Finance Matters

• 17Oct

  London travel fares to increase

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Bus and Tube fares will both rise by above-inflation rates in 2010, London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced.Bus fares are to go up by 12.7% and Tube fares will rise by 3.9%. Oyster card pay-as-you-go bus journeys are to rise from £1 to £1.20. The Congestion Charge is rising to £10, while Mr Johnson said a £9 charge for those using a new account system would be operational next year. The London Labour group said it was a “kick in the teeth” for passengers. The mayor said the price of a seven-day bus pass will also jump from £13.80 to £16.60 but London Travelcard prices will be frozen in the vast majority of cases. Last year Mr Johnson raised prices by 6%, blaming the former administration for creating an £80m financial hole. Mr Johnson said on Thursday: “Nobody wants to make an announcement like this, especially when Londoners are feeling the effects of the recession.”
  He added: “The mistakes of the past and the current economic climate have c…

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• 17Oct

  Scam tax refunds ‘reach record’

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  A record 83,000 scam e-mails offering fake tax refunds were reported to the UK’s tax authority in September.And on one day this month, 10,000 reports about “phishing” e-mails were made to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The messages tended to start with a claim which read: “Following a review of your fiscal activity you are due a refund of tax of £x.” But HMRC stressed that it would never inform people of a tax rebate by e-mail or on the telephone. Sucker listsJohn Harrison, head of HMRC customer contact online, said that the messages tried to extract people’s credit card and bank account details. This left them at risk of their savings being stolen and the details sold on to professional criminal gangs, in so-called “sucker lists”. The latest version of this scam originated from various different websites, which operated for 20 minutes before changing their domain name. “We only contact customers who are due a refund in writing by post. We never use e-mails, telephone calls or ex…

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• 17Oct

  OFT to scrutinise online pricing

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Online pricing practices are to be investigated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).Price comparison websites which claim to give the best deals will be examined in one study focusing on prices. It will also look at activities such as “drip pricing”, where charges and extras are added during the purchase. Another study will look at customised pricing, where prices are individually tailored using information collected about a consumer’s internet use. Which? magazine welcomed the investigation, claiming that some companies are misleading consumers in a way that would never be tolerated outside of the web. “With some of the extras that are added while you’re buying online, it’s like someone accompanying you on your weekly shopping and adding products into your basket without your knowledge”, Which? technology editor Matthew Bath told BBC News. “We think consumers should be aware of the final price from the beginning”. Under scrutinyThe pricing practices going under the microscope include:…

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• 17Oct

  High Court backs Equitable plan

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  The High Court has approved the government’s plan for limited payments to those who lost money in the Equitable Life pension company.Last year, the Parliamentary Ombudsman called for a full compensation scheme for over one million Equitable members. The government’s rejection of that idea was challenged in a judicial review. But campaigners who launched the action say the court’s ruling means the government’s scheme will now have to cover more people than first planned. Lost savingsThe judicial review was brought by the Equitable Members Action Group (Emag).
  It challenged the refusal of the government to accept all the findings and recommendations of the Ombudsman’s report into the role of government departments in the Equitable Life collapse, published last year. The Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, found ten examples of maladministration which she said had contributed to the devastating losses suffered by pension savers with the Equitable after the society was forced to close in 2000. Instea…

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• 17Oct

  Council pension fund assets fall

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  The value of assets held by local authority pension funds in England and Wales fell by £24bn, or 19%, in the 2008-2009 financial year.The figures have been published by the department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The actuarial firm Watson Wyatt said the drop was roughly equivalent to all the money the councils took in council tax that year. The drop reflects the effect of plunging share prices at the time. Watson Wyatt said that when the local authority schemes were formally revalued next year, they were likely to show a bigger deficit than before. “Private sector employers know only too well that volatility in the pension fund can eat into the revenues generated by their core business and local authorities are learning the same lesson,” said John Ball of Watson Wyatt. However, he said the news was not as bad as it seemed. “March was the worst time to take a snapshot of pension schemes’ assets and strong stock market performance since then means some of the money…

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• 17Oct

  Halifax estate agents sold for £1

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  From The BBC:

  Lloyds Banking Group has agreed to sell its Halifax estate agency business to LSL Property Services for £1, and said 460 jobs would go.The loss-making business has 218 offices, 93 of which are franchise operations. There are 121 Halifax banking counters located in estate agents, which will close down in early 2010. Branches will be rebranded as one of LSL’s existing brands: Your Move, Reeds Rains or Intercounty. Lloyds said that 1,050 employees would be transferred to LSL after the sale and 360 of the 460 jobs due to go will be full-time positions. ‘No longer integral’It said that compulsory redundancies would be a last resort. The jobs will go among staff operating the banking counters within estate agents. Lloyds said that the vast majority of the branches had a Halifax or Lloyds TSB branch within one mile of them. Lloyds said that the decision followed a strategic review, “which concluded that an estate agency operation is no longer integral to its business model”….

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• 17Oct

  Troubleshooters lead loan review

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  From The BBC:

  The government has appointed two troubleshooters to lead a review of student loans problems, which have left tens of thousands waiting for funds.Higher Education Minister David Lammy told MPs he was sorry students and their families had been worried and frustrated by poor customer service. Two independent experts have been appointed to head an internal review into the problems in loan applications. The Tories say it is a shambles causing “enormous distress to many students”. They tabled a debate in the Commons on the issue, after delays in the processing of loan applications left tens of thousands of students without their full loans and grants at the start of the university term. ‘Gone wrong’The independent experts are former London South Bank University vice-chancellor Sir Deian Hopkin and Bernadette Kenny of HM Revenue and Customs. Mr Lammy said the loans problems had “had a profoundly regrettable effect on individual students and their families”. The body responsible for organising…

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• 17Oct

  Bereaved savers ‘treated badly’

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  The way some banks treat recently bereaved customers is “inadequate and chaotic”, according to the chairman of the Treasury Select Committee.John McFall MP said that some companies had adequate procedures in place for bereavements, but others did not treat customers fairly. He is calling for a new code of practice to ensure financial services companies act as they should. However, the British Bankers’ Association said training was in place. “The main issues are treating people fairly at the most stressful time of their lives. We have had evidence that people have had to jump through unnecessary hurdles as a result of their business with banks and financial institutions,” said Mr McFall. “I am writing to the Financial Services Authority so that they can remind these institutions that treating customers fairly is a primary responsibility. “They can develop a code of conduct so that it makes things easier for people at the most stressful time of their lives, rather than harder.”
  Ingrid F…

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• 17Oct

  Pin reminder security scrutinised

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  A system used by a High Street banking group to help customers who have forgotten their card Pin number has major security flaws, the BBC learns.Lloyds TSB has told Radio 4′s Money Box programme that it allows credit card customers to text requests for Pin reminders on any phone. Security experts say this could allow fraudsters to order and intercept Pins. Lloyds insisted it had adequate security measures in place to prevent fraudsters doing this. ‘Stolen’In order to request a Pin reminder, customers simply have to text ‘PIN’ and their card number to the bank. The phone does not have to have been registered with the bank for the purposes of telephone banking.
  The customer immediately receives a reply text confirming the request which says if it is successful the bank will send the Pin reminder to the customer’s home address within three working days. A Lloyds TSB customer called Malcolm, from Buckinghamshire, who did not want to give his full name, believed his Pin was stolen this way…

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• 16Oct

  Blow to insurance restrictions

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Plans to restrict the sale of the controversial payment protection insurance (PPI) have been dealt a blow.The Competition Appeal Tribunal has told the Competition Commission to change its plan to restrict PPI sales at the point when loans are granted. The appeal against this impending restriction was made by Barclays bank. The Commission said it would study the judgement “closely” before deciding what to do next, but pointed out it affected just one part of its plan. “The appeal was upheld on one ground which relates to our assessment of the remedy prohibiting the sale of PPI at the point of sale of credit,” said the Competition Commission. “The Commission has been asked to reconsider the loss of convenience for consumers of not being able to buy PPI at the same time as taking out credit.” Forthcoming restrictionsIn January 2009 the Commission outlined a range of limitations on the sale of PPI, which is supposed to enable people to pay off their loans, such as credit card bills or mort…

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