The 100% guarantee on deposits currently enjoyed by Northern Rock savers will come to an end on 24th May 2010.
From then on, customers of the nationalised bank will be covered by
the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which currently
offers protection of up to £50,000 per individual.
Anyone opening an account before the deadline will automatically come under the FSCS.
The enhanced guarantee came into existence in autumn 2007, when
Northern Rock came close to collapse and savers began queuing up to
withdraw their cash in what became the first run on a UK bank in over a
century.
Since then the lender has been split into one good and one bad back.
The less attractive elements of its mortgage book have been
separated out from its retail deposits, which now form part of the soon
to be auctioned Northern Rock PLC.
The bank’s rivals will be pleased to hear that the 100% guarantee is
being lifted as it raises competition issues, although deposits with
National Savings and Investments remain fully government protected.
Interest rates on personal loans are finally starting to fall.
The average interest rate on the top ten loan deals has fallen to
8.35%, the lowest level since the Bank of England reduced the base rate
to 0.5% last March.
When the Bank of England first lowered the base rate, mortgage and
current account providers followed suit, while personal loan rates
detached themselves from any connection with the base rate.
Despite the recent reduction in rates, many providers are still
restricting personal loans to existing current account customers.
“Perhaps the tide is turning,” said Tim Moss of moneysupermall.co.uk, who published the figures.
“It has been a long time since there was much good news to talk
about in the loans market, but the recent moves suggest lenders are
willing to open their purse strings just a little wider.
“For those in need of credit for one reason or another, it might be time to have a look at personal loans again.”
According to research from Save our Savers, the Government and
policymakers bear the brunt of public blame, but respondents also want
financial product providers to do much more to support savers.
The group says it intends to mobilise savers, into a “major force”
that cannot be disregarded, galvanising 27 million British adults into
a grassroots force for change.
Save our Savers spokesman, Revd John Strain, comments: “Saving for
the future, prudently and wisely, is a crucial component of the common
good.”
He adds: “Savers have been far off the political radar for decades
now … anyone would think the Government doesn’t want people to provide
for themselves, doesn’t need enterprise built upon the nation’s
savings, and would rather we all borrowed and spent our way into old
age dependency.”
Meanwhile, Birmingham Midshires has reported that in the final
quarter of 2009 Britons more than doubled the amount they saved in a
quarter.
Research by the lender indicates that savers put aside an average £776, up from £329 during the same period of 2008.
However, the amount squirreled away was down from £849 in the second
quarter of 2008 and around 38% of people questioned admitted to raiding
their savings in the final quarter of last year, withdrawing an average
£1,724.
Orange will launch Apple’s iPhone on its network on November 10, the
day after O2’s exclusive contract to sell the smartphone comes to an
end.
The launch date had been shrouded in secrecy since the operator
confirmed in late September that it had won the right to sell the
iPhone.
However, The Times has learnt that Orange will start selling
the handset in a little over two weeks. More than 200,000 people have
pre-registered to buy an iPhone through the operator in the past month.
Orange declined to comment on its launch date or the exact number of pre-registrations that it has received.
The launch makes for a busy day in the telecoms sector, with
Vodafone to report interim results on November 10. Vodafone, which will
start to sell the iPhone in the UK next year, will be asked about its
own launch timetable.
O2 began to offer the iPhone on November 9, 2007, at an event
attended by Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and chief executive, held at
the Californian company’s Regent Street store in the West End of London.
Potential customers will have to wait to learn Orange’s pricing
plans. With O2 turning its attention to the Palm Pre, which it launched
exclusively last week, and Vodafone entering the iPhone fray next year,
Orange has a narrow timeframe in which to press home its advantage.
Yet those hoping that the three operators will engage in a price war
are likely to be disappointed. Analysts have argued that the iPhone is
a premium product and selling it cheaply would not make strategic sense
for the operators.
Orange and Vodafone may look to capitalise on O2’s recent network
problems in London to highlight the strength of their own networks or
build more value into the bundles on offer. T-Mobile is still
considering whether it will sell the iPhone in the UK, while Kevin
Russell, chief executive of 3 UK, said this week that the country’s
smallest operator also expected to sell Apple’s handset by mid-2010.
"Using the new sync, account manager and contacts APIs, you can write
applications to enable users to sync their devices to various contact
sources," wrote Xavier Ducrochet, tech lead for the Android SDK team,
on the Android developer blog.
"You can also give users a faster way to communicate with others by
embedding Quick Contact within your application. With the new Bluetooth API,
you can now easily add peer-to-peer connectivity or gaming to your
applications."
Android fans have been expecting an imminent software upgrade for the last
couple of weeks. Earlier this month, a giant foam eclair appeared on the
lawns of Google's
headquarters in Mountain View, California, and was placed beside a donut and
a cupcake, the codenames for two previous Android releases.
Users of Android devices, such as the HTC Hero, will have to wait until
November for the new Android 2.0 software to be deployed on their handsets,
but the improved operating system promises to bring some impressive new
features.
For instance, users will be able to add, synchronise and manage multiple email
accounts and contact books through the device. That means users will be able
to tap on a photo of a friend or colleague and decide whether to contact
them by text, email or instant message.
The new software will also make it possible to archive and search text
messages and picture messages, and an improved virtual keyboard to make it
easier to touch-type on the phone's screen at speed.
"Over the next few months, we expect to see more and more Android devices
being released," wrote Ducrochet. "These devices will be running
Android 1.5, 1.6, or 2.0. We are also planning a minor version update of
Android 2.0 towards the end of the year, and that will be the last update
for 2009."