Getting ready for the January sales

With Christmas almost upon us many people will be getting ready for the big day, and will be busy wrapping gifts, sorting out Christmas dinner, and organising visits to and from relatives. Read more

Tags: january sales, discounts, sales, christmas, online sales, Christmas and holiday season, Seasons, Boxing Day

Consumer to cut back further over this year

The sales that have been on both before and since the Christmas period have seen many people flock to the shops in the hope of picking up bargains for the home or as gifts. Read more

Tags: name, spending, household budgets, hope, Business cycle, january sales, unemployment

Credit card borrowing falls

The amount of money we borrow on credit cards fell in January, with industry experts saying this shows we are all managing our finances better.

Figures from the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BBA) show that borrowing on credit cards fell by £0.5 billion in the first month of 2007.

This is despite increases elsewhere across the board, with mortgage lending rising by £5.6 billion and total UK lending to the private sector growing by £21.9 billion.

A lack of borrowing on credit cards is being seen as a positive sign that personal finances are being better managed by the majority of the population.

“We can see that the January sales did not encourage borrowing on credit cards,” said David Dooks, director of statistics at BBA.

“As in the second half of last year, card borrowing is contracting and, with weaker retail sales being reported, this reflects the consumer’s current attitude to spending and their commitments.”

The BBA has also revealed that levels of unsecured personal lending were unchanged in January.

Figures for mortgage lending were in line with the monthly average increases for the last six months, with Mr Dooks saying that the rise was expected.

“Mortgage lending continued to be buoyant, as we expected following the high volumes of approvals in the final quarter of last year,” he added.

Tags: january sales, Credit Cards, positive sign, retail sales, second half, credit

Banks’ January sales scam

Consumers are being warned that banks are trying to fool them with so-called new year sales, says an industry expert.

A number of high street banks have launched special deals this week, claiming to offer consumers attractive rates on a number of products.

However, consumer campaigner and founder of moneysavingexpert.com Martin Lewis says the sales are nothing more than a “great scam”.

“I have not seen anything I would describe as a sale,” said Mr Lewis. “A sale is a period when you get better deals. This is a bank promotion to look like a shop sale.

“What you are actually seeing is the big four high street banks, who are hideously overpriced normally, doing some price reduction so that they are now only over priced.”

Mr Lewis went on to say that consumers should give most of the banks’ sale items a miss and aired his anger at the behaviour of some of the leading banks.

“It is a great scam. You are more expensive than the market place, so you reduce prices and call it a sale,” he added.

Tags: price, behaviour, street, january sales, com, bank