Finance Matters

• 10Sep

  Tenant bargaining power ‘eases’

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Tenants’ bargaining power has weakened as fewer properties are coming onto the rental market, say surveyors.The falling cost of renting slowed in the three months to July, according to a survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics). Homeowners who need to move are seizing the opportunity to sell in a more stable market, rather than letting properties as reluctant landlords. This means tenants have less opportunity to haggle on price. However, Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at Rics, said that tenants were still in a “relatively strong” position compared with two years ago. SurveyFewer surveyors reported falls rather than increases in rent in the latest Rics survey, compared with the same poll three months earlier. While they believe that rents are likely to continue to fall in the next three months, this would be at a slower rate than previously. This offered more options for homeowners, according to Chris Norris, of the National Landlords Association. “People who may…

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• 09Sep

  Bank of Ireland admits card error

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Some Bank of Ireland customers in Northern Ireland who used their debit cards since last Friday have been double charged for the same purchase.The Bank has confirmed that 120,000 of its customers in the Irish Republic have been affected by the problem. The bank said the issues were resolved last night. It has not yet revealed how many customers in Northern Ireland were affected but it is not on the same scale as in the Republic. Commenting on the problems in the Republic, the Bank said the payments of direct debits and cheques were not impacted upon, but standing order payments may have been delayed by one day. A spokeswoman refused to confirm the amount of money involved but it is believed it could run into millions of euro. A Bank of Ireland spokeswoman said all refunds had been made including all overdraft fees and penalties charged to customers as a result of the problem….

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• 08Sep

  ‘Forced to bankruptcy’ by councils

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Mrs Byrd had always thought that her daughter did not have to pay council tax.They had been to see officials together at Exeter City Council in the 1990s to explain that Miss Byrd was terminally ill with HIV and had mental health problems. Miss Byrd could not cope with bills and never opened any post so her family had arranged for everything to be metered to avoid her running up any debts. It came as a surprise then to Mrs Byrd to hear that her daughter had been declared insolvent in April 2007. “It was my niece who said she’d seen it in the paper that she’d been made bankrupt.” Mrs Byrd, which isn’t her real name, established that the only creditors were the local council so she contacted them to explain that she thought her daughter was exempt from paying the rates. She was told the original council tax debt of around £2,000 had gone up to more than £12,000 because of the bankruptcy costs. “I did offer £8,000 but that was turned down,” she told 5 live. “I said ‘I r…

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• 08Sep

  Pension fund deficit widens again

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  The state of UK defined-benefit pension funds started to worsen again in August, according to the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).The shortfall in the 7,400 defined- benefit schemes, including final-salary pensions, widened from £158.1bn at the end of July to £173.2bn a month later. The level has fluctuated in recent months but remains considerably worse than a year earlier. Many employers have closed final-salary schemes because of funding shortages. Initially, these schemes were closed to new members, but more recently existing members have been told that their retirement savings will be frozen at the current level. The latest to join the list of businesses doing so are construction and civil engineering company Costain, and Whitbread, which owns Costa Coffee and Premier Inns. “A £173bn deficit on any measure underlines why pensions will be a major boardroom headache not only in the recession but well into any recovery,” said John Ball, head of defined benefit consult…

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• 08Sep

  Mobile phone ID fraud increases

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  There has been a rise in the number of mobile phone accounts being cloned or taken over by criminals, figures show.According to the UK fraud prevention service Cifas, the practice is one of the growth areas of identity theft. It has seen a 74% rise to 633 cases in the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2008. After obtaining personal details by theft or deception, the fraudsters can add additional handsets to accounts and use them to run up large bills. Cifas members include banking, insurance and telecommunication firms. Richard Hurley from the service said: “In the first six months of 2008 we had 364 proven cases of accounts being taken over, and 899 by the year’s end. “In the first six months of this year we’ve confirmed 633 cases. “It is an area where the increasing sophistication of technology makes mobile phones a status symbol and therefore a boom area for fraud.” He said its latest figures may represent a fraction of the problem’s true scale as Cifas member…

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• 07Sep

  Jobs ‘to be posted longer in UK’

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Employers will have to advertise jobs to UK workers for at least a month before they can be offered overseas, the government has announced.Home Secretary Alan Johnson said that from next year the legal minimum period to post vacancies on Jobcentre Plus would be doubled from two weeks. He added that this meant non-EU workers could not be used as a “cheaper alternative” to those from the UK. But the Tories said Labour was “overselling” the changes. The number of overseas-born workers in the UK reached 3.8 million last year. In a speech, Mr Johnson said the government had accepted all the recommendations made recently by its Migration Advisory Committee. Longer qualificationHe announced the minimum salary to allow someone from overseas to qualify as a skilled worker in the UK would rise from £17,000 to £20,000. The minimum qualification period for non-EU workers transferring to a company’s UK base would increase from six months to a year, Mr Johnson added. The Home Office esti…

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• 07Sep

  ‘Innocent errors’ avoid tax fine

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Savers with offshore accounts who have failed to pay tax owing to an “innocent error” will not face a fine.HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is giving people a second – and last – chance to pay tax on money hidden in offshore bank accounts. Now it has has confirmed that those misled by financial professionals or who could point to bereavement or serious illness could avoid fines. But those simply ignorant of tax laws would still face a penalty. Meanwhile Switzerland has become the latest country to agree to exchange tax information with the UK government. The Swiss government decided in March that it would abide by standards laid down by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). A spokesman for the HMRC said the signing in London of a protocol between the two countries meant they could exchange tax information about individuals, where a justified request had been made. “I very much welcome the Swiss Federal Council’s agreement on international co-operation in tax m…

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• 07Sep

  RBS-NatWest slash overdraft fees

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  Banking group RBS-NatWest – majority owned by the taxpayer – has broken ranks with the rest of the industry and decided to slash its overdraft charges.The move comes ahead of a decision of the new Supreme Court on whether or not the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) can regulate these charges. From 1 October, RBS and NatWest customers will be charged £5 for having a cheque bounced, down from £38. The fee for paying an item on an overdrawn account falls in half to £15. “This is good news for customers, not least because the fees for unarranged borrowing have been an area of ongoing concern for them,” said the head of UK retail banking, Brian Hartzer. “As we look ahead there are many issues to consider, but we thought it was time to move this particular customer concern forward by cutting our charges. “As it relates to past charges we are awaiting the outcome of the industry-wide bank charges test case,” he added. ‘Welcome news’At stake is annual income for the banks of more…

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• 07Sep

  HSBC offers 1.99% mortgage deal

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  The HSBC bank is trying to gain an even larger share of the mortgage market by launching a new deal at just 1.99% for borrowers with a 40% deposit.The low rate lasts for two years and is set at a 1.95% discount to the bank’s standard variable rate of 3.94%. HSBC was the largest lender in the UK in the first half of this year. Its deal is a sign of the continued easing of the mortgage market which currently has 1,676 deals available, more than at any time this year. The deposit required to buy a home has increased sharply over the past year as lenders have rationed their funds. The financial information service Moneyfacts says 27% of new mortgage deals require a deposit of 40%. A year ago that figure was just 7%. “There has been a slight increase in the 10% deposit tier, which is encouraging news for first-time buyers who seem to be propping up the mortgage market at the moment,” said Darren Cook of Moneyfacts. Both property sales and prices have picked up this year, after the credit cr…

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• 07Sep

  Court hears expat pensions case

  Money No Comments

  From The BBC:

  A case that could affect the pensions of 520,000 Britons who have retired abroad is being heard in the European Court of Human Rights.A group of 13 pensioners who have moved abroad want their UK state pensions to rise in line with inflation each year. Inflation-proofing only applies to UK pensioners who live in the European Economic Area or in 15 other countries, but not some Commonwealth states. The expat pensioners say they have been unfairly discriminated against. “It is the last chance we’ve got,” said Charles Poole, President of the South African Alliance of British Pensioners (SAABP). Long running sagaThis is the latest stage in a long-running legal challenge and the eventual decision will be the end of the line in the legal process. The two-hour hearing is taking place in the Strasbourg court on Wednesday, but judgement in the case will not be made until March or April 2010. Andrew Harrop, head of Public Policy for Age Concern and Help the Aged, said: “It’s hugely unfair that pe…

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