The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has today revealed a fall in retail sales for the month of August due to the rainfall which kept shoppers away from the High Street. UK like-for-like sales (which excludes new stores) fell 0.1% compared with August 2008, according to the BRC. Sales of clothing and footwear lost ground, while [...]
US food giant Kraft saw its shares fall 5% to $26.7 this morning on Wall Street as investors expressed concern about the group’s takeover approach for British confectionery giant Cadbury. Cadbury rejected the £10.2 billion offer from Kraft, which is renowned for brands such as Kenco coffee, Oreo biscuits, Terry’s Chocolate Orange, Toblerone and cheese [...]
Influential think tank, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said today that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 0.2% in the third quarter after a 0.3% fall in the April to June period. The NIESR specialises in estimating GDP prior to the release of figures from the Office for National Statistics. However, while [...]
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined banking giant Barclays £2.45 million for reporting flaws. However, by agreeing to settle at an early stage, Britain’s second largest bank qualified for a 30% discount. According to the City watchdog, Barclays failed to report details of trade transactions accurately and was guilty of “serious” breaches in systems [...]
British workers who fail to save for their retirement could end up working until they reach 86 if they want to be paid a decent pension. Research by Standard Life found the real retirement age of people not currently saving for retirement could be between 74 and 86 if they want to retire on two-thirds [...]
Nearly two thirds of UK consumers are oblivious to how much interest their savings are earning, new research found. Saga Personal Finance discovered 61% of Brits don’t know the interest rate on their savings account. This increased to 68% for savers aged under 50. Almost a quarter (24%) of those polled said they only check [...]
The Post Office this week launched travel insurance for “gap year gatecrashers”. The insurance, aimed at over-65s who want to travel overseas on a regular basis, provides year-round, multi-trip cover. The upper age limit of the cover is 74, and policyholders can choose to add optional extras including extended baggage, excess waiver, and golf cover. [...]
Savers investing in an e-Savings Plus account at Nationwide Building Society can now make unlimited deposits up to a maximum balance of £3 million. The account pays interest at 2% gross p.a./AER variable, provided the account holder makes no more than three withdrawals per year and keeps the account open for at least 12 months. [...]
Despite a fall of 78% over the year to the end of August, the number of home loans available to mortgage brokers remained stable last month. So says mortgage advice website, Mortgage Brain, in its monthly review of the market. The firm detected an 0.2% rise in the number of products available to brokers, representing [...]
The Office for National Statistics has today revealed a rise in UK manufacturing output during July, boosted by a sharp improvement up in car production. Factory output rose by 0.9% in July when compared with the previous month – treble the figure that analysts had forecast and the fastest rate in 18 months. However, output [...]
The price of gold, which is seen as an attractive investment in times of inflation, has briefly hit the $1,000 mark – it’s highest level in six months – before slipping back to $999.0 per ounce. Gold has been growing in value for the last 8 years and peaked at $1,032 an ounce in March [...]
Despite recent signs of an imminent recovery within the US, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has expressed his concern for a “double-dip” recession in the world’s largest economy. Mr Stiglitz, who said he has been consulted on an informal basis by the Obama Administration to discuss economic issues, said “the prospects of a robust recovery [...]
A joint venture between mobile phone giants, T-Mobile UK and Orange, is to create the UK’s largest mobile phone company with more than 28 million customers and annual sales of €9.4 billion (£8.2 billion), the BBC has reported today. The combined company will have a 37% share of the UK mobile market – overtaking market [...]
The Government is to target areas of England with high levels of repossession with a new advertising campaign, the BBC has reported. Hotspots include: Barking and Dagenham, Corby, Knowsley, Salford, Newham, Walsall, Redditch, Halton, Sandwell, Wolverhampton, Bolton, Reading, Swindon, Northampton, and Cannock Chase. Nottingham, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Sunderland, Wigan, and Kingston-upon-Hull are some of the [...]
Gender directive could slash men’s annuity payouts
The EU Gender Directive, which came into force today, could see men losing up to £10,000 from their annuity payouts, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Under the new rules insurers are no longer allowed to take gender into account when setting annuity rates and premiums on insurance products. Men previously enjoyed higher annuity rates than [...]
Home rental costs down in November
The cost of renting a house in England and Wales fell by 0.4 per cent in November, its first dip since March, according to a survey by LSL Property Services. Average rent was £741m during the month, returning to the level seen in September. However, it was 3.4 per higher than in November last year. [...]
Lloyds TSB halts sale of packaged accounts in branches
Lloyds TSB will stop selling packaged account in its branches from 1 January 2013, until its sales procedures are brought into line with those operated by sister bank The Halifax. Lloyds TSB is one of the main providers of packaged accounts in Britain, with around one in three of its customers choosing to pay fees [...]
Housing market recovery to continue next year
Recent improvements in the housing market should continue into next year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) Gross lending is estimated to have increased to £12.9 billion in November, helped by the Funding for Lending scheme which provides banks and building societies with lower-cost funding, which they are then supposed to pass on [...]
Newcastle Building Society exits interest-only mortgages
Newcastle Building Society has stopped offering interest-only mortgages to new borrowers, following the lead of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Nationwide, Co-operative bank and Coventry Building Society. The decision will not affect existing Newcastle customers and applications for interest-only mortgages received before 14 December will still be processed. Prior to the credit crunch, interest-only mortgages [...]
Less than half of Brits considered creditworthy
Fifty-seven per cent of UK adults are at risk of having an application for credit turned down by a mainstream lender according to a new report. The ‘Mind the Credit Gap‘ report commissioned by aqua credit cards suggests that even people with a good credit rating and earning more than £50,000 could have a credit [...]
Monthly incomes £22 lower in 2012
The average monthly income of UK households fell by £22 in real terms compared with last year, according to a survey carried out for the Bank of England (BoE) by NMG Consulting. People on lower incomes have seen their income eroded more than higher earners and households still have high levels of debt the BoE [...]
Savers dig deep to fund Christmas
New research from the Halifax suggests that savers are funding their Christmas spending with money set aside for other purposes. Thirty-seven per cent of 2,138 savers surveyed by the bank at the end of November had withdrawn savings in the last three months. The average amount withdrawn was £1,186, more than double the average savings [...]
Financial data at risk from unsafe passwords
According to a survey by the Payments Council the problem of having to remember a different password for several accounts means that many internet users are compromising the security of their financial data. Internet users have 22 password-protected accounts on average and many use the same log-in details for more than one account, even though [...]
Wonga launches Paylater loans on retailer website
Payday loan company Wonga has launched a new Paylater service on furniture firm Cotswold Company’s website. The service, which allows customers to “buy now, pay later” will be introduced on other retailers’ sites in the near future. Although the Paylater branding is similar to Wonga’s, the Wonga name only appears in the small print. A [...]
About | Privacy | Disclaimer | Resources | XML Feeds | Press Releases | Directory | Contact us
