General

When the Bank of England met up last week to decide the after of the base interest rate and the UK economy as a whole, they left the rate unchanged at 5%.

Despite this, inflation has just rocketed up by half a percent to 3%.

As new mortgage approvals hit the lowest levels since records began in 1990, we are now also seeing a further drop in the value of houses across the UK.

Halifax have reported figures are now down by 0.9% - however the average house price is still a  staggering £189,00.

In 2006 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) decided to make sure all banks and building societies who issued credit cards had their default charges capped at £12 as opposed to the £25-£35 charges that many people experienced when going overdrawn or missing a repayment.

The Bank of England have cut the base interest rate to 5%, a 0.25% reduction from last months rate.

The UK’s central bank vote each month and decide what to do based on a set of factors.

A recent survey has shown that mobile phone shoppers have been getting more savvy, and about a third - 31% - of all mobiles bought in the UK today are actually purchased online.

The Citizens Advice Bureau have reported an increase in the number of people asking for advice. The single most common problem seems to be debt.

People are very worried about mortgages and mortgage arrears, along with general debt from an increase in household bills.

The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, announced his plans for the Budget.

The first Budget of 2008, and the first budget of our new Chancellor of the Exchequer, has had to take into account the tricky financial market we are experiencing.

Despite Chip and Pin technology we are still experiencing a rise on credit card fraud. Mainly from stolen cards, but also from counterfeit cards too.

The Association of Payment Clearing Services has seen this 25% increase in card fraud, the first in 3 years, and reports they were mainly due to cards that were stolen or copied and used overseas.

As expected the Bank of England have decided to keep the base interest rate in the UK at 5.25%.

‘There are concerns about a potential growing rate of inflation, which is why they probably chose to keep the interest rate the same.’

In 2007 several banks in the UK repaid up to £750,000 in refunds to previously unhappy customers, who had decided to sue and claim back money for such unfair charges.

After thousands of disgruntled customers complained to the Financial Ombudsman who decided the fairest way to sort out the disagreement was to hold a court case.

This went on for 2 weeks in February 2008, however the Judge who presided still needs to make his decision.