April 2011
1 post
Norwich and Peterborough fined for miss selling to...
A significant penalty of £1.4m has been issued to Norwich and Peterborough building society soon after The Financial Services Authority found that the building society hadn’t supplied proper guidance to 3,200 buyers, which had been primarily pensioners, who had been sold dangerous investment merchandise. The original service provider of these investments, Keydata, ended up being shut down...
June 2010
1 post
Why property values are expected to fall
The UK’s property market is beginning to see the signs of a downturn finally begin to show, setting the stage for a double dip in property values. While the DCLG reports that property inflation over the past year has reached over 10%, this has been overwhelmingly driven by easy credit rather than a return to normal for the market. Standard mortgage rates are now typically 4% or lower, which...
October 2009
2 posts
Time to move back to BT
Well, it looks as though I’m finally moving ISP from Zen back to BT broadband, as I just called Zen for a MAC code.
It’s a shame, really, as Zen has a far better reputation for service and support than BT, but the problem of wireless interference is a constant and annoying problem.
Plus BT are offering mobile broadband with their new broadband packages, and free BT openzone minutes,...
The dangers to the UK economy
The more I read about the impact of the financial crisis in the UK, the more it feels that the UK is doomed economically, and that the best option now while you have cash in Great British Sterling is to cash out and move aborad to somewhere more financially sound - ie, not threatened with collapse by the weight of its own debt.
That may seem somewhat alarmist, but despite the claims of...
August 2009
1 post
Phone vs broadband
I don’t normally write about technical issues. Though I can use computer technology, it all goes over my head and I don’t have a clue how it all works.
I’ve come across an interesting problem while setting up my home office, though - wireless interference.
I was originally with BT as my ISP for broadband, but after previous problems with the company I decided quality of service...
July 2009
1 post
False dawn in economic optimism
This spring’s green shoots are being increasing shown to have misplaced optimism, with economic conditions continuing to worsen within the UK - GDP continues to fall, and expectations of a recovery for next year remain muted. While it’s easy to just look at the UK in isolation, there are a couple of major economic pointers on the horizon that suggest the world’s economy could...
June 2009
1 post
UK recession changes shape
Edmund Conway in the Telegraph claims the recession is over, which is about as outrageously optimistic as you can get. Much of this unfounded optimism seems focused on the fact that the property market has seen a positive bounce over this spring - mortgage lending is up, buyer inquiries are up, and the DCLG reported a 1.1% rise in house prices over April. The problem is, spring has always been...
April 2009
1 post
Fraud hits UK car insurers
One of the lesser reported stories to make the news during this economic crisis is the issue of increasing fraud and avoidance hitting the insurance industry. While there’s little call to be unduly sympathetic to insurers, it remains a concern to all consumers because policy premiums are simply increased to pay for the costs of fraud, which hits everybody. In this month alone we’ve...
February 2009
1 post
Trying out Tumblr
Well, I’ve already been trying out blogging by myself at Richmond Way as part of trying to understand the online environment, not least with the current A1 websites my developer friend advised to support my new company. Even still, I have to admit it feels sometimes isolating and lonsesome to blog without any real understanding of what audience may or may not be around. I’ve...