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Useful trade links and information resources
Company and private cars
There is a new system for calculating the financial benefit of
having a company car. The Benefit in Kind (BIK) charge for company
cars registered from 1 January 1998 will be calculated as a percentage
of the car's price and linked to the CO2 emissions. The CO2 figure
will remain unaltered for the life of the vehicle. The CO2 value
for models registered since March 2001 is derived from the Vehicle
Registration Document (V5). The existing reductions for business
mileage and older cars will no longer apply. You can find all the
details in the relevant section of the Inland Revenue (http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/cars/).
It presents general information on company cars and vans, the car
fuel benefit for 2002-03, the calculation of company car benefits,
advisory fuel rates for company cars and information on Green Travel.
CO2 emissions data for company cars can also be found in the relevant
section of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (http://www.smmt.co.uk/co2/co2intro.asp).
The site offers a search facility providing CO2 values for all cars
registered since January 1997. You only need to enter relevant details
(manufacturer, model, fuel and transmission type, engine, etc.)
from pulldown menus to obtain the CO2 level for your car (in g/km).
Finally, if you want to find out the new "vehicle excise duty"
(VED) rates for private cars, go to the Vehicle Certification Agency
(http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk).
There, you will find the VED Calculator, which is useful and straightforward
to use. You simply need to enter the fuel type and transmission,
manufacturer, model and Euro emission standard (the current standard
is Euro III) to obtain your VED. It's that easy!
Want a (stolen) motor?
Did you know that every year over 6 million used cars are sold,
and that 30% of them have something to hide? That's bad luck if
the car you've just bought is one of those 30%... An alternative
is to visit the HPI website http://www.hpicheck.com
before you buy - HPI is the UK's leading independent vehicle information
body. HPI checks vehicles against the Stolen Vehicles Register,
the Condition Alert Register (to avoid buying a patched-up write-off!),
the comprehensive information at the DVLA (Driver & Vehicle
Licensing Agency) that includes the identity of 60 million vehicles
- make, model, engine size, mileage data, ownership information,
etc., the Security Watch (a register of vehicles that are at high
risk of fraud or theft) and more. HPI offers two levels of service:
HPI Filter (if you haven't found a car yet but are making a list
of cars to view - £12.50 for up to three vehicles) and HPI
Check (if you have found a car but don't know whether it's safe
to buy, or if you can't decide what car to choose - £35.95,
including guarantee). If you carry out an HPI Check within 30 days
after the HPI Filter, you only pay £23.25.
Travel info
Infotravel.co.uk,
the "United Kingdom Travel Directory", has gathered over
1,000 pointers to UK travel sites and arranged them into a thematic
directory. The topics covered include accommodation (travel and
accommodation directories), airports (links to airport guides, flight
schedules, etc.), B&B (mostly links to individual guesthouses,
but a few general guides as well), hostels and hotels, organisations
(including tourist boards), timeshares, villas abroad, etc. However,
the one feature that would make this directory a premier resource
is sadly missing, namely a keyword search function.
No cheques please
Nochex http://www.nochex.com
is a revolutionary service that lets you e-mail money. The principle
is (relatively) simple: you should first open a free account with
Nochex. Then you can load money from your bank account into your
Nochex account or receive money from other users. Registration,
sending, receiving and requesting money are all free, whilst loading
money into, or withdrawing money from, the bank, costs 99 pence
per operation. For example if you load 50 pounds, this will cost
99 pence, but you can send 10 pounds to five people free of charge.
The only requirement is that you have a debit card. The advantage
of this system is that you don't have to give other people your
credit-card details, only your e-mail address and the amount they
can collect from your account - all the rest happens via Nochex.
It's ideal for single payments such as purchases on auction sites.
Credit-worthy?
Checkmyfile.com,
an initiative by Credit Reporting Agency Limited, has two main functions:
to help individuals check their own credit files and to enable businesses
to check credit files online. The full Checkmyfile service is fee-based,
but you can obtain a free credit score calculated by the information
you provide. What's more, you can use this free service as often
as you like. In addition, if you want to buy a second-hand car and
don't like the idea of it being a stolen one, Checkmyfile also provides
online HPI (the UK's used car information service) checks. It costs
£12.50 for two vehicles.
OHMS: Online - Her Majesty's Service
Government departments have launched websites so Tony, Gordon,
Alan and co are only a click away - but do they give us what we
need?
Start at the Government Information System (http://www.open.gov.uk),
which has a nifty A-Z index of pointers to related sites. If you
want your data raw rather than analysed or spun, try the Stationery
Office (http://www.the-stationery-office.co.uk)
for links to official documents and a database of HMSO titles.
Online medical help
The Department of Health site (http://www.doh.gov.uk)
includes a useful list of telephone help-lines (e.g. blood donors
and Aids guidance) and information on health issues, for example
economy class syndrome. It also features waiting list details and
tables of how well hospital trusts perform. There is also an online
advice service, NHS Direct (http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk)
while the NHS site itself (http://www.nhs.uk)
features details on "out of hours" pharmacies across the
UK.
All things financial
While the HM Treasury site (http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk)
is informative, the Inland Revenue site (http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk)
- with information on tax coding and self-assessment (with downloadable
forms) - and Valuation Office (http://www.voa.gov.uk)
- with information on council tax and business rates - are aimed
at consumers. With the arrival of the euro, the euro site (http://www.euro.gov.uk)
is invaluable. As well as practical information on how the single
currency will impact your business and what you can do to prepare
yourselves now it has arrived, you can even download the euro symbol
- € - for your PC, Mac or in Adobe Post Script! And the Stamp
Office (http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/so)
lists those "disadvantaged areas" that will benefit from
changes to Stamp Duty on property sales, making it cheaper to buy
houses.
Euro converter
Like it or not, the euro is a fact. Fortunately, there are dozens
of online tools that can help you convert pounds into the currency
of "euroland" and vice versa. A simple tool is X-Rates
(http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html).
It sports a pleasant lay-out and provides historical graphs on selected
currencies. But even more versatile conversion tools - not only
for the euro but for all other currencies worldwide - are FXTop
Currency Converter (http://fxtop.com/en/adv.htm),
with currency rates being.
Over at the DTI
The Department of Trade and Industry website (http://www.dti.gov.uk)
has been heavily revamped since our last look. It has sections on
business support, consumers and employment relations (covering issues
such as maternity leave and discrimination, redundancy arrangements,
part-time work, the national minimum wage, etc.). It also has advice
on the suspected threats of contaminated packages as well as issues
like e-commerce and dodgy business opportunities.
Office of Fair Trading (http://www.oft.gov.uk)
and the UK Court Service
(http://www.courtservice.gov.uk).
Fax your MP
If you want to contact your local MP on general problems (taxes,
pensions and national insurance, immigration), you can send them
a free fax via Fax Your MP? Just enter your postcode and you'll
be shown details on your local MP (including links to their speeches
in Parliament), plus a box where you can type your message. To avoid
abuse, you have to enter a valid e-mail address. A preview of your
fax will be forwarded to this address first; this mail contains
a URL you have to visit before the fax is actually sent. You might
even receive a reply …
http://www.faxyourmp.com
Royal Mail
Royal Mail http://www.royalmail.com,
fka Consignia fka Royal Mail, presents an easy-to-navigate site
offering lots of practical information and tools, which are all
readily accessible via the Quick Links drop-down menu or the tabs
at the top of the page. The Postcode Finder helps you find a postcode
on the basis of town, street, number and building/business name,
whilst the Address Finder does the opposite. There's a database
of 27 million addresses, and you can make 20 searches in 24 hours
free of charge. The addresses found come with ready-made address
labels and a detailed street map. You can track parcels through
the online Track & Trace system, and there's a user-friendly
Postal (charges) Calculator. Of course, all the other Royal Mail
services are there - finding a Post Office branch, moving home,
money & banking, phone services, special deliveries, international
mail... - and stamp collectors are catered for in Stamps and Collectibles.
Finding a lawyer
A good starting point is the Just Ask! website, (http://www.justask.org.uk),
the Community Legal Service facility, with links to 300-plus sites.
It has a postcode-searchable directory of firms so you can track
down specialists near your home, and it says whether they do Community
Legal Service Fund or Criminal Defence Service work (which replaced
Legal Aid in criminal cases). Law on the Web (http://www.lawontheweb.co.uk)
is a great portal with links to a variety of law sites offering
forms and templates, plus links to law firms on the Web. Even more
useful is its online litigator section, with solicitors that will
handle any claims online.
Online advice
Some sites offer a mix of free and fee-paying advice, with general
principles spelt out, but you have to pay for more specific advice.
Though it has free items, the main content of Freelawyer (http://www.freelawyer.co.uk)
is fee-paying. The site has a solicitor-finder, as well as a useful
costs estimator that will suggest how much it would take for a lawyer
to follow your case to court. Alternatively, you can get counsel's
advice (fees £25-£75). Legalshop.co.uk (http://www.legalshop.co.uk)
offers fixed-price legal advice on a variety of subjects, with a
500-750 word reply containing advice and potential solutions drafted
by solicitors or barristers within three working days. All you have
to do is mail your question. Fees start at £35 for personal
injury advice rising to £85. Legal Advice Online (http://www.legal-advice-online.co.uk)
offers a similar service with fees starting from £39.99.
Married couples with relationship problems could take a
look at Divorce-Online (http://www.divorce-online.co.uk).
As well as a guide to the legal process, the site sells document
packs for the DIY-ers, plus a 365-day telephone support service
for £100. For businesspeople, Lawrite (http://www.lawrite.org.uk)
offers legal and HR products, as well as a subscriber service for
24-7 on-call legal advice.
Free information
Compactlaw (http://www.compactlaw.co.uk)
is essentially a site selling legal forms - wills, tenancy agreements
etc. - but it also offers free DIY advice on a host of subjects
(though if you ring the help line, premium rate telephone charges
apply).
If you want face-to-face advice, the National Association of Citizens
Advice Bureaux (http://www.nacab.org.uk)
will at least help you to locate the nearest office.
TUC Online. (http://www.tuc.org.uk)
and ACAS (http://www.acas.org.uk)
offer an in-depth look at workplace issues and advice for workers
who feel they have a grievance, and who want to take things further.
Concerns about working safety can be initially addressed at the
Health and Safety Executive site (http://www.hse.gov.uk).
Another source of free legal information is the host of government
websites. A search of UK government sites on Yahoo yields over 300
departmental websites, including the Office of Fair Trading (http://www.oft.gov.uk)
and the UK Court Service (http://www.courtservice.gov.uk).
In addition to its other functions, the latter advises on wills
and probate, as well as providing a free downloadable forms section
to help with DIY legal actions, for example, documents required
to show you have served divorce papers on someone, or the papers
to bring a small claims action.
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