Just a  reminder to all landlords and owners of second homes in Ireland. The new NPPR tax on Non Residential Private Property is due to be paid in full by next Wednesday 30th September 2009.
Read more about this new Irish property tax here.

The charge applies to  residential dwellings that are not the sole/main residence of the owner. It appears that owners of most rented property , holiday homes or even vacant property in Ireland will be liable – even if they live abroad. The online payment system at NPPR.ie allows for registration without a PPS number for those owners living outside Ireland. The charge can be paid online with Mastercard or Visa or Laser.  It isn’t clear how payments by cheque will be accepted in currencies other than Euro .

It will be interesting to see if the effort required to collect this tax will end up costing more than it generates in income.

More NPPR Information

Spur Steak and Grill restaurants have a “Buy One get One Free” offer on all main courses Steaks until October 23rd 2009. (Offer altered today 24th Sept)
Just print off the voucher below and bring it with you to claim your free steak . (Cheapest one is free).

The voucher is valid all day every day . Spur have restaurants in Liffey Valley Dublin and The Crescent Shopping Centre Limerick . See the Menu Here . (not sure if the prices are up to date on that menu)
They have had some good reviews for family dining on Rollercoaster .

Click to See Full Size Voucher

Now that  all the new students have hopefully lodged their loans or grants in to their new student bank accounts – the shops are trying to make them spend some of that money on clothes.

For the men – Burtons are offering a 15% discount in their online shop if you register on this page. They ask for a student ID number – but it doesn’t get checked. This offer – they say – is limited but no end date is given. The discount is applicable even on clothes in the sale.

For the ladies – Dorothy Perkins also are giving 15% discount on all items online. Just register your student details (wink,wink) on this page and your shopping basket will get 15% knocked off. (Expires Oct 11th 2009)

If you want to go to  a real shop and you have a real student ID – then Dorothy Perkins say they will give a 15% discount in store too. No voucher or code is required.
(The prices are probably cheaper online though because of the weak sterling excange rate – back to around 90p to the Euro today)

Both of these online shops deliver to Ireland for the same price as delivery in the UK – which is rare.

I believe there are a lot more mature students these days ……  : )

As mentioned here in August – Ulster Bank are now issuing Visa Debit cards to new customers instead of laser cards. The changeover began on Sept 14th and exisiting customers will all get replacement Visa Debit cards by the end of 2010.
Any customer requesting a replacement card for a damaged or lost one will get a Visa Debit card.
Laser cards were not widely accepted online – so this change will make online shopping much easier for those people without a credit card. The Visa Debit card can  be used anywhere that a Visa credit card is accepted . Even under 18′s can get one.
Find which online shops deliver to Ireland .

One other  good thing about the debit card is that you can’t spend money that you don’t have.

Get 20% off all irishrail.ie bookings with this special discount code   TWT1007 This code os valid on all bookings made before  midnight Tuesday 22/09/09

European  economies are recovering at different speeds which may complicate any efforts by the ECB  to put the Eurozone back on track to a more stable economy.

As the global economy recovers and Germany and France return to growth, the European Commission yesterday cut its forecasts for Spain and Italy. Deutsche Bank  says some of the economies  may stay in recession in 2010 .

The risk is that a recovery in the largest euro nations will prompt the ECB to tighten policy and raise interest rates  before smaller countries like Ireland and Spain are ready. This will possibly restrict these economies that are already struggling with  falling  house prices and  rising  unemployment. That will make it harder for governments and consumers to pay interest on their mounting debt, potentially pushing their borrowing costs higher.

“The ECB will have to normalize rates from next year and it will hurt countries like Spain and Ireland which will still be in recession and burdened by piles of debt,” said Gilles Moec, an economist at Deutsche Bank in London. He forecasts the ECB will double its benchmark interest rate, currently at a record low of 1 percent, by the end of 2010.

According to the OECD - Ireland’s  households are already among the most indebted in the euro region. The Irish economy is forecast to  contract  1.5 percent in 2010 and will proably post the Eurozone’s  biggest budget deficit – while Germany and France are forecast to will both expand 0.2%.

The financial ombudsman in the UK has published some detailed figures about complaints made against financial institutions – and the outcome of those complaints. For the first time they have also published the names of the institutions involved – something the Irish Financial Ombudsman does not yet do .

Here are some figures from the UK on 2008/2009 complaints made about some UK companies with Irish connections or operating in Ireland . These figures may be of interest in the absence of similar figures from our financial ombudsman. Tesco and Northern Rock didn’t come out too well while Halifax Insurance had the least complaints upheld. (NB: These figures are nothing to do with their Irish operations – just the UK based ones)

Tesco Personal Finance 267 new cases   78% upheld
Northern Rock 593 new cases  78% upheld
Ulster Bank 67 new cases   76% upheld
Bank of Ireland 336 new cases  62% upheld
AIB Group UK 90 new cases  51% upheld
Quinn Insurance 67 new cases   45% upheld
Royal & Sun Alliance 372 new cases  36% upheld
Allianz Insurance 200 new cases   34% upheld
Halifax Insurance Ireland 74 new cases   27% upheld

There were a totalof 789877 initial enquiries made to the  UK  ombudsman which led to 127471 full blown cases.
The Irish Financial ombudsman had  3876 complaints in the first 6 months of 2009 – which equates to  7752 a  year.
This is about 6 % of the UK ombudsman complaints figure – which is broadly in line with the population differences between the UK and Ireland.

Latest news on  Milano Vouchers Here

See more discount vouchers and codes

Don’t forget – you can also get discounted meals at Milano and a few other places in Ireland by converting your Tesco Clubcard vouchers into restaurant  tokens.
With the Tesco Clubcard Deals – every €2.50 of clubcard vouchers can be converted into tokens worth €10 . Other restaurants where you can use your Tesco vouchers are – Apache Pizza , Insomnia, TGI Fridays, Hard Rock Cafe, Dante Pizza.
Find out more about Tesco Clubcard Deals here .