Money News

CURRENCY SAFETY
How safe is your foreign currency order? It is something we all have to consider after 13,000 people lost £20 million when Crown Currency Exchange went into administration at the end of September. One couple lost the £110,000 they sent for conversion into euros to buy a house in Italy.

Crown Currency had traded online for five years, offering rates that consistently topped the best buy tables and building a reputation for delivering the euros and dollars on time. But on 30 September Barclays froze its bank account and the firm collapsed the following Monday. No-one knows where the money has gone and there is no compensation scheme. Customers will be lucky to get back 10p in the pound sometime in 2011.

If you want to order your currency online you can protect yourself by checking the firm out on the Financial Services Authority website.

On its front page www.fsa.gov.uk click on ‘Register home page’ then click the tab marked ‘Payment Services Firm Search’. Put in the firm's name and if you get a list of firms click on the one you want.

That brings up the firm’s record. If it is classified ‘Small Payment Institution’ then you have no protection at all if it goes out of business. But if it is listed as ‘Authorised Payment Institution’ then the FSA has made sure it keeps customers’ money in a separate bank account and has sufficient capital to meet its orders. Your money should be safe. Though if it turns out not to be there is still no compensation.

Of course the safest way to get foreign currency is to visit a High Street bureaux de change. You hand over Sterling and take away your foreign currency. You may pay slightly more – though not too much if you research the best rates. But at least you will not lose the lot.

MORTGAGE INTEREST CUT HURTS OVER 60s
Almost 120,000 people over 60 have had the help they get with their mortgage cut by 40%. The average cut is £16.50 a week for those aged 60-64 and £11 a week for older claimants. Almost half of those affected are also disabled. 

From 1 October the Government cut the amount of help with mortgage interest given to people on means-tested benefits including Pension Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support. The biggest group to lose out are those on pension credit.  The amount of help with a mortgage has always been limited. Nothing is paid towards the capital debt and no interest is paid on the part of the loan above £100,000 for those aged 60 or more (the limit is £200,000 for younger people). The interest on the amount below that limit is paid at a fixed rate which was fixed at 6.08% from December 2008. But from 1 October it was cut to 3.63%. Although 6.08% was higher than many people were actually paying on their mortgage, over half of those getting help pay more than 3.63%.

The Council for Mortgage Lenders, which represents the banks and other mortgage providers, opposed the cut and refused to offer any blanket help for the people affected. Shelter warned it could lead to rising arrears and repossessions.

LONGER AND LONGER
In the last twenty years the number of people living to 100 has quadrupled – rising from 2600 in 1981 to 11,600 in 2009. By mid 2034 it will have reached 87,900, the Office for National Statistics predicts. If you are in your mid 70s now, one of them could be you – especially if you are a woman as female centenarians outnumber men by nearly six to one.

At younger ages the life expectancy gap between men and women is closing. The latest figures show that at birth baby boys can expect to live to 77 years 8 months and girls to a month or so short of 82. Once you have safely reached 70 life expectancy is higher. At that age men can expect another 14 years of life. Women can look forward to 16 years and three months.

However, these figures assume life expectancy will remain the same from now on. Whereas in fact it is continuing to grow by almost three months for every year that passes. So if you are 70 now you could well be getting a congratulatory card from King William V in 2040.

NPOWER TO THE PEOPLE
If you bought your gas from npower at any time between May and October 2007 you are due a refund after npower admitted overcharging almost all of its customers in that period. It has written to 1.8 million customers offering them an average of £35 plus VAT and interest. The total cost to npower will be around £70 million.

If you have got one of these letters all you have to do is take it to the nearest post office to get the cash. However, half of these customers have already moved to another supplier and may have moved house and miss the letter. So if you were an npower gas customer in that period but have not heard from npower by the end of November you can register for the payment anyway. Not every gas customer is entitled as some tariffs, including pre-payment meters, were not affected.

Find out more at www.consumerfocus.org.uk or www.npower.com or call 0800 975 7938.

e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@paullewis.co.uk