Deal of the Week

Men who shave using expensive razors like the Mach3 series from Gillette will know that they can be pretty expensive (a five pack of Mach3 cartridges will set you back around €11; users of the Fusion Power range can spend €17 on four cartridges) and that after a relatively short period of time they have to be replaced. A new product called Razor Pit ? available online at www.4men.ie ? promises to prolong the life of your razor. It works by cleaning the razor more thoroughly than simply rinsing it in water and enables you to continue using your razor effectively up to 150 times. At €22.95, it could generate considerable savings.

Tip of the Week

Remember those prize bonds your mother gave you for Christmas a decade a go. You put them in an envelope at the back of a drawer and forgot about them. Time to fish them out because the total value of unclaimed prizes up to the end of March 2009 stands at an eye-watering €1.4 million. Prize bond owners in Dublin and Cork should be more eager than most ? Dubliners have left half a million unclaimed (including two prizes worth €19,000) and Corkonians have left another €140,000 (including one €19,000 prize) in the pot.

Bad Value of the Week

Irish consumers continue to pay over the odds for magazines, imported and home produced, and are increasingly becoming too much of a luxury these days. For once, the fault does not solely lie with retailers failing to pass on the benefits of a stronger Euro against Sterling, but rather with the Government continuing to lob VAT of 13.5% on all magazines. Take a copy of movie magazine Empire for instance. In the UK, Empire readers pay £3.99 VAT free for their monthly fix . In Ireland, the most recent issue is retailing at €5.65. If the current exchange rate was applied to the UK price, Irish consumers would pay €4.43. Government tax ads another 60 cent to that and the retailer tops it up by as much. Not worth it.

Recession Rates

Best one-year personal loan (less than €5,000)

Variable Rate: NIB at 9.65%

Fixed Rate: Bank of Ireland at 11% (including online discount)

Best three year personal loan (less than €13,000)

Variable Rate: AIB at 9.19%

Fixed Rate: NIB at 8.75%

Best five year personal loan (less than €22,000)

Variable Rate: AIB at 7.96%

Fixed Rate: Halifax at 8.5%

Rates correct as of 29/04/09