Sun burns John Lewis

HEATWAVE HITS JOHN LEWIS SALES

The Autumn heatwave knocked John Lewis's sales in the week to 1st October.

They were down 7.9% on last year, as shoppers stayed away to enjoy the sun.

Household budgets are under strain anyway so some will take John Lewis's "tough week" as a warning sign.

The department store chain said trade in the electrical, home and technology areas stuttered due to the impact of the weather.

Sales of autumn fashions were hit as well, though John Lewis is hoping that more people will grace its doors now that cold winds are starting to blow.

How people have been paying off debt

Given David Cameron's non-words about people paying off credit cards etc, here are some stats which show how consumer credit has shrunk.

The headline figure is the Bank of England's number for outstanding consumer credit, up to end of August.

It's the one which includes credit cards, personal loans and overdrafts, not mortgages.

The total was £209bn, a figure which has fallen steadily since it reached a high of £236bn in September, 2008, just before the recession struck.

Within that, outstanding credit card lending stood at £57bn, down from £62bn in January, 2010.

Other credit, including personal loans and overdrafts was at £152bn. It's been flattish this year, after peaking at £180bn in July, 2008.

From Bank of England

Should petrol be cheaper?

The price of Brent crude oil, which is followed as a benchmark across the world, was slipping closer to $100 today.

The cost of a barrel of crude for delivery in November (if you want it on your doorstep) reached a low of $100.34.

But what about the cost of fuel to fill up our cars?

The latest average price for unleaded petrol (from petrolprices.com) is 135.03p, while diesel is 139.72 a litre.

If you think that is high, it might stoke your anger to look back at fuel prices in February, the last time Brent actually closed a trading day below $100.

The average price reported by the AA for February was 128.88p for unleaded and 132.8p for diesel.

So today we are paying around 7p extra per litre.

Sun-fuelled cash machine scramble

CASH MACHINE BONANZA IN HOT WEATHER

Ice cream cones, beach towels and deck chairs - you need cash for them and last Friday saw a scramble for cash machines as Britons headed outside to enjoy the sun.

LINK, the UK cash machine network, says that Friday 30th September was the busiest day of the year so far for ATM withdrawals with £577million taken out.

It was the highest daily total since Christmas Eve 2010 and 14% higher than the equivalent day in 2010.

Credit easing...what?

The Chancellor has announced something called "credit easing". Er, what?

No, it's not quantitative easing, something the Bank of England does off its own bat (which is a bit like printing extra money).

Credit easing is a way of making it easier for businesses to borrow money if lending gets very difficult again, as a result of the Eurozone debt crisis.

In other words, if there's another credit crunch.

Companies raise billions of pounds by selling bonds or IOUs to investors and City firms. Bonds provide a method of borrowing money without taking out a bank loan.

But in a credit crunch few people want to lend so it's hard to raise the cash needed to keep going or expand.

That's where credit easing would come in.

The Treasury could direct the bank of England to buy company bonds, if the Eurozone crisis prompted banks over here to draw in their horns even further.

The strategy would make it easier for businesses to get credit. And there would be a small risk that the Treasury could lose money.

What about small businesses?

The suggestion is that banks would be encouraged to parcel up their small business loans into bonds, which the Bank would start buying as well.

More details likely in November.

What will the new £50 be like

The new £50 being issued on 2nd November will have the Industrial Revolution heroes Boulton and Watt on the reverse as the Bank of England explains.

But what else?

It'll be the same size as the existing £50 note.

It will have extra security features. The Bank is keeping mum on these. But each note tends to have something novel. The Adam Smith £20 of 4 years ago had a "see-through register", a series of coloured irregular shapes printed on the front and back which form the £ symbol if you look through the note.

So expect more bumpy lettering, very small lettering,  a metallic thread, watermarks and holographic images, plus something extra.

The Bank wants the new fifties to be more available and accepted in shops, hence the noise about extra security.

They had to take 300,000 counterfeit banknotes out of circulation last year.

There weren't significantly more forgeries of fifties than other notes. The problem is that fifties are worth so much more so traders are ultra-careful.

The tricks scamsters use to find you

My report on the rip-offs perpetrated on the elderly and disabled by some doorstep traders might raise this question in some minds: how do they know who to target and which doors to knock on?

Well here are some answers...

1. They look for telltale signs outside the house, such as grab rails or walking sticks.

2. They look at the electoral roll for names from a bygone era, such as Vera, Frank or May. Then they visit or phone.

3. They trade lists of likely names - suckers lists - with co-conspirators in the pub.

4. Some leave symbols outside houses to indicate to other scamsters whether the occupant is worth a try - bit like these. It could be a mark on the gatepost or a wall indicating that there is a single female inside, or a wealthy person or a good prospect.

Scary, isn't it?

What it means is that vulnerable people need to take special care not to let anyone in whom they don't know.

Relatives and friends should take note and help.