Andy’s Finance

Northern Rock is back on the map for new savers and there are some deals worth considering.

The bank has to raise money to finance its mortgage business and savers are a secure source of income. So look out for top rates over the coming months.

For instance, its Fixed Rate Access Bond pays 5.08% after savings tax (6.35% before tax) until February 20 next year on £1 or more.

Unlike other fixed-rate fixed-term deals, you can take your money out at any time without losing interest, so long as you withdraw at least £250. It can be opened in branches or by post but has to be operated through the post.
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UK Credit Card companies are to start sharing personal data in the spring that will help them weed out prudent and therefore ‘unprofitable’ customers for the first time.

Banks have been talking to industry bodies for several months about new initiative that will enable them to identify consumers who clear their balances in full every month, or who constantly switch to 0 per cent deals. Such customers make the banks no money because they do not pay punitive interest charges of up to 28%.
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Middle Britain has been hit by a devastating debt crisis, experts have said, with even apparently well-off people with good jobs plunged into the red.

The figures on those looking for some help come from Transact, which runs 1,200 debt advice centres across the country. Their spokesman, James Elliott, said they were seeing a new type of client.

‘In the past it was almost uniquely people on benefits, people in social housing, who went to debt advice agencies,’ he said. ‘Since the credit crunch started they are seeing a big increase in professional people and homeowners – people who have been pushed over the edge and now can’t cope with their outgoings.
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Personal Finance – persfin.co.za/
Financial information previously published in the print version of Forbes.

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