Competition is heating up for teenage pocket money today as Alliance & Leicester launches a high-interest current account aimed at 16-21 year-olds.
The Premier 21 account offers an interest rate of 10% AER and an emergency £10 buffer zone, giving teens access to the last few pounds in their account via an ATM, even if the […]

Investing in property to rent out is booming, and nowhere more so than in Wales.

Average returns generated by UK landlords have reached their highest level in five months, as both rents and property values continue to rise. Over the past quarter, rents are up 8.2% and house prices paid by landlords up 5.5%, according to […]

Research carried out by Childcare Choice has revealed that millions of parents are not claiming financial help which could help them save up to £1,195 a year.
Only two out of every hundred working parents have signed up for their entitlement of childcare vouchers because the majority say they don’t have the time to apply. 
If both […]

Bicycle thieves are stealing a bike every 71 seconds and took machines to the value of £146m in a 12-month period 2005-06, according to Halifax Insurance.
The insurer said that 439,000 bikes were taken during the period, a 10% increase on the previous year. The hotspot for thefts was central London, overtaking the previous centre of saddle-swipers, […]

A bank has been ordered to pay costs by a judge for wasting the court’s time in a case where a customer had sued for a refund of her overdraft charges. The bank caved in at the last minute and did not, in the event, go to court.
Judge Andrew Kearney, of Bristol County Court, ordered Lloyds TSB to pay Vivien Lloyd […]

I might be talking of a matter here that my colleagues on ‘Your Mortgage’ probably feel is more their area but, hey, it concerns your money (and quite a bit of it), so what the hell, here goes anyway.
This is the vexed question of the Home Information Pack (HIP), the Government-”inspired” document that ostensibly tells […]

NatWest credit card customers participating in the Airmiles reward scheme will now have to switch to Lloyds TSB to continue earning points.
Lloyds TSB won the contract to run the scheme this week and from 1st June it will be customers of Lloyds TSB’s new Duo card who will earn the points. However, they will see […]

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has launched a far-reaching investigation into the UK banking sector, especially the charges applied to UK current account holders when cheques are bounced or overdrafts breached.
It could possibly lead to recommendations that banks charge their customers a set, regular fee and do way with ‘free’ banking - the business […]