Consume This half-term guide

Sarah Willingham is back and she wants YOU to CONSUME THIS for half term!

From cheap vacations during the school holidays to tops tips on saving online, we've got the perfect half-term guide to help put the pennies back into parents’ pockets!

PAYDAY LOANS DEBTS UP BY 400 PER CENT

* Payday loans claim to get your cash to you quickly, but can be very expensive. As more consumers turn to high-cost credit, payday loans are fuelling consumer debt problems, according to new research.

* The survey by debt charity Debt Advice Foundation (DAF) found that 41% of those struggling with debt claim their financial problems are the result of high-interest payday lending. At the same time, online searches for payday loans have doubled in the past 12 months, suggesting rapid growth in the sector.

* The research comes just weeks after a Which? found widespread poor practice, with some companies automatically offering consumers bigger loans each month. Other companies offered what we believe to be inappropriate 'rollovers', whereby repayment of the loan can be deferred for several months in exchange for a high monthly interest charge. One major payday loan website we looked at was even operating without a consumer credit licence.

* The DAF research found that one in four people who had taken out a payday loan needed the money to buy food or essentials for their household, with 44% using them to pay off other debts. Almost half (49%) of those who had used this type of credit felt they hadn't been fully informed about the rate being charged and the total amount they would pay back.

CASH-STRAPPED PARENTS RISK FINES WITH TERM TIME HOLIDAYS (Express, 16.5.11)

* Increasing numbers of parents are ignoring fines associated with taking their kids on holiday during term time, with almost half (48 per cent) confessing to having done so in the past.

* The results reveal a two per cent increase on the 46 per cent of parents who admitted having done so in 2010. The results coincide with statistics from the Department for Education which disclosed that 25,675 parents were fined in the 2009/2010 school year for taking their children out of school during term time - a record number. Prices during the school holidays can increase by up to 42 per cent for a family of four taking a two week holiday to the Algarve.

* The importance of price appears to be an increasingly significant issue for cash-strapped parents. 41 per cent identified this as the leading influencing factor - a ten per cent increase compared to 2010's findings. Many parents pointed to the fact that it is also difficult to take annual leave from work during school holidays due to work commitments - a reason that was highlighted by more than a third (39 per cent) of respondents.

* According to official Department for Education figures released in April 2011, one in ten unauthorised school absences during the 2010 Autumn term was due to family holidays with an average of 6,500 children absent due to family holiday on any given day.

Tips to Save money:

JUST a quick 15 minutes of research shows just how much you can save by simply planning ahead. In fact we bagged savings of £588.96 on just four items:

1. Airport parking - save up to £210.05: If you just turn up to Gatwick airport you could be forking out £260.00 for eight days parking this October half term. We found pre-bookable Park & Ride options on sale for £49.95 and on airport long stay car parks for £57.90 by doing a quick search a comparison site www.holidayextras.co.uk/airport-parking

2. Car Hire - save up to £137.81: Forgot to organise your car hire? Well if you decide to rent a vehicle at Malaga this half term, the walk up rate for a medium family car with Hertz (Astra or similar) is £214.81. Pre-book www.holidayautos.co.uk the best buys online through a comparison service and pay just £77 for a similar vehicle through a local supplier. Early bookers save the most.

3. Travel Insurance - save up to £78.00: In a rush and think it's easier to just grab a policy at the Post Office? You could pay £89.00 for an eight day Classic policy to cover you for 8 days in Europe (excluding Turkey) this half term for a family of four. That's £78.00 more than our best buy with a supersaver Holiday Extras policy. Get protected for less now by checking out our price comparison insurance service. www.moneysupermarket.com/travel-insurance

4. Holiday Money - save up to £163.10: Grabbing some Euros as you fly through the airport terminal is one of the most costly ways to get your holiday money. It can cost you up to 10% more than the best buy on the market. We checked the costs of buying €1500 and found the best buy to be £1336.90 through ICE for home delivery. Buying on the same day would cost £1500 exactly through Thomas Cook at Manchester Airport if you walk up and buy. So get online and check out our best buy options for cash: www.travelsupermarket.com/c/extras/travel-money/foreign-currency-listings

*THIS WEEK'S TOP TIP*

CHECK YOUR BROADBAND SPEED!

* With an average download speed of just 0.128Mb, Mount Pleasant in the Suffolk town of Halesworth is the street with the slowest broadband in the UK, according to new research by the independent price comparison and switching service, uSwitch.com.

* In contrast, Leamington Spa in Warwickshire has the fastest average download broadband speed in the UK at 18.87Mb - more than 147 times faster than in Mount Pleasant. It would take Mount Pleasant residents approximately 48 hours to download an online movie. Things are almost as bad on Forestfield, in the West Sussex town of Horsham, where the average broadband speed of just 0.134Mb again harks back to the Nineties. At that speed it may take up to a frustrating 90 minutes to download just one music track.

* England's southern counties perform particularly badly in the tests, with West Sussex and Hampshire together accounting for a quarter of the UK's 20 slowest streets by broadband speed. In the list of the 50 slowest streets, there are five streets in Derbyshire and four each in Hampshire, Gloucestershire and Suffolk.

* But the area around Glasgow also earns a mention in the list too - four of the 50 slowest broadband streets are in Ayrshire, Glasgow City and West Dunbartonshire.

• Check your broadband speed here to see if you're getting your money's-worth! Why should you be paying the same as everyone else but not getting the same quality! www.uswitch.com/broadband/speedtest

The following table lists the 50 slowest streets in the UK in terms of average broadband connection speeds:

*LIFTING THE LID*

EXTRAS AT THEME PARKS ADD TO COSTS ON TOP OF PRICE HIKE:

* Theme parks have come under attack for encouraging families to spend more than £300 to jump the queues. The cost of entrance tickets has risen by more than 20 per cent at most leading parks over the past three years. But they have also introduced many extra charges which can raise the cost of a day out for a family to as much as £500. Most of the extra charges are voluntary, but the one that has upset most parents is the new idea of paying to jump queues. This usually takes the form of a small machine that clips on to a belt.

* At Alton Towers, where an adult entrance fee is £38, the priority tickets start at £6 per person rising to £80 per person to queue-jump all the rides. The entrance price for Thorpe Park is also £38, but adults and children will need to spend £60 per person if they want to buy an Ultimate Fast Track machine. Legoland, which calls its machines "queuebots", sells them for £10 per person, or £30 for a machine that gets you to the front of more rides quicker. With family tickets - two adults and two children - costing between £90 and £108 at the leading parks, this means it is easy to spend £428 on the park, before paying for food, drink, priority parking and souvenirs.

* Three years ago Which? conducted a survey of the top six parks in Britain that charged an entrance fee. The average price of a ticket at the gate on the day, for one adult, was £27.50. This has climbed by 23 per cent to £33.80, a jump far in excess of inflation.

Theme park Vouchers:

• Colchester Zoo - 20 percent off admissions
  (Expires on Nov 13, 2011)

• Drayton Manor Theme Park, Tamworth
  2 for 1 on admissions
  (Expires on Fri, Oct 28, 2011)

• Madame Tussaud's, London Dungeon and others
  2 for 1 entry with National Express (must show National Rail tickets at venue to validate voucher)
  (Ends April 30, 2012)

• Blackpool Pleasure Beach
  3 for 2 on admissions
  (Expires on Sun, Nov 6, 2011)