News Round Up - 02.12.07

Signs - originally posted by hedgeman2007 

As part of my weekly posting schedule, I plan of doing a weekly news round up for the week every Sunday. The aim of this post will be to give you an overview of the most important personal finance news from the previous week. I will be writing a small summary of each news item and will including links to relevant blogs and mainstream news sights, if you want to do some further reading. I also plan on covering some news stories in greater detail in their own posts during the week; the housing crisis, and the ongoing Northern Rock Saga are two that I plan on covering in the next few weeks.

Time for my first weekly news round up …

Data Disks Go Missing

With identify theft in the news on an almost daily basis, the revelations on Tuesday, 20th November could not have come at a worse time for the British Government. It emerged that two computer disks containing the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16 have gone missing; some 25 million people and 7.25 million families.

Since this initial revelation, things have gone from bad to worse for the government and for the families affected. Banks were immediately asked to remain vigilant whist families were put on fraud alert. An article in the BBC last Wednesday highlighted that the disks could be worth over £1.5 billion to criminals.

Whilst there is nothing the families involved could have done to prevent this situation, it still serves as a stark reminder to all of us of the importance of protecting our personal information and guarding against identity theft. Everyone should be aware of the basic measures they can take to protect against identity theft.

Many Financial Websites are Unclear

Last Wednesday, an article from the BBC highlighted a cent survey from the Financial Services Authority which has shown that “one out of every four promotional websites for financial services firms are not fair or clear enough”. Whilst I hope most of us are careful in examining the information that is presented on these types of website, it does serve as a reminder that the people behind these websites are acting in their own best interest and that the information on these websites is always going to be strongly biased in favour of the provider. The moral of the story, take everything you read with a pinch of salt.

Train Fares Set To Rise Again

 the track - originally posted by Maddie Digital

Whilst this doesn’t affect me personally - I am currently commuting by bus - thousands of people are facing a sharp increasein the cost of their train tickets; tickets look set to rise by between 4% and 14% depending on the route. The great irony in this is that the government spends millions of pounds in an attempt to persuade people to use public transport, and yet at the same time puts public transport out of the reach of many through constant price hikes. Maybe someone can explain the logic to me …

The Housing Market

One topic that has never been far from the news in the last few weeks in the drop in house prices and the ever increasing number of foreclosures that are being filed, something which is equally true on both sides of the Atlantic. The US has seen a drop in house prices of 5.1% from last year, the worst drop since 1970, and foreclosures show no sign of slowing down. In the UK, house prices have seen their biggest fall in twelve years, mortgage approval is at a 3 year low, and mortgage fees have doubled in two years.

Signs of the Times - originally posted by angus stewart