Deal of the week

If you are in the market for a luxury car, get yourself down to the EP Mooney showroom on the Naas Road in Dublin on Saturday 23 January, when more than 250 quality cars will go on auction without a reserve price. EP Mooney went into liquidation late last year and liquidator Paul McCann of Grant Thornton is now selling off the company's assets. A €500 cash deposit will be required on the day and you could get your hands on some excellent bargains with cars worth up to €60,000 expected to sell for far less. A full catalogue of what's on auction can be downloaded at www.e-auctions.ie. It starts at 10am.

Tip of the week

Now that Christmas is well and truly behind us, thoughts are turning to getting rid of those extra pounds we piled on while gorging ourselves on food and booze (7,000 calories on Christmas Day alone!). The cheapest and easiest way to start exercising is to go walking. Check out healthy living website www.weigh2live.eu, run by the North-South body Safefood, for tips on how to start eating well and exercise. When you register, you will qualify for a free pedometer which should help you work towards your weight loss goal.

Bad value of the week

Fair play to the chief executive of the Office of Fair Trading in Britain, John Fingleton, who didn't mince his words last week when he accused Ryanair of acting "outside the spirit of the law" by using "low frequency" payment mechanisms to create the illusion of free transaction fees. Passengers in Ireland can now use their Laser card to book Ryanair flights but, unusually, this incurs the same €5 charge applied to those using a standard credit card. Only if you use a prepaid MasterCard can you avoid this stealth charge. These may be readily available but Ryanair knows full well that most people won't bother going to the hassle to avoid the extra cost.

Clarification: In last week's Bad Value of the Week we highlighted a one cent charge one of our readers found on their receipt for hotel break vouchers they received from Heatons. The company has since contacted Consumer Watch to clarify that although the charge was included on the receipt, this did not affect the customer's final bill. Heatons has since reviewed its systems and has removed the one cent charge from receipts to avoid any future confusion.

Recession rates

The best offers in Health Insurance

Selection criteria:

Willing to go semi-private in a private hospital; willing to pay an excess; cover for everyday medical expenses, outpatient excess, maternity benefits and child cover

Price per adult on the plan:

VHI Plan B Excess Parents & Kids: €752

Quinn Healthcare Essential Plus with Excess: €778

Hibernian Aviva We Level 2 with Day to Day A: €919

Health Insurance Authority website: www.hia.ie;
phone 01-406 0080; email info@hia.ie

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