Identity fraud has nearly doubled Identity fraud and other forms of account takeover theft nearly doubled over the last year, according to CIFAS, one of the official fraud prevention services. Cases of account takeover fraud reported between January and April increased by what a spokesman called “an astonishing 82pc compared to the same period in 2011”. People who bank or shop online are most vulnerable, as CIFAS reckons the internet was used in 71pc of account takeovers. This form of fraud ranges from one-off hijacks in order to pay for goods, to the complete emptying of an account – such as cancelling existing cards or contracts and ordering replacements to be delivered to the fraudster’s address. In order to get away with this, the fraudster ... Continue reading →

Savers approaching retirement should heed a veiled warning in a speech by the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, pensions experts and economists claim. Charlie Bean defended quantitative easing (QE) – the Bank’s policy of buying gilts in a bid to avoid double-dip recession – in a speech to the National Association of Pension Fund (NAPF) conference yesterday. He said QE was only one of the factors that forced interest rates to their current historic lows, hitting the guaranteed income for life that annuities pay pensioners. Annuities are based on gilts and so, when gilt prices are pushed up, gilt yields and annuity yields fall. He claimed that this disadvantage for pensioners had been offset by QE’s tendency to increase share prices and thus ... Continue reading →

PPI: how many of the claims are frivolous? Nearly 6,000 people claimed compensation for being mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) last year, despite the fact that, er, they had never bought any PPI cover. The Financial Ombudsman Service confirms that “99pc of the complaints we reject as frivolous and vexatious are complaints about PPI where no PPI policy was actually held by the consumer.” You might think this latest example of the compensation culture is enough to make a cat laugh. But there is a serious side to it. Tom Baigrie, founder of Britain’s biggest telephone-based life assurance, income protection and critical illness advisers, Lifesearch, tells me that rising numbers of people are cancelling life policies in the mistaken belief they include PPI for which ... Continue reading →

People retiring from the private sector need to save £250,000 to buy pension income equal to the national minimum wage – currently, £12,646 a year – or a total of £518,000 for a pension equal to national average earnings of £25,900. These are among many eye-stretching facts in a new analysis of how unfunded promises to pay index-linked pensions to public sector workers are way beyond what most private sector savers can hope to achieve – and how these debts will burden children who have not yet left school. The Intergenerational Foundation (IF) think tank used freedom of information requests to find out that 78,000 former public sector workers enjoy pensions of more than £25,900; and more than 12,000 get more than £50,000 a year. ... Continue reading →

Stormy seas for Aviva - and their chief exec has been thrown overboard Aviva chief executive Andrew Moss, who resigned this morning after waiving his 2012 salary increase over concerns about executive pay, will not be the last boardroom casualty of what might be called a "shareholder spring". Mr Moss may be blameless – and Aviva is certainly a better-run business than many insurers, including offering valuable shareholder perks. But, before angry scenes at last week’s shareholder meeting, his remuneration package had shared none of the pain the owners of the business felt over the last decade or more. While the Financial Services Authority (FSA) frequently intervenes in the interests of insurers’ customers, it has done nothing to protect the owners of these businesses – ... Continue reading →

Have you filed your tax return? HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is imposing a total of £6.5m in fines each day on 650,000 people for failing to file tax returns under its new harsher penalties system that took effect on Tuesday. Even people who owe no tax are liable to fines of up to £1,600 each if they persistently fail to complete self assessment tax returns. About 850,000 people missed the January 31 deadline and were subject to fixed penalties of £100 each and 650,000 remained outstanding on May 1, incurring additional fines of £10 per day up to a maximum of £900. You can see some examples of excuses that the taxman will accept for failure to file here. Tips on how to complete ... Continue reading →

House prices slipped 2.4pc lower last month, according to Halifax, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender but they remain expensive by historic standards and could fall nearly a fifth further. Valuation figures, which express house prices as a multiple of average earnings, show they remain about a quarter higher than the historic average and they could fall by nearly 20pc from their current level. Halifax economist Martin Ellis said: "The monthly figures continue to fluctuate quite widely with a 2.4pc decline in April, wiping out March's 2.2pc rise. "The ending of the stamp duty holiday for first-time buyers in late March appears to have boosted home sales early this year as buyers strove to beat the deadline and has probably contributed to the volatility in house prices ... Continue reading →

Tesco: now offering a good rate on your savings Tesco Bank, part of Britain’s biggest supermarket, is launching a new 5pc fixed rate bond offering investors the chance to pick up an inflation-beating income along with their bread and baked beans. The fixed yield not only exceeds the current annual rate of increase in the retail prices index (RPI) of 3.6pc but is also more than a third higher than the top fixed rate savings account offered by Tesco Bank, currently 3.5pc. According to independent statisticians Moneyfacts, the best deposit rate outside individual savings accounts (Isas) is Allied Irish Bank, paying 3.8pc fixed for two years. Worries for potential buyers of the Tesco bond today include the risk that inflation might rise and competition from ... Continue reading →