Estimated energy bills can be inaccurate
Officials from a new consumer watchdog group have expressed concern that many consumers are receiving estimated energy bills that mean somewhere along the line they will end up paying more for their energy usage than they need to, netting the energy films more profit and leaving the consumer even more out of pocket. Read more
Tags: meter, industry groups, Energy economics, oil, higher rate, energy bills, Physics, response
People urged to fight unfair credit records
May 10, 2008 by admin
Filed under News, News-Credit-Cards
Credit card users are being urged by the Consumer Action Group to fight what they see as unfair bank charges, particularly if they have caused their credit ratings to suffer.
The organisation says people get “black marks” on their credit records if they go overdrawn and can even have their reputation destroyed if the bank defaults them in an extreme situation.
In this case, people are affected for a minimum of six years for defaults as little as £5. They may have difficulty in getting credit or have to pay a higher rate and may not be able to buy a home.
The Office of Fair Trading recently won the right to investigate whether banks are making excessive overdraft charges.
Marc Gander, founder of the Consumer Action Group, says if banks have unfairly charged their customers, it is not just the refunds they should be liable for but also the associated problems, such as a bad credit record.
Stamp duty takes its toll on first time buyers
March 11, 2008 by admin
Filed under News, News-Mortgages
Rocketing house prices mean that hardly any properties in the south of England are selling for less than the stamp duty threshold. 
A new survey from Halifax found that in 2007, the average first-time buyer paid stamp duty in 99 per cent of local authorities in the south-east, south-west, London and East Anglia.
That figure was just 42 per cent in the rest of England and Wales.
A buyer becomes liable for stamp duty at a rate of one per cent of the sale price – payable on top of all the other costs – when the property bought costs more than £125,000.
And not only are the numbers having to pay stamp duty rising, but the sums actually paid are much higher than in the past too.
The average first-time buyer paid £1,751 in 2007, compared to just £960 in 2002.
Moreover, in 19 per cent of local authorities in the south, 19 per cent of first-time buyers were actually having to pay the higher rate of stamp duty – three per cent, which applies to purchases worth over £250,000.
Halifax’s chief economist Martin Ellis warned that the stamp duty system is making buying a home less and less affordable.
He said: “We call on all political parties to raise the stamp duty thresholds to compensate for house price inflation over the past decade and to commit to index the thresholds for house price inflation in the future.”
