House prices fell for the ninth month in a row in June, according to the latest national housing market survey from Hometrack, the housing intelligence business. Average prices were down by 1% over the month and by 2.5% over the first half of 2008. On a year on year basis the annual rate of growth […]

APACS’ (the UK payments association) latest publication ‘The Way We Pay 2008: UK Plastic Cards’ shows that in 2007, for the 7th year running, debit cards continued to dominate consumer card spending, accounting for 62% of the total plastic card spending during the year.
UK plastic card payments to UK merchants, retailers and service providers totalled […]

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Kitty Ussher, has confirmed Government plans to make it easier for families to access the affordable credit options offered by credit unions by removing the red tape restricting the growth of the sector.
Credit unions are mutual organisations run by and for the benefit of their members. Members generally benefit through […]

Three quarters of people expect property prices to fall over the next twelve months, according to the first quarterly Price Tracker survey by the Building Societies Association (BSA). And some 25% thought prices would decline by 5 to 10% - the average forecast being a fall of 7.1%.
The survey found marked regional differences. Welsh people […]

Thousands of homebuyers are waiting up to 120% longer than a year ago - as much as 24 days more - for essential information relating to the purchase of their property. So says property data company, OneSearch Direct, which compiled the information from local authorities.
Continued inefficiency and anti-competitive behaviour at some local councils means that […]

New research from Sainsbury’s Credit Cards indicates that this summer, people are planning to spend an estimated �7.89 billion in the sales. Not surprisingly, given the ongoing credit crunch, the findings suggest this will be less than the amount spent last year. Indeed, around 20% anticipate spending less this year, some 63% intend to spend […]

Latest data (June) from property website, Rightmove, shows the number of homes for sale now outnumbering buyers by a ratio of 15:1. That’s more than double the rate 12 months ago and reflects the mortgage famine that now appears to be hitting home, literally.
Meanwhile, house prices fell by 1.2% in June, giving a year on […]

Could the current economic climate, financial doom and gloom, be a myth? According to new research from life insurer Zurich, despite the testing market conditions, less than a third of consumers have reviewed their finances in light of the credit crunch (29%) and a fifth of people (21%) claim it’s a term created by the […]

Rising costs and talk of falling property values have pushed Britain’s consumer confidence to record lows, according to new figures released by market research company Nielsen and the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
Mike Watkins, Senior Manager, Retailer Services at Nielsen commented: “The Nielsen/BRC UK Consumer Confidence index now stands at 79. To put this into context, […]

The latest Nationwide Consumer Confidence Index (NCCI) shows UK consumer confidence ticking down 1 point in May to 69. This is the second consecutive new low and brings overall confidence to a level 30% lower than this time last year.
In a downbeat survey only the Expectations Index, which measures views about the economy, labour market […]