Halifax has increased the cost of some of its fixed-rate home loans for new customers, effective from next week. The UK’s largest mortgage lender has hiked rates on 18 of its 52 fixed-rate deals by 0.2%. The move will not please the Government, which has so far committed £11.5 billion of taxpayers’ money to the [...]
One in four UK consumers expect interest rates to rise over the next year. In a January poll by Lloyds TSB, 24% of Brits predicted that interest rates will be higher in 12 months time. This is compared to 4% in Lloyd’s December poll. Lloyds’ Consumer Barometer also found that expectations on inflation have improved. [...]
Base rate cuts alone may not be enough to revive the UK economy, Lloyds TSB has warned. Trevor Williams, an analyst at Lloyds TSB, said the Bank of England must start thinking about alternative stimuli. The ‘economic woes’ that led to last week’s base rate cut ‘will not disappear overnight’, said Williams. With the base [...]
Eight major lenders yesterday confirmed plans to pass on the full 0.5% base rate cut to mortgage holders. Abbey, Barclays, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide Building Society and Skipton Building Society have all announced interest rate cuts. Abbey said the full rate cut will be passed on to tracker mortgage holders, whilst [...]
Lloyds Banking Group launched a new campaign this week to reunite customers with £100 million held in dormant bank accounts. The banking group – created this month by a merger between Lloyds TSB and Halifax Bank of Scotland – said it is paying for a national advertising drive that will encourage customers to check if [...]
Homeowners should use the Bank of England’s recent rate cuts as an opportunity to overpay on mortgage payments, according to banking group HSBC. Thousands of pounds worth of interest can be saved by tracker customers if they choose to overpay, HSBC said. Tracker mortgages follow the Bank of England base rate. Consumers holding a tracker [...]
Bank shares on Friday took a battering amid speculation that more financial institutions will have to be rescued by the Government. Barclays stock was down 25% to its lowest level since 1993, while Royal Bank of Scotland lost 13%, the latter is 57.9% owned by the Government. Last week alone, Lloyds TSB saw its shares [...]
The new Lloyds Banking Group, formed by the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS, has received legal approval by a court in Edinburgh and will commence trading next week. The news comes just one day after it was announced that the new banking giant will be 43.4% owned by the taxpayer, after investors bought just [...]
The new Lloyds Banking Group, formed by the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS, is set to be 43.4% owned by the taxpayer, after investors bought just 0.5% of shares on offer from Lloyds TSB and 0.24% of stock on offer from HBOS. The new banking giant is set to commence trading next week, subject [...]
Pension fund trustees at HBOS are threatening to block the proposed merger with Lloyds TSB until better protection is put in place for the scheme’s 80,000 members. Out of the nine trustees, seven are due to meet at the end of the week to decide whether to challenge the merger in the Scottish courts. The [...]
Lloyds TSB and its mortgage lending arm, Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G), have launched a range of new tracker deals, with rates starting at 3.69%. Two-year loans with a maximum 60% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio are available in the lender’s All Weather range as follows: 4.09% (base rate +2.09) £1995 fee applies; 4.19% (base rate +2.19) and [...]
Yesterday’s 1% cut in the Bank of England’s base rate, to 2%, has met with a mixed response from mortgage lenders. Despite pressure from Government Ministers, Halifax and Nationwide are opting not to pass on the full reduction to customers with standard variable rate (SVR) loans. So far, HSBC, Bristol & West, Lloyds TSB and [...]
The Government yesterday announced further help for mortgage borrowers who are falling behind with repayments. The new measures should mean that middle-income homeowners who lose their jobs or part of their income are less likely to face repossession. In a scheme guaranteed by the state, borrowers will be able to approach their lenders to request [...]
Lloyds TSB has pledged to help its 600,000 small business customers by putting together a six-point ‘charter’ to help them weather the economic downturn. The bank has also confirmed it will pass on, in full, any further cuts in interest rates throughout the remainder of 2008 and the whole of 2009, the measures will benefit [...]
A group of businessman have launched a legal challenge against the proposed Lloyds TSB / HBOS merger, claiming the Government’s approval was illegal. The Merger Action Group (MAG), which is led by Malcolm Fraser, claimed that business secretary, Lord Mandelson, waived competition rules and that his decision was ‘unlawful‘. Mr Fraser, an Edinburgh architect who [...]
Lloyds TSB shareholders voted today on the proposed takeover of Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) with 95.98% voting in favour of the deal. Shareholders also approved proposals to raise £5.5 billion by issuing new shares and special preference shares. The takeover will create a new banking giant called Lloyds Banking Group, which will comprise almost [...]
Shareholders in Lloyds TSB are to vote today on the proposed takeover of Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS). Lloyds’ shareholders are expected to vote in favour of the takeover, which will create a new UK banking giant called Lloyds Banking Group, which will comprise almost 150,000 staff and 3,000 branches. However, not everyone has been [...]
Following the large-scale withdrawal of tracker mortgages last week, as the bank of England’s base rate fell to 3%, a number of lenders have now reintroduced tracker loans, some having increased their margins. Abbey is offering a two-year tracker deal for those with a 25% deposit, at 1.99% above base rate (4.99%) compared with an [...]
Sir George Mathewson, former chief executives of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Sir Peter Burt, former chief executive of Bank of Scotland (BoS), are trying to convince HBOS shareholders they will not benefit from the current Lloyds TSB deal on the table. The merger of the two banking giants, which will create Lloyds Banking [...]
Lloyds TSB has confirmed that it will pass on today’s 1.5% cut in the base rate in full, to mortgage borrowers on its standard variable rate (SVR). The bank had previously pledged that its SVR will never be pitched more than 2% above the Bank of England’s base rate. Today’s reduction takes Lloyds TSB’s SVR [...]
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, [...]
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