bank accounts

 

 

Current Accounts

Did you know that we are more likely to divorce or move house than change current accounts? It’s true! Most of us open our first ever bank account in our teens and then we stick with it forever and ever and ever. Why?Nevertheless, if you have decided to take the plunge then how do you choose the best current account for your needs?

Find the latest Current Account deals

Saving Accounts

Just about everyone could benefit from saving more but many people say they never have enough money left over to put into a savings account. This isn’t necessarily the case as many people also make lifestyle choices which leave them short of cash.

Find out more about Saving Accounts, Online Saving Accounts, High Interest Saving accounts here.

Child Trust Funds

One in four families have yet to invest the £250 Child Trust Fund voucher they have received from the government. Although the cash is not lost, parents will be at the mercy of someone else’s decision, as the government has said it will put uninvested vouchers in a fund chosen at random.

Find out more about Child Trust Funds

bank charges ruling expected Thursday

  It has been announced that the judge hearing the bank charges test case will be handing down his judgement this Thursday.

The case, which started in January this year, involves the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the UK’s eight major banks and building societies.

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The OFT took on the banks and building societies over the fees charged when someone goes over their agreed overdraft limit on their current account or when a direct debit or cheque bounces.

According to the OFT, banks receive almost £10m revenue a day in ‘unauthorised overdraft fees’ which amounts to as much as £3.5bn in a year.

Banks levy charges of as much as £39 for a bounced cheque, direct debit or standing order.

Those in criticism of the current system claim that this amount is not a fair amount to charge because it does not reflect the true amount it costs the bank to recover their money.

In legal terms, the OFT is claiming that the charges are illegal as per the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulation 1999.

If the OFT wins the test case, it will likely force those providing current accounts to reduce the fees they levy under the above circumstances. Additionally, banks could be made to return the millions of pounds worth of ‘unfair’ charges already paid by customers.

The judge hearing the case, Mr Justice Andrew Smith, listened to 14 days of evidence presented by the OFT and the banks, who represent 90% of the current account market, in January this year.

According to consumer group Which?, the ruling could result in one of these possible outcomes for the test case:

The OFT could win: The ruling could say that all the terms and conditions used by those banks involved in the test case over the past six years can be assessed by the OFT for fairness
 
The banks could win: The ruling could say that none of the terms and conditions used by those banks involved in the test case over the past six years can be assessed by the OFT for fairness

law firms to sue investment banks

An increasing number of City law firms are breaking one of the profession’s greatest unwritten rules by positioning themselves to sue investment banks, confident that the first of an expected wave of lawsuits arising from the credit crunch will emerge in Britain within weeks.

It is commonly held that commercial litigation increases during any period of financial instability, as companies and investors face greater pressure on their bottom line, but some lawyers claim the legal fallout that will result from the collapse of the American sub-prime market will dwarf that of even the Enron scandal. Lawyers are counting on plenty of work as investors, particularly hedge funds, target investment banks in an effort to recover substantial losses.

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Northern Rock nationalised

Northern Rock is to be nationalised as a temporary measure.Neither of the two private proposals to take over the beleaguered bank offered “sufficient value for money to the taxpayer”, Mr Darling said.

He said the public would gain if the government held on to Northern Rock until market conditions improved.

Ron Sandler, nominated by the government to run Northern Rock, said savers’ deposits would be secure.

what interest rate cut?

The Bank of England announced on Thursday that it would cut interest rates by 0.25% to 5.25% after signs of a slowering economy. However, whilst banks benefited from the cuts immediately, some lenders are delaying passing the savings on to their customers.

The Uk’s biggest lenders which include Halifax, Abbey, Nationwide and Woolwich announced within minutes that the savings would be passed on to customers.

HSBC, however, will not pass on the cut to it’s borrowers on it’s standard variable rate until the 7th March.

Some borrowers will have to wait as long as three months for repayments to fall. BM Solutions, part of Halifax, has told customers they may have to wait until May. They will end up more than £100 worse off than those whose lender passed on the rate cut immediately. Northern Rock customers have to wait until the second month after a change.

banks still claiming bank charges are legal

Banks use a “strange language” to pretend their overdraft charges are fair, the High Court has been told. Brian Doctor QC, for the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), said the language of bank contracts did not reflect “objective reality”.

He was addressing the court on the eighth day of a key test case to decide whether the OFT can rule on the validity of overdraft charges.

Seven banks and the Nationwide Building Society deny their charges are unfair.

 

They agreed to the test case to clarify their legal position after a mass of litigation, which has seen hundreds of thousands of consumers claim refunds totalling hundreds of millions of pounds.

‘Strange world’

Barristers for the lenders have told the judge hearing the case, Mr Justice Andrew Smith, that current account customers get a package of services for which they are charged a package of prices.

But Mr Doctor accused the banks’ QCs of trying to “cast a spell” over the court.

“We are entering a strange world in which the banks speak a strange language, in which customers are deemed to have done one thing by doing another,” he said.

Mr Doctor argued that some banks have, in the past year, been rewriting their contracts for running a current account to avoid any application of the 1999 unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations.

compare current accounts

 Did you know that we are more likely to divorce or move house than change current accounts? It’s true! Most of us open our first ever bank account in our teens and then we stick with it forever and ever and ever. Why?Nevertheless, if you have decided to take the plunge then how do you choose the best current account for your needs? Start by considering the features you want from your current account, like interest rates, charges, online availability and compare current accounts from there.Current Accounts: Protecting Yourself From FraudIdentity fraud is a big concern for many people. But taking a few simple steps can make your current account very secure.Identity fraud and bank card fraud are legitimate risks, but don’t let fear of bank account fraud put you off switching to an online current account. A few precautionary measures can keep you and your bank account reasonably safe.If you’re anywhere near a photocopier at the moment, take out all the plastic cards in your wallet/purse, lay them face down on the glass and copy them front and back. Hide the resulting bits of paper in a safe place at home so you have an instant reference to numbers and sort-codes if they ever get lost or stolen.

In fact, if you want to be extra efficient, you could also print off the list of emergency contact numbers for lost or stolen credit cards from the Cardholders section of the Cardwatch website.

The fact is, bank and credit card and identity fraud is big business these days and you can get caught out in several different ways

	Bank	Account name	Rate (AER)	Apply
	Alliance& Leicester	Premier Direct	6.5%
	HSBC	Bank Account Plus	2.5%
	Barclays	Barclays Bank Account	0.1%
	Barclays	Barclays Additions	0.1%
	HSBC	Bank Account	0.1%

reclaim bank charges

A High Court test case which could bring a fundamental change to UK High Street banking has been delayed. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is challenging banks and the Nationwide building society on bank charges.

The outcome may decide how much banks can charge millions of account holders who go overdrawn without permission.

The case had been set to begin on Wednesday but the judge’s commitments mean it has been postponed. There are hopes it will get under way this week.

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