CHEAP LAPTOP OFFER

3 of my favourite things in the entire world are :-

1) Shopping online at reputable net stores
2) Getting a bargain
3) paying NO Sales Taxes to Greedy Goverments

And thanks to my contacts in the industry, Play.com, one of the stars of tax-free shopping, have allowed me to pass on this discount code ACER40, which enables you to claim an amazing EXTRA £40 off when you buy an Acer Laptop from them here.

The laptops are available here on the Play.com site and the code to enable the discount on the laptops is ACER40.

The laptop code is only valid against the four products listed and will expire at midnight on Wednesday 26/3/08.

Pipex communications falls by the Wayside

So it's goodbye soon to one of my worst ever investments, Pipex Communications. I'm not usually dragged into hot stocks, but working in Telecoms, I am convinced that Wimax has a big future and when I heard Pipex owned one of the UK Wimax spectrum licences I got a bit overexcited. Not only that, but every seemed rosy since they also had a more respectable hosting side, a blocking vote on the UK Nominet domain name register and a huge business selling domain names, even if you didn't use their hosting.

Sad to say, fast forward two years and the shares are 33% below my purchase price of 9p. The broadband arm has been sold off, and the chairman, Peter Dubens is selling the hosting arm to....ermmm himself, now he's teamed up with Oakley Capital. Interesting! Wonder how much that business will be resold for in a few years time?

Anyhow, us small shareholders have the poor promise of 10-11p for 58% of our shares in a tender offer, with the balance carried forward to loss making Freedom Communications, who remain holding the licence.

My tip is that you remain a holder. People with their shareholdings in nominee accounts may do a lot better than 58% on the tender offer. Reason being that if other shareholders with the same broker do not take up their share, then your share will be pro-rated up.

This approach has allowed me to exit 100% of a company (especially investment trusts), when the tender was for less. I'm not going so far as to say you will get to tender 100%, but you may fancy a small punt to average up.

Self Select ISA deals

Up until recently, Selftrade was my best recommended Self Select ISA provider, but events have overtaken their offering. It first started off when TD Waterhouse undercut them with an offer of no yearly admin fee if your ISA balance was £3,600 or more. Fair enough, but I as still slightly in favour of Selftrade, even then, since they allow investment in ETFs on a regular basis without any dealing fee, regardless of how small the amount invested is.

Now, iWeb has trumped even TD Warehouse, by offering no yearly fee, commission of £10 on lump sum investments (compared to SelfTrade's £25), and to beat it all, the thing of most interest to me is the ability to invest regularly at only £1.50 per share dealing.

How long before Selftrade are forced to move the same way? I'm certainly considering a switch to iWeb.

Having said all that, if you don't deal often and want to invest in ETFs without brokerage fees, you can still get £50 back with this great ISA offer.

expat shop, euroshop, save vat, buy in eu, shop eu

Living in Britain, I'd become used to logging on to the net and ordering whatever I fancied from sites like Amazon, VAT-free and no delivery costs, but two years ago, life took me to Denmark (or rather the missus did!), and boy, was I in for a shock! Get this...a 25% sales tax, or MOMs, as it's called here on everything you buy, including food! Even so, after I'd been here a few months, I naively logged onto Amazon to buy a few English books I fancied. Everything looked fine as I added to my basket, but once at the checkout, the price of all the items more than DOUBLED, simply as a result of where they were being sent to.So, get this, Amazon is selling the same goods to you, from the same warehouse, but you have to pay twice the price? Why? Well, turns out it isn't Amazons fault at all. You can blame the EU for this one, and this after all those years of cheek we were sold the EU with the excuse that it was going to be a free trade bloc of one big European Nation. Just because your books are going to be delivered to Denmark instead of the UK you have to pay delivery (okay, that one you can cope with) and an extra 25% sales tax. Ha ha, how I laughed as I gave up on my attempted purchase and prepared myself for a life of no reading ever again.But then I discovered, completely by chance, a rather nifty outfit called Play.com, who based themselves in a small island off the coast of France, called Jersey that has zero sales tax. Better still, these guys even do free delivery to Denmark, and best of all to buy from them (or anywhere else in the world for that matter), is 100% legal, subject to certain limits.Wow, I was like a pig in.....err excuse me. Anyhow, to say the least I was a very happy man and logging on every other night from thereon buying all of the books I could possibly get my hands on to make up for lost time.After this I really got into buying a lot of things I wanted elsewhere in the EU, and once you start getting into this buying abroad off the internet lark you'll realise that Amazon is the exception in charging Sales Taxes at the buyers' rate. Most EU based companies will only charge their local rate, 100% legal again. Well, this little bit of info opened up another new horizon! Blimey, I even found a little-used, SECRET way of buying from Amazon and avoiding the Sales tax. 100% LEGAL again, and you can read about it here as I'm happy to give you this secret for free.Then I started thinking...how many other websites or shopping opportunities are there out there like this? Completely legal opportunities to beat the taxman and keep more of your own money in your own pocket, while buying exactly what you want. Hell, half this stuff isn't even available here! The same probably applies to whatever European country you happen to be living in right now. Am I right?Now, just think about all those people out there who know nothing about these sites. Maybe this even includes you? You come back from the UK with a holdall full of English books or decent underwear (my partner does!) simply because you think you'll never get the chance to stock up again. Well, forget it! Now you can buy from the comfort of your own home with delivery to your door!There is now a site of my favourite online shops! These are personally tested and recommended shops with great prices, a fantastic range, and best of all, free or low delivery costs to Denmark and most of the rest of Europe. You can visit it right now at www.expatshop.eu.

Pound if freefall, but the dollar hides it

I must admit that I have been worried about the Pound for some time, what with the trade deficit, budget deficit and now the Northern Rock crisis.

Actually, the trade deficit bothers me least of the problems, as Britain has a large reputation for investing abroad. The others are not so good. especially the Northern Rock crisis, since the implication is the government have magically created the necessary backup reserves out of thin air (is there any other method?)

Now, I notice that in the past couple of months, the Pound has dropped about 6% against the Euro and Danish Krone. This has hardly got a mention, as all the media are going on about the weakening Dollar and the bargains available for those taking a shopping trip to the USA.
So please, Germany and Holland, don't give in to whingeing France and Italy about needing a weaker Euro, and the usual rubbish about generating exports. A devalued currency helps no-one long term.

If it carries on like this, the Euro could become the world's new reserve currency, especially for pricing oil, at least until China is ready to claim its spot.

Just a thought.

As for me, I'm off to browse the internet for some bargains from Britain...

Questions and Answers From The Author

This book, by Alan Dunwiddie, is the ideal Isa investing Guide for both beginners and those who have more experience. It is packed full of honest advice on how to invest more profitably.
Here, Alan answers some of your questions.

http://www.doityourselfisa.co.uk/tax_free_isa_uk_fast_track.html

Star Energy Takeover Comments

So Petronas have launched a takeover bid for Star Energy, and you did indeed do well if you managed to to get the £3.70 on offer this morning, since that is above the offer price. However, for those who didn't manage to offload at above the offer price you're better off holding to the end, since you won't lose out on the bid-offer spread or have to pay commission when you sell.

Unless some major oil find or planning permission news is coming, there might also be another 10 or 20p per share extra in the offing, and the downside is small, since the chances of Petronas not completing a deal is low.

Certainly confirms, like Ken Fisher says, that there is cash out there for deals, despite the "credit crunch" we are now experiencing.