergun.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

The ad breaks will be tailored based on the car you are driving, where you are going and where you are. For example it will detect that you are about to pass a branch of Starbucks and alert you to any deals going on at the time.

Safety experts might have something to say about this as it might prove to be a major distraction. A clever idea though. By Graham Hill Car Finance

Highways Agency Traffic Officers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It would seem that the Government is being a little bit sly. There is a bit of a hole into which the Government is going to have to pour a ton of cash before too long. In fact there isn’t just one hole there are thousands of them and not just any hole but pot holes.

It is a real headache for the Government but it will have to be addressed if the whole of the roads infrastructure isn’t to come to a halt or it causes a major catastrophe. The Government seems to have a solution because many of the delays don’t seem to be the lack of funds but unworkable civil service rules.

So Stephen Hammond, Transport Minister, announced that the Highways Agency will become a publically owned corporation. This move will free it from red tape and ensure funding going forward.

As a publically owned company it can be scrutinised more effectively. It can also offer better incentives to staff. The move is part of £28bn funding for UK roads and accounts for 8 years of funding up to 2021 ensuring at least 6 years of financial certainty.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

In the past funding has been on an annual basis, not good for making plans into the future, so this will allow them to plan ahead. The funding will also be protected against future governments wanting to cut this allocation.

There are fears that this could ultimately lead to the further privatisation of the Highways Agency and eventually lead to toll roads and other road charges so we need to keep an eye on this one!

Oh and in order to sort out the pot holes £12bn of the funding is set aside for re-surfacing and maintenance, half of which will be spent on Motorways and A Roads. It sounds good but as always the proof is in the eating. By Graham Hill Car Finance

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Anyone that knows me knows that I am a man of reasonable logic, I speak my mind and stir up debate. As was said about me in Motor Finance, ‘As readers of his work and this publication will know, Hill always has a contentious opinion and is one of the most recognisable people at industry events, if only for the argument going on around him.’

That last bit might have more to do with my Rod Stewart style hair cut but that aside I’m totally confused by the new Consumer Credit changes that will be imposed by the new body, known as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), in 2014. I have just read a long article in Credit Today in which it gives a flavour of the proposals and the responses from the industry.

Now we all know that the credit industry in this country, indeed around the world, is imperfect and in dire need of change. There is a huge education void, illustrated by the fact that my simple guide to car finance is still the only proper guide to car finance available in the UK when half the bloody population has a car and all of those cars will be financed at least once during their life.

I applauded the fact that many issues were to be addressed such as irresponsible lending and dubious collection techniques which are still being employed. But when the whole of the credit industry seems to agree that the new regulations are ‘nothing to worry about’ the new authority hasn’t done its job right.

For example Andrew Smith of debt management company, ClearDebt believes that the prudential capital requirement, if it goes ahead ‘Will not be too onerous’. Russell Hamblin-Boone, chief executive of the Consumer Finance Association is said to have uttered, ‘There is nothing in the consultation document that gives him cause for concern.’

With others making similar noises I question whether the Government has got it right? With the introduction of a new regulatory controller I would expect them all to be ‘bricking it’ not ordering up another G & T. I don’t intend giving details of the proposals unless I think they are relevant but I despaired at a comment from Hamblin-Boone, bear in mind that the changes to be introduced are described as a new ‘risk based approach to lending’.

OK, got that? Now to me that suggests that the lenders have been lending irresponsibly and instead of concentrating on collecting toxic debts a new approach to lending is required in order to prevent the bad debt in the first place.

Agreed? Hamblin Boone is reported as saying: When considering the impact on the wider market he believes that consumers are likely to remain unaffected by the regulator’s high risk/ low risk approach. He says, ‘I don’t think there will be any less provision of credit but consumers will have much more confidence in the providers of consumer credit.’

So summing up, huge amounts of money are about to be spent on a new regulatory body that will have zero effect on lending. What a load of bullsh*t. Watch out for the launch of my new revealing book APR – A Simple Guide. That will certainly throw the cat amongst the pigeons! By Graham Hill

Thanks to all these old people deciding to stay in work till they fall over the cost of business insurance is set to increase year on year.

The aging workforce will have an effect on many of the costs affecting businesses including the cost of their fleet insurance. According to Punter Southall Health and Protection Consulting for every year that the average age of the workforce rises, insurance will increase by between 7-10%.

It is estimated that two million people will be in work beyond 65 by 2022 which is more than double what it is now at 870,000. Other insurances will also be affected with income protection rising by an estimated 20% if it extends from 65 – 70!

Today I have my book launched as a paperback on Amazon. This simple guide,  covering how to prepare for finance through the different methods, including personal loans and leasing. Finally it explains what you should do if anything goes wrong. It is written in the same way as I explain it, simple and straight forward. It won’t win literary awards but it will help you to drive a better car than you ever thought possible. In order to buy a copy please click below:

Any questions you may have please let me know and I’ll do my best to help. Graham Hill