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If you have been mis-sold PPI, then it is important that you take steps in order to recover the money. You are the innocent party here in the banks have been proved wrong in the courts. Many people regard this mis-selling as nothing short of theft and that the banks were conducting criminal activities.

It is estimated that the market for PPI was worth £6 billion to banks and the generated them nearly £1.5 billion in profits each year. This money they are now having to pay back and they’ve also received significant fines.

The banks failed to explain what PPI was for exactly and this led to many customers paying for it when it was not useful for them. Salespeople for banks were not giving all the details to customers and this meant they were unaware of what they were buying.

Banks even took it one step further and customers were told that if they wanted a loan, they were going to have to pay for the policy. They were also told that if they took out the policies a loan would cost them less, but this was simply not the case, and the banks knew it wasn’t true.

They also misled customers into thinking that policies were mandatory, when they are a purely optional addition to a loan. Some banks even charge people for the insurance without asking them.

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If you have a standard savings account, then you’re going to be paying tax on any interest that you get on that money. However, if you decide to store your money in an ISA, then you are not going to be liable for tax on any interest earned.

An Individual Savings Account is someplace where you can put money in order to keep it away from the taxman. There is a limit on how much money you can put in this account every year, and this is currently set at nearly £11,000.

There are currently two different types of ISA, one that is dedicated to stocks and shares and one that is dedicated to cash. Even if you have both of these types, you are going to be limited to £11,000, and you can spread this however you like between the two types of ISA.

The cash ISA is very similar to a normal savings account and it will just be a place for you to store your money, only one where you don’t have to pay tax. The stocks and shares ISA comes with all the risks that are normally associated with the stock market, so be aware that if the price of the shares you have invested in falls, you are going to lose your money, just like with ordinary shares. The general consensus is you shouldn’t open a stocks and shares ISA unless you are planning a long-term investment.

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If you spend a whopping £360 a month you will earn £20 in cash back for the year. Your account will be credited annually. Also it is vital that you pay your bills promptly and fully because there is an interest rate of 34.9 percent if you don’t. But this is only to be expected from a credit building card.

To be eligible for the card you must be a minimum of 18 years old, be on the electoral roll and have credit history. You will not necessarily be refused a card if your credit is bad or even if you have County Court judgments against you. The only definite exclusions from getting a card are bankruptcy or if you have never had a credit card or a loan. The minimum credit limit is £200.

There is another option for those who want to rebuild their credit and get rewards. The Barclaycard Initial has an interest rate of 29.9 percent APR and is part of the Barclaycard Freedom programme. With this the customer gets back 1 percent of the price of a purchase in participating retailers.

This is instead of cash back and these rewards can only be earned and spent in the participating retailers but Barclaycard say there are over 30,000. It is possible to earn rewards worth £20 a year by spending £160 a month.

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The interest rates ranged between 19.9% and 29.9% APR on store cards and between 15.9% and 16.9% on retailer’s credit cards. The credit card rates were actually on a par with other credit card suppliers. The other advantage with credit cards is that they are acceptable worldwide whereas a store card is normally limited to that particular retailer or group.

Retailers try to convince shoppers to sign up for their store cards with offers of discounts or vouchers but retailer credit cards such as the ones Tesco and Marks and Spencer are offering give the consumer 15 months interest-free on purchases. Compare that with a store card from Burtons where the consumer would build up £141.07 in interest over a year on purchases worth £500 if they only paid the minimum monthly payment.

The tempting thing about store cards is that the offers tend to be on-going. New Look are currently offering 20% off your first purchase and then further special offers and discounts for the cardholder. Most retailers do something similar. Some of the rewards with store cards take the form of points such as 1 point for every pound spent. These are then redeemable right across that group of retailers.

So, as the MoneySupermarket.com study says, it is well worth shopping around to see where the best deals can be found. When you do find a good deal, make sure you are aware when it ends and make regular payments so that you don’t get hit by a higher interest rate or late payment penalties.

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Now however, people with savings are being attracted to a company which is offering some great interest rates in turn for loaning this money to other people. Incredibly, the short-term interest rates on some of these loans can be as high as nearly 2500 percent.

This is a brand-new form of peer-to-peer lending and it has been established in the name of the company The Lending Well. This is a way for borrowers to bypass banking institutions and go directly to the people who have the money.

The money advice website, Candid Money was founded by Justin Modray and he has commented, “By utilising the service you are not saving in the traditional way, instead you are actively becoming a payday lender. This is something that many people are not exactly comfortable with.”

These interest rates are going to be very appealing to people as banks are currently offering very low rates. However, it is important that people do realise that by investing in the schemes, they are not going to be entitled to compensation from the government if the company goes broke.

The company which has established this lending scheme is only going to be offering money at very high interest rates over the short-term. These companies have come under a great deal of criticism lately as they are seen as a way for people to become trapped into debt.

However, The Lending Well, is going to be running credit checks on the people it lends money to, which is much more than many of the companies currently on the market do.

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This is a new initiative that has been started by the UK Cards Association. They have developed this initiative through a partnership with the Department for Business. The idea is that it is going to give credit card customers an idea of their overall yearly spending.

This sort of report is going to give the customer a better idea of how much their credit card is actually costing them. The statement is going to mention everything, such as annual fees, interest payments, and any associated bonuses. The information is going to be industry wide, so companies are not going to have a choice about what information they put on the form.

The idea is that this report is going to give people more information about how well they are managing their finances, and inform them if they need to be more responsible in the future. The move to introduce this report is something that has been welcomed by most experts in the industry.

Despite the seemingly positive nature of this report, there are some issues which might come into effect in reality. For people with more than one credit card, they might find the statement is difficult to compare because they are released at different times of the year, assuming that the person took the credit cards out at different times. However, the reports should be able to encourage people to seek out the best deal on the market and reduce any costs associated with the credit card spending.

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The idea is that people who lack the cash to invest in green incentives are going to be supplied with the money so that they can install them. They will pay the money back over the longer term and also benefit from any of the cost savings associated with greener products, such as lower electricity and heating costs.

The financial product is being provided by ReEnergise Finance and the money is going to be exclusively provided in order to spend on things such as new windows and replacing boilers. The director of the company is Adam Hewson and he has stated that the new financial offering bridges the gap between traditional lending, and green products.

The company already act as a broker for companies that are looking to bankroll green technologies and energy efficiency drives. They are an important member of the flagship scheme by the government, the Green Deal.

The exact nature of the loans are still being worked out but it is expected that they will be offering finance for projects that are valued up to £100,000. The company is currently in talks with additional funders who are capable of providing extra capital.

The company is already working with many asset finance companies in order to provide loans to the value of up to £5 million. The company stated that they are launching the scheme in order to help reduce the cost of borrowing for people with a green mindset.

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Recent research by the CBRE showed that there can be hidden fees in a loan agreement which can be very expensive under certain conditions. For example, some loan agreements were found to contain a clause that meant the borrower had to pay a fine of 20 percent of the value of the loan if they cancelled it.

The issue is really to do with something called swap insurance contracts. This is something that many businesses were taking out in 2007 when there was a concern about the rising cost of loans through interest rates. The insurance contracts became appealing and were a good business tool for controlling risk. Because they were appealing many businesses took out these loans for a longer time than was necessary.

Now, when interest rates are low, businesses are wanting to swap these items over to traditional loans, however the cost of doing so can sometimes be massive, and businesses were generally unaware of this when they signed up before the economic recession began.

Many people, and certainly the lenders, will argue that this is a case of caveat emptor. Businesses should be more careful and should take adequate precautions before signing a loan agreement. Unfortunately, many of these loan agreements were so complex that many businesses simply couldn’t understand them. The question will be should businesses be punished for not looking into it properly. If some relief is not given to businesses then the consequences for them will be significant.

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There are certain restrictions on how the investment works and what sort of tax benefit it can bring. For example, the total about of investment which qualifies for the scheme is capped at £100,000. This is the amount that can be invested in a single year and if an investor wants to put more money in, they will have to wait until the following year. Even so, the total amount of money that can be invested is limited to £150,000.

There are also limitations on what sort of companies can be invested in. There are conditions that have been set out by the government which identify what companies are regarded as small enough to qualify.

Firstly, the company must not be listed on the stock exchange. They must also employ fewer that 25 people if they want to get the investment. They must also have assets that are valued at less than £200,000. These conditions remove the vast majority of companies from the investment scheme and those that remain are likely to be small companies focusing on areas such as design or technology.

The government has made this move because they understand how important small businesses are to the recovery of the economy. They also realise that these sort of investments are higher risk and by offering tax incentives they are encouraging investors to take a risk that they might not otherwise take.

In a time when the economy is poor having this investment is essential for many small companies, as they might be unwilling, or unable, to secure finance from a bank.

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