Online advertising boosts Rightmove

Online advertising boosts Rightmove

UK property website Rightmove saw traffic to its property portal soar by 22 per cent to 9.3 billion pages in 2011. The site accounted for 84 per cent of the pages viewed on the top four property websites. Over two-thirds of Rightmove’s advertisers took advantage of additional advertising products available to promote their properties, with [...]

OFT to investigate payday loan companies

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to investigate Payday lenders over concern that they may be encouraging people to take out loans without checking that they can afford to repay them. Payday lenders offer short-term loans at very high interest rates and while these can be affordable if they are paid back at the [...]

Pet insurance more important than critical illness cover?

Insurance provider Hastings Direct is advising pet owners to take out the most comprehensive policy they can afford when their pet is under one year old. Dec Fisher, head of ancillaries at Hastings Direct warned that when people buy a new pet, they do not know what health issues they may have to face and [...]

RBS chief defends bonuses despite £2bn loss

Royal Bank of Scotland made a loss of nearly £2 billion last year but still paid out £785 million in bonuses to staff, including £390 million to investment bankers. The average bonus per group employee was £5,346, but the bank’s 17,0000 investment bankers received an average bonus of £22,941. Bankers’ bonuses have come under intense [...]

Technology offers solution to boosting pensions

The Future Foundation think tank suggests that everyday technology such as a TV remote control or an ATM could be used by savers to top up their pension pots. In its ‘Pensions – The Solutions’ report, produced for insurance provider Friends Life, the Future Foundation says that technology could make it much easier for people [...]

Card launched for consumers with lower credit scores

Capital One has launched a credit card suitable for customers whose credit score has been adversely affected by previous CCJs or defaults. The ‘Balance’ credit card offers 0% on balance transfers until October 2012, the transfer fee is just 1.7 per cent and there is no annual fee. It provides a small, manageable credit limit [...]

CPP Group fears collapse

CPP Group Plc, which provides credit card and identity protection, claims that a mis-selling investigation by the Financial Services of Authority (FSA) could put it out of business. The FSA has been reviewing the firm for a year following complaints over the way it sold card protection and identity protection products. The regulator has now [...]

Government on track to beat borrowing target

The government expects to either achieve or exceed its target of borrowing no more than £127bn this year, after recording its biggest surplus for four years in January. In the tax year to date the government has borrowed £93.5bn and in January it made a net repayment of £7.75bn, excluding financial interventions. Although a surplus [...]

FSA fines Santander £1.5m over compensation scheme

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Santander £1.5m for failing to explain to customers that some of its investment products were not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS is a financial safety net which pays compensation to customers of financial services firms authorised by the FSA, if the firm itself [...]

Mortgage lending 12% lower in January

Gross mortgage lending fell to £10.5bn in January, 12 per cent lower than the total for December. However the figures represent a year-on-year increase of 10 per cent, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said. January was the sixth consecutive month of higher lending compared with the previous year. Home loan approvals also increased in [...]