Spectator money

Annual house price growth eased to 8.4 per cent in the month of June, the lowest rate in a year, according to the Halifax, the UK’s largest mortgage lender. The quarterly rate of growth was 1.2 per cent, the slowest since December 2014. Nevertheless, the average price of a house rose to another record high, at £216,823. The figures pre-date the result of the UK’s EU referendum, which many economists believe will slow house price inflation even further. Markets Shares in London have opened almost 1 per cent higher and the pound has made some modest gains – but it remains around a 31-year low. The 100 share index was up 56.39 in

It’s a riddle of the modern age: when is your bank not experiencing ‘unusually high call volumes’? You can puzzle the answer while listening to 20 minutes of looped Vivaldi interrupted sporadically by a disembodied female voice apologising for this delay. I recently called my bank at around 10.30 at night and endured exactly the same routine. This makes me suspect these frustrating delays have more to do with banks economising on call-centre staff, rather than my continued misfortune of ringing just as 100-odd other customers decide they also want to set up a new direct debit. To be fair this isn’t just a problem with our banks. Calling broadband

Do you have a dream? What’s your dream? Is it to see out your twilight years in a home you own outright, having freed yourself from the shackles of the mortgage lender? If so, that’s a good dream. Sadly, social upheaval, a rise in the divorce rate, access to easy credit and the growth in lifetime mortgages have all combined to make that ambition more of a pipe dream than a reality. Yesterday came the news that up to one in ten over-55s homeowners across the UK still have interest-only mortgages. This means they must pay the entire capital debt off when the deal runs out. According to the over-60s property expert

Have you ever wondered what led to the birth of the modern insurance industry? No, me neither. But it turns out that the Great Fire of London was the catalyst for what is today a multi-billion pound industry encompassing everything from contents, cars and caravans to pets, festivals and holidays. I admit to finding that interesting. This year marks the 350th commemoration of the Great Fire of London, an event which started in a bakery on Pudding Lane and went on to devastate more than 13,500 homes and 87 churches, including St Paul’s. Estimated rebuilding costs were £10 million in the 17th century. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) calculates that repairing

Take a look in you wallet. As well as your debit card, receipts and photos of loved ones, what else is in there? A credit card? Two credit cards? Three? This week marked the 50th anniversary of the credit card. In the year that England last won the World Cup (yes, I know football is a sore topic at the moment), The Beatles released Revolver and the inaugural Star Trek episode was broadcast, Barclaycard was the first company to issue these innocuous bits of plastic. The company sent out some 1.25 million plastic cards to Barclays customers from 29 June 1966. Half a century later and the bank says it has 10.5 million consumer customers as

How do you spot a good estate agent? No, I’m not about to tell a joke. It’s a serious question. With a baby on the way, the need for a double spare room for visiting first-time grandparents and more space to work from home, I’ve started to wonder how much longer our growing family will fit into our compact three-bedroom semi. We can’t face the hassle of a loft extension and together with the lack of parking we’ll likely sell up in the next year or so. And when we do, we’ll become sellers for the first time. I didn’t pay much attention to the estate agent I used when

When you were a young child, did you ever throw away the packed lunch provided by your parents, then go around scavenging tastier alternatives from fellow pupils? No? Just me then. I can assure you this happens up and down the country every lunchtime and – believe it or not – tells us something about the benefits system. It also provides a warning about the pension freedom reforms. Let me explain. Last year radical government reforms gave over-55s unfettered access to their pension pots. Where previously the vast majority of people bought an annuity paying a fixed income for life, now savers are staying invested in retirement or taking cash lump sums. Not

I have a confession. I’ve been unfaithful with a Spanish beauty I met on the internet a few weeks ago. All my life the object of my desire has been home-grown. I was born in the same place as Aston Martin (the unassuming north Buckinghamshire town of Newport Pagnell) and my loyalty never strayed. Until now. I was doing some research for a magazine that Knight Frank publishes in Spain and it just happened. I came across the Pegaso Z102 and it took my breath away. I’m not sure even the feline lines of the iconic DB5 can compare. Perhaps it was the exoticness that did it for me. Fewer

Without wishing to add to the hyperbole over Brexit (from both sides), it’s fair to say that Britain is all over the place today. From the temporary suspension of trading in Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays shares and sterling’s continued slide against the dollar, to the slump in the return on government bonds and a profit warning from easyJet, the UK is beginning to digest its decision to leave the European Union. In the morass of doom and gloom was another profit warning, this time from Foxtons. The estate agent said concerns following the vote will depress London property sales and, in the first few minutes of trading, shares in the company dropped 18 per cent.

We all know that we should be switching financial products for a better deal, potentially saving ourselves thousands of pounds a year. But do we have time to do this? Certainly some products are easier and less time-consuming to switch than others. Gocompare.com questioned people who have shopped around for financial products in the last month about their experience. It found that home insurance, car insurance and ISA or savings accounts are the easiest financial products to switch. Mortgages came bottom of the list, after broadband and phones, with only six out of ten saying they found switching their mortgage easy. But that’s still the majority, and as a mortgage is

Tom Hiddleston and Taylor Swift’s romance is hot news in China, where online stores have been offering ‘break-up insurance’. People, especially Hiddleston’s adoring female fans, have been paying up to 400 yuan, about £41, to predict how long the relationship will last. They hoped to double or even triple their cash. Now Chinese authorities have ordered the stores to withdraw the schemes sharpish. Individuals can’t sell insurance in China, and in any case this is really betting – something also outlawed unless sanctioned by the state. But then isn’t all insurance really betting, a bet against yourself that you will lose, that your house will burn down, your dog will need