Finance Matters

• 28Nov

  Oldie insurance is not all golden

  Insurance No Comments

  From This is Money:

  In some cases, they could pay 87% more by going to these specialist insurers.
  The elderly often believe that such companies will prove to be cheaper.
  There is a massive choice when it comes to selecting an insurer, but pensioners frequently favour those brands whose marketing is aimed at them, such as Rias and Saga.
  Help The Aged and Age Concern (now combined into a single charity called Age UK) has a financial services arm called Intune which also offers a range of insurance and financial products for those aged 60 and older.
  But in many cases pensioners would do better to contact a local insurance broker or use a comparison internet site to search for the best cover.
  Graeme Trudgill, of the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA), says: ‘These companies are not the only ones that will provide cover to the over-65 market and many of them are more expensive than general insurers.
  ‘It is not just about price. Peace of mind is important, too, and a broker can check tha…

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• 28Nov

  Threshers group axes 2,140 jobs

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Drinks retailer First Quench is closing a further 391 stores, resulting in 2,140 redundancies.First Quench’s brands include Threshers, Wine Rack, The Local, Haddows, Bottoms Up and Victoria Wine. The administrators said the off-licences would close by 20 December at the latest, depending on stock levels. The total number of job losses since First Quench went into administration in October now stands at 5,928, with 1,145 store closures. The group has been hit by the recession and stiff competition. “It remains difficult for buyers to complete deals in the current tough market,” said Richard Fleming of KPMG and joint administrator of First Quench.
  “However, we are still in talks regarding the sale of over 100 stores and hope to be able to make a further announcement about this shortly”. He added that he was optimistic that some of the 391 stores marked for closure on Friday would be sold as a going concern, but with stock now running low in the remaining stores it was necessary to make…

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• 28Nov

  Jaguar Land Rover see sales rise

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Jaguar Land Rover had seen its sales rise 23% in the second quarter after its new models were well-received.Owner Tata Motors said new products such as the upgraded Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Discovery 4 had had successful launches. Although Jaguar Land Rover made a net loss of £60m in the July-September quarter, it was much less than the £240m loss it made a year earlier. India’s Tata Motors made a net profit of 217.8m rupees ($4.7m; £2.8m) That compared with a loss of 9.4bn rupees a year earlier. Tata said Jaguar Land Rover’s performance was the highlight of the quarter. Tata bought the British marques from Ford for £1.7bn in June 2008. Sales volumes at Jaguar Land Rover rose to 44,300 vehicles from 35,900 in the previous quarter. Aggressive cost reduction had also paid off, Tata said. “The [Jaguar Land Rover] business is witnessing some stability in the external environment with certain key markets showing signs of recovery,” Tata said in a statement….

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• 28Nov

  Recession ‘worse than estimated’

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Chancellor Alistair Darling will say in his pre-Budget report that the economy performed worse in 2009 than he first predicted, Treasury sources have said.Mr Darling is expected to say that the UK economy shrank by 4.75% this year – more than the 3.5% originally forecast in the Budget in March. The adjustment follows the economy’s unexpectedly poor performance in the first three months of the year. But he is likely to stick to 2010 forecasts of growth between 1-1.5%. Return to growthOn Thursday, Mr Darling said that since the Budget forecasts were made, “new data has shown that most economies, ours included, suffered a severe shock in the first quarter of this year”. He added that he still expected a return to growth around the turn of the year. The UK economy has contracted for the past six quarters, but the economies of the US, Japan, France and Germany have all started growing again. Recent UK economic figures, such as retail sales and manufacturing output, have indicated signs of r…

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• 28Nov

  Spoiled party

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  This time last year, Dubai was making headlines for entirely different reasons.It was the opening party of the Atlantis hotel, the star attraction of the city’s man-made palm-shaped island. Organisers spent millions on the fireworks and even more on the celebrities. As the sky exploded overhead, broadcast live around the globe, it was Dubai’s message to the world that it had arrived. But as Dubai’s elite sipped their champagne, the financial crisis was already beginning to take its toll in the West. For Dubai, this was the last night of extravagance before the credit crunch came knocking. And so, 12 months on, the headlines are very different. But who spoiled the party, and how? Perfect stormLiving in Dubai, as I have for the last two years, it seems everyone has a different theory.
  Some say it was the perfect storm: a property bubble waiting to burst, with prices rising by the day, fuelled by rampant speculation. Built on and bought with borrowed money. No-one asked how, or even if,…

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• 28Nov

  Bank seeks to dismiss fee cases

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Lloyds Banking Group has said it will ask local courts to dismiss thousands of overdraft cases lodged against it for the return of overdraft fees.The claims have been on hold since July 2007 when a group of banks and the Office of Fair Trading started a test case over the fairness of bank charges. The Supreme Court ruled this week that the OFT could not decide the charges were unfair under consumer legislation. Lloyds Banking Group includes both Lloyds TSB and HBOS banks. “As the judgement concludes the test case, the FSA [Financial Services Authority] has agreed that these complaints should no longer remain on hold,” said a statement on the websites of both Lloyds TSB and HBOS. “This means that for those customers who currently have an outstanding complaint about unarranged overdrafts, we’ll be writing to them shortly to let them know what today’s judgment means for them. “We be asking the County and Sheriff Courts to apply the Supreme Court judgement to dismiss any claims they curren…

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• 28Nov

  House prices ‘still increasing’

  Business No Comments

  From The BBC:

  House prices in England and Wales continued rising in October, climbing by 0.6% according to the latest survey from the Land Registry.It was the fifth month in a row that prices had risen, the Land Registry said. That put the average house price at £159,546, although that was still 3.4% lower than a year ago. The biggest monthly rise was 1.9% in north-west England, while the biggest fall was 2.3% in Wales. “There remains a wide variation in the strength of the pricing recovery between the regions, said Oliver Gilmartin, economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. “Average house prices in London grew at over £4,000 during October whilst Wales witnessed price falls of over £2,000,” he added. “House prices are set to rise further in the coming months supported by an ongoing shortage of property listings relative to demand.” The consultancy Capital Economics predicted that the rise in prices of the past few months would soon run out of steam. “The shortage…

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• 28Nov

  Offshore tax deadline extended

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has given extra time for people to confess to dodging tax through offshore accounts.The deadline of its current disclosure campaign has been extended from Monday 30 November to Monday 4 January 2010. That is the date by which UK taxpayers who have failed to pay tax on their offshore savings or investments must indicate they will pay up. The Revenue said the decision was taken to give banks extra time to contact their customers with offshore accounts. “We know that some bank customers will not be contacted by their banks in good time for the original deadline of 30 November so in the interests of fairness we have decided to extend our deadline by a month to 4 January,” said Dave Hartnett, HMRC’s permanent secretary for tax. “The new disclosure opportunity (NDO) is voluntary but from the start of the New Year we will begin to investigate those who were eligible to use the NDO but instead buried their heads in the sand.” Paying upPayment of any unpaid tax m…

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• 28Nov

  More pension closures ‘planned’

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Many more pension schemes will close in the next five years, to both new and existing members, a report has said.Just 23% of final-salary pension schemes in the private sector are still open to new joiners, the National Association of Pension Funds also said. A year ago the figure stood at 28% but since then more schemes have closed, both to new members and existing ones. The NAPF said the drop in the number of schemes that were still open was greater than in the previous two years. Increasing trendThe annual survey found that 62% of pension schemes that were still open to new joiners expected to let their current members continue to build up more pension over the next five years. But 18% expected to move both their new and existing members into defined contribution (DC) schemes.
  Even more change is in store for schemes already shut to new joiners. Of these, 31% expect they will switch all their active members to a DC scheme for the future accrual of pension. Last month, an annual sur…

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• 28Nov

  Small cut in cost of water bills

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
  Regina Finn of Ofwat: ”Customers are reaping the benefits of what they have paid in the past”
  Average water bills in England and Wales will be reduced slightly over the next five years, regulator Ofwat has announced.It has ruled that typical bills will fall by £3 to £340 by 2015, before the impact of inflation is considered. Publishing its final decisions on what firms can charge from 2010 to 2015, Ofwat said bills would be 10% lower than the level companies had asked for. The water companies said funding greater investment would be difficult. “It is quite possible that companies will have to adjust or stop their leakage programmes,” said Pamela Taylor, the chief executive of the industry body Water UK. “They will need to make sure they can fulfil their legal obligations. They’ve got challenges ahead such as climate change, with increased drought and flooding, [and] a growing population with more homes.”
  Pro…

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