Have you ever thought about just how much money has been thrown into the all world's wishing wells? We have been thinking about it and thought we would let you know.

1 in 5 UK adults regularly throws a few pence into wishing wells and fountains, a study shows, spending an average of 31p at popular tourist sites such as Rome's Trevi Fountain.

That means those making a wish with their spare change literally throw away just under £3 million pounds every year, according to the "Fountain Money Mountain" report. That buys you a lot of wishes!

Financial services marketing agency Teamspirit, which commissioned the study, said the funds should be donated to charity.

"Some wishing wells and fountains are already used by charities as a means of securing funds," said managing director Joanne Parker. "But it would be great if the profits from every single one of them were used for good causes. For me personally, and for many others I'm sure, to combine the thrill of making a secret wish with the knowledge that your money is going to help others would be very rewarding."

Megan Pacey, director of policy and campaigns at the Institute of Fundraising, added: "When money is quite literally 'thrown away' into wishing wells and fountains, it would be to everyone's benefit if those responsible for the upkeep of such sites could nominate an appropriate UK charity to receive these funds."

An investigation into the sale of travel insurance with package holidays has been launched by the Treasury. With the travel insurance sector worth more than £650m in 2006, the investigation could have far reaching effects.

A number of consumer groups have voiced concerns that this type of travel cover is over-priced, being mis-sold or policies contain too many get-out clauses. Travel insurance that is sold as an "add on" to a holiday is unregulated, but the sale of stand-alone cover is regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the review may lead to FSA regulation of the whole travel insurance industry.

Ed Balls, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, called for a review of the industry following a meeting with the influential Treasury Select Committee.

"In recent years there have been growing concerns from consumer groups and sections of the industry that the market is not working as well as it could, raising questions about whether regulation and appropriate redress should apply to the selling of travel insurance," he said. "We therefore need to get to the bottom of whether travel insurance sold with a holiday is being mis-sold, and whether we need to be doing more to educate consumers to consider the cover they want and ensure that they are properly informed."

The Government last examined travel insurance back in 2003 but decided against imposing regulation because of concern over the impact on the cost of package holidays. It also shied away from regulation because travel agents insisted their own industry code was providing consumer with sufficient protection, the Treasury said.

Hi! It's the Finance Physician here.

It has come to my attention that nearly 80,000 people who have an offshore investment account are to be investigated.

It must be pointed out that its' not illegal for a United Kingdom resident to hold an offshore bank account!

But the trouble is that for a long time, some offshore bank accounts have been used a hiding place for taxpayers wishing to conceal funds from HM Revenue & Customs.

So if you are an offshore account holder, it might be worth reading this.

The Money Doctor was chatting with the Plastic Surgeon in the staff room earlier about the very hot topic of social lending.

It seems clear that a lot more people here in the UK are seeing social lending organizations as viable alternatives to their banks. Social Lending is when people lend and borrow money with each other, side-stepping the banks.

'Internet-based Social Lending', an in-depth study by the Social Futures Observatory (SFO), looked at the growing phenomenon of online Social Lending. Why not go here to read more information?

Alternatively why not go to Zopa, the online social lending marketplace?

Our blog: Welcome to Money Hospital, the blog that is here to help you with personal finance. We aim to encourage you to be independently minded about your finance issues. We do this by making information accessible and by taking a relaxed approach to serious finance. So, in order for this to happen, we need your help by engaging with us on the posted topics.

Our website: Money Hospital is one of a number of websites run by www.addmomentum.com.

Add Momentum is a UK-based company created in 2003 that brings people and technology together. We help people to fulfill their potential, achieve new goals and make a real difference in the real world through our partnership with www.hopehiv.org

Money Hospital Blog guidelines:

We like to keep it clean here at the Money Hospital -and that goes for our blog too! We recognize that the blogosphere is great place to chat and we welcome comments and feedback on our posts. However, to make it a pleasurable trip to the Money Hospital as you leave your comments, we would ask you to take a quick peek at our blog guidelines.

- We want the Money Hospital blog to be for your benefit.

- Feel free to post things that are honest, critical and also funny

- Please refrain from posting anything that might be deemed offensive such as ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity etc.

- We would prefer not to edit or censor comments left, but are prepared to do so with regard to anything we consider inappropriate.

- Please think carefully about posting a comment that might be deemed libelous (i.e. anything that is untrue, or anything that cannot be supported by reasonable evidence and which would do damage to a person's or business' reputation). Please note that any comments that are 'libellous' will come back to haunt you as you will be deemed fully liable and possibly sued. (which you don't want!)

- Please do comment about the blog itself -we welcome ideas, suggestions and improvements. Email us at: blog@moneyhospital.co.uk

- Do come back and visit us often...we like to hear from you

- As well as leaving comments feel free to leave us small gifts too. We like biscuits and cake.....

- This blog is based on journalistic research and it does not constitute financial advice. Any information must not be considered in isolation or used by you to make (or refrain from making) any decision. The blog contains general information, and as such it will not be tailored to your specific circumstances. All tips are therefore followed at your own risk and should be followed up with your own research or your own independent advisor.

You will notice that sometimes there are links in the articles to various other sites, companies, services or products.

Some of these links naturally make us money but they are only ever used because we think they will be helpful and are in context. i.e. we never shoe horn anything in that doesn't belong just to make a quick buck!

In this way you can relay on us to be 100% impartial for your benefit.

For more information regarding use of the Money Hospital blog please refer to our terms and conditions.