The current upturn in the UK stock market is said to be being driven ‘ordinary’ householders buying shares because they are sick of the poor interest rates attached to their savings account.

The FTSE 100 index was pushed up 3.2 percent last week. This has followed a six month rally that has driven blue-chip shares up 50 percent over their March low.

Experts believe that both of these rallies are in part due to ordinary buyers, that is buyers who are not represented by big investment firms. Since June, the number of these buyers has risen to levels equal to the dotcom boom of 2000, and in the last three months, deals placed through execution-only stockbrokers has risen to over 4 million.  Read more... (294 words, estimated 1:11 mins reading time)

The black hole in the UK’s final salary private pension schemes is reported to have passed the £1 trillion mark.

Research by Aon Consulting has shown that the cost of meeting pensions is has risen with the 200 largest schemes now facing liabilities of over £500 billion. The rise in liabilities is down to a number of factors, most notably the fall of corporate bond yields (on which the costs of future pensions are based).

The figures make poor reading for those heading for retirement age in the near future as it means they will either have less money per year than they had planned for, or they will have to work for longer than anticipated.  Read more... (157 words, estimated 38 secs reading time)

Londoners have a new ATM to contend with – a Cockney ATM. Most of us have seen multilingual cash machines which give users the option to have the on-screen languages in a number of languages, however this is the first time that Cockney has been used as an alternative.

Bank Machine, who own and operate 2,500 ATMs across the UK, is hoping that the success of the Cockney ATM will see cash machines using other UK dialects too such as Brummie, Geordie, Scouse and Scots.

Messages that the Cockney ATM shows include:  Read more... (132 words, estimated 32 secs reading time)

• Some Moolah for ya sky rocket?

With savings account rates currently low and with many investors losing confidence in other types of savings and investments, there is one market which appears to be booming – the funeral plan market.

The Co-operative Funeralcare has recently announced that it has seen a 28 percent increase in like-for-like sales of funeral plans during the first half of 2009.

Experts believe the rise is due to two reasons: the first is because people are losing confidence in their normaly savings and investments and are concerned that they won’t have enough in their savings to pay for their funerals when they die.  Read more... (187 words, estimated 45 secs reading time)

According to the latest figures from the Pension Protection Fund, 88 percent of the UK’s 7,400 defined-benefit pensions schemes are facing a short fall. The problem is driven by two major factors – the fall in the stock market and the fact that people are living longer. The deficit in company schemes is now thought to be over £200 billion.

The figures are a stark contrast to the figures two years ago when pension funds were seen with a surplus of more than £100 billion. In the space of a year, the surplus had been wiped out and funds were seen with a deficit of £13 billion. This figure has now increased to a deficit of around £200 billion just one year later.  Read more... (242 words, estimated 58 secs reading time)

Consumers are being urged to be on their guard when booking their holidays online. Attempting to cash in on the internet boom and bargain holiday seeking, some scam websites have been defrauding people of cash.

Morairaway.com was a website promoting holiday villas. Estimated to have taken around $2 million this summer, consumers paid their money for luxury villas only to discover when arriving at their destination that the villas did not exist.

Some holidaymakers have been stung for thousands in the scam. Some enterprising souls even drove to Morairaway’s ‘head office’ only to discover it was nothing more than an office with post boxes.  Read more... (461 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

There has been plenty of publicity over the King of Shaves ‘shaving bond’ over the past few weeks. But is it really worth investing in?

The shaving bond offers 6% interest with a ‘shave and save’ scheme in the form of a ‘Shaving Bond’. This is actually a form of corporate bond and if you choose to give the company money, you are actually investing in the King of Shaves company. Interest of 3% will be paid every 6 months and you will need to declare this interest to the taxman. The small print also states that anyone buying into the bond will not be able to release the bond until the three years are up, or ‘to obtain reliable information about the risks to which they are exposed.’  Read more... (308 words, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)