The era of debt-fuelled consumer spending is over, a financial expert has claimed, pointing out Britain’s consumer debts of nearly £1.5 trillion. Tim Moss, head of loans at moneysupermarket.com, seemed to be talking himself out of a job by claiming consumers can no longer afford to fund purchases on borrowed money. Consumers must face up [...]
Ethical shopping just got easier with a new iPhone app designed to help consumers who want to be socially responsible in their buying habits. Barcoo gives the ethical profile for the company behind any product simply by scanning that product’s barcode using the iPhone’s built-in camera. Information included in the profile includes the company’s social [...]
Brits are fed up with the consumerism and money concerns that have invaded Valentine’s Day, a day that should be about celebrating love. Research by moneysupermarket.com found nearly a fifth (17%) of Brits are planning not to bother with Valentine’s Day because they don’t like the idea of it. “The anti-Valentine vibe is definitely in [...]
UK consumers are planning to spend significantly less on Christmas this year, according to new research by uSwitch.com. More than half (56%) of Brits said they will be buying less presents this year. Nearly two thirds (63%) said they will be spending up to £200 less on gifts. A third (32%) of adults said they [...]
Brits living in north west England have been hardest hit by the recession, new research has discovered. Seven in ten households in the north west have significantly changed their lifestyles since the recession. This is compared to a national average of 64%. Two thirds (66%) of those in the north west have reined in their [...]
Nearly half of UK credit card holders have cut back on spending amid the recession, according to new research published this week. A poll by TescoCompare.com found that 44% of credit card users have reined in their spending to under £100 per month. Reasons cited for spending less include paying off debt (37%), increasing savings [...]
Online shopping could give the UK’s economy the boost it needs to climb out of recession, according to a new report. PayPal UK’s Online Retail Report estimates that the amount Brits spend online is set to double by the end of 2011, from £8.9 billion per year to £21.3 billion. During 2011, consumers will spend [...]
Consumers tempted to finance purchases on credit “have been scared into being responsible” by rising unemployment figures, a financial expert said this week. Motley Fool director David Kuo said media reports of soaring unemployment have encouraged Brits to take a sensible approach towards finances. People are “rightly concerned” to be worried about their jobs as [...]
Six in ten Brits have cut back on spending because of the recession, even though many have yet to feel adverse effects from the economic downturn, new research has discovered. Research organisation BDRC found that just 17% of UK consumers have been ‘hard hit’ by the recession and forced to cut back on spending. In [...]
The UK is changing its shopping habits as a coping mechanism during the credit crunch, new research has revealed. A survey by Abbey Credit Cards found that Brits are increasingly searching for bargain deals to make every pound go as far as possible. More than a third of shoppers now check the price of an [...]
The average person seeking debt advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) is nearly £17,000 in the red and would need 93 years to pay back the money at an affordable rate. This is compared to an average debt of £10,600 in 2001, and CAB expects the situation to deteriorate further in the year ahead. [...]
Almost one third of UK consumers use a credit card to pay for everyday items such as groceries, a Post Office survey has revealed. The poll showed that 10 million British adults intend to use their credit cards to cover day-to-day living expenses during the first part of this year. Meanwhile, 2.6 million people intend [...]
Working adults in the UK have ‘higher expectations’ of life than previous generations, causing a decline in saving for pensions. This is the view of Padraig Floyd, editor of Pensions Management magazine. According to Floyd, many consumers now take for granted having ‘a house, two holidays’ and being ‘able to go out for meals regularly’ [...]
M&S Money launches 3% cash ISA
M&S Money has launched an Advantage Cash ISA paying 3 per cent, and which allows transfers in from other ISAs. It can be opened with a minimum deposit of £100 lump sum followed by minimum monthly deposits of £25. The 3% rate is variable, but there is no short-term bonus so the return won’t plummet [...]
Google suspends UK Compare Mortgages site
Google has closed its UK mortgage comparison site which it launched in July last year, after it proved to be less popular than expected. Mortgage comparison sites are designed to allow visitors to compare mortgages quickly and easily without having to visit each lender’s individual site. Google was competing with several well-established comparison sites, including [...]
AA launches ‘black-box’ policy for young drivers
The AA is launching an innovative car insurance policy called Drivesafe which could help younger drivers save up to £850 a year. Younger drivers already pay substantially higher premiums than other motorists and these costs are increasing. A new study by Confused.com suggests insurance costs for younger driver have gone up by 5.7 per cent [...]
ATOL scheme updated to protect online bookers
ATOL, a financial protection scheme managed by the Civil Aviation Authority, is being extended to protect up to six million more holidays a year. The scheme ensures that holiday makers do not lose out financially if a travel company collapses, and that they are not stranded abroad. An increase in the number of holidays booked [...]
Home repossessions lowest for four years
The number of UK homes repossessed fell to 36,200 in 2011, significantly below the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ forecast of 40,000, and lower than 2010 when 37,100 homes were repossessed. With interest rates remaining low and lenders adopting a sympathetic attitude to customers in financial difficulty, repossessions fell to their lowest level since 2007. However, [...]
Monthly pay lasting just 17 days
Workers are running out of money just 17 days after receiving their monthly pay, according to new research by the Halifax bank. This means that the average UK worker spends half the month worrying about money. The study, based on the responses of more than 2,000 adults, found that 10 per cent of workers start [...]
Women disadvantaged by auto-enrolment changes
Government proposals to increase the auto-enrolment threshold to £10,000 could put 1.8 million women at risk of missing out on a pension, the TUC has warned. Under the auto-enrolment scheme, which will be phased in from October, private sector employers will automatically enrol workers between the age of 22 years and the state pension age, [...]
Emergency household repairs company Homeserve is taking longer than expected to get back on track after its operations were suspended last October. The company expected customer numbers to fall by 5% this year but it has increased this estimate to 8% and announced the loss of 200 jobs. It estimates that renewal revenue in 2013 [...]
Sale rumoured for Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks
There is growing speculation that National Australia Bank (NAB) may sell Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank after the Australian parent company announced a strategic review of the two banks’ operations. The Australian economy is performing well and NAB reported strong profits for the final quarter of 2011 but with the UK economy at a virtual [...]
More women experiencing debt difficulties
Women in Debt, which offers female-focused debt advice, has warned that the number of UK women facing serious debt has grown significantly over recent years. The organisation believes that more women will need advice on solving debt problems in the future because they are building up an unsustainable level of indebtedness. Women in Debt’s director, [...]
About | Privacy | Disclaimer | Resources | XML Feeds | Press Releases | Directory | Contact us
