Analysis Topic: Personal Finance
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
UK Women Become Spendaholic with Unsecured Loans / Personal_Finance / Debt & Loans
By: Submitter
Women in UK incur huge debt through unsecured personal loans which they spend on shopping and fashion.As per the recent research on spending habits of women in UK by price comparison site Uswitch.com
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Friday, March 23, 2007
Pensions - Retirement Planning Made Easy - Fixed Income Investing / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Roger_Conrad
Fixed-income investing is absolutely essential to protecting and growing your nest-egg - if you know what you are doing.As retirement approaches, your investment horizon shrinks. In other words, the closer you are to retirement, the less chance you want to take that you could lose a sizable portion of your investments. You want to more aggressively protect your assets from the stock market's volatility. Many advisors suggest that people at this point begin increasing the bond portion of their portfolio to 50% or more to lower their overall investment risk.
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Friday, March 23, 2007
Tread carefully with low rate high fee mortgage loan combinations / Personal_Finance / Mortgages
By: MoneyFacts
Julia Harris, mortgage analyst at moneyfacts.co.uk – the money search engine comments: “During the last month we have witnessed the continuing trend for lenders to launch low rate high fee mortgages. But as fees rocket skywards, is there still a place in the market for low rate high fee products? And who benefits from these deals?
“The trend just highlights how some lenders and consumers are still keen to focus on interest rate, not the whole package. It is worrying that consumers may be duped into these deals, thinking they are getting the best possible rate, without realising the financial impact of such a large fee.
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Thursday, March 22, 2007
Credit card providers still clawing back lost fee income…. / Personal_Finance / Credit Cards & Scoring
By: MoneyFacts
Michelle Slade, personal finance analyst at Moneyfacts.co.uk – THE money search engine, comments: “Almost one year on from the OFTs response to tackle ‘excessive’ default fees, the credit card market still remains unsettled. Battling with rising bad debts, Bank of England rate increases and a huge loss in revenue from the capping of default fees, credit card providers have been forced to look for other ways to maintain their income stream.
“In the last two weeks alone, six credit card providers have made major changes to some or all of their cards. Changes range from interest rate increases, by as much as 10% (on cash transactions), to shortening of interest free deals. If you delve further into the small print of their terms and conditions, cash withdrawal fees and foreign usage charges are rising, but perhaps the sneakiest of all is the requirement to make purchases as part of a 0% balance transfer deal.
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Gordon Brown's Budget 2007 - Basic Rate Income Tax cut to 20p! / Personal_Finance / UK Tax & Budget
By: Sarah_Jones
Gordon Brown delivered his 11th and final budget, these are the key highlights
Personal Taxation & Allowances
- Basic Rate Income Tax cut from 22p to 20p (April 08)
- 10% Tax Band abolished - Will mean low earners pay more tax.
- NI upper limit raised £37,440 (April 08) - A large tax rise for middle class.
- 40% Tax band threshold raised from £38,000 to £43,000 (April 09).
- Further £1 billion to be spent on working tax credits.
- Pensioners - Guarantee to rise to £130 per week by 2010.
- Pensioners - TAx free allowance for under 75's to rise to £9,770 by 2011. And £10,000 for over 75's
- Child Benefit to rise from £17.45 to £20 by 2010.
- Childcare cash back will rise from 70% to 80%.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) becoming more complex - Not such an easy ISA / Personal_Finance / Savings Accounts
By: Sarah_Jones
Rachel Thrussell, Head of savings at moneyfacts.co.uk – the money search engine, comments:
“As the end of another tax year approaches, banks and building societies have been stepping up their efforts in an attempt to capture their slice of the huge ISA market.
“When the Mini Cash ISA was first introduced in 1999 as an easy tax efficient way to save, the majority of ISAs were straightforward, either instant access or notice and occasionally with an introductory bonus.
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Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Barclays Bank launches 6.5% Best Cash ISA on the market and new simple savings accounts / Personal_Finance / Savings Accounts
By: Shahla_Walayat
With less than a month left for UK consumers to make the most of their current tax-free ISA savings allowance, Barclays from Friday 16th March introduces a new cash ISA paying 6.50 per cent AER interest. Customers are able to save from as little as £1 and up to £3,000 in each tax year.
Andrew Jones, Barclays Product Director, said: “This is the best no catches cash ISA rate to hit the high street this year. Interest rates have been going up in recent months but until recently the best AER you could get on a cash ISA was below 6 per cent.
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Thursday, February 15, 2007
Brokerage account cash balances - Use Savings accounts and ETF funds to maximise returns / Personal_Finance / Investing
By: Hans_Wagner
Here is another example of how our stock brokers do not have their investors' best interest at heart. Brokerage firms have discovered that they can pay a very low rate to investors for their excess cash and then invest that cash in higher yielding alternatives. This is great for the brokers as many of them are reaping substantial profits from reinvesting their client's excess cash. Meanwhile their customers are receiving substantially less. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article “How Wall Street Sweeps the Cash,” January 7, 2007, Brokers pay as little at 1.5% when their money market funds are paying as high as 5%. Small investors are receiving the short end of the deal.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, February 10, 2007
SEC New Definition of Rich to Restrict Investments into Hedge Funds / Personal_Finance / Investing
By: John_Mauldin
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has posted a new proposed rule that would raise the minimum net-worth requirement needed to invest in private funds from $1,000,000 total net worth to $2.5 million liquid net worth. This is a major change, and it means that some 7% of American households will no longer be able to invest in private offerings. In my opinion, it is likely to become law in the not too distant future unless there is significant public comment. This week we look at the proposed rule and some of its consequences, as well as a very interesting proposal by SEC commissioner Roel Campos.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Alliance & Leicester (A&L) - Award Winning Premier Current Account with the 12% interest Premier Regular Saver Offer ends on 7th of Feb 2007 / Personal_Finance / Strategic News
By: Shahla_Walayat
Alliance & Leicester's award winning 'Premier Current Account' with the associated record paying 12% AER interest Premier Regular Saver Account, closes to new accounts on 7th of February 2007. So if you have been waiting to open an new A&L current account with the 12% Regular Saver, then its better to act now whilst time remains, as the 12% Regular Saver offer will be withdrawn as of 7th February 2007.
The Key Account Specs of the A&L Premier Current Account / 12% AER Premier Regular Saver are -
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Monday, January 29, 2007
YouTube to Share Revenue with Content Providers - Make Money from your Home Movies / Personal_Finance / Money Making
By: Shahla_Walayat
In a video interview posted on the Youtube site, the CEO Chad Hurley, declares intentions of sharing advertising revenues with content providers. "In terms of paying users revenue against content they're uploading, we're definitely going to move in that direction," said Chad Hurley.
The intention is to continue to build and maintain the user base before the switch to an advertiser driven service - "We didn't want to build a system that was motivated by monetary reward. When you start giving money to people from Day One ... the people you do attract will just switch to the next provider that's paying more," he said. "We feel we're at the scale now that we'll be able to do that and still have a true community around video." He said.
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Monday, January 29, 2007
Halifax (HBOS) Bank Error - Posts account details of 75,000 customers by mistake to an unsuspecting customer / Personal_Finance / Strategic News
By: Shahla_Walayat
Halifax the Bank that likes to give a little Extra, surely did when it posted off the bank details of 75,000 customers in 5 parcels to Stephanie McLaughlin of Aberdeen.
Ms McLaughlin had requested a copy of her own bank statement, but instead Halifax sent her 2,500 sheets of paper containing the bank details of 75,000 customers, which included names, sort codes, account numbers and details of transactions.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
UK Tax 2005-06 Self Assessment Tax Return Filing Deadline - 31st January 2007 / Personal_Finance / Strategic News
By: Shahla_Walayat
The billboards across the UK seem to have been taken over with the JAN 31 deadline for filing of self assessment tax returns, for the Tax year 2005-06. Failure to meet the deadline will mean an automatic £100 fine and ongoing penalty and interest charges for further delays in both filing of the return and making payment of tax due.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Reband your house and get thousands back off of your Council Tax payments and cut your annual Council Tax bill by hundreds / Personal_Finance / Analysis & Strategy
By: Shahla_Walayat
Council tax payers have the opportunity to have their properties rebanded and to have their council tax bill cut by £300 or more per year, in addition to receiving a repayment of the amount overpaid since 1991. Literally thousands of Council tax payers are having their houses rebanded lower and receiving thousands in repayments.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Credit Card debt ? Top tips on Increasing and protecting your credit score / ratings / Personal_Finance / Analysis & Strategy
By: Nadeem_Walayat
With Households on both sides of the atlantic hitting record amounts of credit card debt, it has never been more important to ensure that you protect and improve your credit score ratings to enable you get the lowest interest rates and best terms when negotiating loans or applying for credit credits. Basically the higher your credit score the lower your payments will be !
The Market Oracle has prepared a list of top tips that will help you take the right steps to save money on credit payments.
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Sunday, November 12, 2006
Savings rates rise following the UK interest rate rise / Personal_Finance / Investing
By: Shahla_Walayat
Has your savings interest rate increased following the Bank of England's interest rate rise to 5% earlier in the week ? Many of the top paying savings accounts have increased, which includes those that carry a base rate tracking guarantee.
Savings accounts to increase interest rates -
- ICICI Bank UK - has raised the rate on its online Hi Save account rises from 5.15% to 5.45%.
- Chelsea BS Double Guarantee Account rises from 5.25% to 5.50%
- Derbyshire BS Easy Save Tracker rises from 4.95% to 5.10%
- Cahoot, has raised its online savings account to 5% from 4.8%.
- IceSave rate will rise to 5.45% from 5.2% as of 15th November 2006.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
ISA's (Individual Savings Accounts) - Are to be extended indefinetly / Personal_Finance / ISA's
By: Phillipa_Green
The UK government has said that it intends to extend the tax free status of the ISA savings scheme, with no plans to end the tax free status.. The Isa's were due to expire in April 2010, but the Treasury minister Ed Balls has announced that the scheme would now become permanent instead. In addition, Mr Balls commented that the distinction between mini-Isas, which allow for investments of up to £4,000 in stocks and shares and £3,000 in cash, and maxi-Isas, which allow investments of up to £7,000, including up to £1,000 in life insurance, would be abolished. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Poor Cash ISA Interest rates despite high interest rate futures / Personal_Finance / Investing
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Whilst interest rate futures have rallied to the previous highs set in 2004, one staple investment vehicle has dismally failed to benefit from the raises. The range of Fixed Rate Cash ISA's currently on offer range from 5% to 5.25%, whereas in the lead up to the 2004 peak in interest rates, Cash ISA fixed rates ranged upto 6%. The difference is further exacerbated by the fact that Non Cash ISA Fixed interest bonds currently range upto 6% as one would expect and inline with what transpired in 2004.
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