The average rent fell by 0.8 per cent in the December

A recent survey has suggested that, in December, the price of renting a home – rather than buying a house with a mortgage – in England and Wales had fallen for the second month in a row.

According to this study – carried out by LSL Property Services – the average rent fell by 0.8 per cent in the December compared to November, to £711 a month.

Rent has been recorded as falling in all regions across England and Wales – except for Yorkshire and the Humber, the West Midlands and the East Midlands – with varying levels of decrease depending on the area in question.

The monthly falls seen in November and December are the first falls in 10 months, with rises occurring in each month prior to this.

The LSL has also stated that the seasonal decrease that has been seen is shallower than the previous year.

“The rental market was sheltered from the full impact of the seasonal lull by the strength of underlying tenant demand as many prospective renters took the opportunity to move in the run-up to Christmas at a time when the market is traditionally less competitive,” commented Mr David Newnes director of LSL. (more…)

Payday loans company Wonga has come under attack for targeting their extortionate rate loans towards students.

The firm, which offers loans at a staggering 4,214% APR, has been forced to withdraw a page of its website that promoted its own short-term, high-interest loans over the standard student loan rate.

"The Wonga Advantage"

[Read more at Which4U]

Any ideas? Don’t worry if not. You’re in the majority.

UK savers are protected for up to £85,000 per person per financial institution.

And despite a multi-million-pound television advertising campaign designed to raise awareness about the guaranteed compensation level for savings UK deposits, only 3% of people are aware of the measures at the close of 2011, according to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

FSCS Advert...? (Nope. Me neither)

[Read more at Which4U]

"Robbing the poor to feed the rich"

The ‘banking crisis’  is set to strike a new low in confidence at the end of 2011. And there is no Eurozone to blame here; it is a situation entirely of UK banks’ own making.

This week has been a decidedly poor one for banks, and has highlighted several problems endemic within the financial system.

[Read more at Which4U]

British Retail Consortium (BRC) has revealed that shoppers are being a lot more reluctant to spend in the lead up to Christmas this year.

The company’s retail sales monitor saw that retail sales only grew by 0.7% last month (November), making it the weakest month for growth since May.

The BRC have suggested that one major reason why this could have happened is due to the mild weather that we have seen across the UK, which will have affected sales of items such as winter clothing and footwear.

Sales of non-food items online, by mail order and telephone have grown by 8.6% compared to the same month last year. But again, this is still the weakest growth since March. (more…)

George Osborne delivered his riposte today in the face of mounting pressures, but weak growth forecasts look set only to further intensify the pressure on the beleaguered Chancellor.

Headline Figures

The Autumn Statement revealed that figures from the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) show a significant downgrading of growth over the coming years.

Importantly, for Osborne, they do not predict a recession. Growth has been revised from 1.7% to just 0.9% for 2011, and is set to contract slightly to 0.7% in 2012, before rising to 2.1% in 2013. The OBR suggests that unemployment is set to rise over this period, even accounting for the growth measures stipulated in the report.

Eurozone & Debt

The Chancellor adopted the OBR’s assessment that the Eurozone was a signficant factor in the downgraded growth prediction. Under pressure to defend his defiance of austerity measures, Osborne sought to contextualise the current situation in the UK via the Eurozone.

Without his austerity plan in place, he argued, borrowing would have been high enough to launch the UK into the centre of the Euro debt storm. (more…)

Owning a home is a responsibility that requires more than just fixing problems as they occur. It also requires taking preventive measures against the problems before they happen. In many cases, that means purchasing home insurance and protecting the home against problems like floods, fires and natural disasters that might damage or completely destroy a home. The only problem is that it often seems expensive. Fortunately, some long term benefits of home insurance exist that make the initial investment worth the cost.

Fixing Damage:

In the event damage occurs to a home, it might end up costing a large sum of money. In fact, sometimes the amount of money save from having insurance cover the damage and pay for repairs might even exceed the amount paid to home insurance over the years.

Fixing damage from fires, floods, hail storms or other situations that might occur is in the vast majority of insurance policies. Repairs are often expensive and might even become complicated, depending on the form of the damage, the amount and the location. The savings from the insurance company fixing the damage often pay for the cost of putting money into the policy.

Rebuilding:

On a similar note, if a house is completely destroy from any problem that might occur, such as a fire or natural disaster, it will need to start over from scratch. That often means completely rebuilding the house. Building a house is an extremely expensive project and will always exceed the amount of money put into the insurance policy over the years. In some cases, rebuilding might even cost almost as much as initially buying the house. That amounts to a large cost saving by having insurance cover most of the price.

Protecting Valuables:

Home insurance might also include content insurance or might have the option to add this type of insurance. As a result, it protects the valuables within the home in case of damage or theft to the item.

For those who have ever had items stolen or damaged, even if it was an accident, the cost of replacing the item or losing the item might be worth the amount paid extra to the insurance company. Items like valuable jewellery are hard to lose and having a company insure against problems helps prevent the loss of the monetary value or the cost of fixing damage to valuables.

Better Health:

Having appropriate insurance gives homeowners peace of mind as it relates to their home. In many cases, releasing the worries about what will happen in the worst case scenario results in lower stress levels. Stress is very damaging to the human body and causes numerous health problems. That lower stress means better health in the long run, which saves money on hospital and doctor bills.

Money paid out monthly are only one consideration when it comes to the insurance of a home. The long term financial benefits that might occur and the peace of mind ultimately make it worth paying for coverage each month.

Protect your contents, such as precious jewellery with a jewellery insurance plan. There are many to choose from with many great offers that will protect them from being lost or stolen.

The tide is turning towards the next phase of financial transaction technology. It now remains to be seen whether this spells the beginning of the end of the trusty plastic credit card, or whether consumers will resist in number.

With the increasing number and popularity of mobile apps, major financial bodies have been looking towards innovative new payment systems for mobile devices.

The launch of these new mobile payment systems could now spell the beginning of the end for the traditional credit card.

Commonwealth Gold, American Silver

Last month, Google launched ‘Google Wallet’, an application designed to make payments easier for consumers while offering retailers more ways to offer loyalty programs. It is developing a system using Near Field Communication technology (NFC), and is expected to reach the UK by early 2012.

In terms of development, however, they may be beaten to the chase by Australia’s Commonwealth Bank, which today launched ‘Kaching‘, an app which allows smart phones / iPhones to connect with cash registers and to make payments by email and Facebook. It will be available within two months to iPhone users with operating system iOS4 or above. This would make CommBank the first commercial provider of such a mobile payment system. (more…)

Globally recognized search engine giants Google, have announced that their net income for the third quarter surged 26 per cent to $2.73bn, up from $2.17bn in the same period the previous year.

Recently, Google launched their own social network Google+ as a rival for the king, Facebook, and “people are flocking into Google+ at an incredible rate” according to head of Google, Larry Page.

Mr Page, one of the co-founders of Google, replaced Eric Schmidt as the CEO back in April of this year.

These recent profit figures are well ahead of market expectations, and shares in the company have risen by 6 per cent in trading after the market closed.

“The real interesting thing here is the expenses weren’t as high as the Street was anticipating,” commented analyst for UBS, Brian Pitz. “This is the fourth quarter in a row the company has accelerated their revenue on top line.” (more…)

Many people are unaware that there is a company called Defaqto that specifically deals with researching and comparison in the financial industry. This is not necessarily just on critical illness insurance but on other aspects of the financial market such as general insurance, mortgages, bank accounts, credit cards, savings, investments, pensions and life and protection cover. (more…)