This piece first appeared in Saga Magazine in January 2011
The text here may not be identical to the published text  

Money News

Trace that pension, Safer savings, Card activation sales, Be safe online

SAFER SAVINGS
There is more protection this month for your savings. From 31 December 2010 the amount of savings which is guaranteed to be paid if a bank or building society goes bust has been raised from £50,000 to the equivalent of €100,000. At the time of writing the conversion rate of euros into pounds Sterling has not been fixed but it will probably be set at £85,000. The amount applies to each individual. So a couple with a joint account will each have that limit so a joint account will normally be covered up to €200,000 or around £160,000. If you have more than one account with the same bank or building society then your money in each account will be added together and you will only be compensated up to the €100,000 maximum. So if you are really cautious it is worth splitting your savings between different banks and building societies. Some banks are owned by the same company but still have a separate licence and a deposit in each will get the maximum protection. You can find out who owns whom and which have separate authorisations on the Financial Services Authority website. A special exemption which allowed people with funds in more than one merged building society will end and the compensation limit will apply to all funds in the merged societies. In future, the compensation will also be paid regardless of any money you may owe the bank. So if you have a credit card or an overdraft or a mortgage your deposited money will still be protected in full. The only exception is if you have an offset mortgage.

TRACE THAT PENSION
Millions of us pay into a pension at work – but often we lose track of that money when we leave. Until 1988 if a company had a pension scheme you had to pay into it and if you worked there for more than a couple of years your pension may well have been preserved for you. It is not just work pensions that are lost. Millions of us paid into a personal pension since 1986, but often only for a few years. So it is easy to lose the details or decide it is not worth worrying about. But it can be.

The Pension Tracing Service is dedicated to reuniting people with these lost funds. It has details of 200,000 schemes and every year it helps around 16,000 people track down a lost pension. They get an average of £16 a week and a lump sum of £1900, though some have had lump sums as high as £20,000 and a pension of more than £100 a week. The service is free and run by the Department for Work and Pensions.

To find an old pension you will need to remember where you worked and when. If you have any paperwork so much the better. Before 1975 people who left a job normally lost any rights to a pension. And even after that you may have given up those rights if you left within a few years. But it is well worth checking. If you are looking for a personal pension then it will help if you know the name of the firm that ran it for you or any name or address related to it. Again, any documents will be immensely helpful.

ACTIVATION SALES
When you get a new or replacement credit or debit card you may be asked to call a number on the front to ‘activate’ it or report its safe arrival. When you ring you may expect to speak to your bank or card provider. But several are now contracting out this job to a separate company which sells insurance and once you have confirmed receipt of the card you will be given a fairly relentless spiel to buy insurance against ID theft or losing your card. This insurance can be expensive – more than £80 a year – and yet most of what it gives you is already covered free by your bank or may already be part of your home insurance. If your ID or cards are stolen and thieves use them fraudulently then the bank or card provider will normally cover any losses. Which? The consumer group recently said this insurance was “probably not worth paying for”.

CPP, the main firm involved in these sales, confirmed to the BBC that only about one person in 200 claimed on their policy each year. CPP also accepted that some people had been signed up to the insurance even though they had clearly said ‘no’ to the sales person. CPP has apologised and refunded them. My advice? Put the phone down once your card is working.

BE SAFE ONLINE
More and more of us do our banking and shopping online. Unfortunately there is a growing number who also do their thieving online. So just as we all learn to be careful with our cash and our cards on the streets, so we all have to learn how to be safe online. One of the latest scams is to phone people and claim that a virus has been detected on their computer. No reputable company will ever do this and the best thing to do is to put the phone down at once if you get such a call. If you get into a conversation you may well end up giving away further personal details which can then be used to gain access to your bank account. These thieves are very clever and very sophisticated – one gang arrested in Eastern Europe had a call centre of 300 people devoted to its fraudulent business. Most computers now come with virus protection software from Symantec, Norton, or Kaspersky. As long as you have one of these and you keep it up to date your computer is as safe as it can be and anyone who calls to tell you otherwise is out to con you. You can get free and trustworthy help from the Government and industry sponsored website Get Safe Online – details below.

FURTHER INFORMATION
Banks and building societies and how they are grouped.
www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/consumerinformation/uk_groups/index.shtml

Safety when you are using your computer online
www.getsafeonline.org

Pension Tracing Service – www.direct.gov.uk Put pension tracing service in the search box - or phone 0845 6002 537.

 


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