Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting – hooyah! OK, not quite, but armed only with plastic, Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis is here with his financial self-defence class.
1. Don't stash cash under the mattress — it's only covered for £750
I was recently sent this tweet (to @martinslewis): "My grandad just passed away. Found £22,000 in his flat. £3k in various jacket pockets and drawers, £19k in a suitcase." It's a shocking amount, and fills me with fear. Not only is it forgoing interest, which could be tax-free in a top cash Isa, but most home insurance policies only cover up to £750 cash and require proof via a receipt/bank statement, meaning if something happened to it, it’d be very difficult to claim back.
Plus, as fireman @ddukeofdarkness told me: "Money under the mattress makes a nice accelerant in house fires for us to deal with."
2. Save in a UK bank and you're covered for up to £85,000
The alternative is money in a bank, building society or credit union savings account or cash ISA (not supermarket or savings schemes). Provided it’s UK-registered, if the bank were to collapse, the Government's Financial Services Compensation Scheme promises to pay out up to £85,000 per person, per financial institution.
Don’t think means UK-registered means only UK banks. The vast majority of big banks have this protection including Santander, HSBC, ICICI and more. The only major players that don’t are ING Direct and the Bank of Cyprus. With those, you’re reliant on the Dutch and Cypriot governments, respectively, for protection.
To check your bank's protection, see Martin’s Are My Savings Safe? guide.
3. Pay 1p on a credit card to protect a £5,000 purchase
Another tip inspired from a sad tweet: "My 86-year-old dad put a £120 deposit at a restaurant (he doesn't believe in plastic). It's gone into administration, what can he do?" Unfortunately, the answer is not much.
If you need to pay, the safest way, counter-intuitively, is by plastic. Buy goods for £100-£30,000 on a credit card, and legally the card firm's jointly liable under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, so you can claim a refund from it. This isn’t just for failed delivery but covers all your consumer rights (see trading standards info) so even if an item breaks later, you could claim from the card firm. Surprisingly, even if you pay just 1p on the card for, say, a £5,000 kitchen, it's still liable for the WHOLE amount.
So I always pay for big things on credit cards – yet crucially, set up a direct debit to repay in full each month so there’s no interest to pay, otherwise the cost dwarves the safety dividend.
4. Even debit cards have more protection than cash
While the credit card protection is legal, there is a lesser protection on a debit card. Pay on a Visa or Mastercard debit card (any amount on Visa, min £10 on Mastercard), and if a company goes bust or fails to deliver, you can ask your bank to get the money back from the firm’s bank via a chargeback scheme. It's only a last resort, and you must complain to your bank within 120 days of realising there’s a problem for it to work. But it's better than nowt.
5. Beware recurring payments
If a firm wants your long card number, beware. Direct debits are set up with bank account details, and allow easy cancellation rights. Yet if with subscriptions, eg, where telecoms firms, payday loan companies or websites want your credit OR debit card’s long number, it's a recurring payment (or continuous payment authority). These let them take payments when they want, and can be a nightmare to cancel.
They shouldn’t be a nightmare. In November 2009, rule changes now mean if retailers refuse to cancel, your bank/card firm MUST cancel if you ask – but they often don’t know this and it can be hell. If a bank refuses to cancel, take it to the free Financial Ombudsman Service.
6. Just because it's legal tender, shops needn't accept your cash
You may be surprised that NO bank notes are legal tender in Scotland. In England and Wales, only Bank of England notes are. Yet legal tender is meaningless in day-to-day life. Anyone can choose to accept or refuse any payment. Legal tender only means it can't be refused as settlement of court-ordered debt. But a quick word to English shopkeepers: please accept Scottish and Northern Irish notes. While not legal tender, they are UK Parliament-approved legal currency, which makes them a perfectly acceptable way to pay.
One last warning: As a last warning, I once put a pair of jeans with £60 in the pocket in the washing machine. Then I worried I'd be arrested for money laundering... (sorry).
Financial Times clocks up 1m followers on Google+ - Journalism.co.uk
The FT on Google+
The news outlet with a metered subscription service online has more than double the number of followers of the New York Times and five times the number that the Guardian has acquired.
It is almost a year since the launch of Google's social network, with the Financial Times creating a page in November, when organisations were granted the ability to have a Google+ presence.
On Saturday (16 June) the FT thanked its one million followers on Google+ as it reached the milestone, a post which at the time of writing had generated 64 comments indicating the level of engagement.
According to a blog post on the Financial Times, "Google+ is much more than a social network" as it gives the "ability to personalise content to specific audiences based on what users are interested in".
In the post the news outlet states that "this platform is an important new communications channel", with search facilities and hangouts, the chance to include the audience in debates.
Earlier this month the FT said it is looking at ways to allow those with a subscription to the news outlet to login and read the digital publication from social reader apps such as Flipboard and Zite, enabling its audience to read the FT on their platform of choice.
In today's blog post on the importance of Google+ as a platform, the FT states that it "also wanted to create additional touch points for our readers, allowing them to read FT content where and how they choose".
The post continues: "In developing its Google+ page, the FT opted to emphasise captivating content and exclusive reporting. As early adopters quickly took to Google+, it might have been easy to focus on highlighting tech and digital content on the platform, but the FT has gone far beyond this remit, sharing a wide variety of content from correspondents around the world and has seen a strong response.
"Part of the social media team’s strategy has also been to play up to the highly visual nature of the platform and rich-media content such as videos, images and infographics have proved particularly successful."
Spanish stocks up, bond rates dip on Greek vote - The Guardian
MADRID (AP) — Spanish markets breathed a sigh of relief Monday with stocks opening higher and the country's borrowing costs dipping slightly after pro-bailout parties won the elections in Greece.
The Ibex-35 stock index opened about 1.5 percent higher while the interest rate Spanish 10-year bonds — a benchmark of market confidence in a country's ability to pay down its debt — was down nearly 7 basis points at 6.86 percent. That is still dangerously close to the 7 percent rate considered by market watchers to be unsustainable over the long term and the point at which Greece, Ireland and Portugal sought a bailout.
Spain is a focus of fears it might be the next eurozone country to need a full bailout. The government is to announce this week how much of a €100 billion fund it will tap to rescue banks that got burned when a real estate bubble popped.
New Issue-TCF Financial sells $150 mln perpetuals - Reuters UK
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
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Money talks and London listens to the yuan - People's Daily Online
The fashionable youths in hot pants flocking to high-end department stores in London and bankers in dark suits walking in and out of skyscrapers in the financial district have one thing in common, a growing interest in the Chinese currency.
During the recent holiday to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, Harrods, a department store known for its ties with the British royal family, launched its own Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform, to attract more Chinese customers. Shoppers can find "the very latest, limited edition and exclusive products", with Hermes, Chanel and Louis Vuitton among the most popular brands, according to the store's spokesman.
More than 100 UnionPay payment terminals in the store also help to make Chinese shoppers feel more at home. Through the machines, part of China's unified bank card network, Chinese visitors can pay for their purchases with the same cards they use at home.
A few streets from Harrods, a billboard featuring a green jade dragon shaped like the yuan symbol stands outside a bank. The ad reads: "A new global currency is emerging. Be part of it." The commercial is for HSBC, a bank rooted in the silk and tea trade between China and Britain in the 19th century.
The UnionPay terminals, the jade dragon advertisements and the shops on the streets of London offering exchange services between the British pound and the yuan are the tip of the iceberg in the biggest story in the financial markets today: the internationalization of the Chinese currency.
As people search for a bright spot amid sluggish economic growth in the West, beset as it is by the European debt crisis, companies, investors and financial institutions are increasingly focused on the yuan. From Beijing to Hong Kong, Tokyo to London, policymakers and businesses are part of the push.
There are several forces driving this move, both at home and abroad. The People's Bank of China has made several moves this year to liberalize the exchange rate; George Osborne, the UK chancellor of the exchequer, took the initiative to develop London into an offshore trading center for the yuan earlier this year; and this month, the yuan became convertible with the Japanese yen under an agreement between the Chinese and Japanese governments.
"All of it demonstrates that the Chinese government is pushing forward the internationalization of the yuan and encouraging the use of yuan offshore. That will help the global economy in many ways," said Adam Tyrrell, head of European capital markets for Standard Chartered in London.
Wasting Money: 29 Ways To Stop Throwing Away Cash - Huffington Post
Money Talks News:
I consider myself a Budget Jedi. I watch my accounts like a hawk, shop sales, and stay home more often than I’d like to save money. But back in February, I realized I was still wasting money. In fact, I blew $35.94 in one week. You can read my full money wasting confession here.
But I don’t think I’m the only one with a few leaks in her finances.
Scroll down to see the 29 ways you’re wasting your money.
More On Money Talks News8 Things Rich People Buy That Make Them Look Dumb
US SMALL/MIDCAPS-Stocks mixed as bearish outlook grows - Reuters
NEW YORK, June 18 |
NEW YORK, June 18 (Reuters) - Mid- and small-cap stocks rose on Monday, but a survey of fund managers showed highly split views about the outlook for the sector as well as a rise in bearishness that could be an early warning signal for the stock market next quarter.
The survey by Credit Suisse showed that although there was an almost even split over the direction of smaller cap stocks over the next three months, the level of bullishness has nearly fallen back to the low seen in the second quarter of 2011. Meanwhile, the level of bearishness has nearly risen to highs seen in the first and second quarters of last year.
As Credit Suisse noted, those views last year were prescient, coming ahead of heavy market losses.
"Though we continue to think that the current period of distress in equity markets is presenting a buying opportunity, this piece of our survey results does cast some doubt in our minds as to whether the Russell 2000 (small-cap index) has seen its lows for the year," wrote Credit Suisse.
The survey was based on answers from 122 small and mid cap focused buy side and primarily long only investors on Credit Suisse's client list.
There is plenty of scope for the bearish scenario. Trading was volatile on Monday after election results in Greece staved off immediate fears of Greece exiting the euro zone but did little to clam concerns about Europe's debt crisis spreading.
On Monday the S&P MidCap 400 index gained 0.84 percent while the S&P SmallCap 600 index added 0.11 percent. In comparison, the benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.14 percent and the Russell 2000 index gained 0.16 percent.
Steel companies have been hit by the uncertain economic outlook. On Monday, AK Steel Holding Corp fell 2.8 percent to $5.17. The company forecast a second-quarter profit that fell short of analysts' expectations and said it could not predict full-year earnings because of volatile market conditions and a drop in steel prices.
Body Central Corp, the woman's retailer, slid almost 50 percent to $8.22 after it cut its second-quarter outlook as the company resorted to heavy discounting to clear out piled-up inventory.
On the upside, Ramtron International Corp rose 9.5 percent to $2.66. The chipmaker turned down rival Cypress Semiconductor Corp's offer to buy the company for about $87.6 million, and said it would explore other options including a sale.
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