Money Central - Times Online - WBLG

Fight the hike in mortgage fees

The Sunday Times needs your help to stop mortgage lenders slapping excessive exit fees on borrowers who switch their mortgage or pay it off early.

Lenders have been sneakily increasing these fees to boost their profits. The average exit fee has more than doubled from £115 in 2003 to £239 today.

Do your homework before you sell

If you are looking to sell your home, make sure you do your research. The BBC documentary about estate agents last week exposed worrying tactics that some agents use. While I don't condone any of the dodgy practices that were revealed, I think to some extent consumers were aware of a lot of them.

We know that agents are prone to valuing properties above the true value - after all, that's what sellers want to hear and the agent wants the business. But if you have ever tried to sell a property and made the mistake of putting it on the market at too high a price, you probably won't make the same mistake again.

Venture capital trusts face shake up

The initial relief voiced by Peter Linthwaite, chief executive of the British Venture Capital Association, on Wednesday over Gordon Brown's decision to limit the cut in tax relief on venture capital trusts to 10 percentage points now looks misplaced.

Bluster or bold?

Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, today delivered his tenth and possibly last Budget. He identified education and the environment as the priorities of Labour's third term but was largely silent on other public services. He also failed to make any significant changes on the contentious issues of stamp duty and inheritance tax although he did freeze fuel duty and announced reforms to road tax.

Critics have already accused the Chancellor of delivering a Budget long on rhetoric but short on detail. What did you make of the Chancellor’s speech?

A bad day for estate agents…

A BBC documentary last night exposed the sharp and sometimes illegal practices of a number of estate agents in London. But it wasn't just small independent operators that came under the spotlight, even Foxtons, the capital's largest estate agent, was shown to be systematically dishonest with branch managers and staff brazenly decieving buyers, sellers and landlords.

Pensions minister replies to your comments

The sheer ferocity of some of Times Online's readers' comments last week over the Government's action - or should that be inaction? - to the Parliamentary Ombudsman's report on the failure of contributory pensions schemes was astonishing.

It certainly seemed from the comments that some of our contributors deserved a response, so we approached Stephen Timms MP, the pensions minister.

You may not like the response...

What can you Budget on tomorrow?

There was a time when the content of the Chancellor’s famous red briefcase ahead of Budget day was a closely guarded secret. Former Chancellors including Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain used to isolate themselves for weeks as they devised ingenious new ways to separate taxpayers with their money.

In 1947, Chancellor Hugh Dalton was even forced to resign when his plans found their way on to the front page of the London Evening Star.

But these days, what hasn’t already been revealed in the Pre-Budget Report is usually briefed to journalists well ahead of Budget day. So what can we expect tomorrow?

Stamp out stamp duty

The calls for the Chancellor to overhaul the stamp-duty regime in his Budget tomorrow are getting louder.

Con artists are getting smarter

It was nine o'clock on Saturday evening. I was late for a meeting and hurrying down Baker Street, central London. "Excuse me," said a polite, cultured female voice. I turned round, and a well-dressed woman in her late 20s came towards me, wearing a smart grey coat with matching dress and black court shoes.

"I wonder if you could help me," she continued. Only then did she come out with the now-traditional request. "Could you spare any change?"

FTSE 100 flirts with 6,000

The FTSE 100 index was tantalising its admirers today by bursting through the psychologically important 6,000 barrier, before dribbling back to end the day just short of the finishing tape at 5,999.4. But, let there be no mistake, there is momentum in this market. I calculate that there were at least £20 billion-worth of bids, mooted bids or corporate deals in the air today.

Indictment or unsustainable leap of logic?

A fascinating report into Government culpability over the collapse of a series of occupational pension schemes was published today.

Where to invest your Isa

It’s make up your mind time. There are only three weeks left to use up your 2005-2006 tax-free Isa allowance.

As my colleague Clare Francis pointed out last week, investing in an Isa is a no-brainer. She went on to explain how Isas work and went through some of the best cash options.

But which stock market funds should you choose?

Why I stick with Barclays

I must hold my hand up and admit that I have signed up for the new 10% regular savings account from Barclays. This is a difficult admission to make because the deal has been almost universally criticised since its launch last month, but this is my chance to defend myself.

Time to switch again

The latest round of fuel price rises, and I may have discovered a bit of a snag in switching suppliers. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I really don't like the idea of someone dipping into my bank account and helping themselves to as much of my cash as they like without letting me know about it first.

Driven to distraction

Have we suddenly become a nation of budding Michael Schumachers? That is one conclusion to draw from a survey released today showing that almost one in five motorists now have penalty points for speeding. The alternative conclusion, of course, is that the proliferation of speed cameras over the last few years has ruthlessly penalised the driving public.   

Use it, or lose it

If you have not taken out an Isa yet this tax year, you have less than a month to do so. Anyone who hasn't opened an Isa by midnight on April 5 will lose their 2005-2006 tax-free allowance and effectively be pouring money down the drain.

Virgin on the ridiculous

Companies spend a lot of time and money polishing their chosen image of themselves, and none more so than the Virgin Group, personified by the winning smile, folksy beard, open-necked shirt and comfortable sweater in which Richard Branson is almost always photographed. Its honest, no-nonsense countenance has been worth millions to Branson. So, when that mask occasionally slips, it is even more disappointing than when the real shysters try to dip their hand in your pocket...

Pensions and the gilts bubble

The annual publication of the Barclays Gilt Equity Study is likely to have passed most people by this week. It is, by any standard, a pretty dry document. A chunk of it comprises the sort of triangular tables usually reserved for telling you the shortest distance between Wick and Aberystwyth in road atlases. But hidden within its depths is yet further bad news for Britain's already beleaguered pension savers.

Wake up and ditch the coffee

Want to increase the price of your home and take years off your mortgage? Well, all you have to do is persuade your neighbours never to have children and stop drinking coffee.

A student speaks

In a few months time I will graduate from university, and, like thousands of fellow students, enter the dreaded world of work. I'm preparing for this shock to the system with a stint on Times Money.  But unlike thousands of fellow students, I will leave the campus with an account balance still in the black, and without a student loan bill in sight. Yes, I’m one of those rare birds, a debt-free graduate.