Gold falls to lowest level since February

FSCS reassures Santander customers

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will protect depositors in Santander, the scheme’s chief executive, Mark Neale, said. Deposits up to the value of £85,000 are protected by the scheme and savers with more than this amount should distribute the money across different banks and building societies, to ensure that the total amount is protected. [...]

Payday loans trapping people in debt

Payday loans have soared in popularity over the past few years, but consumer group Which? warns they are trapping people in a ‘downward spiral of debt’. Problems start to escalate if people are unable to pay back their loan on time, with some companies charging excessively high penalties for late repayments. Which? discovered that Quid24.com [...]

Turmoil in Eurozone increases mortgage costs

The Bank of England has warned that the ongoing Eurozone crisis is pushing up the cost of borrowing on wholesale financial markets. This is making it more expensive for lenders to fund mortgages and they are passing the costs on to customers by increasing their mortgage rates. “In the absence of falls in funding costs, [...]

400,000 more English homes in fuel poverty

An increase in the price of gas and electricity price at the end of 2011 is estimated to have pushed 400,000 more homes in England into fuel poverty, according to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). The new projections show that 3.9 million homes in England were in fuel poverty at the end [...]

Charities call for urgent action on housing crisis

A new report claims there is an urgent need for more affordable homes and says that five key housing issues are getting worse. The Housing Report published by the National Housing Federation, homelessness charity Shelter and the Chartered Institute of Housing, calls on the government to ‘get Britain building’ in order to provide the homes [...]

Mortgage lending to first-time buyers up 74% in March

Mortgage lending to first-time buyers soared in March, as house-buyers rushed to buy their first home before the end of the stamp duty holiday. Properties below the value of £250,000, purchased before 24 March, were exempt from the 1 per cent tax. Twenty-four thousand mortgages were approved for first-time buyers in March, a 74 per [...]

Chancellor wins on banking regulations

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has secured a key agreement allowing the UK government to regulate its banks more strictly than other EU member states. The agreement was secured in Brussels between European Union finance ministers. It allows the UK to ring-fence retail banking operations from riskier investment banking operations in order to protect [...]

Sainsbury’s offers 6.9pc credit card

Retailer Sainsbury’s is offering a credit card with an interest rate of just 6.9 per cent on new purchases, but the card is only available to nectar card holders with good credit ratings. According to new research by the retailer, the number of cards offering a lower-rate APR over a long-term, with no introductory offer, [...]

Personal debt soared prior to credit crunch

Household borrowing soared in the decade leading up to the start of the financial crisis in 2008 according to a report by the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) and the Resolution Foundation. Household spending, GDP and property prices all increased steadily between 1997 and 2007 but the report suggests that this growth [...]

Home insurance may not cover empty properties

Housing charity Empty Homes has highlighted a clause in many insurance policies which could leave homes uninsured if they are left unoccupied. It is estimated that there are 930,000 empty properties in the UK and while their owners may think they are covered by insurance, this clause could mean that many are actually uninsured The [...]