Fears of an imminent scaling back of the massive US stimulus programme, which has helped fuel stellar market gains across the world, sent London's FTSE 100 plunging from recent 13-year highs. The main European markets were off 2% while Japan's Nikkei took a brutal 7% hit, after Ben Bernanke said the Fed could scale back the pace of bond purchases at one of its next few meetings.
The rules would have forced companies to find more money to cover pensions, which experts feared would hasten the closure of remaining final salary schemes.
In 1993, a degree holder would earn 52 per cent more than someone with low or no qualifications, this is now a 14 per cent difference between a graduate and someone with A-levels.
Manchester United may have won the Premier League title, but it was their blue rivals, Manchester City, who were crowned best value football club, according to vouchercodes.co.uk. On the flipside, Harry Redknapp’s relegated team managed just two wins and 13 home league goals in 19 games, while the average season ticket cost to watch the West London side was £499, one of the highest in the country.
Almost half of parents admit that their children do not have European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC), while many do not know what it covers, new research has found.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed retail sales fell 1.3 per cent in April - a far worse performance than expected, as bad weather hit spending.
Savers in Suffolk (left) have the largest nest eggs as a proportion of their income, according to the Halifax Savings Barometer, while Islington residents (right) have some of the smallest.
Virgin now finds itself nestling in the top five of the best buy tables as it launched its new Balance Transfer Credit Card with a 26-month zero interest period, beating its previous 20-month card.
Can I buy our parents' house, release a lump sum as their pension fund and rent it back to them?
An expert answers...
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Orange hit me with a £163,000 phone bill and it took seven months to stop them chasing it
Alan Mazkouri fought for months to clear the debt.
Rainy days must be more fun in the country
Rural savers put away 17% more than city dwellers
My wife deferred her state pension and took a lump sum, but why has the taxman grabbed so much of it?
Nearly £4,000 of her £19,000 lump sum.
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ASK TONY: I thought Sky had insured me - but now I've lost £240
I accepted insurance cover from U Protect, but had my doubts and now I can't get a refund.
What happened when Money Mail reporters checked their credit reports...
Are mistakes as 'rare' as credit agencies claim?
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Britain's FTSE 100 share index suffered its biggest one-day drop in a year on Thursday, knocked off historic peaks by weak economic data and signs the U.S. Federal Reserve could soon taper its stimulus programme.
Japanese car manufacturer Nissan announced it is recalling 841,000 cars worldwide, after discovering a fault with the steering wheel assembly.
The group, which is jettisoning loss-making stores as part of a three-year overhaul, gave up its dividend for last year in order to carry on pouring resources into the turnaround programme.
Households and businesses should be told that borrowing costs will remain at rock-bottom levels until the economy is motoring again, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.
KPN's shares moved up to €1.64 amid speculation that major shareholder Carlos Slim (pictured), one of the richest men in the world who owns Mexican telecoms group America Movil, is lining up a cash bid north of €3 a share.
The move is a clear sign that Simon Litherland is preparing the firm for an independent future should regulators rule against its merger with Irn-Bru owner AG Barr in July.
Chancellor George Osborne confirmed he will reveal plans after the influential banking commission of MPs and peers publishes its final report. This is expected in the middle of next month.
Renting out your holiday home is an easy way to make a bit of extra money – but if something goes wrong you could get landed with a large bill for any damage. And it seems anything can go wrong. Data collected by one insurer has revealed some of the weirder holiday insurance claims made in the last 12 months.
Almost a fifth of people taking their state pension this year will be entering retirement on a total income of less than the current poverty line of £8,254, research from Prudential claims. Some 14 per cent of those surveyed will retire with no private pension at all and will instead rely solely on the state pension, it found.
Women accounted for around 49 per cent of personal insolvencies in 2011 and 2012, according to Insolvency Service data, and Data Advice Foundation analysis suggests that women will outstrip men during 2013.
Are my siblings and I allowed to buy our parents house, release a lump sum for their retirement and then rent it back to them?
SIMON LAMBERT: Recently my credit card started to randomly paying for buses and it turns out there's no way to stop this contactless curse. Barclaycard's answer? Buy an extra wallet.
BrewDog's James Watt and Martin Dicki have delivered a masterclass in the art of getting noticed, from brewing under the sea to distinctive bottles. In just five years that helped build an £11m business.
There are plenty who promise to make you a big hit on the social scene, but you don’t need to fork out a fortune. All you need is a bit of common sense and enthusiasm to score success.
For firms in developed countries grappling with sluggish growth, exporting to faster-growing markets could present huge opportunities. We reveal some top tips for venturing overseas.
Despite long-standing customer Alan Mazkouri pointing out a faulty phone had triggered the enormous bill it took months to get it sorted. His phone had downloaded data by accessing the internet every 20 minutes for 20 weeks. Orange has now apologised for chasing the unlikely bill, tonight's BBC Watchdog programme will reveal.
A quarter of adults leaving British shores this summer told a uSwitch.com survey that they will be using their credit card for purchases, with the same amount saying they will use their debit card.
When you pay by direct debit, your energy supplier estimates how much you will owe for the year, then splits this into 12 equal payments. In summer, when the heating is off, you build up a credit.
Despite making overall pre-tax profits of £1.4billion, SSE blamed wholesale prices and other costs for its growing bills and admitted more pain is on the horizon.
Regular savers can earn up to 4.1% for 12 months with the West Bromwich - and as the rate is fixed, you are not in danger of seeing your payout cut.
Savers put £787 million into funds in March. Much of this money is thought to have come from savers suffering low interest rates in cash accounts on the High Street. But while your money has always grown faster in shares than cash over the decades, dark clouds are appearing on the horizon. And inexperienced investors who try to get in on the action when markets are riding high can often be caught out.
By undermining savers, the Government has encouraged many to abandon prudence and bet their incomes on a share boom. I fear it can’t last.
My wife deferred her state pension because we didn’t need the money immediately, but now the taxman has grabbed nearly £4,000 of her £19,000 lump sum. Why?
I have insurance cover for my Sky box with Sky Protect. I often receive phone calls from companies offering cover, which I normally reject out of hand. However, I received a call that I thought was from Sky. I subsequently learned it was U Protect. I accepted that offer and gave my debit card details. Immediately I put the phone down I had my doubts. But now I can't get a refund.
Banks and building societies have low-cost deals for those with a 5% deposit, while rates for those with a 10% deposit have fallen up to 1.5 percentage points since May last year.
On a typical £150,000 loan, monthly repayments will work out at £787. The total cost over the 10 years, including a £995 fee, will be £95,435.
To beat inflation, a basic rate taxpayer at 20% needs to find a savings account paying 3%, while a higher rate 40% taxpayer needs to find one paying 3.99%. There are 861 standard savings accounts in the market. Only one ‘non-Isa’ account negates the impact of basic tax and inflation, according to comparison website Moneyfacts.co.uk.
Earlier this month a New York resident was fined $2,400 (£1,590) for breaking the city’s hotel laws, after he rented out part of his apartment to a woman for three days via holiday rental website Airbnb.
Research from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) watchdog found this led to lower prices for shoppers, but that most consumers were unaware of these tactics.
This means the average house value has jumped by £229,000 to £235,000 over the last year, the Office for National Statistics figures revealed.
Concerns over the security of these cards have been raised by customers of Marks & Spencer who claim payment was taken from their contactless debit or credit cards when they didn't try to use them.
The department store has launched the new card because it claims that the average person has almost £60 of foreign currency in their homes, adding up to a total of £2.1billion in unused holiday money.
When we revealed how mistakes on these files can scupper your finances, the credit agencies protested that errors were rare. Our reporters are a conscientious bunch. So we ran a check on our own files.
Barclaycard has made no secret of its insistence that it must top the balance transfer charts, and responded immediately by increasing the interest-free period on its Platinum Balance Transfer Credit Card from 26 to 27 months yesterday.
Just as in the three previous months, only Bank governor Sir Mervyn King and two other members of the monetary policy committee voted for a £25billion increase to quantitative easing in May. Meanwhile, the unseasonably cold weather drove retail sales 1.3 per cent down in April on a month earlier as barbecue goods, garden furniture and summer clothes remained stuck on stores' shelves.
Adam Crozier has put in place a strategy of reducing reliance on the tough advertising market by building its ITV Studios arm to make programmes and sell them around the world.
Shoppers flocked to make purchases from House of Fraser's state-of-the art website helping the department store chain post record sales.
Showing you are a responsible and stable borrower will make it more likely you will get the best interest rates on loans and credit cards, as well as minimising the chances you will be rejected outright for credit. Aqua, which provides credit card products for those with low credit scores, has identified a number of myths which became apparent following a survey of UK adults.
Average prices went up by 2.4% compared to a year earlier, according to the consumer prices index - but that was down from a rate of 2.8% in March, and considerably lower than had been expected by analysts.
Anthony Cross and Julian Fosh have a distinct stock-picking approach - shares must meet three tough tests to be a winner. They suggest this can beat the market and volatility.
We focus on which shares are likely to do well this summer and beyond however the wider market performs. This opportunity-seeking approach will have paid off handsomely for any readers who followed the advice of last year's stockpicker, Graham Spooner of online broker The Share Centre. All the companies he selected have soared over the past 12 months.
A new tax year means a fresh Isa allowance to save. We pick our five favourite cash Isas for savers, don't miss this essential Isa reading that is kept up-to-date throughout the year.
The Association of Investment Companies has analysed all investment trusts to find the 20 strongest and most consistent performers of the last decade. We reveal the full list.
The bank rate is at a rock bottom 0.5%, and one day it must rise. The big question is when? We explain the factors that will decide when interest rates rise and how quickly, including the latest forecasts from markets and economists.
Mortgage rates have hit record lows, with a five-year fix at 2.49%, but borrowers need to beware rising arrangement fees. So is now the time to lock in?
Property sales are finally on the up, while better mortgage deals are landing regularly. So what now for house prices?
For many buy-to-let looks an attractive income investment in a time of low rates and stock market volatility. Read our top ten buy-to-let tips
| Currency | Rate | Buy now |
|---|---|---|
| Updated 23 May 2013. | ||
| Euro | 1.1477 | Buy Now |
| US Dollar | 1.4742 | Buy Now |
| Australian Dollar | 1.5118 | Buy Now |
| Canadian Dollar | 1.5186 | Buy Now |
| Chinese Yuan | 8.8503 | Buy Now |
| Croatian Kuna | 8.5564 | Buy Now |
| Czech Koruna | 29.487 | Buy Now |
| Danish Kroner | 8.431 | Buy Now |
| Egyptian Pound | 9.916 | Buy Now |
| Euro | 1.1477 | Buy Now |
| Hong Kong Dollar | 11.33 | Buy Now |
| Hungarian Forint | 325.36 | Buy Now |
| Indian Rupee | 77.691 | Buy Now |
| Japanese Yen | 148.94 | Buy Now |
| Malaysian Ringgit | 4.3814 | Buy Now |
| New Turkish Lire | 2.7006 | Buy Now |
| New Zealand Dollar | 1.8286 | Buy Now |
| Norwegian Kroner | 8.4814 | Buy Now |
| Polish Zloty | 4.6979 | Buy Now |
| Singapore Dollar | 1.8487 | Buy Now |
| South African Rand | 14.041 | Buy Now |
| Sterling | 1.0 | Buy Now |
| Swedish Kroner | 9.6718 | Buy Now |
| Swiss Franc | 1.4293 | Buy Now |
| Thai Baht | 43.126 | Buy Now |
| UAE Dirham | 5.3682 | Buy Now |
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Tony Hetherington
Tony Hazell