The winter freeze on house prices continued in January as property values fell for the second consecutive month, according to the latest data from Nationwide.

Average house prices fell by 0.2% last month after an identical drop was recorded in December. The fall leaves the average UK house valued at £162,228. Year-on-year, property prices were up a very modest 0.6% in January.

On a quarterly basis, a measure many analyst consider to be a more accurate barometer of market direction, prices were up by 0.3% last month.

Nationwide said it expected prices to “move sideways or only modestly lower in the months ahead”. It cited concerns about the labour market and the general state of the economy as two factors that are likely to hold prices back over the next 12 months. It also said that affordability and access to mortgage funding is still a major problem for first-time buyers.

Despite the fact that mortgages are cheaper now than they have been for almost 10 years, potential borrowers need to raise a substantial deposit before they can secure the loan… Continue To Read This Post..

Junior bank workers who are not rewarded as lavishly as those at the top of their trade are increasingly topping up their meagre pay with ill-gotten gains.

Instances of crooked bank staff stealing money through theft or deception rose by more than 40% last year, according to CIFAS.

The anti-fraud organisation said that dishonest actions by finance workers were the main driver of a 14.5% overall increase in the number of insider frauds recorded in 2011 when compared to the previous year.

Worryingly, one of the more popular methods of stealing was found to be cashiers creaming money off of customer accounts. Many of the frauds recorded involved the theft of money from older people. CIFAS said the perpetrators of such thefts are no better than muggers in the street.

A third of all theft committed by bank employees involved the stealing of cash as opposed to electronically-based crime. The overall number of dishonest actions by staff to obtain a benefit through theft or deception rose from 156 in 2010 cases to 220 last year – an increase of… Continue To Read This Post..

If you’ve signed up for a lengthy gym contract you never use but can’t get out of, help could soon be at hand.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has announced an investigation into unfair gym contract terms that could be in breach of consumer protection regulations. The OFT probe will also look into whether some gym owners are engaging in unfair business practices.

Although the trade watchdog would not say which companies were involved in the investigation, national chains such as Virgin Active and LA Fitness are thought to be included. A spokesperson for Virgin Active said the firm had already received a request for information earlier in the week.

The investigation was launched after the OFT received a number of complaints from consumers about the length of some gym membership contracts and unfair cancellation polices. Some gym membership plans can see consumers locked into contracts for up to 24 months. Most have no option but to carry on paying regardless of whether they use a gym’s facilities or not.

Concerns were also raised about people being… Continue To Read This Post..

Gender discrimination is a horrible thing. Men who hold open doors for you, offer to pay for dinner and carry your bags, might be what most women want, but we also wish for equality.

We should be more careful about what we wish for.

Who would have thought that gender discrimination might actually be working in our favour? That the stereotype of men being faster, more reckless drivers than women could be saving us money? Unfortunately though, that’s all about to change.

On 1 March last year the European Court of Justice ruled that insurance premiums can no longer be affected by gender, meaning that insurance companies will no longer be able to charge men and women different premiums based purely on their sex.

The gender insurance directive will come into force on 21 December 2012 and is likely to cause a fair bit of upheaval in the insurance world, both for the industry and for consumers.

What will happen and what does it mean for women?

Currently gender does play a part in the calculation of certain types… Continue To Read This Post..

Average water and sewerage bills will rise by 5.7% from April, the water regulator Ofwat has announced.

The above inflation increase will bring the typical water bill to £376 per household, up by an average of £20. The 0.5% above inflation increase was considerably below the 10% rise in prices the water companies were pushing for, according to the regulator. The hike is part of a five-year program of annual prise rises to help fund £22 billion worth of investment in the country’s water and sewerage infrastructure.

Ofwat said the price was made up of November’s Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation of 5.2% plus 0.5%.

Stark variations were notable in different regions around the country, with homeowners in the Southern district seeing their water and sewerage costs rising by 8%, while those served by Dwr Cymru will have an extra 3.8% added to their bill. The increases will take the annual cost of water and sewerage in the South West area to £543 a year – the highest in the country. Households in the Severn Trent region will… Continue To Read This Post..

Owning a home has become considerably cheaper than renting one over the past three years, according to a study by Halifax.

Research from the building society found homeownership was more than £100 a month cheaper than being a tenant in December 2011. The average cost of buying a three-bedroom house in the UK cost £600 last month; some £116 (or 16%) lower than the average monthly rent of £716 paid on the same property type, according to the Halifax report. Three years ago, the average cost of buying was 29% higher than renting.

In December 2008, a three-bedroom property would have cost the average homeowner £928 a month in mortgage payments, while a tenant would have needed to find just £721 to cover rent on a property of a similar size.

The remarkable turnaround has been driven by a sharp fall in the cost of mortgage payments and soaring rents in the private sector. The monthly cost of buying a home has fallen by more than a quarter since 2008. New mortgage borrowers were paying an average rate of interest… Continue To Read This Post..

More than four out of ten people are worried they will not be able to afford to pay their next fuel bill, according to Citizens Advice (CA).

The charity released the results of new research carried out to coincide with the launch of Big Energy Week which runs from today until January 21. The study found that 43% of homeowners are concerned about covering their next gas and electricity bill and that half of all respondents expect the price of fuel to put pressure on their finances over the coming year.

CA helped more than 96,000 people who got into difficulty with fuel debt last year, but found that as many as one in three bill payers was unaware that help such as insulation grants was available from power providers.

Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “We know hikes in prices have put extra pressure on people’s budgets at a time when money is already tight. Day in day out our Bureaux helping people who can’t afford their fuel bills.

“We’re worried that some people are struggling unnecessarily… Continue To Read This Post..