The online lender Wonga.com has been accused of misleading visitors to its website about the practicality of using its loan... Read More
As thousands of students around the UK struggle to manage their finances effectively, the proposal of spending as... Read More
Consumers from across the UK have been urged by a raft of experts to take a closer look at... Read More
A sizeable majority of British consumers are set to miss out on some of the tax free savings on offer to them via their Individual Savings Account (ISA) allowances.
The special tax rules associated with ISAs are designed to encourage saving and give consumers something of a financial boost each year but the benefits are not being reaped to nearly ...
Read MoreA growing number of new mothers in the UK are finding themselves with little choice but to take on debt to finance themselves in the months after giving birth. The pain is being felt by new mums in various ways as they get to grips with parenthood and there are many thousands of women apparently putting off having their first child primarily because they feel themselves unable to cover the costs involved with doing so.
We all perhaps intuitively understand that becoming a mother can be a costly business but the extent of the financial strains that can be caused has been laid bare in recent days in a report on the subject from the price comparison service uSwitch.com. The headline finding was that the costs of going on maternity leave, coupled with the rising overall cost of living in the UK means that close to a third (29 percent) or new mothers are now being forced into debt.
The average amount of debt accrued under these circumstances was roughly £2,500 at the time of the poll and the money problems faced by new mums often spill out to effect t&...
Read MoreChoosing the most appropriate mortgage deal can be a tricky business and there are a number of perfectly viable strategies that homeowners can choose from at any given time. However, now could be the right moment to put your mortgage arrangement under the microscope and figure out whether your current deal is fit for purpose.
The price comparison website MoneySupermarket.com has taken another look across the entire mortgage market in the UK and pointed to a number of significant shifts in the way products are being offered. The average rate of interest on the products on the market have “crept up” in the early months of 2012, while borrowers with a standard variable rate (SVR) mortgage have been “hit by hikes”, the company maintains.
And the changes could leave t...
Read MoreThe UK and European economies are struggling against some sternly testing headwinds at present and the impact is being felt by families right across the country and the continent. So perhaps it should come as little surprise that households in Scotland are feeling the financial squeeze to a significant degree as well.
Evidence if it were needed of just what families north of the border are having to contend with currently from a financial point of view came this month in a report from the Bank of Scotland...
Read MoreBritish parents with adult children are struggling to boost their pension savings pots as they otherwise might because they are increasingly making significant financial sacrifices to help out their grown-up sons and daughters.
A new survey on the subject suggests in fact that just below a third of all parents in the UK with adult children are helping their offspring out with major outlays and to repay their debts...
Read MoreDebt has become part and parcel of money management for many millions of British consumers but taking on too much can of course lead to serious financial difficulty. The question of quite what amounts to having serious levels of debt is an interesting one and it was posed recently in a survey by the financial protection company Bright Grey.
According to the study, a typical UK consumer only considers themselves to be in serious debt when they have racked up arrears in excess of £14,400. The company behind the research suggests that the figure reflects a rather worrying attitude towards debt that goes some way to explain why Britain is currently so heavily indebted as a nation.
And seriousness in the context of financial difficulty is per...
Read MoreInefficient use of credit cards is costing UK consumers considerable sums of money on an annual basis, according to the price comparison company MoneySupermarket, which has published a list of hints on how to avoid falling into that particular trap.
Using a card with a low interest rate of course will help you keep the associated costs down and it is well worth shopping around the find out where the best deals are to be found...
Read MoreYou may or may not have noticed but the prevalence of contactless payment options across the UK is steadily on the increase. Barclaycard has announced its latest effort to promote the use of such technology in stores and outlets of various kinds in the shape of what it calls the PayTag system. The idea is that mobile phone users can attach a small PayTag sticker to the back of their handsets and pay in a matter of moments by touching it to a suitably equipped terminal.
The phenomena look set to catch on and its advocates are convinced that the contactless payment systems being introduced will serve to ease congestion within the busier supermarkets and other retail outlets around the country. The American-owned supermarket chain Asda recently became the latest business to opt in on the scheme, which is still in the pilot stage, with 25 of its stores soon to be equipped with PayTag technology.
Asda’s inclusion in the project follows the lead of its great supermarket rival Tesco, and sees it join the likes o...
Read MoreConsumers from across the UK have been urged by a raft of experts to take a closer look at the way they are managing their money and to effectively have a ‘spring clean’ of their finances.
The national and international economic doom and gloom continues in large part and households right around the country are struggling to reign in their spending...
Read MoreThere has been much said and written in recent months and years about the difficulties that many British couples and families are having as they aim to make their way on to the first rung of the housing ladder. Lenders are clearly and understandably less willing to agree to mortgage deals now than they were back in the heady days before the financial crisis of 2007/8.
Mortgages do seem more difficult to come by these days and generally those applying are obliged to stump up a hefty deposit before they can join the ranks of Britain’s homeowners. There have been efforts made by government to improve the prospects for would-be first-time buyers and positive stances taken by the still very pragmatic banks and building societies. Nevertheless, conditions for anyone hoping to hop on to the housing ladder remain rather challenging.
However, there has been some encouraging news from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) recently,...
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