February 2011
£13.5 billion `will be wasted on unnecessary tax payments`
28 February 2011
A combined £13.5 billion will be unnecessarily paid in tax this year because many people are unaware of tax breaks and credits that they are entitled to claim, money advice website unbiased.co.uk says.
The website`s annual Tax Action
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Average water bill to rise
25 February 2011
Ofwat, the regulator of the water and sewerage industry in England and Wales, has announced that the average water bill will rise by 4.6% in April, to £356.
Following the news, comparison and switching service uSwitch.com has warned the
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Almost half of borrowers `concerned about debt levels`
22 February 2011
Almost half (45%) of borrowers are worried about the level of debt they owe, according to research by insolvency trade body R3 - a 6% increase on last quarter.
More than half (56%) of these expressed concern about credit
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Two thirds of children don`t repay debt to `Bank of Mum and Dad`
18 February 2011
Research by website MyVoucherCodes indicates that two thirds of children never repay the money they borrow from the `Bank of Mum and Dad`, The Telegraph reports.
The majority of parents lend their children (12-to-18-year-olds) at least £10 a week
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Debt consolidation: one way to combat inflation
16 February 2011
With inflation reaching 4% - the highest level since 2008 - debt consolidation could be one way for borrowers to make better use of their money and cope with rising prices.
So says a press release from moneysupermarket.com, which
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Borrowers `had to work first 45 days of 2011 to pay debt interest`
15 February 2011
Borrowers had to work the first 45 days of the year just to cover the interest on their unsecured debts, making February 15th `Debt Freedom Day`, according to financial advice website unbiased.co.uk.
The total value of personal loans
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Unemployment `could rise sharply in coming months`
14 February 2011
Unemployment could rise sharply in the next few months, largely due to public sector cuts, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
In a survey carried out with KPMG, the CIPD found that `redundancy intentions`
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Gap between paying off mortgage and retiring `is shrinking`
11 February 2011
The amount of time between becoming mortgage-free and retiring is shrinking for the average British homeowner, research by Santander suggests.
The average `savings window` - the time after paying off a mortgage, in which homeowners have a good opportunity
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Demand for unsecured credit `weak` in 2010
11 February 2011
Figures from the British Bankers` Association (BBA) have revealed that net lending from the main high street banks increased by £20bn in 2010.
The figures also revealed that the demand for unsecured credit was weak last year, with the
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Cold weather could be cause of drop in bankruptcies
9 February 2011
The sharp drop in bankruptcies seen in December could be partly a result of the cold weather conditions at the time, experts have suggested.
The latest figures from the Insolvency Service showed that bankruptcy orders fell significantly in
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MPs `debate merits` of caps on high-cost debt
4 February 2011
The BBC has reported that MPs have been `debating the merits` of caps on the interest rates charged on some forms of debt.
Stella Creasy, MP for the Labour party, has called on ministers to help stop the "spiralling
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BoE: New mortgage debt at `record low`
3 February 2011
Last year, according to figures released by the Bank of England (BoE) recently, net mortgage lending fell to its lowest level since the Bank`s records began in 1987, The Telegraph reports.
Net lending - which `strips out redemptions and
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Cost of credit card debt hits `13-year high`
2 February 2011
The average interest rate charged on credit card debt has reached a 13-year high, according to Moneyfacts.co.uk.
After dropping as low as 14.8% in February 2006, the average rate has now risen all the way to 18.9%. The
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Consumers repaid less debt than they took on in December
1 February 2011
The latest figures from the Bank of England show a net increase of £0.2bn in consumer credit in December, with consumers borrowing more than they paid back.
The figure from the most recent `Lending to Individuals` report is
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