Spectator money

‘I’ve slept with people for money and I’ve been on dates with disgusting guys and put myself at risk just so I could have dinner and some leftovers for the next day.’ These are the harrowing words of a female first-year student describing the extraordinary lengths she went to in order to pay her way at university. She found herself turning to ‘sugaring’ websites, which mostly introduce older wealthy men willing to lavish expensive gifts and cash to young women in return for company and often – but not always – sex. And as well as partnering ‘sugar daddies’ with bright, young things, the websites also connect ‘sugar mummies’ to

Pity the savers. With interest rates at historic lows and banks loath to offer anything remotely resembling a decent return, it’s tempting to stash bundles of cash under the mattress and wait for better times. Hardly a day goes by at Spectator Money without a press release lamenting the paltry rates on savings plans. Yesterday, for instance, came data from Moneyfacts.co.uk revealing that rate reductions in the savings market have now outweighed rate rises for nine consecutive months. And what has happened to the base rate during that time? Absolutely nothing. In June, Moneyfacts recorded just 14 savings rate rises. But rate reductions over the same period completely outshone this figure, with the

Are you skint? Is payday merely a blip in the month, a day where you make your minimum credit card repayment, settle the mortgage, buy groceries and keep you fingers crossed that you’ll survive another few weeks? If this sounds familiar, then you’re not alone. New research from Money Advice Service has found that one in eight workers run out of their monthly wages within ten days of being paid. What’s more, a third of all employees struggle to make their money last most months — equivalent to 10.4 million working people nationwide. Dubbed the ‘pre-payday pinch’, this isn’t a modern phenomenon. But that doesn’t make it any less unpleasant. Counting the

Buying a house is a major decision and few people want to commit to such a life changing purchase in times of uncertainty. It’s no surprise therefore that the confusion, fear and downright shock that followed the EU referendum vote to leave has had an effect on sentiment in the housing market. The latest survey from the Royal Institution  of Chartered Surveyors confirmed what we all already suspected –  that Brexit uncertainty has had an impact on market activity. New buyer enquiries declined significantly across the UK in June to its lowest reading since the mid-2008. The survey also recorded further decline in sales and many expect this to continue.

The UK doesn’t save enough. It’s a plain and simple truth that the savings and investment industry has known for decades. Politicians have finally cottoned on – and they are worried. Report after dull report has concluded there will be a generation who retires into penury, or cannot afford to retire at all, because they have not squirreled enough away. The big question is, what can we do now to dodge the diet of ready meals and food stamps awaiting us when the 2030s roll around? We already have the automatic enrolment programme, introduced in 2012, which forces millions of employers to offer their staff pensions. But even once it is fully

The national obsession with the Bank of England base rate is beginning to make my blood boil. If low interest rates were the saviour of the Great British economy they’re heralded to be, why are house prices sky high? Why are young renters finding it more difficult than ever to buy one? Why are savers and pensioners seeing their incomes shrink? Why is the average British household expected to have racked up £10,000 in unsecured debt by the end of the year? None of these things make me thank my lucky stars I’m living in low-interest Britain. What I believe we need is tax cuts – that’s what will get

Although a few uncertainties have been removed from the political landscape in recent days – hail Empress Regnant Theresa May – it would be a mistake to think that normality has now returned to the financial world. Far from it. Uncertainty rules. Sterling still treads the low – rather than the high – paths while the outlook for the economy remains at best fragile. The UK stock market may have risen like a phoenix and soared – eagle like – to an eleven month high with May’s imminent arrival at Number 10 but it still remains prone to ‘shocks’. Don’t rule out further short sharp corrections before the summer is

Mortgage rates are at record lows, personal loan rates have fallen, credit card deals are better than ever and the base rate has been stuck at 0.5 per cent for the past seven years. There’s even speculation that the Bank of England will cut it later this week. So why are current account customers paying through the nose for overdrafts? Days after it emerged that going overdrawn on a current account without permission can be up to four times more costly than taking out a payday loan, analysis by Moneyfacts has revealed that ‘extortionate fees’ have pushed overdraft costs to a new high. According to Moneyfacts, even authorised overdrafts can cost

Now that I’ve reached my 40s, I’ve started to notice a number of entirely unwelcome lifestyle changes. An involuntary ‘ooh’ when I sit in a comfy chair. A feeling of relief when a friend cancels a night on the town. A fear that I might need bifocals. A refusal to go down the pub unless I can get a seat. Perhaps most worrying is my memory. I’ve always been scatty and I spend a fortune on Post-it notes. But last week I went to the post box and returned home with the letter still in my hand. It’s not an encouraging sign. On the up side, I’ve still some way

You don’t have to be an economist to know that if you spend more than you earn, you’re in trouble. As Micawber famously said in David Copperfield: ‘Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and six pence, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.’ But what Micawber couldn’t account for was the swathe of stuff we would find ourselves paying for to live a modern life in the 21st century. Back in those days, there were five outgoings: food, clothes, heat, light and accommodation. We have the same today, but added to that there’s the home phone, mobile phone,

With just a week or so to go before schools break up for the summer, are you one of the families trying to save money on your holiday by pulling the kids out of class early? If so, I salute you. And I’m a school governor. After all, they’re mostly watching films or larking about in the playground at a time when there are real savings to be had if you can travel – right? One teacher told me she looks forward to the last week of term when children have been taken out of school early. ‘So much easier to teach 24 than 30 isn’t it? Why do you