National Savings & Investments have announced that from April onwards one of the two monthly Premium Bond jackpot prizes of £1 million will be replaced by a wider variety of prizes in the monthly prize draws.
This should allow more people to win a prize whilst still having an opportunity to scoop the £1 million jackpot prize. A new £25 Premium Bond prize is to be introduced as the previous lowest prize on offer was £50. The current odds of each £1 Premium Bond number winning any prize will stay the same at 36,000 to 1, so with average luck an investor with £30,000 in Premium Bonds could win 10 tax-free prizes a year.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Savings rates hit new low
UK savings rates fell to a new record low during the last month as banks and building societies continued to pass on interest rate cuts to savers.
The average branch based instant access savings account now pays just 0.17% according to the Bank of England. Savers have been hit particularly hard by the large cuts in interest rates since October last year when base rate was 5% compared to the current base rate of 0.5%.
The average branch based instant access savings account now pays just 0.17% according to the Bank of England. Savers have been hit particularly hard by the large cuts in interest rates since October last year when base rate was 5% compared to the current base rate of 0.5%.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Bankers bonus time
Personally I find it outrageous that the banks which have just been bailed out by the government are proposing to pay almost £4 billion in bonuses to staff.
The fact that RBS which is forecast to make losses of around £28 billion is just taking liberties of the UK taxpayers.
If they want to pay billions of pounds out in bonuses why do the government which effectively owns them simply tell them they can't. If the government wants to give away money then surely it could do so through cutting income tax, raising pensions etc so that everyone benefits not just those that have got us into the mess in the first place.
I understand that some of these bonuses are for the staff working in the branches and that these people probably were not responsible for RBS, Northern Rock and Lloyds being brought to their knees but surely their bonus is that they have still got a job given that so many in the country are losing theirs.
The fact that RBS which is forecast to make losses of around £28 billion is just taking liberties of the UK taxpayers.
If they want to pay billions of pounds out in bonuses why do the government which effectively owns them simply tell them they can't. If the government wants to give away money then surely it could do so through cutting income tax, raising pensions etc so that everyone benefits not just those that have got us into the mess in the first place.
I understand that some of these bonuses are for the staff working in the branches and that these people probably were not responsible for RBS, Northern Rock and Lloyds being brought to their knees but surely their bonus is that they have still got a job given that so many in the country are losing theirs.
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Scamnesty
If the economic downturn has led you to look for ways of making easy money then be careful as the Office of Fair Trade estimates that about 3 million UK citizens lose around £3.5 billion to scams every year.
February is Scams Awareness Month and the OFT are asking people to place any scam mailings they receive in designated 'Scamnesty' bins. These yellow bins will be located in libraries and other public areas.
All the mailings will then be reviewed by the OFT to increase their knowledge of the scams and to help identify the main culprits.
February is Scams Awareness Month and the OFT are asking people to place any scam mailings they receive in designated 'Scamnesty' bins. These yellow bins will be located in libraries and other public areas.
All the mailings will then be reviewed by the OFT to increase their knowledge of the scams and to help identify the main culprits.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Another rate cut
For the fifth month in a row the Bank of England has cut the base rate. The Bank of England base rate now sits at just 1% which is the lowest rate ever.
The main reasons behind the base rate cut was to try and stimulate the economy by giving more money to people through reduced mortgage payments for them to spend which in turn will lead to businesses prospering and requiring to take on additional staff.
Unfortunately as well as saving people with mortgages money it also has the opposite affect on savers and particularly thoses savers such as pensioners who rely on the interest earned on their capital to live on. These people have now had to start using their capital which in turn means they will earn even less income until interest rates start to rise again and this is unlikely in the immediate future.
If you do have savings then it is recommended you find out what the interest rate is on your account and shop around for a better deal. Remember just because you got a good rate when you opened the account several years ago doesn't mean it is still a competitive rate today.
The main reasons behind the base rate cut was to try and stimulate the economy by giving more money to people through reduced mortgage payments for them to spend which in turn will lead to businesses prospering and requiring to take on additional staff.
Unfortunately as well as saving people with mortgages money it also has the opposite affect on savers and particularly thoses savers such as pensioners who rely on the interest earned on their capital to live on. These people have now had to start using their capital which in turn means they will earn even less income until interest rates start to rise again and this is unlikely in the immediate future.
If you do have savings then it is recommended you find out what the interest rate is on your account and shop around for a better deal. Remember just because you got a good rate when you opened the account several years ago doesn't mean it is still a competitive rate today.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
What is a decent wage?
In the current climate with so many people running the risk of losing their jobs or those without jobs finding it harder to find work I wonder what salaries people would view as low, medium and excessive.
A low wage would need to be based on the minimum wage which in the UK is £5.73 an hour. So if you worked a 35 hour week your weekly wage before tax would be just over £200 and for a year it would only be £10,429.
According to National Statistics the average wage in 2008 was £479 a week which would suggest that £25,000 a year would be a decent wage.
I would guess that anything over £60,000 a year is excessive but at the end of the day it depends now just on how much you earn but also on how much you spend.
For example if you are a teenager staying with your parents £11,000 a year may seem a lot but if you earn the same and have to pay a mortgage, look after children etc it suddenly doesn't appear to be very much at all. Similarly if you earn £30,000 and have a big mortgage, children to look after, and a lot of expenses you will feel that £30,000 is nowhere near enough.
I suppose at the end of the day is we all spend what we earn and even those on excessive salaries will find ways to spend their wages.
A low wage would need to be based on the minimum wage which in the UK is £5.73 an hour. So if you worked a 35 hour week your weekly wage before tax would be just over £200 and for a year it would only be £10,429.
According to National Statistics the average wage in 2008 was £479 a week which would suggest that £25,000 a year would be a decent wage.
I would guess that anything over £60,000 a year is excessive but at the end of the day it depends now just on how much you earn but also on how much you spend.
For example if you are a teenager staying with your parents £11,000 a year may seem a lot but if you earn the same and have to pay a mortgage, look after children etc it suddenly doesn't appear to be very much at all. Similarly if you earn £30,000 and have a big mortgage, children to look after, and a lot of expenses you will feel that £30,000 is nowhere near enough.
I suppose at the end of the day is we all spend what we earn and even those on excessive salaries will find ways to spend their wages.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Unemployment ranks continue to swell
As the recession continues to bite more and more companies are going into administration or reducing the size of their workforce.
Yesterday shoe sellers Barratts and Priceless went into administration threatening the jobs of more than 5,000 people. The administrator Deloittes has stated that the shops are all currently open and trading as normal although shares in the companies have been suspended.
Also the steelmaker Corus has announced that it intends to cut around 3,500 jobs and of this around 2,500 will be in the UK.
One of the few companies who have announced positive news recently has been McDonalds who intend to open 1,000 new stores in 2009.
Unfortunately whilst some people are claiming to see the green shoots of recovery I think they are seeing things and expect more jobs to be lost over the coming months as more businesses that have been teetering on the edge suddenly fall off the cliff or are pushed by their banks!
Not that the banks themselves are immune with Barlcays having announced it is to cut around 4,000 jobs, Ulster Bank expects to lay off around 750 staff and fairly soon Lloyds will start to streamline their new Halifax and Bank of Scotland operations making possibly several thousand people redundant.
The only good news seems to be that next year should be a better and I'm not referring to 2010 not the Chinese New Year which has just started or am I talking a lot of ox!
Yesterday shoe sellers Barratts and Priceless went into administration threatening the jobs of more than 5,000 people. The administrator Deloittes has stated that the shops are all currently open and trading as normal although shares in the companies have been suspended.
Also the steelmaker Corus has announced that it intends to cut around 3,500 jobs and of this around 2,500 will be in the UK.
One of the few companies who have announced positive news recently has been McDonalds who intend to open 1,000 new stores in 2009.
Unfortunately whilst some people are claiming to see the green shoots of recovery I think they are seeing things and expect more jobs to be lost over the coming months as more businesses that have been teetering on the edge suddenly fall off the cliff or are pushed by their banks!
Not that the banks themselves are immune with Barlcays having announced it is to cut around 4,000 jobs, Ulster Bank expects to lay off around 750 staff and fairly soon Lloyds will start to streamline their new Halifax and Bank of Scotland operations making possibly several thousand people redundant.
The only good news seems to be that next year should be a better and I'm not referring to 2010 not the Chinese New Year which has just started or am I talking a lot of ox!
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