General Finance News

When you are looking to obtain savings rates, privacy is an important factor. A Website sponsoring organisations that provide the best savings rates privacy regulationsshould be up to your standards. This means that all the information that you acquire or send in through their Website should be 100 % secure.

If you cannot trust a Website that provides information about organisations offering the best savings rates, how can you trust them with your personal information? While no Website can actually promise that all of your information will be secure, they should at least be able to make reasonable efforts to protect the information that you send in through them.

After all, these people are using the Website to obtain information about the best savings rates provided through companies. Read more…

A Which? survey found that a Halifax debit card customer will pay £6.67 for a £5 bottle of wine in a French supermarket, more than other high street banks. The Fees for using a debit card from a current account overseas are “exorbitant” and confusing, according to a sector report from consumer watchdog Which?

Some banks and building societies are charging a third more than others for foreign transactions, based on the same Eu5.95 debit card purchase and Eu20 cash withdrawal with The Halifax and Natwest having the highest charges. The watchdog found that Norwich & Peterborough’s Gold Light current account came out on top, since customers are not charged any fees for overseas use. Halifax charged 33pc more than N&P – with the purchaser spending £6.67 on a £5.03 bottle of wine in a French supermarket. Using the N&P card, the purchase cost £5.03. The watchdog also tested the cards by withdrawing Eu20 from a BNP Paribas cash machine in France in December. Lloyds TSB customers ended up paying £19.43 for £16.92 of cash, whereas N&P customers paid £16.92. NatWest was also expensive, with the supermarket purchase costing £6.42 and the cash withdrawal totalling £19.39. A general confusion over the fees and withdrawal charges was also highlighted Customers spending overseas often find it hard to work out which card is the best value because there are a variety of different charges applied.

These include a foreign exchange loading fee, which is usually a percentage of the transaction, as well as a purchase transaction fee when you buy something in a supermarket, which is usually a flat charge. If you take money out of a cash machine, you are sometimes charged a withdrawal fee as well as a foreign exchange loading fee. Which? experts also said that they found it difficult to calculate how the foreign loading fees had been calculated using the bank statements alone. HSBC, Halifax and Lloyds TSB included their foreign loading fee as part of the exchange rate. Santander showed only the exchange rate with no mention of the foreign loading fee, even though it had charged one. Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, said “Banks are charging exorbitant fees for the most straightforward overseas transactions, pushing up the price of even the most basic purchases. The issue of overseas charges is just one of the things that we want the new financial regulator to tackle. It must act as a watchdog for consumers to make sure they aren’t exposed to what we believe are unfair charges.

– The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a mixed opening on Wednesday, with sentiment turning jittery after some early strength. Asian stocks closed mostly lower, while European stocks have turned lower amid the budget presentation in the U.K. Stocks may now largely move in reaction to the existing home sales report to be released shortly after the markets, although some support could come from some upbeat earnings announcements, including those from Oracle (ORCL).

U.S. stocks retreated on Tuesday, as growth worries took hold after a Chinese move to raise retail fuel prices. The major U.S. averages opened lower and slipped further in early trading. The averages pared their losses over the course of the session but still ended the day in the red.

Read more…

The push to revive the bankruptcy provision for private student loans may provide some financial relief for Americans that are struggling with student-loan debt. But the inherent problem rising tuition costs still requires attention.

Yesterday, Sen. Dick Durbin appeared in a Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing to promote a bill, introduced in May, that will allow private student loans to be discharged in bankruptcy.

“In many respects, private student loans are just like credit cards except unlike credit card debt, private student loan debt cannot be discharged in bankruptcy,” Durbin in prepared remarks.

“This harsh treatment of students in the bankruptcy system was built on the false premise that students were more likely to ‘abuse’ the bankruptcy system,” said Deanne Loonin, an attorney for the National Consumer Law Center, in a written testimony to the Senate.

But, I would remind them that the high cost of a college education is at the root of the problem.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, total student loan balances in the country is roughly $870 billion, exceeding total debt from credit cards and auto loans.

Without the alarming costs to send a child to college, lenders wouldn’t be able to pitch private loans and the balances on student loans wouldn’t be so massive.

I have younger relatives who just started school and opted to go to city colleges for lower tuition costs. It also allows

Read more…

If you shop at Walmart (WMT) for groceries, your food bill is about to shrink.

The nation’s largest retail chain is looking to provide some new financial relief to its shoppers — many who are living in a permanent recession — by offering lower prices on grocery items every day, Reuters reports.

The pricing adjustment at the retailer will mean the mega-bargains at its 3,868 U.S. stores won’t just be limited to its well-known “rollback” sales promotions.

In turn, the chain is reportedly pressuring food suppliers to keep the wholesale prices low on everything from soda to cereal and pasta.

Walmart did not provide confirmation about its new pricing policy by press time. Read more…

Today’s electronics deals, courtesy of The Consumerist:

• Tanga.com: Logitech Surround-Sound Speaker System for $79.99

Entertainment

• NewEgg: Yakuza Dead Souls $44.99, free ship
• Toys R Us: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 $44.99, free ship
• Tanga: Subsonic Neo Bluetooth Wireless Controller for Sony PS3 $17.99

For general buying advice for many of the products on sale above, check out our free Buying Guides.

A lack of affordable housing and dwindling real incomes are forcing multiple generations of families to live under the same roof, according to a new study by Ancestry.co.uk.

Research carried out by the genealogy website found that an increasing number of households are made up of three or more generations of the same family.

Read more…

Schwab Executive VP Bernie Clark.

Charles Schwab Advisor Services announced late Tuesday that following the receipt of a no-action letter from the SEC in February, it is endorsing DTCC’s Alternative Investment Products service to facilitate the custody of alternative investments for advisors.

“We know advisors are increasingly using these alternatives,” said Schwab Executive VP Bernie Clark in an interview Wednesday, “but more will use them; having DTCC step into this void will greatly accelerate” both the custody of alternatives and, perhaps, advisors’ embrace of alternative investments.

As Clark, who heads SAS, explains it, the no-action letter “brings some closure to a long process” that he said began in 2008, when “we recognized this asset class was growing in importance and in complexity,” and DTCC was already working on a pilot program for alternatives custody, modeled on Fund/Serve, its mutual fund settlement service. Since DTCC was “g

Read more…