One in three Brits are saving money by going out less often and socialising at home. In a poll by Friends Provident, 35% of respondents said they have been going out less frequently since the recession began. One in five (22%) have become ‘social-nesters’, bringing their nights out into their own living room. A third [...]
More than half of UK adults are clueless about how to set up a private pension, research by Friends Provident has found. The pensions provider found 58% of Brits don’t know how to open a private pension fund, while 55% think they’re not saving enough towards their retirement. One in six (15%) confessed to not [...]
Friends Provident, the life insurer, has experienced a 40 percent fall in life and pension sales for the first quarter of 2009 to £109 million, as the recession has put off potential customers in saving for the future. Following the reported results, shares in Friends Provident lost 8 percent. In a bid to rectify losses, [...]
State pensions in the UK are half of what they need to be for a comfortable retirement, research by Friends Provident has discovered. A poll conducted by the pensions provider found that on average Brits estimate needing £832 per month to live comfortably in retirement, £439 more than the standard state pension. Seventy-five percent of [...]
A survey carried out by insurer Friends Provident has established that 75% of Britons believe the state pension is not enough to provide a comfortable retirement. The survey was conducted to mark the 100th anniversary of the state pension and questioned 3,056 people. However, while three quarters of respondents said it did not provide an [...]
Friends Provident is urging homeowners to review their plans for financing retirement, if they have been banking on raising cash from property to provide a nest egg at the end of their working lives. The firm’s head of pensions, Jeremy Ward, warns that if house prices continue to fall, people could find themselves in serious [...]
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 [...]
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