MONEY MORSELS
Mobile warning
TALKMOBILE customers could lose up to £50 credit if they do not spend it soon. Vodafone, which took over TalkMobile in 2011, will shut down TalkMobile’s pay-as-you-go service from August 31, so customers will not be able to use any credit on their account after then. This will not affect customers who pay monthly.
Switching bonus
HALIFAX will pay new customers £125 if they switch to the bank’s current account before July 31. If you take out its Reward Current Account, you will also earn £3 a month — £36 a year. To be eligible, you must pay in at least £750 each month.
Binary ban
APPLE has banned companies from offering high- risk trading software to its mobile customers. It will no longer allow firms to launch iPhone applications that enable ‘binary options trading’ — betting on market movements.
Cash buyer boom
SOARING numbers of homebuyers use cash to pay for properties outright as older owners sell family homes to downsize. Almost half of the total amount spent on house purchases in the past 12 months came from cash buyers who did not need a mortgage, according to estate agent Savills.
Useless cover
THOuSAnDS of mobile users may be wasting money on useless phone insurance, new research suggests. Analysis of 151 different policies shows that a third provide no cover if you lose your handset, while a fifth will not pay out if your phone is stolen. More than a third of policies offer no protection if a thief uses your phone to rack up hefty bills, research firm Defaqto found.
Digital lounges
LIVING rooms will soon use more energy than the average kitchen, research reveals. A study by British Gas and the CEBR research group said they now account for 30 pc of the electricity used in our homes, up from 9 pc in the Seventies, as families buy more high-tech gadgets. Kitchen energy consumption has fallen from 46 pc of the total to 35 pc.
Leasehold lending
SAnTAnDER and HSBC could stop issuing mortgages on leasehold properties where homeowners pay extortionate annual fees. Leaseholders do not own the land under their property and can be charged ground rent by the freeholder. The two banks are reviewing their policies. nationwide last month stopped lending where ground rents were ‘unreasonable’.
Green deal
THE cheapest renewable energy tariff costs just £8 more than the whole energy market’s top deal, compared to £110 a year ago, according to comparison website uSwitch. There are now 24 green deals that cost less than the average Big Six tariff ( Tonik Energy’s Positive Energy V8 tariff is lowest, at £866 a year).