Hello, its Peter here and welcome to Thursdays Levy Letter. I hope your day is going well and I hope youll be able to join me tonight on BBC1 at 6.30pm. Well have all the days news, Paul will have the forecast and tonight I will be talking finance. The financial expert Alvin Hall will be joining me tonight to help sort out our bank accounts after Christmas! Hell be joining me on the programme tonight, BBC1 at 6.30pm, so I hope you can join me then.
Cost Of Motoring The cost of motoring has soared dramatically. Its just been revealed in a new study by the RAC, which found that the cost of running a new car is about £96 a week. A previous study put the cost of having a car per household in 1996 97 at £47.70. So in just eight years it has shot up to £96 a week. The studies are not directly comparable, because the latest is based upon an average across seventeen types of car, whilst the earlier research just looked at nine models. However, experts say that they point to a trend of rising costs. The technical director of the RAC said that the main contributor has been the rise in the price of fuel. He goes on to say that although insurance costs in the last six months have gone down, they have also risen generally since 1996. So there you are. The cost of running a new car is £96 per week! Makes you wonder how we can all afford it doesnt it? Grease Thanks to everyone who emailed in after yesterdays Levy Letter. Just because there were some people, who were disappointed that they werent able to sign up in time, theres another chance to get the question to win a pair of tickets to see the top West End musical Grease when it comes to Hull at the New Theatre. Name one of the hit songs from the musical Grease. Of course, I expect youve all seen the film! Name one of the hit songs from the musical Grease. Think you know? Well, email me at the usual address of [EMAIL PROTECTED] And watch out for the answers coming out on Friday on Look North on BBC1 at 6.30pm. But email me with the answer and if you emailed me yesterday, then thank you very much indeed. Help Needed Just a request please for some help with a story were putting together for Look North. Were looking for any shift workers, or perhaps a busy family or any home owner in Hull, who have to put their wheelie bin out at night. Possibly because of work or because they have to be up early in the morning. So if thats you, then please get in touch with me, because wed really like to talk to you. If you want to get in touch with me at the usual address, its [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chip And Pin Well, I touched on something when I mentioned in Mondays Levy Letter that soon if we forget our Chip and Pin number when buying goods then we wont be able to pay, because shops and organisations will no longer accept a signature. Well, Ive been inundated with emails on this one. The first one is from Lewis, he says, I work in a very busy local caravan shop and know all about such reoccurring problems with Chip and Pin. In the past, we can override the setting for a signature, but from February, we cant. However, should your card fail, we have methods in which we can authorise payments through security checks, which we ask you! All good fun, but Im sure the banks dont want to risk losing valuable interest on payments! If the card matches who you say you are, then we can authorise payment! So thats one way to get by, that we didnt know about. Just a quickie, this comes from Bill, Hi Peter, Just a quickie on credit cards. I have a number of cards and think the Chip and Pin system is very good. On the old system, the space for the signature was so narrow that I found it hard to get the signature within the space. Obviously Bill, you must have a very flowery signature! And then when signing for goods, on more than one occasion, I had all sorts of unpleasant situations. I dont have them with the Chip and Pin. I must admit, that I agree with that, because my signature fluctuates depending on what mood Im in. Sometimes I have to sign it again, because it wasnt a very accurate likeness! Anyway, plenty of response on Chip and Pin. And one final one here from Carole, she says, I have just read the Levy Letter and you were on about using Pin numbers with your credit cards. We all know that soon we will not be able to use the card without a Pin number. Thats ok, if you have an English credit card. But what I want to know is what happens if you are like me and using a credit card from another country, who do not have Chip and Pin. Not all countries have Chip and Pin, so what will happen if we want to use our cards. Are all visitors to England going to have their credit cards refused? Maybe you can find out for me. Thats an interesting one. Any views on that or indeed on anything else, then please do get in touch. The usual address is of course, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chimp Week Far be it from me to talk about a programme Ive never seen, but it follows Look North on BBC1 and its Chimp Week. But Ive had numerous emails on this. Again, quite divided opinion those who are saying they cant understand it at all and think its a load of rubbish and those who think its a wonderful programme. Again, I cannot comment, because I havent seen one single frame of it. But Chimp Week any views on it, then let me know. Magic Last night on the programme, we had the Hull magician, Kerry Scorah. Kerry has just been invited to join the Inner Magic Circle, which is an enormous honour. Well, there are very few female magicians in this country, but she is the first ever British female to have her own network magic show on TV and shes from Hull. Its a great story. She was on last night doing a magic card trick, which was just mind blowing and on Friday night, theres a gathering of the Hull Magic Circle for their annual dinner to which Ive been invited. So looking forward to seeing some magic! But well done to Kerry, whos really put Hull on the map in the magic world. And as you know, from a purely selfish point of view, I love magic and it was a great thrill to have Kerry on the programme. Of course we had Paul Daniels on the programme just before Christmas, which was a wonderful treat for me and I hope for you too! Well, thats it from me for today. Thank you very much for reading the Levy Letter. If you want to drop me a line about anything, especially if you want to enter the Grease competition, then its [EMAIL PROTECTED] Join me on BBC1 at 6.30pm as usual. Take care Peter And for the latest news and more where you live, go to: http://bbc.co.uk/humber and http://bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the BBC Look North newsletter, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthhull/newsletter/newsletter_index.shtml, enter your email address in the unsubscribe box. 1.94.4
