Gas and electricity bills have increased by a record 42 per cent this year,
taking the average annual household bill to £1,300. This winter more than
five million households face fuel poverty, where a tenth or more of income
goes on energy bills.
Petrol prices may be coming down at last, but driving a car is still an
expensive business. Tax, petrol and insurance can run into thousands of
pounds a year - and that’s before drivers are hit with bills for repairs and
maintenance.
The mortgage market may have shrunk by two thirds in the past year, but there
are still 3,400 mortgage deals available. If you are coming to the end of
your current deal, you need to move quickly and use every tool at your
disposal. Here are five tips to aid your search.
Árni M Mathiesen: Hello
Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, accused Iceland’s Trade Minister of
misleading him about the health of the country’s banks in a telephone
conversation at the height of Iceland’s financial crisis.
Plunging tock markets have sent investors searching desperately for fresh ways
to make money. The wealthy, in particular, have been pouring their cash into
exotic assets such as hedge funds, art, fine wine and stamps to beat the
downturn.
ING, the Dutch bank, became the latest foreign bank to send a shiver down
savers’ spines when it announced this week that it is to receive an £8
billion cash injection from the Dutch Government.
Warren Buffett is famous for his folksy analysis of financial markets. He was
at it again last week, boiling down the complexities of the past few months
of turmoil into a characteristically pithy piece of investment advice. “Buy”
was his bottom line, because you should be “fearful when others are greedy,
and greedy when others are fearful”.
There was some relief for beleaguered homeowners yesterday as two of Britain’s
biggest lenders cut interest rates on some of their most popular mortgage
deals.
Have you ever received a chatty text from someone you don’t know, or been
offered “free” services by text message? Then you have probably been the
victim of a premium-rate mobile phone rip-off.