The catastrophic floods that have hit the south west Midlands and Thames Valley could cost the insurance industry over £2bn according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
With the waters at last receding, and better weather forecast, insurance firms are now expecting a deluge of calls as battered householders try to repair the financial damage along […]

IF THE £1 trillion UK personal debt mountain wasn’t bad enough, market analyst firm Mintel has just released a report which said we owe collectively “around £100bn more than we realise”. Mintel reckoned “people bury their heads in the sand” when it comes to unsecured debt - so that must be as much sand as […]

The Your Money Direct Awards 2007 ceremony at London’s Merchant Taylors’ Hall in Threadneedle Street, opposite the Bank of England, was the usual glittering occasion this year.
The great and the good from the winning companies (and Your Money staffers) gathered in an Arab-style marquee erected in the courtyard and enjoyed the gyrations of a snake-toting […]

WHERE in the UK has breathtakingly beautiful countryside, increasingly smart and cosmopolitan cities and people whose native charm and renowned wit are finally being given free rein after a troubled period in its history? Northern Ireland, of course, where five successive interest rate rises have barely dented house price inflation, which now stands at 51.9% […]

A new report has found that the gap between rich and poor is as wide as it has been for 40 years, with different economic groups living apart from each other.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) discovered that households in existing wealthy areas had become ‘disproportionately richer’ compared with society as a whole, with the number of […]

The guest speaker at the Your Money Direct Awards held in London on Thursday 12th July was ‘rogue trader’ Nick Leeson, the currency dealer based in Singapore who brought down Barings Bank with his massive losses in the foreign currency markets.
Leeson admitted that he had done wrong, but said that he’d never intended for the situation […]

Rising rates could mean mortgage misery for millions, as Hannah Davies discovers
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. Her monthly mortgage payments stretched her finances to the limit, and she watched helplessly as they increased along with interest rates. She fell into arrears and the shoe was repossessed.
Some media reaction to the […]