Money Fight Club has been through a few rounds with the High Street banks as they have invented new ways to part customers from their money over the years. The mis-selling of personal pensions, endowment mortgages, payment protection insurance and interest rate swaps have cost customers billions of pounds and damaged the reputation and the finances of the banks. Now the Banking Standards Review headed up by Sir Richard Lambert, former editor of the Financial Times, has proposed the setting up of an independent body to raise standards and to bring ethics into banking. It does not go far enough, […]
Tag: 2014
The great big pensions rip off
We save in a pension fund for years and get a lousy deal on charges and investment performance and then we get to retirement age and get ripped off again. The Financial Conduct Authority has just caught up with one of the scams, which leaves up to 80% of pension savers worse off than they ought to be. The practice currently under scrutiny is the annuity market. When people come to pension age they are offered an annuity – a guaranteed pension for life based on the lump sum they have saved. Currently a 65 year old can expect to […]
Banking… standards?
The Banking Standards Review from Sir Richard Lambert proposes an independent body that will champion better banking standards. What’s not to like? But before anything can happen it has posed 19 questions on ethics, training, the assessment of a bank’s code of conduct, best practice, competence and much more. Sir Richard wants the body to raise standards of competence and conduct in banking but it is likely to fail abysmally if it becomes a “members organisation for bankers.” How can the markets and more importantly the customers begin to trust banks if their new body is little more than a […]
Hit by bad weather rail failures? Compensation letter
Record numbers of train journeys have been delayed or cancelled due to floods and strong winds. The problems are getting worse, with more rail failures and more lines affected every day. Network Rail, which runs and maintains Britain’s rail tracks, has agreed a new five year plan to get the trains running on time. But, in the meantime, if you can’t travel it is important that you claim compensation from the rail company who should have got you where you needed to get to. As you might expect each one has a different system. Any other approach would make it […]
How to complain by phone – watch the video
My weapon of choice has always been the phone. I can write a sharply worded email or letter, but give me a phone and I’m ready to do battle – whatever the nature of my complaint. After years of bending big business ears to my will I’m ready to pass on a few tips about how to complain by phone successfully… […]
Credit card repayments seem to be down? It’s all an illusion…
February has arrived and the bleakest financial month (January) is behind us. But we still need to be very careful when using and paying off on credit card. The payments required by the card company may appear to be getting smaller even though our spending has not. This is because card companies have been sneakily reducing the minimum amount they require customers to pay each month. The minimum credit card repayment used to average 2.15% of the amount outstanding. This now they are down to 1.53%, according to figures from the TotallyMoney comparison website. This is not good news. While […]
40 year mortgage loans – it’s only lenders that win
Lenders have a new wheeze when it comes to lending money to home buyers. Now interest-only loans have been outlawed for all except buy-to-let borrowers they have moved to the next best thing (for lenders, that is, not borrowers) – 40 year mortgage loans. In particular, lenders are circling first time buyers who are back in the market. According to the mortgage statistics for last year, mortgage approvals rose by 122,000 to 734,969. First-time buyer numbers are well up. For example,they took out 27,000 loans in November, 2013, a rise of just 0.7% compared to October, but up 24% compared […]
Complaints about packaged bank accounts double – have you got one?
Yet another report shows how careful we have to be when visiting our bank branch. The latest statistics from the Financial Ombudsman reveal that large numbers of bank customers are complaining that they have been mis-sold expensive packaged bank accounts. These are the sorts of accounts that come with all sorts of bells and whistles on them, such as travel insurance, all fine and dandy if you need everything you get but otherwise an expensive way to bank. Complaints have more than doubled on 2012-13 and some bank customers were unaware that they had “bought” a packaged account. The most […]
Voucher ninja. Even an expert supermarket money off voucher user can be caught out
So, nearly got caught out by a voucher this morning. These particular vouchers arrived at my house in the week accompanied by 3 free dishwasher tablets. The idea was to introduce me to a brand I did not use and then use the voucher for £1.50 to buy some more (and switch brands forever, no doubt). I arrived at the supermarket for my weekly shop and I looked at the dishwasher tablets aisle. I picked up a box of the brand I had the voucher for. They seemed good value at 33 for around £5. Deduct the £1.50 voucher from […]
To fix price or not to fix price – that is the energy question
I’ve just spent the last couple of days working out whether I should switch to a new fixed price tariff with my energy supplier EDF. The big issue was finding the time to do the maths and getting the right EDF representative on the end of the phone to run through the options I’d shortlisted in brain numbing detail. I’m not beyond politely terminating a call and ringing back a little later in order to get another person on the end of the phone. This holds true for all sorts of phone conversations, not just those with energy suppliers. Some […]