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Oh, its been a tough one…..

Toiling against a new laptop, a US keyboard, a dodgy mouse, an unreliable WIFI connection and to top it all, that beast of a new operating system, namely Windows Vista.

Why oh, oh why didn’t I wait until they released a service pack with all the bug fixes. Well the reason is those nice chaps in the local PC store didn’t give me an option of having Windows XP on my new laptop.

So the old days of installing software and working with it have been replaced by.

Install Software

Install Bug Fixes

Install Bug Fixes to the Bug Fixes

Browse the Internet for alternate solutions

Go Mad

But finally, after weeks of messing around I’ve managed to get my new laptop into a state where I can more or less update my website and blog in the same way I could on my old trusty PC.

For the second time.

ITS GOOD TO BE BACK

Well, what happened?

Several months of near daily updates and then an eerie silence.

What happened was a move overseas - to Leiden in the Netherlands to be exact. The land of Ham, Cheese, Shoarma, keeping to the right, Rembrandt, Tulips, dodgy tobacco, Canals, Van Goch, tall people and bicycles.

And talking about bicycles, and if you live in Holland it’s a National pasttime to do so, during the war the Germans flattened Rotterdam, killed hundreds of people, made hundreds of thousands homeless, invaded and what do the Dutch hold most against the Germans? Yes, you may have guessed it - the regular stealing of their bicycles by the German soldiers.

Go into any bar in the Netherlands and any visiting German will oft be asked by the Dutch elderly - “Where’s my bike?”

So how am I doing? Not too bad considering the change in life and culture. The first few weeks were spent trying to learn the lingo, the following ones realising it was a bad idea, the next few on the toilet after struggling with the change in diet and the the last few weeks have been dedicated to, at the very least, learning the Dutch written on Food packets.

And how’s the Secured Loans business? Well, its not too bad really, things have been swimming along decently and more news of that will follow.

It’s good to be back!

Today I’ve been having a poke around the Financial Services Compensation Scheme Website (FSCS). The FSCS came into force in 2001 as part of the 2000 Financial Services and Market Act (FSMA).

The FSCS provides compensation to people who have lost money through companies who were previously regulated by the FSA, but have since been found to be ‘in default’. In this context ‘in default’ means that the company is unlikely to be able to pay compensation off its own back - this will probably be because it has ceased trading or is insolvent. The funds the FSCS use for compensation come from levies it charges to people regulated by the FSA.

The types of things you may have lost money on are deposits (e.g. a Bank saving account), mortgages, investments and most types of insurance.

The FSCS website is pretty slick and easy to navigate, it includes things like :-

A list of companies the FSCS deems to be ‘in default’. This section of their website also includes a section where you can key in a company name to check if it is ‘in default’.

Another area of the website gives you the limits for each type of claim and the website also includes an interactive flowchart, which aids you in deciding whether you have a valid claim. However the bottom line is that if a firm is deemed ‘in default’ you can claim, but if it is still trading you need to approach the Financial Ombudsman to help with a claim.