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Category: Finance

Are smart meters the way forward?

With energy prices rocketing, it is hard to ignore the significant effort being put into encouraging households to make the jump to smart meters to save money on their energy bills. The thing is though, will smart meters actually save you money? How are smart meters meant to save you money? There are a number […]

Is cheap credit fuelling our economy?

The financial crisis of 2008 has had wide-ranging and enduring impacts on economies around the world, and the UK is no exception. But one of the biggest legacies of all which it leaves today is that of record-low interest rates, which the Bank of England plunged to new depths shortly after the EU referendum last […]

Over Half a Million British People Rely on Food Banks

Over half a million people in the UK are now reliant on food banks to survive according to a new report by Church Action on Poverty and Oxfam. Many of the people are reliant on them because of their inability to cope with rising food prices and spiralling energy bills among other things. The most […]

Government Considers Lowering UK Minimum Wage

The UK government is considering freezing, or even lowering the minimum wage due to fears that it could be damaging the economy and outing businesses off of creating new jobs. The current minimum wage is £6.19 an hour for anyone over the age of 21, £4.98 for those aged 18-20 and £3.68 for 16 and […]

RBS and NatWest allow mobile users to exchange money without account details

People are already familiar with the concept of transferring cash without needing to get hold of the sort code or account number of people thanks to Barclays’ PingIt service for smartphones. The PingIt app allows people to transfer money from one mobile number to another, and now RBS are looking to get on board with […]

Food Poverty Hits 5million UK Households

A report from the Centre for Economics and Business Research has claimed that around 4.7 million homes in the UK are now living in food poverty. Food poverty is defined in the reports as spending 10% or more of household income on food. Whilst the 10% mark may not sound like a lot, this is […]

Bank of England Talks of Negative Interest Rates

The Bank of England has shown that it is considering something that, previously, would have been thought utterly ludicrous, as the deputy governor for financial stability, Paul Tucker, suggested that the Bank might consider setting the base interest rate in the negatives. The reasoning behind it is that, with a negative interest rate, lenders would […]

Savings Took Further Hit in Last Six Months of 2012

Households once again found themselves resorting to drawing on their savings in order to get them through the last six months of 2012, with ING Direct’s Consumer Savings Monitor reporting that savings fell by an average of £362 over the period. Whilst the average rate of debt also fell, it looks like people may have […]

UK Economy Shrinks by 0.3% in Last Three Months of 2012

The Office for National Statistics has revealed the figures for the UK’s GDP in the last three months of 2012 and delivered the news that the economy shrank by 0.3% from the beginning of October to the end of December 2012. This is much larger than the 0.1% contraction which had been predicted by most […]

World Economic Forum Warns of Danger of Debts

The huge amount of debt that is built up around the world is a major concern, according to a report issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF) ahead of its annual meeting. Listing five factors that posed the biggest threat to global economic stability, the loans that governments around the world depend upon were highlighted. […]