Most home buyers purchase life assurance when they arrange a mortgage, but only a minority obtain another form of financial protection that they are five times more likely to need before they reach retirement. Critical illness assurance pays a tax-free lump sum on diagnosis of any one of [ Read More → ]

IF YOU want to get the best return on your money and have already put all you can into a cash Isa this year, you may want to consider equity Isas – Isas that invest in stocks and shares. Equity Isas have a number of advantages over their cash counterparts. [ Read More → ]

Banks to tighten lending criteria on loans and reduce credit card limits Photo: PA It comes as more lenders said they had reduced the availability of mortgages rather than increased it during the past three months following a “deterioration” in the cost and access to wholesale funds. It comes despite billions [ Read More → ]

MBNA ignored the cardholder’s request not to take out payment protection insurance Photo: PA A county court judge ruled that Lynne Thorius, 49, was charged thousands of pounds by MBNA for an insurance policy she had never asked for. The ruling could open the floodgates for millions of pounds’ worth of similar claims [ Read More → ]

The national average price of a pint is £2.68, but pubgoers will have to pay £3.01 for a pint of bitter in Surrey Photo: GEOFF PUGH Pubgoers will have to pay £3.01 for a pint of bitter in Surrey, according to the latest edition of the Good Pub Guide, published on [ Read More → ]

Walter Hamilton And E. Scott Reckard - Kenneth D. Lewis, who became a focus of public and political outrage while presiding over Bank of America Corp.’s stunning fall from grace in the financial crisis, is stepping down as [ Read More → ]

On Wall Street, it paid to wear rose-colored glasses in the third quarter. Another surge in stock prices rewarded investors who kept faith that the recession was ending — even amid growing concern about the recovery’s dependence on government support. The Dow Jones industrial average, which slipped 29.92 points, or 0.3%, to [ Read More → ]

Winter’s coming, but breathe easy. While the average cost of heating oil in the Northeast is expected to rise to $2.73 a gallon this season, that’s only 7 cents higher than last winter - and nowhere near what it was in the summer of 2008, when a [ Read More → ]

LOS ANGELES — Federal prosecutors have announced a settlement with a Los Angeles-based bank that was sued along with two auto dealerships for allegedly charging non-Asian customers higher interest rates on car loans. Under the agreement, Nara Bank will pay up to $410,000 to customers who were overcharged, according to a [ Read More → ]

NEW YORK - Can’t find an ATM from your bank nearby? Keep walking, unless you want to pay higher fees. An annual survey released Wednesday by Bankrate.com found the average ATM fee for non-customers rose 12.6 percent this year to $2.22. You’ll likely get dinged by your own bank, too. The average [ Read More → ]