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If like me you’re plagued by Payment Protection Insurance phone calls, then it may interest you to know that cold callers have made at least £5 billion by bombarding the public with nuisance calls and texts. According to a report by MPs, failures by the Government and the City have encouraged the growth of the
From our UK edition
The news for savers keeps getting worse. Analysis for BBC News shows that interest rates for savers have fallen to new record lows, after hundreds of cuts in recent months and more than 1,000 in the past year. Savings rates plummeted after the Bank of England cut the base rate during the financial crisis. Now ISAs, fixed rate bonds and
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Am I a ‘doomeranger’? If a new survey is to be believed then, yes, that’s exactly what I am. In a twist on the phrase ‘boomerang generation’ – used to describe young people who, not long after leaving home, move back in with their parents – some PR whizz has coined ‘doomeranger’ to mean adults
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With the savings market in steady decline and interest rates at record lows, it’s hard to believe there is any upbeat savings news. But research by Moneyfacts.co.uk reveals that regular savings accounts have turned against the flow of rate cuts. As a result, the average fixed regular saving rate has risen by 0.10 per cent in the
From our UK edition
Owning houses and cars can sometimes seem like throwing money into a black hole. And there’s little respite – new research has found that car insurance premiums rose by an average of 12 per cent over the past year. MoneySuperMarket, the price comparison site, looked at year-on-year quarterly car insurance premiums to identify overall and regional
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Just days after Halifax and Scottish Widows said they would raise their age limit for mortgages from 75 to 80, Nationwide has announced it is increasing its threshold too. The UK’s biggest building society is raising its age limit for borrowers by ten years to 85. The change – which applies to when a mortgage term
From our UK edition
Property news has dominated the financial headlines this week and today is no exception. On the front page of The Times is an exclusive story revealing that Britain’s biggest mortgage lender has decided to increase its age limit from 75 to 80 as it adapts to an ageing population. The change will be introduced by the
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If you’re frustrated about the slowness of your internet connection, take heart from this morning’s news that BT is to spend £6 billion over the next three years to roll out faster broadband and mobile phone services. BT has reported a 15 per cent rise in annual profits to £3.03 billion, helped by stronger demand for
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Yesterday we reported that the ‘bank of mum and dad’ is now the equivalent of a top ten mortgage lender in the UK. Today comes the news that one of Britain’s biggest lenders has launched a new ‘bank of mum and dad‘ deal for people with wealthy parents. The new mortgages from Barclays have reduced the deposit homebuyers
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If you’re a parent then today’s housing news may come as little surprise: the ‘bank of mum and dad’ is now the equivalent of a top ten mortgage lender in the UK. Research by Legal & General and the Centre for Economics and Business Research has found that parents helping their children on to the property
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A rush by landlords and second home buyers to beat the deadline for a new three per cent stamp duty surcharge on additional properties saw mortgage lending in March soar 59 per cent higher than a year ago. The Council of Mortgage Lenders said it had seen the biggest stamp duty distortion of the property market
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Millions of current account customers are languishing on terrible rates. Now new research shows that the number of Britons switching accounts has hit its highest monthly level. According to Bacs, the payments body, a total of 124,615 ditched their bank for pastures new in March, up 10 per cent compared to this time last year. Santander,
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Ah, the put-upon motorist. Fees to park outside your own house, potholes littering the streets, road tax, MOTs, and the biggest liability of all: insurance. Last year insurance premiums soared by 14 per cent. That’s an £81 increase in just 12 months, bringing the average annual comprehensive car insurance policy to £671, according to Confused.com. Analysis
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Do you eat lunch at your desk or work into the night? The Telegraph reports that all those skipped lunch breaks and late evenings in the office accumulate over time – adding up to 39 days worth of unpaid work a year, on average. Britons clock up almost eight working weeks worth of overtime each year without being paid for this
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Mortgage Freedom Day. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Think about that for a second. Mortgage. Freedom. Day. Well, if you’re a new borrower, then today’s the day. According to Halifax, April 19 is when you’ll have earned enough to pay off the annual cost of your mortgage. It works like this:
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The Telegraph reports this morning that British Gas owner Centrica is attempting to shrug off a sharp drop in customer numbers with a range of new tariffs. In the first three months of the year, Britain’s biggest energy supplier lost 224,000 customer accounts – more than in the whole of 2015 – as customers turned to rival companies. The
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The Times reports this morning that Britain will be poorer by the equivalent of £4,300 a year per household if there is a vote to leave the European Union. In an article for the paper, George Osborne says that a Canadian-style post-Brexit deal with Europe, an approach advocated by Boris Johnson, would cause Britain’s economy to shrink
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And still the fallout from the Panama Papers continues. Following the leak of more than 11 million documents revealing the tax affairs of the rich and famous, the five largest economies in the European Union have agreed to share information on secret owners of businesses and trusts. The UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain have agreed to
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A ‘climate of uncertainty’ is consolidating across Britain’s housing market thanks to the impact of new stamp duty changes, the EU referendum and the forthcoming devolved elections, according to a leading industry body. For the first time since 2008, expectations for house sales have dipped into negative territory, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said. Nearly 40
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I know it’s de rigueur in many cities across Britain but it never ceases to rankle that councils charge people to park outside their own homes. And paying for the privilege of a parking spot is no guarantee of a space. When I lived in Hampstead, I would often arrive home to find the street
