True measure of inflation is ignored

How did it happen?  The upstart measure of inflation CPI has so overtaken RPI that is now ignored – particularly now that the Retail Prices Index is now running at 2% twice as much as the Consumer Prices Index. In other words we believe inflation is half as high as it really is. Since 2010 the Government has used the lower CPI for benefits, tax credits and public sector pensions.  But student loans, rail travel and mobile phone contracts are increased in line with the RPI. Savings rates are worse than they seem As savings rates are shy of both […]

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Double charging the poorest borrowers

  It’s always the same. It’s the poor what gets the blame and are charged far more than they should be. At the end of September Wonga managed to charge customers twice leaving thousands without money to buy food or pay their rent over a weekend.   But that accident was resolved in days. When it comes to overcharging it is the establishment lenders that know how to double charge their poorest customers over many years and take their time to put their customers back. Poorest customers will be repaid The Financial Conduct Authority estimates that up to 750,000 mortgage customers, […]

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Delays for new train fare compensation

News about the new  train fare compensation for  travellers if they are delayed more than 15 minutes will be met with muted joy. While it is very annoying to arrive in Victoria time after time 28 minutes late and therefore unable to get any compensation for the delay. The new extra level of delay compensation paying after 15 minutes will give just 25% of the single fare. And for those with season tickets they will first of all have to divide their annual cost by 464 and then divide that by four to get the level of their compensation. No […]

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Savings rates that make us poorer

The email pings into my laptop from an oh-so-helpful bank wanting me to “make sure your account is right for you.” Interest rates are being cut again next month and I have been sent a list of 19 new savings rates. The accounts have encouraging names such as the Good for Life Isa but it will stop paying 0.5% and start paying a miserly quarter percent. My own eSaver is being cut from 0.6% to 0.35%. These latest cuts come days after Ros Altmann, the former pensions minister, announced that we all need to save more for our old age. […]

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Socially irresponsible loan ad banned

Fans of Grand Designs, the Channel 4 television programme, know that those home builders with more expensive taste than their budgets warrant end the programme with the sorry confession that they have maxed out their credit cards to pay for the build.   In the worst cases they have to sell their new home or take on extra work to pay off the debt mountain. It is not what anyone on that programme or involved in more modest home improvements should set out to do. Not that you would guess it from an advertisement on the ‘home make over channel’ back […]

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Supermarket Christmas shopping tricks beware

Christmas is coming and the supermarkets want to fatten their profits. So beware. Ignore the bigger boxes of biscuits, the larger jars of goose fat and the mince pies that must be eaten in the next three weeks. The name of the game at this time of year for the Big Four supermarkets is to get you to buy more of your Christmas food and drink from them than from their rivals. But unlike their discounter competitors they tend not to try to battle on price. They try to do it by sleight of hand. Making us feel wanted. They […]

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Why energy companies leave me cold

Lit the stove last night. Winter is coming fast. So what do the energy companies do? They set us up to fail when we try to get the best deal on our gas and electricity tariffs over the winter months. Until April energy companies could not exclude existing customers from cheap new deals. Ofgem had ruled in 2014 that new tariffs should be offered to everyone. Since then they have been working on new chart-topping tariffs that will not be available for all. From November the regulator will no longer make sure that the market is fair. If the companies […]

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