How to get National Insurance number? (United Kingdom)

If you're looking for work, starting work or setting up as self-employed you will need a National Insurance number. If you have the right to work in the UK, you will need to telephone Jobcentre Plus on Tel 0345 600 0643 (lines are open 8.00 am to 6.00 pm Monday to Friday) to arrange to get one. They may require you to attend an 'Evidence of identity' interview - see section 'What happens when you apply for a National Insurance number'.

Although you need to have a National Insurance number to start work you don't need to have a plastic National Insurance number card.

Please visit www.hmrc.gov.uk/ni/intro/number.htm or https://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/BeginnersGuideToTax/NationalInsurance/IntroductiontoNationalInsurance/DG_190057 for more information.

How to cash a cheque in joint name if you don't have a joint account?

Cheque in joint name but don't have a joint account?
- There are several ways of solving this problem which most commonly occurs when estate agency returns deposit to a married couple at the end of their tenancy:

• ask cheque issuer to cancel current cheque and issue another in one name (in case with estate agencies - they more likely to offer new cheques in names mentioned on the tenancy agreement dividing the owed amount on equal parts)
  or
• open a joint account (e.g. joint savings account that doesn't need a credit check)
  or
• try different branches of your bank/s until the cheque is accepted to be paid into your single account
  or
• previously it was possible to pay such cheque into a single named account as long as you were one of the joint named, and the other joint named authorised the transaction (usually by signing the back of the cheque and writing something like 'I allow my wife to have these funds and will not have access to them'). But with introduction crossing 'a/c payee', the above procedure is frequently refused.
  or
• go to a cheque cashing place (but these places charge a fee for cashing, i.e. 2-6% + handling charge fee).

How to plan a door-to-door journey (i.e. walk, car route, cycle, bus, coach, train)? (United Kingdom)

- Use very useful online tool - Transport Direct website - www.transportdirect.info - Britain's public transport journey planner and car route planner. Plus train times, flight details, travel news, car parks, bus routes, cycle routes and more.

How to make your own furniture polish?

There are many recipes of home-made furniture polishes, but most popular are:

1. Mix 1 part of olive oil and 1/2 part of lemon juice in a clean bowl or spray bottle.
   Use a clean, dry, lint-free cloth to rub a small amount of the polish into your furniture. Wipe dry with another cloth until wood shines.
2. Mix equal parts white vinegar and lemon juice in a clean bowl or spray bottle.
   Use a clean, dry, lint-free cloth to rub a small amount of the polish into your furniture. Wipe dry with another cloth.

Home-made furniture polishes are: relatively cheap to make, chemical-free, environmentally-friendly and have no fragrances to irritate allergies.

How to find out your Council Tax band? (England and Wales, Scotland)

You can find the Council Tax band for a property if you have the full address, including postcode, on the Council Tax Valuation website.

• Find the Council Tax band for your property (England and Wales)
• Information about Council Tax valuations in Scotland

How much Council Tax you actually pay depends on your property band and your local council - each council sets its own Council Tax rates.
Your council can tell you the rates for your area.

• Visit the Council Tax pages of your council website

How to export Skype call history?

There are occasions when you need to export and print out Skype call history (e.g. as supporting document for visa application etc.) you can do this by using small free application called SkypeCallExporter (click here to download it), currently works on Windows computers only.

Please, log in before trying to download the attachment. Just unzip it and launch it, no installation is required.
Some guidelines:    

• Before launching the program, Skype must be running, and you must be logged in (the program uses Skype's API to request the call info from the Skype).     
• When you launch the utility for the first time, Skype will pop up a warning message, and you must authorize the utility to connect to Skype.     
• As soon as the utility is running, it will automatically retrieve all call information (SkypeOut and Skype-to-Skype) from Skype. This can take a while, especially if you have a long call list. During this time, it can look as if the program is doing nothing, and rubbish will be displayed in the table in the utility's window. Please be patient and give it enough time to complete, and meaningful information should appear in the table. It can take minutes, if you have made many Skype calls.     
• After the utility has collected all call records, it will display them in a table that can be exported to a CSV file, or printed directly from the program. By the way: the call cost for SkypeOut calls does not include the connection fee, as the API does not (yet) have commands to retrieve it. Also, the call cost is calculated by simply multiplying the duration by the price per minute, so if you have a special SkypeOut plan, this calculated cost might not be correct.
• The application prints user's name in the title of the report.
• If a call failed, the failure reason is retrieved from Skype and added to the report.

Buy Skype Credit now to make cheap calls internationally

How to check which broadband providers operate in your area or if your exchange is unbundled? (United Kingdom)

To find out what broadband is available in your area use UK Broadband Availability Checker at http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker

This broadband checker provides a detailed breakdown of DSL, cable and wireless services available at your location as well as tells if your telephone exchange is unbundled - LLU (Local Loop Unbundling).

How to find out the SWIFT code of a bank?

The easiest way to find out the SWIFT code of your bank is to look at your bank statement. In most cases there will be the BIC, this is same thing as the SWIFT code.

Alternative ways to find out the SWIFT code are: to contact relevant bank or look for it on their website.

The BIC is a standard identifier for banks. It is issued by SWIFT* and should be used on all international payments. A BIC is either 8 or 11 digits long.

You would use BIC when you are or someone else (e.g. your relative, customer etc.) instructing a foreign bank to make payments to your account.

An IBAN code is always used in conjunction with a Bank Identifier Code (BIC).
IBAN is a standardised way of identifying a bank account – it stands for International Bank Account Number. Using an IBAN cuts down errors and delays.
An IBAN is also a legal requirement when you make or receive payments across country borders in the European Union (EU), European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland.

*SWIFT

SWIFT is the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a member-owned cooperative through which the financial world conducts its business operations with speed, certainty and confidence. More than 9,000 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in 209 countries trust us every day to exchange millions of standardised financial messages.

SWIFT enables its customers to automate and standardise financial transactions, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational risk and eliminating inefficiencies from their operations. By using SWIFT customers can also create new business opportunities and revenue streams.

SWIFT is solely a carrier of messages. It does not hold funds nor does it manage accounts on behalf of customers, nor does it store financial information on an on-going basis. As a data carrier, SWIFT transports messages between two financial institutions. This activity involves the secure exchange of proprietary data while ensuring its confidentiality and integrity.

Please visit www.swift.com for more information.

How to check if particular bank account can receive Faster Payments? (United Kingdom)

How to check if the account you are sending a payment to can receive Faster Payments*?
- Well, actually for this you will need to check if the sort code associated with the account can receive Faster Payments.

More of us are using automated payments, whether that means making an internet payment via our online banking or using a Direct Debit to pay a regular bill. It is increasingly important that we are able to make automated payments smoothly and efficiently.
To help achieve this, the Payments Council has created a Sort Code Checker for the UK Payments website – which acts as a one-stop-shop for the payments industry.
The Sort Code Checker is an online resource that lets you check that the sort code you are sending a payment to can receive Faster Payments, Bacs Credits and CHAPS Payments, as well as confirm that you can set up a Direct Debit instruction on your account, and whether you can clear a cheque or pay a paper credit to that account through the cheque & credit clearing.

The Sort Code Checker uses the latest industry data, which is updated weekly, in line with industry practice.

Click here to access the Sort Code Checker

*Faster Payments

The Faster Payments Service allows customers to make faster electronic payments, typically by phone or online banking, to transfer money between accounts or pay bills, or make regular standing order payments.

When Faster Payments was launched in May 2008 it was the first new payments service to be introduced in the UK for more than 20 years.

Thirty five organisations are Participants of the scheme, and over 400 other financial institutions are able to offer the service, making Faster Payments available to more than 52 million current account holders in the UK.

Faster Payments celebrated its 10th birthday in 2018. During this time, over 9 billion payments had been sent using the service, worth a combined value of over £6 trillion! Virtually all internet and telephone banking payments in the UK are now processed through Faster Payments.

How to check MOT status and history of a vehicle? (United Kingdom)

You can check if an MOT certificate is legal or if a vehicle has failed an MOT test by doing an MOT check online. This will give you details about past tests.

Check the current MOT status of a vehicle

You can check the current MOT status of any vehicle online. This might be one that you own already or a second hand vehicle that you are thinking of buying.
The online MOT status check gives you information about:

• the date of the last test
• mileage on the vehicle at the time of the test
• the expiry date of the test

You can compare the online information against the paper certificate to make sure it’s genuine.

Click here to do MOT status check

Check the MOT history of a vehicle

To find out details of previous MOT tests on a vehicle you can do an online MOT history check.
You can only look up information online going back to 2005 when the MOT Scheme was computerised.
The MOT history check will give you the following information:

• full test details
• mileage at the time of each test

Click here to do MOT history check

You can find out more details about the topic from official government portal here.