Moneyblog

‘I’ve slept with people for money and I’ve been on dates with disgusting guys and put myself at risk just so I could have dinner and some leftovers for the next day.’ These are the harrowing words of a female first-year student describing the extraordinary lengths she went to in order to pay her way at university. She found herself turning to ‘sugaring’ websites, which mostly introduce older wealthy men willing to lavish expensive gifts and cash to young women in return for company and often – but not always – sex. And as well as partnering ‘sugar daddies’ with bright, young things, the websites also connect ‘sugar mummies’ to

Pity the savers. With interest rates at historic lows and banks loath to offer anything remotely resembling a decent return, it’s tempting to stash bundles of cash under the mattress and wait for better times. Hardly a day goes by at Spectator Money without a press release lamenting the paltry rates on savings plans. Yesterday, for instance, came data from Moneyfacts.co.uk revealing that rate reductions in the savings market have now outweighed rate rises for nine consecutive months. And what has happened to the base rate during that time? Absolutely nothing. In June, Moneyfacts recorded just 14 savings rate rises. But rate reductions over the same period completely outshone this figure, with the

Are you skint? Is payday merely a blip in the month, a day where you make your minimum credit card repayment, settle the mortgage, buy groceries and keep you fingers crossed that you’ll survive another few weeks? If this sounds familiar, then you’re not alone. New research from Money Advice Service has found that one in eight workers run out of their monthly wages within ten days of being paid. What’s more, a third of all employees struggle to make their money last most months — equivalent to 10.4 million working people nationwide. Dubbed the ‘pre-payday pinch’, this isn’t a modern phenomenon. But that doesn’t make it any less unpleasant. Counting the

Buying a house is a major decision and few people want to commit to such a life changing purchase in times of uncertainty. It’s no surprise therefore that the confusion, fear and downright shock that followed the EU referendum vote to leave has had an effect on sentiment in the housing market. The latest survey from the Royal Institution  of Chartered Surveyors confirmed what we all already suspected –  that Brexit uncertainty has had an impact on market activity. New buyer enquiries declined significantly across the UK in June to its lowest reading since the mid-2008. The survey also recorded further decline in sales and many expect this to continue.

The UK doesn’t save enough. It’s a plain and simple truth that the savings and investment industry has known for decades. Politicians have finally cottoned on – and they are worried. Report after dull report has concluded there will be a generation who retires into penury, or cannot afford to retire at all, because they have not squirreled enough away. The big question is, what can we do now to dodge the diet of ready meals and food stamps awaiting us when the 2030s roll around? We already have the automatic enrolment programme, introduced in 2012, which forces millions of employers to offer their staff pensions. But even once it is fully

The national obsession with the Bank of England base rate is beginning to make my blood boil. If low interest rates were the saviour of the Great British economy they’re heralded to be, why are house prices sky high? Why are young renters finding it more difficult than ever to buy one? Why are savers and pensioners seeing their incomes shrink? Why is the average British household expected to have racked up £10,000 in unsecured debt by the end of the year? None of these things make me thank my lucky stars I’m living in low-interest Britain. What I believe we need is tax cuts – that’s what will get

Although a few uncertainties have been removed from the political landscape in recent days – hail Empress Regnant Theresa May – it would be a mistake to think that normality has now returned to the financial world. Far from it. Uncertainty rules. Sterling still treads the low – rather than the high – paths while the outlook for the economy remains at best fragile. The UK stock market may have risen like a phoenix and soared – eagle like – to an eleven month high with May’s imminent arrival at Number 10 but it still remains prone to ‘shocks’. Don’t rule out further short sharp corrections before the summer is

Mortgage rates are at record lows, personal loan rates have fallen, credit card deals are better than ever and the base rate has been stuck at 0.5 per cent for the past seven years. There’s even speculation that the Bank of England will cut it later this week. So why are current account customers paying through the nose for overdrafts? Days after it emerged that going overdrawn on a current account without permission can be up to four times more costly than taking out a payday loan, analysis by Moneyfacts has revealed that ‘extortionate fees’ have pushed overdraft costs to a new high. According to Moneyfacts, even authorised overdrafts can cost

Now that I’ve reached my 40s, I’ve started to notice a number of entirely unwelcome lifestyle changes. An involuntary ‘ooh’ when I sit in a comfy chair. A feeling of relief when a friend cancels a night on the town. A fear that I might need bifocals. A refusal to go down the pub unless I can get a seat. Perhaps most worrying is my memory. I’ve always been scatty and I spend a fortune on Post-it notes. But last week I went to the post box and returned home with the letter still in my hand. It’s not an encouraging sign. On the up side, I’ve still some way

You don’t have to be an economist to know that if you spend more than you earn, you’re in trouble. As Micawber famously said in David Copperfield: ‘Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and six pence, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.’ But what Micawber couldn’t account for was the swathe of stuff we would find ourselves paying for to live a modern life in the 21st century. Back in those days, there were five outgoings: food, clothes, heat, light and accommodation. We have the same today, but added to that there’s the home phone, mobile phone,

With just a week or so to go before schools break up for the summer, are you one of the families trying to save money on your holiday by pulling the kids out of class early? If so, I salute you. And I’m a school governor. After all, they’re mostly watching films or larking about in the playground at a time when there are real savings to be had if you can travel – right? One teacher told me she looks forward to the last week of term when children have been taken out of school early. ‘So much easier to teach 24 than 30 isn’t it? Why do you

It’s a riddle of the modern age: when is your bank not experiencing ‘unusually high call volumes’? You can puzzle the answer while listening to 20 minutes of looped Vivaldi interrupted sporadically by a disembodied female voice apologising for this delay. I recently called my bank at around 10.30 at night and endured exactly the same routine. This makes me suspect these frustrating delays have more to do with banks economising on call-centre staff, rather than my continued misfortune of ringing just as 100-odd other customers decide they also want to set up a new direct debit. To be fair this isn’t just a problem with our banks. Calling broadband

Do you have a dream? What’s your dream? Is it to see out your twilight years in a home you own outright, having freed yourself from the shackles of the mortgage lender? If so, that’s a good dream. Sadly, social upheaval, a rise in the divorce rate, access to easy credit and the growth in lifetime mortgages have all combined to make that ambition more of a pipe dream than a reality. Yesterday came the news that up to one in ten over-55s homeowners across the UK still have interest-only mortgages. This means they must pay the entire capital debt off when the deal runs out. According to the over-60s property expert

Have you ever wondered what led to the birth of the modern insurance industry? No, me neither. But it turns out that the Great Fire of London was the catalyst for what is today a multi-billion pound industry encompassing everything from contents, cars and caravans to pets, festivals and holidays. I admit to finding that interesting. This year marks the 350th commemoration of the Great Fire of London, an event which started in a bakery on Pudding Lane and went on to devastate more than 13,500 homes and 87 churches, including St Paul’s. Estimated rebuilding costs were £10 million in the 17th century. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) calculates that repairing

Take a look in you wallet. As well as your debit card, receipts and photos of loved ones, what else is in there? A credit card? Two credit cards? Three? This week marked the 50th anniversary of the credit card. In the year that England last won the World Cup (yes, I know football is a sore topic at the moment), The Beatles released Revolver and the inaugural Star Trek episode was broadcast, Barclaycard was the first company to issue these innocuous bits of plastic. The company sent out some 1.25 million plastic cards to Barclays customers from 29 June 1966. Half a century later and the bank says it has 10.5 million consumer customers as

How do you spot a good estate agent? No, I’m not about to tell a joke. It’s a serious question. With a baby on the way, the need for a double spare room for visiting first-time grandparents and more space to work from home, I’ve started to wonder how much longer our growing family will fit into our compact three-bedroom semi. We can’t face the hassle of a loft extension and together with the lack of parking we’ll likely sell up in the next year or so. And when we do, we’ll become sellers for the first time. I didn’t pay much attention to the estate agent I used when

When you were a young child, did you ever throw away the packed lunch provided by your parents, then go around scavenging tastier alternatives from fellow pupils? No? Just me then. I can assure you this happens up and down the country every lunchtime and – believe it or not – tells us something about the benefits system. It also provides a warning about the pension freedom reforms. Let me explain. Last year radical government reforms gave over-55s unfettered access to their pension pots. Where previously the vast majority of people bought an annuity paying a fixed income for life, now savers are staying invested in retirement or taking cash lump sums. Not

I have a confession. I’ve been unfaithful with a Spanish beauty I met on the internet a few weeks ago. All my life the object of my desire has been home-grown. I was born in the same place as Aston Martin (the unassuming north Buckinghamshire town of Newport Pagnell) and my loyalty never strayed. Until now. I was doing some research for a magazine that Knight Frank publishes in Spain and it just happened. I came across the Pegaso Z102 and it took my breath away. I’m not sure even the feline lines of the iconic DB5 can compare. Perhaps it was the exoticness that did it for me. Fewer

Without wishing to add to the hyperbole over Brexit (from both sides), it’s fair to say that Britain is all over the place today. From the temporary suspension of trading in Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays shares and sterling’s continued slide against the dollar, to the slump in the return on government bonds and a profit warning from easyJet, the UK is beginning to digest its decision to leave the European Union. In the morass of doom and gloom was another profit warning, this time from Foxtons. The estate agent said concerns following the vote will depress London property sales and, in the first few minutes of trading, shares in the company dropped 18 per cent.

We all know that we should be switching financial products for a better deal, potentially saving ourselves thousands of pounds a year. But do we have time to do this? Certainly some products are easier and less time-consuming to switch than others. Gocompare.com questioned people who have shopped around for financial products in the last month about their experience. It found that home insurance, car insurance and ISA or savings accounts are the easiest financial products to switch. Mortgages came bottom of the list, after broadband and phones, with only six out of ten saying they found switching their mortgage easy. But that’s still the majority, and as a mortgage is