Travel Q&A: The European Union

Question: “I live in America, and I’m going on holiday to Spain next summer. I’d also like to go to Italy, and I know I can drive there from Spain. My question is about my passport; will I need to show it when I cross the border from Spain to Italy and vice versa? I know they’re both in the European Union, so I’m not sure if normal border controls apply. If at all possible, I’d rather not carry my passport around with me.”

Answer:

While Spain and Italy are both in the European Union, you will still need your passport and the usual forms of ID – such as medical insurance documentation – to cross the border.

It’s an easy mistake to make. In the United Kingdom, for example, you do not need a passport to cross the border from England to Scotland or Wales to England – so there is a precedent for this thinking. However, the European Union is largely a political union – the countries within it remain separate, and regular border controls apply.

On another note, while it’s understandable that you don’t want to carry your passport with you, in some European countries you are required to do so by law. In Italy, for example, police have the right to stop and ask anyone, at any time, to produce documentation as to their identity. It is therefore worth investing in a money-belt or similar to keep your passport in, so if you do get stopped, you won’t have any problems.

The Ever-Increasing Popularity of Air Travel

Ever since the determinedly brave Wright Brothers made the first unassisted flight aboard their plane Kitty Hawk, man has been taking to the sky (and beyond) so as to explore the world. Air travel is fastly becoming the biggest of all the transportation industries, allowing people to shrink the world and go from one hemisphere to another in a matter of hours.

Air travel is one of the most convenient ways to move from place to place. First and foremost, there is the speed: most airplanes have a cruising speed of 500 miles per hour or more, so you’re going to reach your destination in the fastest time possible. And while flight phobias exist, there’s no doubt that for most travelers, being able to sit back and let the pilot do all the work while you sip from the drinks cart is one of the more enjoyable parts of air travel!

There is an oft-quoted statistic that flying by airplane is the safest way to travel – and for once, the statistics are right. Airplane crashes are rare, and despite perceptions, an air crash does not immediately mean total loss of life. In fact, you are more likely to survive an airplane crash than to perish, again according to statistics.

It’s rapidly becoming clear where air travel is so popular. It’s fast, it’s efficient and it’s surprisingly safe – as well as taking some of the strain out of traveling, as you relax in the cabin and watch the wall go by beneath.

Sometimes Counseling Can Help

The word “counseling” is one that can trigger some pretty extreme reactions in people. Given its long association with people under the effects of depression or other mental stresses, it is viewed by many people as being something with a stigma attached to it. However, the simple fact is that counseling can be extremely helpful, and applying yourself to a course of it need not be an admission of weakness – more that you had the strength to admit you needed help. Counseling exists today for far more things than mental stress – although it tends to be used in situations which can be enormously mentally stressful.

Debt counseling is a process that people are using more and more these days, in recognition of the fact that finding yourself unable to make your monthly payments can be an extremely stressful situation. There are many different approaches to debt counseling, a lot of which center around your reasons for ending up in the situation where you have major debt to deal with. If you can address these problems, with the help of a qualified specialist, then you can put yourself on the right track to get rid of your debt once and for all.

Look around for the counselor who you think will help you best, who will understand your reasons for falling into debt and who you think can provide common sense answers to your problems. The situation of having to pay off serious debt is something that can have unreasonable effects on your mental and physical well being. Don’t let it drag you down.

All You Need To Know About UK Travel

The United Kingdom – the union name for the countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – is one of the most popular tourists destinations in the world, especially the capital of England, London and the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Traveling through the UK – as it is abbreviated to – is fairly simple given the size of the four countries. Three – England, Scotland and Wales – are connected by land. It is possible to travel from the Northernmost point of the UK – John O’Groats in Scotland – to the Southernmost point – Land’s End in England – in a day. Only Northern Ireland is not on the same island as the other three countries in the Union, but is reachable by a short ferry trip, most commonly from Scotland.

As the countries are small and interlinked, UK travel is a surprisingly easy aspect of a vacation there. It is possible to fly domestically, and rail and motorway networks serve the UK well. However, rail travel is very expensive, as was recently evidenced by the first issuing of a return rail ticket costing over £1,000 (around $1,400). There are discounts available, however, especially for foreign visitors on short-term stays.

Flying by air is much simpler, however, and usually cheaper, too. The UK has several major airports, both international and domestic, and flights between the countries are inexpensive and regular. You do not need to show a passport to travel across the country borders, though some form of ID is recommended for air travel.

Secured Loans – The Pitfalls

Taking out a loan for a small amount to pay for a purchase that is just outside your usual spending power should be quite a manageable situation. If you take the loan out at a reasonable rate of interest over a decent term then you should be able to make the repayments even if you find yourself out of work for a period. However it is a different story if you take out a mortgage to pay for a house, or a car loan. These forms of credit are often “secured” on your purchase, which means that, should you default on the loan, the lender will be able to reclaim the property from you as a way of making their money back.

Secured credit has such pitfalls because, without the possibility of reclaiming their money in this way, banks would need to charge higher rates of interest and keep the term of the loan much shorter than they currently are. This would put the purchase of a house or a new car far outside the range of most people. It is, however, vitally important to be sure that you have a contingency plan should you suddenly lose your job. In such cases, becoming unemployed can also mean becoming homeless.

Further to this, a default on a mortgage can stay on your credit file for some time, meaning that another mortgage any time soon will be an impossibility for you. Take into account all the perils of taking a mortgage before you sign any documents, because the drawbacks to secured credit could be prohibitive.

How To Turn Things Around

It is a very rare kind of person that does not have money problems at some point in your life. It is important to realize in the circumstances that missing a single payment on your credit card does not make you a bad person, a financially reckless individual or a debt risk. This is not because it is fine to miss a credit payment – ideally, it won’t happen to you – but because there is a way back from credit problems. You need to be concentrated on finding that way back and taking it – but as long as you keep a clear head, this is more than manageable.

Missing one credit card payment is unlikely to strip you of a positive credit rating in one fell swoop. What you need to keep in mind is that there are very good reasons to treat your first missed payment as a warning sign. If you fall into longer term problems with debt, it will be much harder to escape them. For this reason you should focus on that payment and tell yourself that it won’t happen again. Pay attention to making the payment when you can, and meeting the next one when it becomes due. By sticking to this promise to yourself you will make it far more likely that the one missed payment was an aberration. If you think that you will have problems making payments going forward, look for alternative solutions such as consolidation or debt management, rather than letting the problem grow.