Get paid to check you own credit report

This post has two main points. The first is that you can check you own credit report online for Free and even get some money back for doing so.

Both Experian and Equifax will alow you to sign up online and check you credit report for free, the catch is that you have to SIGN UP to thier credit serivces and are given a free months trial. You are free to cancel this any time so its perfectly fine to check out your credit report and then just cancel the subscription with no charge at all.

The next part is the best bit, you can actually get paid for doing this as many of the cash back sites, such as the one i use www.quidco.com offer you anything up to £5 if you apply for your free credit report through thier site.

The other good thing about checking out you credit report online is that you can see all the details on your credit report and see if it’s all correct making it easier for you to apply for credit, such as mobile phone contracts. One interesting thing I found out by checking my report was that if I provided different variations of my home address I would get different results back. I live in  an apartment, with a apartment number, building name, building number and street name, so it’s quite a complicated address, if I provided different variations of the address I would get different results, some bank accounts appeared some were missing, it found my credit cards once but was missing on all the other reports,  some times it would pick up I was on the voters register, some times it didn’t.

It very interesting to know all this as you then know exactly what information to give to companies that check your credit score to make sure you get past ok and you can flag up any issues yu see with the credit agency, also getting the cash back for joining a free service was very nice.

Never Pay for Gym Membership

My gym membership runs out this week and I couldn’t be happier. It was stupidly expensive and a total waste of time. It was the first time I had joined a gym and the last. From now on i’ll exercise at home or go play sports or just go for a walk round the park. Most Gyms are a total rip off, if you can find one that does a pay per use scheme then fine, but never, ever, ever join a gym that requires contract membership.

CeBIT, Final Fantasy and Fabric Softner

Generally a regular ‘nothing to report’ week for me this week. At work I was preparing for my trip to CeBIT in Germany next month. It’s only for three days but it should be fun. I ordered the printed shirts for me and the guys going with me that will have the company branding. Also with the help of the company sales guy, who was a graphics designer for the week, ordered the company business cards.

If your looking to get some business cards check out www.vistaprint.co.uk, a month ago I went to them and got 250 free business cards, which were great. They have a decent choice of designs and delivered super quick too and for free + postage cost was a real bargain. So when I was looking to get us some company business cards for our little trip to CeBIT I used them again. Their free offer paid off cause it got me to come back so big up to them.

When I goto CeBIT I will try to write a bit about it on my blog while I’m there, but I’m not taking my laptop because of weight limits on luggage with Ryanair, so I’m just going to take my Pocket PC so might be able to write to my blog using that if I can find a wireless point.

This weekend I couldn’t resist the pull of the new Final Fantasy game so traded in my GTA Vice City Stories game for it. I like GTA and thought it great to have on the PSP but it’s just so samey as all the previous games going back to GTA 3. With Final Fantasy I love the different story lines of every title and was looking forward to the superior looking graphics to see the limit of the PS2 before I move onto the next gen. I was also really interested in the new combat system.

I will try review the game after I have played it more but to start with the intros were stunning as per usual and the combat? Well its different and hard to get used to but I think I might be able to learn to love it although I still prefer the standard Final Fantasy battle sequences. The real world battles are a huge plus though, so goodbye to the random annoying battles of previous titles.

Finally this week just one thing I wanted to mention, not usually the sort of thing I review or recommend but since I left university and settled down it was probably to be expected sometime. So here it goes, I would like to personally recommend that if you wanna wash your clothes get Bolds Ocean Clear 2 in 1 fabric softener and detergent, its great. It smells so fresh, living as a student for so long it was a bit strange to get clothes so fresh. So go for it, go mad, buy it, get fresh clothes, and It was even on sale at Tesco so I saved money too, wow I’m like so sensible all of a sudden!

Happy Chinese New Year

It was Chinese New Year this weekend, celebrating the start of the year of the Pig. In Birmingham there were some celebrations, shows and music. I didn’t get to see much of it but it looked great. If your ever in Birmingham check out the china town, behind the Bullring shopping centre, there are lots of neat shops and restaurants around.

I learnt to write some Chinese characters over the weekend. New year and good luck sayings in Chinese, I found them online and wrote them into a Chinese new year card. The Chinese new year is a lot about good luck, and wishing it upon people for the year to come.

If you know someone who is Chinese and want to wish them good luck for the new year check out some of the Chinese symbols and lucky sayings below.

Good Luck

 

Good Health

 

Happy New Year

 

Here is a good site for loads of information about Chinese New Year Traditions: Chinese New Year Information

Finally below are two more really nice Chinese sayings wishing good blessings for a new year. Try writing them out yourself, they are not that complicated to copy and make really great decorations. You could always cheat by printing them out instead.