| News Stories for 21 Feb 2005 |
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| Ofcom Consider Ban on 0870 Helplines |
| Telecoms regulator Ofcom is considering implementing new rules on revenue sharing between call centre owners and telecoms providers. The controversial plan would effectively put an end to expensive 0870 helplines.
It has been estimated that in 2003, 0870 numbers cost consumers a staggering £1.25... |
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| FSA Clampdown on Illegal Mortgage Brokers |
| A nationwide crackdown has been launched by the Financial Services Authority, targeting unauthorised brokers who have not been approved by the FSA to sell or advise on home loans.
FSA managing director Clive Briault said, “Tracking down firms operating outside our regime is a major priority for th... |
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| News Stories for 31 Jan 2005 |
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| Mortgage Approvals Lowest In 5 Years |
| Figures from the British Bankers Association reveal that the number of mortgage approvals for property purchase in December has dropped by 10% since last year to a five year low, are 3% lower than the previous month, and confirms a significant slowdown in the property market.
The figures are not... |
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| Land Registry Website to “Expose” House Prices |
| A new website launched today by the Land Registry will allow people to find out how much their neighbours paid for their houses. A £2 fee will be payable in order to gain access to information including property ownership details and boundaries.
The Land Registry is introducing the internet ser... |
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| News Stories for 28 Jan 2005 |
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| Lib Democrats Propose £170 Weekly Maternity Pay |
| Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy made his election pitch on Monday; declaring that working mothers would receive a guaranteed £170 a week in maternity pay for six months following the birth of their first child under a Liberal Democrat rule.
Currently working mothers receive 90% of their s... |
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| Top-up Fees May Leave Students with £15,000 Debt |
| A study by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) warns that student debt may soar by as much as 70% due to top-up tuition fees. The research also predicts that debt growth would be greatest for disabled students, because they would be less able to work to pay their bills.... |
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| News Stories for 27 Jan 2005 |
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| CSA Threatened With Closure |
| Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Johnson has warned the Child Support Agency that they face closure if it fails to improve following the discovery that the agency has 250,000 cases pending.
The CSA was introduced in 1993 to assess and enforce child support payments by absent parents, yet a recent... |
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| Nationwide Predicts Positive Change in House Market |
| The Nationwide has announced that January house prices have risen by 0.4% to date. Based on the new figures, the building society says that the housing market is becoming more positive.
The Nationwide report concluded that the UK housing market has now enjoyed six months of “price stability” and... |
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| News Stories for 26 Jan 2005 |
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| Ernst & Young Predict Higher Taxes |
| Ernst & Young Item Club have predicted that taxes will be raised following the General Election, as Government finances are currently at an ‘unsustainable deficit’.
The club predicts a £6bn budget shortfall rather than the £3.9bn shortfall suggested by Chancellor Gordon Brown, and says that it ex... |
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| Widow Blames Credit Card Operators for Husband’s Suicide |
| A woman whose husband took his own life after running up debts of over £130,000, is blaming credit card companies for his death. Wendy Cullen believes that her husband’s spiralling debt problem was exacerbated because he was permitted to hold over 20 different credit cards.
Richard Cullen, from... |
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| News Stories for 25 Jan 2005 |
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| 130% Mortgage Launched |
| Mortgage Express has launched a mortgage called Max 130, which allows home buyers to borrow up to 130% of the property purchase price.
Piloted in Northern Ireland for two years, Max 130 will be available through intermediaries at a three year fixed rate of 6.49% and a two year variable rate disco... |
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| APACS Predicts Increase in Cheque-fraud |
| As the roll-out of chip and PIN technology continues across the country, the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS) says that Cheque fraud may rise as a result of increased card security.
In the past, credit and debit card fraud, as opposed to cheque fraud, has been gaining momentum.... |
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| News Stories for 24 Jan 2005 |
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| First Time Buyers Priced Out of UK Housing Market |
| First time buyers are unable to afford homes in up to 92% of UK towns. A new survey by the Halifax bank suggests that in 548 of the country’s 597 main postal towns, an average-priced home is way out of reach for first time purchasers on an average salary.
Martin Ellis, chief economist at the Hali... |
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| Pension Boost on the Cards for 483,000 |
| The government is writing to nearly half a million people on a reduced pension, inviting them to pay extra National Insurance contributions, which could lead to them receiving a boost to their state pensions.
The move follows mistakes made in 1996 when the government failed to send letters out no... |
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| News Stories for 21 Jan 2005 |
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| Home Computing Popular as Staff Benefit |
| According to HCI (The Home Computing Initiative) the take up of home computing by employers as a staff benefit has become the fastest growing employee benefit in the UK
To date more than 380 companies, employing over 3.6 million employees have implemented HCI schemes which enable employers to lo... |
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| State Benefit Favours Lone Parent Families |
| A new report by the Centre for Policy Studies says that the state benefit system is “skewed” in favour of single-parent families. The study shows that an average two-parent family is just £1 a week better off than a one-parent household.
Single parents are five times more likely to get state ben... |
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| News Stories for 20 Jan 2005 |
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| Plasma TV Used As Mortgage Incentive |
| Yesterday Scarborough building society launched the first home loan to use the offer of a free plasma TV as an incentive to encourage borrowers to apply for a mortgage with them.
The deal is likely to receive criticism from consumer groups who have already expressed concern over the levels of con... |
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| Rocketing Cost of Health Care Insurance Leaves Consumers Cold |
| British consumers are being put off private health care insurance policies due to the steep rise in premium price. Less people are taking out new policies - and policyholders are cancelling existing ones.
Research by market analysts Datamonitor shows that there has been a dramatic drop in the nu... |
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| News Stories for 19 Jan 2005 |
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| Industry Concerned Over Lazy Savers |
| A recent Prudential survey shows that six million people would be penniless inside of a month should they loose their jobs, and a staggering 1.9 million don’t have money set aside for essential bills that would last any longer than a week.
A Prudential spokesperson said; "As a nation we are far... |
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| Surveyors Agree that House Prices are Falling |
| The latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) monthly housing survey, reports that almost every UK region has recorded a drop in prices. In December, over a third more chartered surveyors reported a fall, as opposed to a rise, in house prices.
RICS say that the flow of property com... |
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| News Stories for 18 Jan 2005 |
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| Fashion Fans Splash Out Cash on Accessories |
| The fortunes of fashion chain Monsoon have been reversed amid a massive hike in sales of ponchos and other fashionable accessories. Unlike the negative Christmas experienced by most retailers, the group, which also owns Accessorize, saw sales rise over the Christmas period.
Customers are buying m... |
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| Air Fares to Drop in Price |
| New regulations which will allow travel agents in one country to issue tickets to residents of another came into force this weekend; the cost of plane tickets are expected to become considerably cheaper as a result.
The international body which regulating air fares, IATA have been forced to conce... |
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| News Stories for 17 Jan 2005 |
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| Councils Offer Free Car Removal |
| Starting from today around 50% of councils across the UK will remove clapped out old cars for free over the next two weeks; the amnesty is aimed at discouraging owners from abandoning their cars at the side of the road.
Removing abandoned cars costs councils £24m each year and car owners can save... |
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| Cost of Insurance Premiums Set To Rise |
| New rules governing the insurance industry, which come into force on Friday, could push up the price of a policy by an estimated £2.80. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is taking tighter control of the industry and will now require firms to comply with strict guidelines on how policies are pro... |
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| News Stories for 14 Jan 2005 |
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| Pay As You Go Motor Insurance Launched |
| Norwich Union have launched ‘pay as you go’ motor insurance which allows drivers to control their car insurance premiums by choosing to drive at off-peak times.
The product uses a global positioning satellite device which is fitted inside cars at a cost of £199 to the customer including installa... |
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| Holidaymakers Receive Refunds as Tsunami Clean-up Continues |
| Major travel firms have announced their revised booking plans for holidays in the Indian Ocean resorts hit by the tsunami disaster. While holidays in parts of Thailand’s popular Phuket will recommence in early February, tour operators have confirmed that holidays in tsunami-hit areas of Sri Lanka wi... |
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| News Stories for 13 Jan 2005 |
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| Interest Rates Remain on Hold |
| Interest rates have been left at 4.75%, as the Bank of England made the widely-speculated decision to keep the rate on hold for another month. While some economists believe that the rate will rise to at least 5% this year, others are starting to change their forecast and predict that rates will actu... |
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| Debt Helpline Swamped Over Christmas |
| Leeds based charity The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) said they were inundated with calls to their helpline in December, up by 77% on the same month in 2003.
CCCS is funded through an agreement with creditors, where it takes 10% - 12% of the debt repaid by the people they advise, a... |
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| News Stories for 12 Jan 2005 |
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| Minister Urges Pensioners to Apply for Council Tax Benefit |
| This week Council Tax Benefit Minister Chris Pond launches a national press advertising campaign which aims to encourage pensioners to apply for Council Tax Benefit.
Four out of ten pensioners fail to apply for the benefit that could reduce bills by £426 on average and three quarters of a billion... |
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| Banks Make Record Profits While Customers Want “Fair Deal” |
| A poll for the Nationwide Building Society has revealed that the UK’s banking sector is making more than £30,000 profit a minute. Customers, however, are unhappy and irritated with the service that is being provided.
A Nationwide spokesman said that consumers did not feel they were getting a “f... |
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| News Stories for 11 Jan 2005 |
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| NHS Reviews Hike in Retirement Age |
| The NHS is considering hiking the retirement age of their workers from 60 to 65. Under new proposals suggested by the NHS employers group, staff may also see their pension being calculated according to the average pay level they attained during their career, as opposed to their final salary.
The... |
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| Single Parent Families Pushed Into Debt |
| Yesterday the charity One Parent Families said that single parents were poorly served the financial industry, which either discriminates against them with high interest rates or refuses to offer them credit at all.
The charity said in their 32-page report that almost half of single-parent familie... |
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| News Stories for 10 Jan 2005 |
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| Financial Sector Set to Cut Record Number of Jobs |
| Jobs in the financial services sector could be cut at the fastest pace for more than two years. The CBI/PricewaterhouseCoopers quarterly review shows that the workforce in the sector has decreased for the second consecutive time and this downward trend looks set to continue in the coming months.... |
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| Liverpool Victoria Announce Surplus Endowment Payments |
| Last week AXA and Standard Life were the first major lenders to announce to customers that their endowment payments would have to be reduced.
By comparison Liverpool Victoria, the UK’s largest friendly society, was pleased to notify their customers that they would receive a surplus payment on top... |
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| News Stories for 07 Jan 2005 |
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| British Public Raise Unprecedented Amount of Tsunami Aid |
| The total amount of money raised in the UK to help victims of the tsunami disaster in Asia has reached an unprecedented £100 million. Huge amounts of money have been donated via phone and online, and many more donations sent in the post have yet to be added to the total of the tsunami and earthquake... |
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| More Than A Third of Graduates in Non-Graduate Employment |
| According to recent figures released by the Guardian more than a third of degree graduates find themselves in non-graduate jobs such as shelf stackers and call centre operatives.
Earlier this month higher education minister Kim Howells published research showing that 93% of students went into ful... |
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| News Stories for 06 Jan 2005 |
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| Government to Cap Council Tax Increases |
| The government has warned local authorities that it’s likely to put a cap of 5% on council tax increases for any council that increases tax by more than 5% now that average bills have reached £1,000 for the first time.
Despite the risks some council’s are still proposing rises above this level; a... |
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| Coors Takeover Could Lead to Higher Beer Prices |
| A planned takeover deal in the brewing industry could see a hike in the price of beer. The Competition Commission is reviewing a plan by Serviced Dispense Equipment (SDE) to add Coors’ technical service operation to its current venture.
US brewing giant Coors makes the UK’s most popular lager, Ca... |
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| News Stories for 05 Jan 2005 |
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| Camelot Appeal for Missing Lottery Winners |
| National Lottery operator Camelot has launched an appeal for the whereabouts of winners of £16.3m worth of unclaimed prize money won in 2004.
Owners of winning tickets have 180 days to claim their prizes before their money is donated to the communities for projects such as arts and sports and can... |
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| Supermarkets Flare-up over Petrol Price War |
| 2005 is shaping up to be a year of aggressive price competition between the major supermarket chains. Already, a petrol price war is looking likely after Asda announced it would be cutting the price of its fuel by 3p a litre from today.
Asda, which operates 150 service stations across the country... |
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| News Stories for 04 Jan 2005 |
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| HSBC Hits Huge New Year Glitch |
| HSBC customers in the UK faced chaos yesterday as a major glitch hit the company’s computerised banking services. Customers could not get money from ATMs and were unable to use their credit and debit cards.
The bank’s online service was also affected, with people denied access to their personal a... |
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| RICS Publish House Price Forecast |
| The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have just published their forecast for property prices over 2005, predicting that market conditions will be slow with increases of just 3% on average over the year.
Property prices grew by just 13% over 2004, which is the weakest the property ma... |
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| News Stories for 03 Jan 2005 |
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| European Directive Will Protect Equal Rights |
| The forthcoming EU Gender Directive will give equal rights to people in all of the EU’s 25 member states – but a proposal under the Directive, which would have made car insurance more expensive for the majority of women drivers in the UK, has been dropped.
At present, most UK insurance companies... |
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| Tories Outline Their Tax Cut Plans |
| This week the Tories unveiled their tax cutting agenda should they win at the next election which examines eight different taxes; Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin said that the tax cuts would be funded by reducing bureaucracy and are aimed at reducing the financial burden on middle Britain.
Some of... |
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| News Stories for 31 Dec 2004 |
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| Business & Financial Figures Make New Year Honours List |
| Leading figures from the World of business and finance have been recognised for their work in the Queen’s New Year Honour’s list. At the forefront of the honours is CBI director-general Digby Jones, who has received a knighthood after five years in the post.
Mr Jones is known for his enthusiasm... |
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| News Stories for 30 Dec 2004 |
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| “Plastic” More Popular Way to Pay than Cash |
| For the first time, British people are spending more money using credit and debit cards than cash. According to the Association for Payment Clearing Services (Apacs), “plastic” spending beat cash for the first time at 10.38am yesterday morning.
This year, shoppers have spent an estimated £269bn o... |
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| News Stories for 29 Dec 2004 |
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| British Tourists Keen to Holiday in Quake-hit Asia |
| The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) believes that British tourists could be holidaying again on the Tsunami-struck Maldives islands as early as this coming weekend. ABTA confirmed that several tour operators are considering resuming flights to the popular destination in the devastated In... |
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| News Stories for 28 Dec 2004 |
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| HSBC to Open Doors on “Bank Holiday” |
| 90 out of 1,500 HSBC branches will open their doors today – despite the fact it is a bank holiday. Although staff are working voluntarily for double pay and a day off in lieu, banking industry trade union Amicus-Unifi is keeping a close eye on the situation.
Amicus-Unifi’s main concern is that if... |
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| News Stories for 27 Dec 2004 |
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| Shoppers Flock to Boxing Day Sales |
| Retailers are celebrating after a bumper Boxing Day which could dramatically turn around their fortunes after a disappointing run-up to Christmas. Approximately 40% of major stores across the country opened their doors yesterday, in the busiest Boxing Day the country has ever seen.
Retailers re... |
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| News Stories for 24 Dec 2004 |
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| Amazon Deny Christmas Gift Glitch Reports |
| Reports that thousands of Christmas gift deliveries, ordered through web retailer Amazon, will not arrive in time for Christmas have been dismissed. The Times newspaper has reported that Amazon is struggling to fulfil Christmas orders due to manufacturing and delivery problems – but the company resp... |
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