There are many people who have discovered that they have ordered goods or services and the company has subsequently gone bust leaving the consumer out of pocket. So what happens in these situations and will you get your money back?

For any company that has gone into administration, you will be classed as a creditor. However there are likely to be many others ahead of you in the queue so you are unlikely to see any money back from the company itself.  Read more... (267 words, estimated 1:04 mins reading time)

Despite experts claiming that the housing market is slowly showing signs of bouncing back, some sellers are still finding it hard to shift their properties whilst some potential buyers are still unable to find mortgages. And this is where the rent-to-own scheme comes in.

The rent-to-own scheme, sometimes also known as lease-option, works well for both parties. The buyer normally puts in around 5% of the purchase price of the house plus pays slightly over the odds for their rent. The standard amount of rent goes straight to the home owner, whilst the additional rent is used as a down-payment for the property.  Read more... (501 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Chip and pin cards were once heralded as a way to all but eradicate fraud but as we reported before, scammers have found ways to get around the chip and pin security measures and defraud customers once more.

And as chip and pin grows ever more popular, criminal gangs appear to be finding even more ways around the system. Some recent reports have shown that criminals are stealing card-readers from petrol stations and shops around the country, dismantling them, installing their own devices into the readers which can record card numbers and PINs, before reassembling the reader and returning them to a shop. Some of these devices are so sophisticated that there are rumours that they can transmit all the input details to a mobile phone.  Read more... (296 words, estimated 1:11 mins reading time)

Recent research has shown that the average Briton has just 52 days worth of savings – that is, if they were made unemployed today, their savings would only be enough to cover 52 days before the money ran out. Scarily, over a third of people were found to have just 11 days worth of savings. Another recent survey has shown that only around half of Brits are putting aside enough money to give them an adequate income for their retirement years.  Read more... (433 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)