British workers could be put off saving for their future in the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) because of the upfront fees charged by the Trust, a pensions expert has claimed. The Department for Work and Pensions announced the 2% fee on NEST investments earlier this week. Ros Altmann, pensions advisor, said the 2% upfront [...]
HSBC has reunited customers with £10.4 million held in lost or forgotten bank accounts. The bank, which started searching out owners for unclaimed funds in September 2008, said over 7,000 customers have been reunited with dormant accounts. The average money in each account was £1,400. People in London are the most forgetful about money left [...]
Santander’s ISA has been rated top in Moneynet.co.uk’s best buy charts. The ISA, paying 3.5%, pipped Barclay’s offering to the top spot. Both Barclays and Santander are paying high rates than the best one-year fixed-rate ISAs. “The Isa market is really taking shape as we approach the annual hot bed of activity as providers look [...]
Figures from the Bank of England today revealed that British consumers borrowed £500 million in January through credit cards, loans and overdrafts, once repayments were taken into account – the highest level since November 2008. According to the Bank, the increase was almost double the £265 million rise seen in the previous month December, and [...]
Up to 270,000 civil servants are to stage a 48-hour national strike next month in a dispute over redundancy pay. The walkout, which will take place on 8 and 9 March, will involve job centre staff, tax workers, coastguards, border agency officials, courts staff and driving test examiners. If a satisfactory outcome is not reached [...]
Middle class parents are outraged at plans by the Conservative Party to limit Child Trust Funds (CTFs) to the poorest families if they win the next election. Research by Family Investments found that eight in ten parents do no support the plans, announced by shadow chancellor George Osbourne earlier this month. The study found that [...]
With inflation now above 3.5% it has become close to impossible for savers to get a real return on their savings. Instant access accounts pay an average interest rate of 0.86% gross, equivalent to 0.69% for a basic rate taxpayer and 0.52% for a higher rate taxpayer. This is compared to inflation of 3.7% according [...]
Online bank First Direct has launched a new one-year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 2.75%. The bond is only available to First Direct customers, and can be opened with a deposit of between £2,000 and £49,999. No deposits or withdrawals can be made once the bond is opened. Customers who need to withdraw money from [...]
Rising inflation is not deterring consumers from putting money aside into a savings account, according to research by Nationwide. According to the building society, the number of occasional and regular savers is at the highest level for 16 months. Nearly eight in ten (79%) consumers are now regular or occasional savers, according to Nationwide’s Importance [...]
The Coventry Building Society has launched a new 30-month fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4.25%. Savers can open the bond with an investment of between £1 and £250,000, and can choose between monthly and yearly interest payments. No money can be withdrawn from the bond until it matures in August 2012. The bonds are available [...]
Clydesdale Bank has launched a new one-year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4.5%. The bond is exclusively available to customers also taking out an AXA investment product with the bank. Savers must invest at least £2,000 in the bond, and the equivalent in an AXA investment product. No withdrawals can be made from the bond. [...]
As part of a major restructure, Britain’s largest drugs company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is to slash 4,000 positions, according to The Sunday Times. According to press reports, the job losses are part of plans to shift its focus to emerging markets, such as China which has greater potential to increase sales growth. The company has a [...]
The government’s ISA allowance increase for savers over-50 has proved hugely popular, with older investors more than doubling their lump sum contributions into share-based ISAs, according to new research from Virgin Money. Income funds have proved the most popular, with contributions rising 130% in the three months from 6 October 2009 to 5 January 2010 [...]
Brits have more than doubled the amount they are saving in the past 12 months, according to research published this week. An investigation by Birmingham Midshires found Brits are saving 136% more per quarter compared to this time last year. In the three months to January 2010, the average UK consumer saved £776. This is [...]
Government-backed National Savings & Investments (NS&I), which runs Premium Bonds and a variety of savings products, is to launch a new savings account in March with an “attractive” interest rate. The news will be welcomed by savers who have been suffering amid the historically low interest rate environment. The financial crisis led to many British [...]
The Nottingham has launched a new fixed-rate savings account aimed at customers who want to save “little and often”. The Fixed-Rate Regular Saver pays interest at 5%, and can be opened with a minimum deposit of £10. Savers can set aside up to £100 per month into the account, and are not penalised for missing [...]
Making the effort to put your savings into a tax-free account is worth a mere 73p per month, according to research by Moneynet.co.uk. The additional returns on a tax-free ISA compared to a standard savings account for a basic-rate tax payer are equivalent to just £8.72 per year on a £3,600 investment, the financial advice [...]
Leeds Building Society has launched two new fixed-rate ISAs paying interest at up to 3.5%. The new accounts include a three-year fixed-rate ISA, paying interest at 3.5%, and a two year product paying 3% interest. Both accounts can be opened with a minimum deposit of just £1, and both accept transfers from previous ISA subscriptions. [...]
Nationwide’s Savings Index for December reveals a decline in the number of people putting money aside into savings accounts. A quarter (25%) of those polled by Nationwide admitted to saving nothing during December, a rise of one percentage point compared to November. Meanwhile, 45% said they currently put money aside regularly into a UK savings [...]
Santander’s high street banks have launched a range of new fixed-rate bonds paying interest at up to 4.1%. The bonds, available through Abbey, Bradford & Bingley, and Alliance & Leicester, can be opened by new and existing customers with a minimum deposit of £1. The one year bond pays interest at 2.5% gross per annum/AER [...]
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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