M. Moore's latest Film - Capitalism - A love story

Michael Moore the US film maker has announced the release of his latest film and a trailer on You Tube.

In whose interest does the FSA ACT?

This should be straight forward.  The FSA acts to protect consumers from unscrupulous, shoddy, crooked, bad practice or even simple mistakes made by those that it regulates.  

Protecting tenants when a lender re-possesses a property.

Tenants to gain protection on re-possession.

Tenants in properties let by financially unstable landlords could be given greater protection if their homes are repossessed under proposals published today.

Banks charging too high interest rates to business

Business , especially the small business are finding that bank Charges are rising, overdraft renewals are being done at higher rates.  Fees for bank transactions have risen.

Day Cooper Adams leaves hundreds facing losses

It was only a matter of time before one these compensation firms went under owing money to clients.

Apart from the fact that using them gives little advantage to the claimant it means that the claimant who has a legitimate claim ends up not being fully compensated die to their fees.
This firm took fees up front and apparently FOS paid compensation to this firm which was never passed on.

This where FOS and FSA have dropped the ball.
NO IFA can can handle client money without some very strict regulations and protections in place.

There are some signs that Banks are relaxing their criteria and lending again. Full report in the FT .

 

FSCS Icesave and London Scottish compensation

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has already paid £1.7bn in compensation to Icesave and London Scottish Bank customers in respect of just over 58,900 fixed term deposit accounts that have already matured up to 26 March.

The FSCS expects to have assessed all outstanding claims by early May.

Barclays prevents Guardian publishing their Tax Scheme Documents

Barclays continue with Gagging order despite the fact the documents are freely available on the net. The gagging order prevents them from publishing them or publishing information where they can be found.

The blame game is in full swing.

Anthony Bolton of Fidelity a successful and respected fund manager for many years gave a keynote speech at the National Association of Pension Funds investment conference and blamed the FSA for the Banking crisis.   

His argument is that the FSA new what the Banks business models were and only they knew and only they were in a postion to do anything about it.   

Holiday spending Cash Credit and Debit Cards

You are on holiday, you purchase something having performed a currency conversion calculation and then on returning home and receiving your statement you find that it has not quite worked out how you thought it should.....

There are two main factors, your bank's exchange rate is different to the to the one you used when calculating your spending and most debit and credit card providers make a charge of anything up to three per cent per overseas transaction.

The size of this fee varies between card providers. The names used to describe this fee are varied and inventive, handing fee, foreign transaction fee etc etc.

They are all one and the same thing. Your card provider is charging you a fee every time you use your credit or debit card abroad.

Some card providers do bot apply a charge when using their cards abroad so it is worth checking with your present card and obtaining one that does not charge.  

There is little to choose between using a debit card or credit card abroad in terms of cost and charges but it is a good idea to check with your card providers before you go which one might be the best deal.

Obtaining foreign currency abroad through an ATM with your debit card using a debit card.  The ATM fee is usually less with a debit card than a credit card. The less times you use an ATM the better but you must balance this against the amount of cash you wish to carry at any time.

You can buy cash before you go.  Check out on line for rates and give your self time to check for the best deals..   Some on-line services will allow you to pickup your currency at the airport. However your local post office if the rate is good can be very convenient.

A bit of forward planning before your trip in organising which card, where to get cash, competitive travel insurance etc can all add up to very worthwhile saving on your total holiday costs.