Personal Finance and Investing

One of the unusual aspects of Christmas shoppers is that they can often stay on budget and resist overspending all the way up to the last few days before Christmas. Then stores start putting on special sales with the sole purpose of luring shoppers into one last spending spree. Consumers can easily find themselves with charged up credit cards or low cash savings balances when they just can’t resist those last minute deals.

Did you know approximately 12% of shoppers wait until Christmas Eve to start shopping? Last minute shoppers are not new, but the stores are really working hard to convince people they need to shop until the last minute this year. W

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The government has stepped in and curbed the fees, rates and tactics that credit card companies can throw at consumers. But where is the all-important consumer responsibility?

The new credit card legislation, set to go into effect in February, is laden with plenty of rules and regulations that credit card companies must follow. From restricting college students’ access to credit cards to changing rules regarding interest rake hikes and due dates, the law is designed to help consumers better manage their debt.

Recognizing Personal Responsibility

However, don’t expect the government (or the credit card companies) to take the place of your personal responsibility as a consumer. If

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This is a busy time of year for everyone and the last thing on your mind is probably taking the time to complete a financial check up. However, the end of the year is one of the most important times to review your financial activity for the year and make sure you’re ready to get 2010 off to a good start. Many people make a lot of poor financial decisions during the holidays and they have to spend the next several months digging their way out of the hole that they have created for themselves. T

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The winter of traveller discontent continues with the announcement that Albury Travel Group has now also gone under. Albury traded under the names Libra Holidays, Argo Holidays and Jetlife, flying sun-hungry people to hotspots including Greece, Cyprus and Egypt’s Red Sea.

Only 100 travellers are stranded overseas but there are around 4,000 forward bookings that the group won’t be able to honour.

So what should you do if you’re affected by the collapse?

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