Moneyblog

Tom Hiddleston and Taylor Swift’s romance is hot news in China, where online stores have been offering ‘break-up insurance’. People, especially Hiddleston’s adoring female fans, have been paying up to 400 yuan, about £41, to predict how long the relationship will last. They hoped to double or even triple their cash. Now Chinese authorities have ordered the stores to withdraw the schemes sharpish. Individuals can’t sell insurance in China, and in any case this is really betting – something also outlawed unless sanctioned by the state. But then isn’t all insurance really betting, a bet against yourself that you will lose, that your house will burn down, your dog will need

When I lived in London, I was introduced to a whole new vocabulary. ‘Blinding’ was a new one on me (for instance, ‘that was a blinding goal’) as was Chalfont St. Giles (don’t ask). But perhaps the most sinister was ‘London bar’. Count your lucky stars if you don’t know the meaning of that last one. Put simply, it’s a metal security strip designed to reinforce door frames. As far as I understand it, the London bar is so-named because many burglaries in the London area are ‘kick in’ attacks. Using brute force, the burglar kicks at the door until the frame fails, splits or shatters. I had personal experience of this

Sooner rather than later, George Osborne is going to have to come clean and tell us what he really wants to do with our pensions – the financial vehicles we and our employers painstakingly fund and that in theory should help us live out our retirement in a modicum of comfort. Will it be yet more tinkering as befits a Chancellor who has become known as the ‘Tinker Man of Pensions’ – the Government’s own version of footballing Tinker Man extraordinaire Claudio Ranieri ? Another restriction here and another rule change there. Or far more audaciously, will it be a radical overhaul of the tax incentives available to those who squirrel

Who do you think is the first woman you would see if you typed ‘CEO’ into the Google Images search bar? Carolyn McCall of EasyJet, perhaps, or how about Angela Ahrends, who used to run Burberry and is now a big noise at Apple? Whoever you guessed, I’m willing to bet you didn’t expect her to be 11.5 inches tall and made of plastic. But when I tried the experiment, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Sixty or so photographs of men – all but one white – flicked up before the first woman boss appeared. And this feminine titan wasn’t an actual human female – she was

Price comparison sites are being investigated by competition regulators. Good. It’s about time there was closer scrutiny of these meerkat-loving, opera-singing, stiletto-twerking financial behemoths. To be fair, this current investigation centres on ‘one or two’ energy price comparison sites who are alleged to have breached competition rules for online advertising. This isn’t my main beef with these sites. On of the face of it, they have made shopping around for energy deals, car, home and travel insurance and savings and credit a bit easier. But the assumption that they are speedy and hassle-free is nonsense. If you have an hour or two of your life to fritter away log onto

Stepping onto the property ladder has become an enormous stretch for first-time buyers. But for those with no access to the generous bank of mum and dad, could shared ownership help? Initially conceived in the 1980s with the aim of helping key workers to access the housing market, the niche housing scheme has the potential to become mainstream as a result of significant new investment. As part of its drive to reverse the decline in home-ownership, the Government has allocated an unprecedented £4.1 billion to enable the construction of 135,000 new homes for shared ownership. The rules have also changed to allow broader eligibility criteria for buyers and  a wider

There was victory for a group of mortgage borrowers last week when Court of Appeal judges ruled West Bromwich Building Society had wrongly upped interest rates for about 6,000 customers. However, despite the legal wrangle being described as a ‘David and Goliath’ type duel, not everyone was pleased for the little people winners. That’s because the borrowers concerned were landlords, a group which is fast becoming one of the most vilified sectors of society. But if the buy-to-let critics could put their prejudices aside for a moment they’d see that a victory for landlords this time is a win for consumers everywhere. The court case came about after a controversial decision

I live in a world of Post-it notes. Yellow ones, blue ones, orange ones. They are everywhere. One day someone is going to find my wizened body beneath a mountain of these infernal things. Death by Post-it note. In a world where multi-tasking has become a full-time profession, the humble Post-it note is now an integral part of modern life. The company which makes them – 3M – amassed sales of $7.4 billion in the first quarter of 2016. The first quarter! (OK, they make other stuff but you see where I’m going with this). The ubiquity of the Post-it note in my household is such that I’ve instigated a traffic level

When you drift into debt, it’s not easy to get out of it. Many end up in financial trouble for years because, instead of confronting their problems, they meander on paying a little bit back here and there. For many it becomes a way of life. I interviewed a lot of different people about their finances for a television programme this year and one of the first questions I asked was ‘what debt do you have?’. I was staggered by the number who said they didn’t have any debt and later admitted they owed a couple of thousand on credit cards. It wasn’t that they were lying or even trying to

It’s ten years since I graduated and I’ve just managed to clear my student loan, which isn’t a bad achievement on a journalist’s salary. The day I finished my politics and economics degree, my debt stood at £11,500. That covered the course and living costs for three years of study and a year spent in industry – for which I still had to pay half the annual course fee despite not setting foot on campus. In the years that followed, interest started to mount up and added another several thousand pounds onto my repayments. I count myself lucky to have repaid my loan after such a relatively short period compared

It’s a phrase you don’t hear much these days: ‘civic pride’. And, if a new report is to be believed, it won’t be long before it goes out of fashion altogether. According to Britain at Home, a comprehensive bi-annual study commissioned by Lloyds Bank Insurance, more than half of UK homeowners live in neighbourhoods that are falling into disrepair. Common problems include untidy gardens, spaces used as dumping grounds, overflowing bins and grotty buildings. The problem is now so acute that two-thirds of homeowners suffer from negative feelings about where they live and one in five are considering moving house. Not surprisingly, this lack of concern for our immediate environment

Here we go again. As the nation prepares itself for the glory and the pain of Euro 2016, supermarkets and DIY stores are readying themselves for a run on beer, crisps, pizzas and barbecues. And there’s the rub. While our natural inclination is to expect the worst on the field (and no Sir Geoff Hurst, I don’t think England’s squad is the most exciting since the World Cup winning team of 1966), there is a glimmer of good news for the economy. If you’ve seen the glut of booze offers and cut-price fast food on the shelves of your local shops, you’ll know what I mean. According to Lloyds Bank, the countries

Life would have been much more simple if I’d been born with the same surname as my wife. The hassle she is going through since our recent wedding changing her surname on such things as pensions, credit cards and bank accounts is a pain. To alter the details in your passport though – as we’ve found out – is an extra layer of annoyance. The UK Passport Office charges £72.50 to change surname letters (in our case, six) on the particulars, even if the expiry date of your previous one is still many years off, as my wife’s was. It seems grossly unfair to the hundreds of thousands of (mainly) women who might want

Every time George Osborne takes hold of a red box he seems to come up with another tax-free savings vehicle. Or so it appears to Individual Savings Account (ISA) savers, who two years ago had two straightforward choices: cash or stocks and shares. Cash for the risk averse, stocks and shares for the risk aware. Now, depending on your home ownership status and attitude to risk, there are two more options in the mix – the Help to Buy ISA and the Innovative Finance ISA, and one on the way – the Lifetime ISA. Which to choose? How much to save in each? Navigating the new savings maze requires more

It’s officially summer but not in New Malden. I got home at 7pm last night in near darkness and pouring rain. Normally, closing the front door behind me and casting off my rain gear is enough to bring some relief. But not this time. The rain followed me in. As I walked into my kitchen I was greeted by an all too familiar sound – drip, drip, drip. My leak is back. The long story cut short is that water is getting in where the single-storey kitchen extension joins the old back wall – and not for the first time. I’ve previously spent more than £2,000 trying to put it right. The

Did you spend the bank holiday weekend with a hammer in your hand, making countless trips to B&Q and cursing the barbecue’s failure to light? If so, you weren’t alone. New research by Lloyds Bank has revealed that DIY spending has reached its highest level since 2008. Nearly ten years on from the financial crisis, confidence has returned to housing market. Although putting up a shelf or mowing the lawn may not seem like an economic indicator, experts say that an upsurge in home improvements is good news. Andrew Mason, Lloyds Bank mortgage products director, said: ‘Taking a DIY approach to home improvements helps cut costs and provides homeowners with

Gardening is the nation’s favourite hobby, contributing £9 billion to the economy annually. Just looking at the numbers of people who attend flower shows and garden centres, it’s clear to see that it’s big business. As Chelsea ends and Harlow Carr, Hampton Court and Wisley follow, even the TV programmes have trouble keeping up. A well-maintained and attractive garden can boost a property’s value by 10 to 15 per cent, according to Knight Frank estate agents. In the UK, 93 per cent of the population have an outdoor space or grow plants. Over the years, garden owners can spend thousands of pounds but many may not realise the increasing value

We’re failing our children with financial education by postcode lottery. The subject finally found its way into the curriculum for secondary schools in England two years ago but if anyone thinks the job’s done, they couldn’t be more wrong. It’s true that all English comprehensive schools now have to cover the subject within maths and citizenship classes – the devolved nations have been teaching it for years. But there’s no assessment and no mandatory teacher training. Free schools and academies don’t have to teach it either. It’s hardly a winning formula and means that while some schools are teaching the topic brilliantly, others do so abysmally. And there’s little to