Financial news

• House price flatlining is a good thing, despite estate agents' gripes

  13-02-2018 19:41
  First-time buyers are taking advantage of low interest rates and a flat market, and why shouldn’t they?Over the past year the rate of house price inflation has fallen while the number of first-time buyers has risen to its highest level since 2006. These two facts are connected: the reason young people have become renters rather than owner-occupiers is that property became expensive.Property has become so dear that the average first-time buyer is now 30 years old and has a salary of £
  
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• The truth behind the headlines: how the financial news affects your money

  13-02-2018 18:55
  From Bitcoin to the first interest rate rise in 10 years, the world of finance is rarely out of the news – but what are the facts, and how will they affect your balance sheet?Bitcoin is a new “crypto” currency that was created anonymously in 2009. Transactions are recorded in digital form, and stored in a digital wallet that exists either in the cloud or on a user’s computer. Continue reading...
  
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• How to find the perfect current account

  13-02-2018 18:55
  When was the last time you reviewed your current account to check it was really working for you? Here are a few things to considerIt’s one of your primary financial products – the account into which you pay your salary or earnings, sort out Direct Debits and run household affairs. Yet how many of us give our current account much thought once it’s up and running?The current account features you should consider depend to a great extent on the way you operate your account. Are you
  
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• How to change banks

  13-02-2018 18:55
  Despite using our current accounts on a daily basis, many of us don’t make the most of the features and perks available. Could you benefit from switching banks?There was a time when changing your bank was a lengthy and time-consuming process – but that is no longer the case.Five years ago, the switching process was streamlined when the Current Account Switch Service was created and more than 4m accounts have now switched. Continue reading...
  
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• Quorn recalls curry ready meals over rubber contamination fear

  13-02-2018 18:06 via theguardian.com
  Consumers urged to return Quorn tikka masala with basmati rice to shops as ‘product is unsafe’Quorn Foods has recalled more than 15,000 chilled curry ready meals from supermarket shelves in the UK and the Republic of Ireland over fears that they could be contaminated with pieces of flexible rubber.Consumers who have bought packs of chilled Quorn tikka masala with basmati rice are urged not to eat them and to return the products urgently to the shop where they were bought “becau
  
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• First-time buyers hit 10-year high as buy-to-let property sales fade

  13-02-2018 16:45
  Sales of first homes rise 7.4% in 2017 but property experts warn boom may already be waningThe number of first-time buyers hit the highest level for a decade in 2017 while lending for buy-to-let has gone into retreat, according to official figures.A total of 365,000 buyers took ownership of their first home last year, an increase of 7.4% on 2016 and the highest number since 2006, said UK Finance, the trade body for Britain’s banks. Its data showed that the average first-time buyer was 30 a
  
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• Why doesn’t Nationwide send me a new card after mine was cloned?

  13-02-2018 08:23
  I’ve been waiting for two months for a replacement to arrive, and I don’t want to carry large amounts of cashAt the beginning of December I was unlucky enough to have my Nationwide debit card cloned, and almost two months on I am still waiting for a replacement to arrive, which is causing me huge problems. I have repeatedly been told that my new card will arrive in three to five days, but it never materialises.Continue reading...
  
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• Carillion: accountants accused of 'feasting' on company

  13-02-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Details of £72m in fees in 10 years emerge as 11,800 workers await fate after firm’s collapseMPs have accused the “big four” accountancy firms of “feasting on what was soon to become a carcass” as it emerged they banked £72m for work linked to collapsed government contractor Carillion in the years leading up to its financial failure.Less than a fortnight before Carillion’s auditor KPMG is due to face questions from MPs on two select committees, the
  
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• George Christensen in backbench revolt against payday lending crackdown

  13-02-2018 00:52 via theguardian.com
  Nationals MP says he relied on small credit lending in his 20s, asking: ‘Where will people in desperate need then go to access finance?’George Christensen has put his name to a reported backbench revolt against the Turnbull government’s proposed crackdown on payday lending, just a day after Scott Morrison denied he had been enlisted to water down the reform.The Nationals MP told Guardian Australia he turned to small credit lending in his 20s to pay for household goods and unexp
  
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