Millions of RBS customers to benefit from bank charge cuts

Starting from next month around twelve and a half million RBS current account holders are set to benefit from bank charge cuts, with the bank announcing that it is going to be cutting charges on millions of accounts. Read more

Tags: bank fees, rbs bank charges, money, Banking, Bank charge, bank charges, cut, account holders

Energy firm says bills may be cut early next year

One of the UK’s major energy suppliers has recently stated that it may be looking at cutting energy usage costs early next year if wholesale energy prices continue to fall. The price of crude oil fell earlier this year, and energy firms were slated by consumer campaign groups and officials by not responding to the drop in oil prices by cutting bills, but the energy firms said that the reason behind this was that the cost of wholesale energy was still high. Read more

Tags: wholesale energy, Mayo, Energy crisis, bill, step, watchdog, wholesale energy prices

Why aren’t the energy firms reducing gas and electricity bills?

Over the past year the UK’s energy giants have increased gas and electricity bills twice, leaving many consumers paying a fortune for their energy usage and resulting in an increased level of fuel poverty amongst UK households. Many are concerned that energy companies are very quick to increase energy prices when oil prices and wholesale energy prices rise but when prices fall they are slow to pass on any price cuts. Read more

Tags: cut, boost, UK's energy giants, whilst, energy prices, energy suppliers, electricity costs

Measures announced to rescue banks

The Prime Minister recently called a press conference where he not only announced a surprise 0.5% cut in interest rates a day ahead of the scheduled Monetary Policy Committee meeting, but also unveiled a package of measures aimed at rescuing the British banking system. It is thought that around £400 billion will have to be injected by the government to put the rescue plan into place, and this will come from the public purse – something that has resulted in mixed reactions from members of the public. Read more

Tags: Lloyds Banking Group, banking crisis, GBP, Alistair Darling, Central bank, cut, uk, government

Banks make huge profits from overdraft fees

A recent report has suggested that banks are making huge profits from the controversial overdraft fees, which have been in the financial headlines lately having been at the centre of a high court test case with regards to their fairness, with some banks charging close to £40 per fee even though the cost to the bank is often just a few pounds. Read more

Tags: conclusion, overdraft limits, court test, cut, Insurance

Three way split on interest rates for July

The minutes of the latest Monetary Policy Committee meeting, which was held earlier this month, has shown that there was a three way split on interest rate movement for the month of July, indicating that setting the base rate is becoming an increasing challenge for members of the powerful committee and for the Bank of England. The minutes showed that whilst the majority of members voted to keep the rates on hold at 5%, one voted for the rate to be cut due to the slowing economy and another voted for the base rate to be raised due to soaring inflation levels. Read more

Tags: Richest, interest rates, Brits, credit rating, year, movement, rise, cut

Bank of England comes under fire for failure to reduce interest rates

Following its most recent decision to keep interest rates on hold for a fourth consecutive month the Bank of England has come under fire from a number of agencies for failing the economy by making the decision to keep interest rates unchanged at 5.75%.

Some say that the Bank of England is putting the stability of the UK’s economy at risk by failing to cut interest rates, and both lender and brokers had been hoping for an interest rate cut of at least 0.25% for November.

A broker from firm John Charcol stated: “A cut of 0.25% today would at least have pushed three-month Libor back down to about 6%. It would also have started to redress the Bank of England’s policy mistakes, as outlined in last month’s Financial Stability Report, in dealing with the credit crunch.These are all good reasons why the MPC should have cut today. Their failure to do so means that today’s opportunity to mitigate the potentially serious problems building up in the banking system has been lost.”

A property investment official added: “It’s about time that the Bank of England’s MPC saw sense and realised that the clear and present danger to the UK economy from the continuing effects of the credit crunch is more important than the less clear possibility of future pressures upwards on inflation.”

One economic adviser added: “Credit conditions have become tighter since August, both globally and in the UK. The dangers to the economy have worsened and businesses require easier credit conditions without undue delay, to avoid a nasty reversal. We urge the MPC to announce a small interest rate cut in December.”

Tom Smith
13th November 2007

Tags: Loans, interest, finance, cut, bank, businesses