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Full coverage of the latest news in personal finance

Maximise Your Chances of Getting a Credit Card

24 June 2009

Been turned down for a credit card? You aren't alone and as the credit crunch has continued more and more people have found it increasingly difficult to get credit.

Follow Mark Lewin's advice on how to avoid credit card rejection and improve your chances of being accepted.

Read the full story...

How to Switch your Energy Supplier

9 April 2009

With prices dipping slightly this is the perfect time to switch your energy supplier.

Learn how to save on your gas and electricity by choosing paperless billing, direct debit payments and the different tariffs available.

Save up to £500 a year on your home fuel, Julia Kukiewicz tells you how.

Read the full story...

This Month's Special Offers

All the personal finance offers worth looking at this month

MBNA Platinum Plus credit card

MBNA credit card offers 0% balance transfers with money transfers too

Offer ends: TBC

Balance transfer credit card deals are dwingling, so don't miss the opportunity of 0% balance transfers and 0% on transfers to a current account for 13 months with the MBNA Platinum Plus credit card (4% transfer fee applies)

Our review of MBNA Platinum Plus credit card

Halifax All in One credit card

Halifax All in One offers 0% on balance transfers AND purchases for 9 months

Offer ends: TBC

We predict this card will disappear soon, so apply for the Halifax All in One credit card now to get 9 months of 0% interest on balance transfers and purchases. Ideal to get you over the Christmas hump.

Our review of Halifax All in One credit card

ChooseMoney's Finance Directory Your guide to the best financial resources on the web! Find the websites we recommend for all your financial needs. Includes resources offering information on financial news, authorities & watchdogs, debt & bankruptcy, pensions, property and ways to save money on your online shopping! Plus much more.  Go to our Finance Directory

Money News Roundup

What's going on in the personal finance world this week?

By Julia Kukiewicz Editor Friday, 3 July 2009

Making credit cards better, paying off mortgages and boat insurance news in this week's roundup.

The Credit Card Crackdown

IT'S been on the cards for a few months now but this week the details of the great credit card crackdown were finally released.

The crackdown, which aims to stop credit card companies from targeting consumers who are likely to get into a lot of debt, will include a ban on unsolicited credit card cheques.

In fact, unsolicited was a word which came up a lot in the government's white paper on the subject. Raising credit limits without asking the card-holder also came under fire, for example.

Around 19% of card users have received letters from their credit card provider saying they have increased their spending limit without them asking for it, according to uSwitch.

In general, making sure that consumers are well-informed about credit cards and other financial products was the paper's main drive. The appointment of a consumer advocate was also mooted.

How many of these proposals will actually be put into practice remains to be seen, of course.

Energy Bills: Higher or Lower?

HOT on the heels of last week's dire projections on energy bills (see last week's money news roundup) comes a report from the Royal Society which claims that, on the contrary, bills aren't going high enough.

Higher bills are key to the fight against climate change, the report argued, as they will prepare the way for higher priced alternatives to carbon such as renewable and nuclear power.

The report also suggested a carbon tax - like VAT - on products which would make items with a high carbon footprint more expensive and thus less attractive to consumers.

Paying off more while the going's good

HOMEOWNERS have taken advantage of low interest rates to plough £8.1 billion into their mortgage repayments it was announced this week.

According to the Bank of England the national attempt to reduce housing debt may be the largest amount ever spent on housing in a comparable period.

"Sharply falling house prices have made housing equity withdrawal increasingly unattractive," Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist of IHS Global Insight told The Times, "...Ever lower savings rates have [also] made it increasingly more attractive for many people to use any spare funds that they have to reduce their mortgages."

And the Pointless Press Release of the week award goes to...

THIS week's prestigious pointless press release prize goes to Saga boat insurance for their warning that boat thefts are more likely in the summer.

Thefts from boats are 68% more likely while they are moored in the summer months, rather than stored away for the winter, apparently. Who’d have thought it...