"Please read the letter that I wrote," Lloyds will be telling customers who were mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance.
Those lucky ones will learn that they can claim compensation.
But will Lloyds be writing to all of them? The answer is no.
The nub of this issue is that where Lloyds identifies a "systemic failure" in its sales process, it will write to everyone who has been affected.
But such a failure may only be deemed to have affected tightly defined groups of customers -- and others may be left out.
Lloyds says it is not obliged to contact every single PPI customer to tell them they might have been mis-sold a policy.
The FSA calls the approach "root cause analysis". Here's the section from its rulebook:
In respect of complaintss that do not relate to MiFID business, a respondent must put in place appropriate management controls and take reasonable steps to ensure that in handling complaints it identifies and remedies any recurring or systemic problems, for example, by:
(1) analysing the causes of individual complaints so as to identify root causes common to types of complaint;
(2) considering whether such root causes may also affect other processes or products, including those not directly complained of; and
(3) correcting, where reasonable to do so, such root causes.
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Only 5% deposit at Nationwide
Any addition to the options for first time buyers has to be welcomed at the moment.
Nationwide has added its Save to Buy scheme, allowing first timers to obtain a 95% mortgage or, putting it the other way round, put down a deposit of just 5%.
It adds to offers from Lloyds, Barratts and Taylor Wimpey and a deal from councils.
The rules are that prospective buyers have to open a special savings account with Nationwide and deposit £50 a month for at least 6 months.
Then they qualify for a 3 year fixed rate mortgage at 6.29%, for a discounted fee of £400. Or a five year fix at 6.89%.
If I were to niggle I would say it is a shame that the savings account can't be a tax-free ISA. Nationwide says it wanted a simple account for all.
Plus, it points out that savers qualify for a bonus of up to £1,000 to help with the mortgage, if they do eventually apply for one.
How much difference will it make?
Well, Nationwide lent to 17,000 first time buyers in the 11 months to February this year, slightly more than its overall market share warranted.
But the total number of new buyers last year was 197,400, so an increase the Nationwide figure is unlikely to transform the situation.
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the highest number of purchases by first-time buyers recently came in 2001, when the total was 568,200.
Hence, some would argue that you need to bring hundreds of thousands of first time buyers into the market to get things moving healthily again.
None of the schemes on the table will do that, together or separately.
Nationwide has added its Save to Buy scheme, allowing first timers to obtain a 95% mortgage or, putting it the other way round, put down a deposit of just 5%.
It adds to offers from Lloyds, Barratts and Taylor Wimpey and a deal from councils.
The rules are that prospective buyers have to open a special savings account with Nationwide and deposit £50 a month for at least 6 months.
Then they qualify for a 3 year fixed rate mortgage at 6.29%, for a discounted fee of £400. Or a five year fix at 6.89%.
If I were to niggle I would say it is a shame that the savings account can't be a tax-free ISA. Nationwide says it wanted a simple account for all.
Plus, it points out that savers qualify for a bonus of up to £1,000 to help with the mortgage, if they do eventually apply for one.
How much difference will it make?
Well, Nationwide lent to 17,000 first time buyers in the 11 months to February this year, slightly more than its overall market share warranted.
But the total number of new buyers last year was 197,400, so an increase the Nationwide figure is unlikely to transform the situation.
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the highest number of purchases by first-time buyers recently came in 2001, when the total was 568,200.
Hence, some would argue that you need to bring hundreds of thousands of first time buyers into the market to get things moving healthily again.
None of the schemes on the table will do that, together or separately.
House prices sharp fall
Land Registry reports biggest monthly house price fall for 25 months.
The figures are the last word on house price movements, taking in all sales, including cash sales which represent a big share of transactions at the moment.
The Land Registry says house prices in England and Wales fell by 1.1% in March, the biggest drop since February, 2009.
Prices were 2.3% lower than a year ago.
The figures paint a contrasting picture to the Nationwide survey, which reported a 0.2% fall in April and a 0.5% rise in March.
Wales experienced the sharpest fall, with prices down 3.3% on the month and 7.2% year on year. In Blaenau Gwent prices were down nearly 20% over the year.
The Land Registry's figures come out a month later than those from Nationwide or Halifax. But they are based on all property sales, while the lenders refer to their own mortgage business.
PS House prices were up on the month in Rutland (3.2%) and Pembrokeshire (2.3%), also Derby, Merseyside, Milton Keynes, Gloucestershire, Anglesey and Denbighshire.
The figures are the last word on house price movements, taking in all sales, including cash sales which represent a big share of transactions at the moment.
The Land Registry says house prices in England and Wales fell by 1.1% in March, the biggest drop since February, 2009.
Prices were 2.3% lower than a year ago.
The figures paint a contrasting picture to the Nationwide survey, which reported a 0.2% fall in April and a 0.5% rise in March.
Wales experienced the sharpest fall, with prices down 3.3% on the month and 7.2% year on year. In Blaenau Gwent prices were down nearly 20% over the year.
The Land Registry's figures come out a month later than those from Nationwide or Halifax. But they are based on all property sales, while the lenders refer to their own mortgage business.
PS House prices were up on the month in Rutland (3.2%) and Pembrokeshire (2.3%), also Derby, Merseyside, Milton Keynes, Gloucestershire, Anglesey and Denbighshire.
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
So what did happen in the 1870s?
Shrinking incomes could take us back to the 1870s, according to the economist, Roger Bootle.
He says "I expect real earnings to fall by about 1.5% this year. This will mark the fourth successive year of falling real earnings – the first time that this has occurred since the 1870s."
What was happening 140 years ago?
The 1870s got off to a bad start with the Franco-Prussian War, which left France seriously short of money.
Then there was the Panic of 1873: a crash in Vienna followed by railroad failures and bank runs in the USA.
The UK was beginning its long slow decline, production falling behind the US and Germany.
Prices for grain and cotton plummeted, so there were years of deflation.
But at the same time the Bank of England kept interest rates high.
The whole period of 1870 to 1890 was a time of squeeze, known later as the Long Depression.
He says "I expect real earnings to fall by about 1.5% this year. This will mark the fourth successive year of falling real earnings – the first time that this has occurred since the 1870s."
What was happening 140 years ago?
The 1870s got off to a bad start with the Franco-Prussian War, which left France seriously short of money.
Then there was the Panic of 1873: a crash in Vienna followed by railroad failures and bank runs in the USA.
The UK was beginning its long slow decline, production falling behind the US and Germany.
Prices for grain and cotton plummeted, so there were years of deflation.
But at the same time the Bank of England kept interest rates high.
The whole period of 1870 to 1890 was a time of squeeze, known later as the Long Depression.
Train chaos in North West
Big trouble buying tickets for train hourneys in the North West of England today.
Ticket offices couldn't issue tickets from early on until 11.45am, though they were available from vending machines and on the trains.
Here's the explanation from Northern Rail:
Ticket offices couldn't issue tickets from early on until 11.45am, though they were available from vending machines and on the trains.
Here's the explanation from Northern Rail:
"At 06.30am this morning a server failure occured affecting our ticket offices across the north west. This happened at 67 stations and the problem has now been rectified. We provide our customers with alternative opportunities to purchase tickets, 25 of these stations have a Ticket Vending Machine (a self-service ticket machine), and customers also have the opportunity to purchase a ticket on board trains, and we have no reported wide spread issues with this service."
Give books and tat -- and get tax back
Had a big clearout over the weekend and took 4 crates of children's books to Oxfam.
What was new to me ( maybe not to many readers) is that they can claims back tax on the value of what you give.
It's the Tag your Bag scheme, for which you have to be registed with them for Gift Aid.
Effectively, they act as your agent in selling the goods, then you donate the money on which the tax refund is claimed.
Here the tax people HMRC explain how charities can do this, so even a small local charity might be able to take advantage -- and boost the value of donations by 28%.
What was new to me ( maybe not to many readers) is that they can claims back tax on the value of what you give.
It's the Tag your Bag scheme, for which you have to be registed with them for Gift Aid.
Effectively, they act as your agent in selling the goods, then you donate the money on which the tax refund is claimed.
Here the tax people HMRC explain how charities can do this, so even a small local charity might be able to take advantage -- and boost the value of donations by 28%.
Credit card refund for laptop
From Financial Ombudsman Service last week...
Complaint about faulty laptop bought with credit card.
Miss T’s new laptop developed a serious fault just six weeks after she had bought it, so she took it back to the supplier and asked for a refund or replacement.
The supplier told her it was unable to help. It suggested that she should get in touch with the manufacturer, who would arrange to inspect the laptop and then decide whether to repair or replace it.
Miss T explained that she was busy revising for her college exams and could not afford to lose study time while the laptop was out of action. However, the supplier was adamant that her only course of action was to contact the manufacturer.
Concerned about the amount of time this might take, Miss T then visited a different supplier, where she used her credit card to buy another laptop.
She had used her credit card to buy the original laptop and a few weeks later, once her exams were out of the way, she contacted her credit card provider.
She explained the problem she had experienced with the original laptop and said she wanted to claim a refund.
However, the card provider told her it could not help because it was ‘not responsible for the quality of goods bought with a credit card’.
Miss T arranged to have her laptop inspected at a local computer centre and was told that there was a problem with the motherboard.
She subsequently obtained another report on the laptop from an independent computer specialist. This confirmed that the motherboard was faulty – and said that replacing it would cost more than the value of the laptop.
Miss T then referred her complaint to us.
Complaint upheld
On the basis of the evidence supplied by Miss T, we said that the laptop was not fit for purpose, as it should not have developed a fault of this nature so soon after Miss T had bought it.
We noted that Miss T had attempted to reject the laptop as soon as the fault became evident. She had only bought a replacement because it was essential for her studies and because the retailer had failed to deal correctly with her complaint.
We pointed out to the card provider that it was jointly liable with the supplier for any breach of contract.
Complaint about faulty laptop bought with credit card.
Miss T’s new laptop developed a serious fault just six weeks after she had bought it, so she took it back to the supplier and asked for a refund or replacement.
The supplier told her it was unable to help. It suggested that she should get in touch with the manufacturer, who would arrange to inspect the laptop and then decide whether to repair or replace it.
Miss T explained that she was busy revising for her college exams and could not afford to lose study time while the laptop was out of action. However, the supplier was adamant that her only course of action was to contact the manufacturer.
Concerned about the amount of time this might take, Miss T then visited a different supplier, where she used her credit card to buy another laptop.
She had used her credit card to buy the original laptop and a few weeks later, once her exams were out of the way, she contacted her credit card provider.
She explained the problem she had experienced with the original laptop and said she wanted to claim a refund.
However, the card provider told her it could not help because it was ‘not responsible for the quality of goods bought with a credit card’.
Miss T arranged to have her laptop inspected at a local computer centre and was told that there was a problem with the motherboard.
She subsequently obtained another report on the laptop from an independent computer specialist. This confirmed that the motherboard was faulty – and said that replacing it would cost more than the value of the laptop.
Miss T then referred her complaint to us.
Complaint upheld
On the basis of the evidence supplied by Miss T, we said that the laptop was not fit for purpose, as it should not have developed a fault of this nature so soon after Miss T had bought it.
We noted that Miss T had attempted to reject the laptop as soon as the fault became evident. She had only bought a replacement because it was essential for her studies and because the retailer had failed to deal correctly with her complaint.
We pointed out to the card provider that it was jointly liable with the supplier for any breach of contract.
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