Zopa in the Sunday Times
Zopa is featured in an article in the Sunday Times today called “Become a Lender and Earn 15 %”.
Two statements about Zopa stand-out.
Zopa has provided £160m-worth of unsecured loans to consumers since it was launched in 2005 and accounts for more than 2% of such new lending.
If that is true, then they have become a significant player in the personal lending market. I checked with Zopa and they told me that it’s between one and two percent and sometimes up to the higher limit.
And.
Zopa said its default rate is 0.9% against an average 5% to 7% for high street banks.
I would go along with that as my default rate has not been at all high. In fact it’s significantly less than 0.9%.
BT Broadband/Vision and Virgin Media Compared
When I first moved, I went the Virgin Media route and subscribed to Sky Sports 1 and 2.
A couple of months ago, I threw the cable out, as Virgin Media couldn’t give me a working landline telephone.
I now have BT broadband, with which I use BT Vision to get the same Sky channels.
I don’t regret the changes one bit.
- BT is much cheaper. Not sure totally how much, as I haven’t had a bill with all my landline calls. It looks like it might be about £70 compared to £130 for Virgin.
- The BT service appears to be more reliable. Virgin cable seemed to go up and down like a whore’s drawers. Perhaps this was partly due to the state of their boxes in the street, which had had the doors removed.
- Since I signed up with BT, I think I’ve only had one spam e-mail or leaflet in the mail. Virgin still keep sending them, although in the last week, they seem to have stopped. Perhaps, they’ve got the message.
- With BT, if I lose broadband, I still have the TV without Sky through Freeview.
- I know this is personal taste, but I think the BT website is easier to use. The login is certainly better.
So bye-bye Virgin and never may you grace my door again.
I suspect though it will be all irrevelant in the future, who your broadband supplier is. You’ll get all your TV channels other than the free-to-air ones on subscription of some sort through it.
I suspect too, that you’ll be able to subscribe to advert-free versions of things like Sky. At a premium of course.
Banks and Trusteer
There was an article in The Times last Saturday talking about how some banks ask you to load software called Trusteer on your computer to protect yourself.
I won’t! And if my bank insists I do, there are plenty more other banks out there.
Just having the software on your machine, is an indication, that you may have secure data there.
All of my secure work is done on a machine, which is unattached to my network and nothing is written down, that would be any use to a criminal. That is unless he could find where my passwords are stored in my safe deposit box with C’s jewellery. And that is ten miles from where I live!
I’m not saying that I know more about security than banks, but I mistrust deals like this, especially, where keylogging is involved. The banks should follow Zopa’s lead and create an unbreakable and totally secure login, that is impossible for a criminal to use, as unless he is a mind reader, he won’t know answers to the questions they ask.
Masterseek Business Directory
I’ve had 52 e-mails from a group of spammers called the Masterseek Business Directory in the last 24 hours. They want me to pay $149, so that my web sites go in their business directory. There is an unsubscribe link, but I suspect that using it will just verify that the e-mail address was correct.
There is some more about this group of idiots here. He uses the well known advice concerning barge poles.
I have deleted them all.
The Zopa Login
Adnmittedly, I know the people at Zopa well, but is there a financial site, that has such a simple, foolproof and I think secure, login. All you need to remember is your e-mail address and password and know the answers to a set of personal questions, whose answers, most people would know about themselves.
So what would happen if you someone broke my login? They might find out how much I had invested, but they wouldn’t be able to withdraw any money without first setting up a link to their bank account and then authorising the link. Not something that is easily done without leaving a trail of evidence. I suspect too, that alarms would ring at Zopa.
Everybody, who designs a secure login could do no better, than build on the excellent work Zopa has done.
The Daily Express Annoys Their Jewish and Muslim Readers
According to the BBC this morning, the Express is giving away a voucher for a free gammon steak today.
I would link to the Express, but as when you access that website, it opens another window selling the viewer something he or she doesn’t want, I won’t. I wonder how many others hate that practice with as much venom as I do?
I did find the details on the excellent Money Saving Expert website. Here is what you get.
Just spotted the add in todays paper
Weekday paper is 45p, Saturday 70p, Sunday £1
Get from Budgens & Londis
Saturday – Gammon Steaks
Monday – Crumpets
Tuesday – Natural Yoghurt
Wednesday – Pack of Wagon Wheels
Thursday – Ocean Spray Cranberry & Blueberry Drink
Friday – Quaker Porridge Oats
What a wonderfully balanced diet! Especially for a coeliac like me. Cranberries are also banned if you’re on Warfarin.
They didn’t mention that you could tear the newspaper into squares and use it for toilet paper.
Project Management – NuLabor Style
When I read stories like this, I get very angry.
The new fire control centres didn’t benefit anybody and cost everybody in the UK ten pounds.
I hope the idiots who put this forward were fired. But I suppose if they were, they probably got a gold-plated pension.
I also hope that the company who didn’t deliver the computer system, don’t get another government contract! But they always do!
That Was Quick!
Yesterday at 16:26 I ordered a new laptop battery from Amazon. Just before 12:00 this morning, the door-bell rang and on checking through the window, I saw a courier with a box marked Amazon. The check was because I’d seen some Jehovah’s Wasters walking up and down the road and thought it was my turn to be annoyed. I get them usually once a week. We need a preference service where you can register to stop calls from these people.
The box contained the new battery and it’s now up and running and being used for this post.
Would anybody complain about that very speedy service?
BT Vision
I have just installed BT Vision.
It seems to work well and I’m just watching the cricket on Sky Sports 1.
Technically, I like the concept of watching most things free through Freeview and getting other things from broadband or by unlocking channels on Freeview. I think it is a concept that will grow like Topsy.
I know too, that I’m paying a lot less than I did for a poor service from Virgin.
A few points of comparison.
- I have Freeview television in my bedroom, so now I have the same channel numbers in my living room and my bedroom. I didn’t with Sky or with Virgin.
- Picture quality is good, but I have just fitted a new aerial.
- All the features like stop the picture and then contunue are there. Virgin may have had them, but I never found out how to use them. The designer of the Virgin box, was probably a games-optimised person, who didn’t understand logical system design for those who don’t and never will play games.
I’ll add to this list as time goes on. But I’m not regretting moving away from Virgin.
Was It The Cat?
UBS has discovered some unauthorised trading according to this report.
I’ve heard some interesting stories.
In one a trader typed in the value he wanted to trade. He then went home and left the computer switched on, with the value still there. The cleaner then dusted his desk and accidentally did the trade.
Or that’s what they think happened. Luckily the guy who sorted it out made a profit on the deal.
In another incident, it was the cat that stepped on the keyboard. Or that was the explanation to explain the loss!
In both cases though the software should have picked up the inactivity and shut the computer down.
The Anonymous Widower 