MyFinancesBulletin Videos
Surprise bonus for Equitable Life savers
In a u-turn on the cut it made to its saver's policy values last year, Equitable Life has awarded them an interim bonus. With-profits pension savers will get a 3.5 per cent bonus, while 2009's 2 per cent cut will be reversed. Savers in its other life funds with get 2.8 per cent, plus another 1.6 per cent to cancel out the cut. Equitable Life says the decision is the result of improving investment returns after spending the last decade recovering from the brink of insolvency. The society has ...
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Child Trust Funds not helping deprived families
Child Trust Funds are failing children, according to the Conservatives. The savings accounts are designed to give children a better start in life, but new research claims while more than four fifths of parents claim the money in some of the wealthiest areas of the country, in poorer parts fewer than two thirds of mums and dads do. For example, in part of Bradford where one in four children live in deprived households, just 57 per cent of parents claim Child Trust Funds, compared to 85 per ...
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50p tax staying for UKs highest earners
The 50p top rate of tax will stay in place until 2015, raising around £2 billion each year for the next five years. The higher tax bracket, affecting those earning more than £150000, was initially introduced as a temporary measure to stay in place until the economy had recovered. But senior aids at the Treasury told the Daily Mail the extra income's already been factored into plans to halve the deficit within four years. When the Chancellor Alistair Darling introduced the new rate last April ...
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Scrapping boiler could help save money
Thousands of households will be able to save £400 off the cost of a new boiler under a new government scheme launched today. The aim of the boiler scrappage scheme is to help families cut their energy bills, reduce carbon emissions and support thousands of jobs. Up to 125000 households in England could qualify for the scheme if they have a G-rated boiler, which is likely to be any that are more than 15 years old. The government are spending £50 million on the programme, and say upgrading a ...
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Loan demand down as people clear debts
More of us are paying off our debts and saving during the economic downturn. Figures from the British Bankers Association showed that the number of people applying for credit has fallen by 2.2% over the last year. The number of people saving their cash has gone up 3.2% in that time. Meanwhile mortgage lending has also risen by 4.7% since last year. 44713 were approved for house purchase in November which is a similar number to those approved two years ago.
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Christmas rush at cash machines
The 23rd of December is set to be the busiest day on record for Christmas cash spenders According to data from Tesco, atms will be handling 20% more transactions today than last year as people rush to get cash out to see them through Christmas. Over the last few weeks people have been taking more money out of ATMS than during last year's festive shopping period. Steward Gow, head of atms at Tesco Bank, said they are working hard to ensure our network of cash machines is well stocked to cope ...
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Credit search system to be probed
mps have called for an investigation into the credit market to decide whether people are being unfairly penalised for shopping around for loans. The Treasury Committee has raised concerns that those scouring the market for loans consumers were going through a number of credit checks. asthese searches, it is feared, would be recorded on their credit reference files and make it harder to obtain credit in the future. Now the committee is asking the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Information ...
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Loan demand down as people clear debts
More of us are paying off our debts and saving during the economic downturn. Figures from the British Bankers Association showed that the number of people applying for credit has fallen by 2.2% over the last year. The number of people saving their cash has gone up 3.2% in that time. Meanwhile mortgage lending has also risen by 4.7% since last year. 44713 were approved for house purchase in November which is a similar number to those approved two years ago.
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OFT drops bank charges investigation
The Office of Fair Trading has announced it will not pursue its investigation into unauthorized bank charges. It follows the ofts defeat in the Supreme Court last month. In the test case it was ruled the organisation could not help customers claim bank unauthorized charges. While lawyers have said it is possible to try the case again using different laws, the OFT thinks the chance of success is low. John Fingleton, Chief Executive of the OFT said they are still committed to helping customers ...
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