Podcasts

How much are you planning of spending over the holiday season? Do you feel the pressure of giving your loved ones the best gifts possible? The average price people spend on Christmas has been worked at £440 on presents alone. Georgie is joined in the studio by Lisa Hardstaff, credit information expert from Equifax to discuss Christmas spending.

Rodolphe Saadé, an executive of French shipping giant CMA CGM, said earlier this week that none of the top twenty biggest container-shipping companies are likely to post a profit in 2016. He said that container shipping: "has been strangled by two years of rock-bottom freight rates that have caused some operators to go bankrupt and others to seek partnerships to stay afloat." To find out what is expected for next year, Share Radio's Matt Cox sought out Robert Merrylees, Policy Analyst at the UK Chamber of Shipping.

Georgie Frost is joined in the studio by Kevin Pratt Web editor MoneySuperMarket.com. Today they discuss the big story of the day, that the Bank of England are soon to announce the interest rates and a report on inflation. Andrew Sentance, a former member of the bank's monetary policy committee says there could be a case for raising interest rates soon. Elsewhere, diesel car drivers could be charged for entering city centres. All these stories and more on The News Review.

This is a brand new edition of The Apprentice Investor. Regular listeners to the programme will know that our Apprentices are five members of the Share Radio team who've each been given fifteen thousand pounds of virtual money to build their own share portfolios. They're allowed a minimum of eight stocks from different sectors which they've been buying and selling through the Share Centre. Our Apprentices under the spotlight today are Matt Cox and Alexi Phillips. Find past episodes on The Apprentice Investor audioBoom page: https://audioboom.com/channel/shareradio-apprenticeinvestor Want to start investing yourself? Check out our other shows to help you get to grips with the world of finance: The Investment Trust Show: https://audioboom.com/channel/shareradio-investmenttrustshow Crowdfunders: https://audioboom.com/channel/shareradio-crowdfunders Serious Money with Claer Barrett: https://audioboom.com/channel/shareradio-seriousmoney

Consumer writer Megan French talks us through the cash incentives available for switching bank accounts as well as how to get the best deals on eBay. And as ever we'll have a roundup of the latest and best deals the team have come across this week.

We all get stresses in our day-to-day lives. But what about specifically in the workplace. A quarter of people have taken time off work with stress but blamed it on a physical illness. In fact new research has found that an enormous 8 million UK workers suffer in silence. Today is National Stress Awareness Day, and to find out more about it, Robyn Dwyer was joined on the line by Jon Blackburn, Clinical and Rehabilitation Services Manager at Aviva.

If you are struggling to conceive you may be interested in a new digital resource. Its called BUD which stands for 'babies under development', and the website www.littlebud.com provides a platform for people wanting to share their stories. Robyn Dwyer was joined by founder Tim Heard to hear the story behind BUD.

How dirty is your car? Do you have to wipe the dust off every time you use it? Shockingly, drivers in the UK don't seem to care about the build-up of germs and potentially harmful bacteria in their cars. Scientists at Salford University who carried out a unique experiment to determine how dirty the inside of our cars really get - and it's worse than many people realise. For more information, Robyn Dwyer spoke to hygienist Dr Lisa Ackerley.

How do you feel when you check your finances? Sick to the stomach? We;;, if you are, you are not alone. New research by Atom, the UK's first digital bank, and the Stress Management society has found around a third of people feel nervous or even physically sick when checking their account. Nearly four million of us are lying to our partner about the state of their finances. Neil Shah, Head of the Stress Management Society, joined Robyn Dwyer on the line to explain further.

More than 6.5 million households have either none or very little savings according to new research from The Equality Trust. More than 40 per cent of working households have too little saved to pay even a month's worth of household bills, let alone cover one-off bills such as the typical £540 cost of a replacement boiler. Over a third of households owe more in debt that they have saved. Our reporter Mary Newman spoke to John Hood, from the Equality Trust.