Santander-owned Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, and Bradford & Bingley have launched a new two-year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4% gross/AER. The bond is available to new and existing customers, and requires a minimum investment of £10,000. Customers opening the account can choose to have interest paid when the account matures, or monthly with a [...]
Nationwide has reissued its Legal & General Portfolio Bond, offering savers the opportunity to invest in highly rated funds. Customers opening the bond can put together their own investment portfolio from a range of 21 funds. Savers who rely on their investments for an income can make regular withdrawals from the bond. The minimum investment [...]
Over one million pension savers can track the performance of their pension fund and plan for retirement using a new online tool. The Aviva Pension Tracker, available to Aviva’s pensions customers, was launched this week. The secure website features Lisa, a virtual online guide who shows users around the site and explains the importance of [...]
Barclays has launched a new range of fixed-rate bonds paying interest at up to 5.25%. Savers can choose between a one, two, and five year bond, with a minimum deposit of £500. Interest on the five-year bond is paid at 5.25%, on the two year bond at 3.75% and on the one year bond at [...]
Yorkshire Building Society has launched a new five-year fixed-rate savings bond paying interest at 5.3% gross/AER. The building society also launched a three-year bond paying a fixed-rate of 4.65% gross/AER. Both bonds require a minimum investment of £100 and can be opened in branch, over the telephone, or online. Financial advice site Moneyfacts.co.uk said the [...]
Bradford & Bingley has launched a new two-year fixed-rate bond paying 4.35% interest. The bond requires a minimum deposit of £10,000, and no withdrawals are permitted during the life of the bond. Savers looking to take advantage of the bond must have internet access as it is only available online. Reza Attar-Zadeh, director of savings [...]
Leeds Building Society (LBS) has launched a new instant access passbook savings account paying up to 2.5% interest. Customers opening an Albion Saver passbook account are given a passbook that allows them to deposit and withdraw money at any LBS branch. Opening the account requires a minimum deposit of £2,500. The standard gross interest rate [...]
Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, and Bradford & Bingley have announced the launch of a new two-year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4.2%. Savers can open the bond with an investment of between £10,000 and £2 million. Any withdrawals incur a penalty of 120 days interest. The bonds can be opened by visiting any branch of [...]
Leeds Building Society has launched a new three-year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4.3% gross pa/AER. Savers can open the bond with an investment of between £1,000 and £1,000,000. Interest on the bond is fixed until August 2012, and is paid annually at 4.3%. Interest can also be paid monthly at 4.05% gross pa/4.11% AER. [...]
Barnsley Building Society has launched a range of new Online Bonds paying interest at a fixed rate of up to 5.4%. The three, four, and five year bonds pay a gross/AER rate of 5%, 5.15%, and 5.4% respectively. Minimum balance to open the bonds is £100, and maximum is £500,000. Sarah Lawrence, Barnsley’s senior product [...]
Barclays Wealth has relaunched its Regular Income Bond with an increased term of six years. The bond, which is linked to the FTSE 100, was previously offered on a five-year term. Returns on the bond are fixed at 7% annually, or 0.57% per month, irrespective of index performance. A capital guarantee is also included, provided [...]
Leeds Building Society has launched a new fixed-rate mortgage for customers with a deposit of at least 25%. Interest on the five-year mortgage is fixed at 5.35%, and customers can borrow at up to 75% loan-to-value (LTV). Borrowers can make up to 10% capital repayments each year without penalty. Kim Rebecchi, Leeds director of sales [...]
Leeds Building Society has launched a new three-year fixed-rate postal bond paying interest at 4.30%. Customers requiring a regular income from their savings can opt to have interest paid monthly at 4.11% AER. Savers investing in the bond can access up to 10% of the initial amount invested without notice, penalty free. A minimum investment [...]
Family Investments has teamed up with the Post Office to launch a new Guaranteed Capital Cash Bond ISA. Launched this week, the ISA is available from Post Office branches and the Post Office website. The ISA is the third financial package to be offered jointly by the two organisations in the last 12 months, following [...]
Lloyds TSB International this week launched its Bonus Saver Account aimed at British ex-pats and customers who make frequent cross-border transactions. The account offers no-penalty instant access, and is available in either euros or sterling. Savers can invest up to £1 million or €1 million. Sterling accounts with a balance of £5,000 or above benefit [...]
Scottish Widows Bank this week launched a fixed-rate deposit account paying 5.25% interest over a five year period. Customers can invest between £10,000 and £5 million in the account, and choose to have interest paid monthly, quarterly, or annually. “We are delighted to be bringing a strong 5 year fixed rate savings account to the [...]
Norwich & Peterborough Building Society (N&P) this week announced plans to increase the interest rates on its ISAs and fixed rate bonds. Rates on its two and five year fixed rate ISAs increased to 3.05% and 4.55% respectively. Three and five year fixed rate bonds at the building society now pay up to 4.3% and [...]
Leeds Building Society has launched a five-year fixed-rate cash ISA paying a market-leading interest rate of 4.6%. Customers can withdraw up to 25% of the amount invested at any time, without notice or penalty. The account can be opened with a minimum of £1, and allows savers to transfer in their ISA balance from previous [...]
Nationwide has launched a new range of fixed-rate ISA bonds paying interest at up to 4.5%. The bonds are available for one year, three years, or five years, paying interest at 3%, 3.75% and 4.5% respectively. The ISAs can be opened with a minimum of £1, and savers can opt to transfer the balance from [...]
Lloyds TSB this week launched its 2009 Student Account with a first-year interest free tiered overdraft of up to £1,500. Benefits include free mobile banking until August 2010, an NUS Extra card offering discounts at over 60 retailers, one year’s membership to the Youth Hostel Association (YHA), and 35 music downloads from eMusic. The overdraft [...]
Phone fraudsters stealing bank card pins
Fraudsters using a phone scam to trick bank card holders into revealing their pin numbers stole £750,000 in the first four months of this year. This is the same amount stolen through this scam in the whole of last year. The fraudster telephones a bank customer, often someone elderly or vulnerable, telling them that their [...]
FSA rules out ban on interest-only mortgages
Speculation that the Financial Services Authority would ban interest-only mortgages as part of its Mortgage Market Review has proved to be unfounded. However, lenders will be required to monitor the performance of the investment product taken out by the customer to repay the mortgage at the end of its term. Investments are performing poorly because [...]
Bank of England may end free in-credit banking
A director of the Bank of England has warned that official intervention could be considered to end the ‘dangerous myth of free in-credit banking’. Andrew Bailey has already spoken out against free banking in relation to the mis-selling of financial products. In a speech made available to media, he reiterated his concern, saying that it [...]
Bank of England votes against more economic stimulus
The Bank of England voted against a further round of quantitative easing, at its latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Just one member, David Miles, voted for further asset purchase to encourage growth in the UK economy, while the other eight members voted to keep the Bank’s quantitative easing programme steady at £325bn. The minutes [...]
Catalogue debt growing says helpline
Calls from people concerned about their debts with mail order catalogues accounted for more than 12 per cent of all calls received by National Debtline last year, compared with just 8 per cent in 2007. More people were concerned about catalogue debt than about payday loans, mortgage or rent, according to the Money Advice Trust [...]
Homeserve faces mis-selling investigation
HomeServe, which provides emergency insurance cover and domestic repairs to households in the UK, is to be investigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Issues over the possible mis-selling of household emergency policies were uncovered last October during an internal review at the Walsall-based company. Homeserve’s call centre staff were found to be selling ‘Complete [...]
OFT warns Wonga over debt collection methods
Payday loan company Wonga used aggressive and misleading methods to collect debts from customers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has found. Wonga sent letter and emails to certain customers suggesting they had committed fraud and threatening to report them to the police if they did not act in the way Wonga suggested. The company [...]
NS&I re-launches investment account
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has re-launched its Investment Account at a higher interest rate than it previously offered. The account now offers 0.75 per cent before tax, compared with between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent previously, depending on the account balance. Deposits and withdrawals on the account can no longer be made at Post [...]
Rightmove reports property downsizing trend
Two in five property owners planning to sell in the next year are planning to ‘trade down’, compared with one in four who plan to ‘trade up’. A survey by property website Rightmove found that moving to a smaller home is the main reason for moving in nine out of the ten regions in the [...]
More people failing to save for retirement
The proportion of people with no pension savings has grown from 20 per cent to 22 per cent over the past year, according to Scottish Widows’ latest survey. The pension provider surveyed 5,200 adults in the UK, aged 30 or over, and earning at least £10,000 a year, for its annual review of pensions. Ian [...]
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