Daily Financial News

The move is a further blow to hopeful students already being hit by falling family incomes and rising youth unemployment.

It also follows the decision not to reduce student loan interest in line with RPI deflation, despite promises that it would always track the March index figure.

Ministers admitted that 'difficult economic times' had forced them to make difficult decisions.

Maintenance grants for students starting university in 2010/11 will be frozen at £2,906 even though fees will rise 2.04% to £3,290.

Continue Reading »

RBS is the largest loss-making bank in the world after losing a staggering $59bn (£35.8bn), but still ranks the fourth best bank overall in terms of bank strength, according to a report to be published next month in The Banker magazine.

This is because of its level of tier one capital bolstered by receiving a Government injection of $29.8bn (£18.1bn).

Even if Government funds are not taken into consideration, RBS was still ranked seventh strongest in the world.

Continue Reading »

Several lenders have put up the headline interest rate by a full percentage point in the past month to more than 9%.

This is despite the fact the Bank of England base rate has been held down at 0.5%.

The average personal loan rate has risen to 9.07%, up from 8.74% a year ago, according to the figures compiled by price comparison website uSwitch.com.

On a £10,000 loan over five years, this adds up to an extra £88, taking the total interest paid on the loan to £2,371.

Continue Reading »

Several lenders have put up the headline interest rate by a full percentage point in the past month to more than 9%.

This is despite the fact the Bank of England base rate has been held down at 0.5%.

The average personal loan rate has risen to 9.07%, up from 8.74% a year ago, according to the figures compiled by price comparison website uSwitch.com.

On a £10,000 loan over five years, this adds up to an extra £88, taking the total interest paid on the loan to £2,371.

Continue Reading »

By my calculations, 5% of £206.34 is £10.30, not £155.98, which means I have been overcharged £145.68. I have written to EDF three times asking for a correct bill, but received no reply.

A phone call resulted in the curt reply that its calculations were correct.

To add insult to injury, EDF says that in light of my 'increased debt' it would increase my direct debt from £50 to £75 a month and threatened that if the bill were not promptly settled it would deduct £150. R. L., Canterbury.

Continue Reading »

In many cases, this means that customers whose bank details or cards have been stolen are left without any way of getting their money back.

Money Mail has received a raft of complaints from readers who have lost huge sums after having debit cards pinched or cloned, or identities stolen by criminals.

Although some have been compensated by their banks, others - whom the bank has judged were not as careful as they should have been with their details - have not.

Continue Reading »

The losses will hit the bank's commercial and group operations nationwide and follow on from the 500 jobs cut earlier this month, as well as the closure of the group's Cheltenham & Gloucester mortgage business, which will result in the loss of 1,660 jobs.

When Lloyds merged with HBOS in September last year, the bank initially said it would need to cut 2,225 jobs, but the numbers laid off have dramatically risen this year, with reported losses hitting 7,000.

Continue Reading »

Revised GDP figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed the sharpest contraction since 1958, which easily outstrips the initial ONS estimate of 1.9%.

Many analysts had anticipated that figure would be revised upwards but only to 2.1%.

The figures deliver a blow to the Chancellor and the Treasury, who in April's Budget estimated a 1.6% contraction for the quarter and a 3.5% drop for the year.

The figures also showed the recession began earlier than had been thought: a 0.1% decline between April and June last year now means the recession started then rather than the following quarter.

Continue Reading »

The Nationwide said that the average price of a house – at £156,442 – was 9.3% lower in June this year than last.

The cost of an average home has risen by £8,700, or 5.9%, since hitting a low of £147,746 in February. However, this remains 16% below the peak of £186,044 in October 2007.

Nationwide said property prices rose during June - by 0.9% - for the third time in four months, as a shortage of properties being put up for sale continued to restrict supply.

Continue Reading »

According to Lloyds Banking Group, a fifth of parents give their children money to help them on to the housing ladder - often when they go away to university. Many have been encouraged to invest in property as a result of paltry interest rates on cash deposits.

But research by online property search engine propertylive.co.uk has found that parents may do better to pay for a two-bedroom flat rather than the usual one-bedroom property.

It found that in 17 out of 20 university towns and cities, including Birmingham, Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, Reading and Sheffield, the annual income earnt from letting the second bedroom in a two-bedroom flat more than outweighed the additional mortgage repayments.

Continue Reading »