Current Government-oracle-of-the-month on all things financial, the Money Advice Service has released a new report that “highlights the power which parents and caregivers possess to shape the money habits of their children”. In simple terms, if you haven’t encouraged them save up their pocket money for something by age 7, you may as well give up now.

Authored by behaviour experts at Cambridge University, the report reveals ‘key findings’ about how and when core behaviours and habits are formed in young children, for example:

- by the age of seven most children have grasped how to recognise the value of money and to count it out; and by this age they will also have come to understand that money can be exchanged for goods, as well as what it means to earn money and what income is;
-  by the age of seven, most children in the UK are capable of complex functions such as planning ahead, delaying a decision until later and understanding that some choices are irreversible; but children under eight years old have not  developed an understanding of the difference between ‘luxuries’ and ‘necessities’.

The report urges parents not to underestimate the effect their own money habits will have on their children. Clearly Bitterwallet readers’ offspring will all have excellent money management skills, while all those bad parents with bad habits will end up with financially idiotic children. Not that they are thrusting their sticky beak in, but the Money Advice Service thinks “simple and playful parenting… is required in order for children to develop good money management skills, which are essential to help them become financially capable adults.” Hard cheese if you are not simple nor playful then.

Caroline Rookes, CEO of the Money Advice Service said, ominously:

“This study really demonstrates the power of parental influences, and illustrates how much of what you learn and absorb when you are young, both consciously and subconsciously, affects the choices you make throughout the rest of your life.

Co-author of the new study, Dr David Whitebread, of Cambridge University was similarly cheery, saying:

“The ‘habits of mind’… including financial ones, are largely determined in the first few years of life,” and adding that “simply imparting information is now recognised as being ineffective in this area.”

As a result, the Money Advice service plans to create products and services for parents to use to help children understand money skills. Look out for their fun ‘financial education’ picture story book coming your way soon.

Alan and Carolyn Mazkouri from Swansea normally pay £300 a month with Orange for their mobile deal. They’ve been with Orange for 15 years, but that’s all about to change.

That’s because they’ve been slapped with a surprise £163,178.86 which implied that Alan’s phone had been using the internet every 20 minutes.

The bother began last summer, when Alan found his mobile had been overheating and he got it replaced. Soon enough, he found he was unable to make calls and he was told that this was because he had a large unsettled bill.

Orange acknowledged the mistake and agreed to wipe the debt, but Alan was still being charged. Orange finally cottoned on and cancelled the bill and offered £250 in compensation.

“We apologise to the Mazkouris for the inconvenience,” a representative said. “We have fully refunded all charges from this exceptionally high bill and offered a further gesture of goodwill. We look forward to hearing from them.”

Alan, meanwhile, is looking for a new mobile provider.

The ad says: “Now is the time. World’s greatest players are going to entertain, create and amaze on the ultimate stage. This year, a new generation will push the boundaries of play and share in moments of wonder. This year players will become legends.”

Legends? Not likely, but there’s always preposterous hyperbole surrounding technology launches.

You can see the full advert here.

The much-maligned Wii U console refuses to go away and the latest ‘special’ offer designed to entice you will get you the 32GB version of the console along with Nintendo Land – all for just £229.99. You can add ZombiU for an extra £20 if you like. Then there’s an orginal Wii console and a pre-owned copy of Mario Kart, which you could get for £37.99. Hmmm…

WAIT! THERE’S MORE…!!!

• Orlando holiday – £331 pp for one week or £388 pp for two weeks.

• Four passport photos for only 15p.

• Crysis 3 (PS3/Xbox) – yours for £16.98.

• Netgear WN1000RP Universal wi-fi range extender – just £19.99.

• ON Networks 200 Mbps powerline adapter kit – only £19.99.

• Kidde 7DCOC 10 years carbon monoxide alarm – £16.48 delivered.

• Sons of Anarchy (season 1-4, Blu-ray) – just £29.95.

• Karcher window cleaning vacuum – only £35.99.

All those and more can be found over at HotUKDeals…

Anyway, high demand during the record cold snap in March, combined with a pipeline fault saw gas stores “dangerously low”, the Crown Estate said.

At the time, reports said we were actually 2 days away from running out of gas, but the Crown Estate, which manages the Queen’s property portfolio including vast underground gas caverns (which sound like insane James Bond places) said it came even closer to doom.

Rob Hastings, energy and infrastructure director at the Crown Estate, was reported by the Financial Times as saying: “We really only had six hours’ worth of gas left in storage as a buffer. If it had run any lower it would have meant interruptions to supply. The bottom line is that in the UK we are in a place where the gas supply is dangerously low.”

Nick Winser, executive director of National Grid, said: “It is true that there wasn’t a huge amount of storage left – but there never is at the end of winter. The UK has low storage levels by international standards, but there is a large diversity of (supply) sources. Our gas supply resilience is quite substantial.”

Well, so John Moore’s University Business School in Liverpool seem to believe. Today they warned that soap characters are responsible for promoting unhealthy lifestyles, after assessing 830 scenes from Coronation Street, Eastenders, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks. (Apparently this is an actual job).

Researchers found that the only character seen eating fruit was Denise Fox from Eastenders, who was eating a tangerine while lying on the floor pissed out of her head.

Diorean Maddock from the British Heart Foundation got stuck in, saying:
‘Walford, Coronation Street and Emmerdale would be much healthier places if their famous residents were served up a more balanced diet, got active and drank only the recommended amount of alcohol when the cameras are rolling.’

Will soaps take this on board? Will we see Phil Mitchell eating his five a day and everyone drinking 2-3 units at the Rovers? Or, maybe someone could come to their senses and realise that soaps are FICTIONAL?

Despite their monumental e-banking crashes of a few weeks ago, it seems that people are going crazy for Nationwide’s FlexDirect current account, which pays 5% interest rate on balances over £2500. In fact, their new customer figures are up by 58% on last year.

According to Which! over a quarter of banking customers have some kind of problem with their current account and have made complaints. And although we tend to remain with our banks for years, it’s more likely we’re staying because we’re worried something will go wrong, rather than out of a sense of loyalty.

But with plenty of other places such as the Post Office, M&S and Tesco offering good current account deals at the moment, it looks like the established banks are going to have to come up with something.

Just to demonstrate how much banks are losing the plot, First Direct is offering customers £100 to switch to them – and an extra £200 if you LEAVE.

Yes, if you decide they suck, they’re going to give you £200 anyway. Quick, switch now! Then set up an account with Nationwide and get 5% interest on your readies.

“According to eMarketer, advertisers spend more per user on mobile advertising in the UK than any other country…The latest IAB (Internet Advertisers Bureau) figures shows mobile advertising in the UK grew by 148%; with total digital ad spend reaching £5bn in 2012” said Louis Brun, senior vice president of Guavus.

But the survey of 2,545 UK smartphone users also revealed that customers would be prepared to go even further, with up to 46% of consumers willing to sell their data to third parties to get cheaper or free upgrades. However, appetite for giving away personal data varies with age, with over half of 16-24 year olds up for it, as opposed to just 26% of those aged 55-64. Who probably don’t have a smartphone anyway.

> 43% of consumers would be willing for operators to sell their aggregated anonymous personal data; such as, age, profession, location etc., to third parties

> 46% would be willing for operators to sell their anonymised usage data, such as which apps they downloaded and how often, to third parties

The research also stated that 84% of users think that operators should be using their data to offer them a service tailored to their specific requirements.

So what do you think? Is consenting to explicit mining of your data for financial reward just plain stupid, or it is more idiotic not to, given data giants like Google just use it for free anyway? Would you sell your soul personal information to the marketing devil in exchange for cheaper services?

Sulky Ronnie Barker lookalike Mark hasn’t replied to any emails or calls made by Ocado’s CEO Tim Steiner. ‘It’s a joke,’ said Tim, who tied up the deal with Morrisons last week. ‘Ocado has gone from a toddler to an unruly teenager. Now we are an adult,’ said Steiner. ‘Sometimes the parent doesn’t like it when the child grows up.’

Waitrose just turned up its System of A Down album and slammed the door, saying that they have to consult their lawyers on the matter. They warned that they would be studying the Morrison’s deal carefully to see if there had been a breach of contract. Until that was completed, they wouldn’t contact Ocado or meet up with them in the skate park – I mean, boardroom.

Steiner says that the deal will be good for Waitrose because it means the company will finally be financially secure, but he also thinks that Waitrose has been shaken by the tie up with Morrisons.

On Wednesday, Waitrose said they WOULD meet Ocado, but only if it promised to bring Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and stop going on about how great Morrisons is. Let’s hope these two sort it out before an adult gets involved.

It’s an offer from First Direct bank and it’s unfeasibly easy. Switch your current account to them and they’ll bung you £100. They’re so confident that you’ll enjoy their service that they’ll double it and hurl £200 at you if you don’t like them and leave them again. That’s some pretty confident chat if you ask us. There’s some T&C’s to consider but who bothers with any of THAT stuff…

WAIT! THERE’S MORE…!!!

• PlayStation3 500GB Slim with two controllers – just £209.99.

• Seat Ibiza Cupra – down to £14,831.22.

• Apple iPad Mini (16GB) – only £239.00.

• Alan Wake: Collector’s Edition/Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (PC) – pay what you want!

• God of War Ascension (PS3) – just £17.74.

• Free £20 Argos voucher when you buy any iPad or tablet (£100 or more).

• Fighting Game/Ultimate Warriors sale on PSN.

• Batman Arkham City Game of the Year Edition (PS3) – only £11.95.

• Rocksmith Xbox 360 (with real tone cable) – just £29.99 delivered.

• Toshiba 3TB StorE Canvio USB 3.0 Desktop 3.5″ hard drive – yours for £88.19.

All those and more can be found over at HotUKDeals…

Remember when Nissan had to recall 51,000 cars after a customer’s steering wheel came off in their hands? Well, they’re recalling around 841,000 vehicles worldwide thanks to… you guessed it… a faulty steering wheel!

In the UK, there’ll be 133,869 models of the Nissan Micra recalled, built between 2002-2006. Apparently, the bolt used in the steering wheel hasn’t been screwed on properly, which isn’t particularly exciting, but it is a worrying sign for Nissan.

Earlier in the month, Nissan had to recall 500,000 vehicles globally over a defective passenger airbag.

The carmaker are offering to tighten the bolts or replacing steering wheels entirely.

It is worth pointing out that, thus far, no accidents involving the cars have been reported, but drivers will notice if the steering wheel is getting loose.

You won’t have to be without your car for too long as a Nissan spokesperson in the UK said that the repair should only take around 15 minutes to rectify.

[bbc]

Unless you’re Friends Reunited that is, who wasted no time in getting some promotional material out on Twitter, with the body still warm on the tarmac.

Friends Reunited there, with a bizarre idea of trying to capitalise on something that was trending on the social network. Someone in the digital promo team is probably getting sacked today.

Elsewhere, the EDL were rallying their troops so they could don balaclavas and try burning down some mosques. However, as we know, the EDL aren’t the brightest bunch, leaving EDF Energy explaining that they don’t really have anything to do with Woolwich, apart from putting people’s bills up.

Interesting use of ‘regards’ and ‘best’ to people who were declaring a civil war against brown people, but there you go.

[BickNaker/PoppyD]

Martin Burgess-Moon, a man with a wonderful name from Devon, noticed he had a problem when his TV signal started buggering up and his internet access failed.

Turned out to be something akin to a Chris Morris sketch.

“The internet at our home in Whitleigh went down and our TV picture was dodgy, so we called Virgin who sent an engineer out,” Burgess-Moon said. ”When he opened the box outdoors he discovered what looked like a nest of snakes.”

“It appeared to be a mother with lots of babies, all wrapping themselves around the cables. He was worried but soldiered on nonetheless. Thankfully our internet and TV are now working. Our guests remain in the box and can stay as long as they like.”

Ferroro SpA, the owners, ordered the closure, and the founder of the day said: ”Seven years after the first World Nutella Day in 2007, I never thought the idea of dedicating a day to come together for the love of a certain hazelnut spread would be embraced by so many people!”

Founder Sara Rosso continued: ”I’ve seen the event grow from a few hundred food bloggers posting recipes to thousands of people tweeting about it, pinning recipes on Pinterest, and posting their own contributions on Facebook!”

“There have been songs sung about it, short films created for it, poems written for it, recipes tested for it, and photos taken for it.”

“The cease-and-desist letter was a bit of a surprise and a disappointment, as over the years I’ve had contact and positive experiences with several employees of Ferrero SpA. and with their public relations and brand strategy consultants. I’ve always tried to collaborate and work together in the spirit and goodwill of a fan-run celebration of a spread I (to this day) still eat.”

“I have hope that this is not a goodbye to World Nutella Day forever, for the fans’ sake, and hopefully it will live on in one form or another in the future.”

This is truly our generation’s JFK moment.

There is a way around the Acetrax problem without breaking the law… and it is a proper faff.

You must download all of your purchased video again, then watch it all “for at least five minutes” so you can get fresh DRM settings. And that’s according to the company themselves.

Acetrax will vanish on 21st June, so PC users can download their films. However, Mac will have to go whistle as they’re not being catered for at all. Re-downloaded films will be tied solely to the machine on which they’re first played too, which is yet another glaring problem with DRM.

“You may only retain a copy of the content on the personal computer on which you make the original download. Resetting the factory settings on your PC will also result in removal of the license which can then not be retrieved,” the company warned.