POUND NOTES
NEW KIDS’ SAVINGS ACCOUNTS LAUNCHED
HALIFAX is offering two new savings accounts for children – the Kids’ Monthly Saver allows parents and relatives to save between £10 and £100 a month for their children, at a fixed interest rate of 4.5%, and the Kids’ Saver, which offers a variable rate of 2% on balances up to £5,000.
Both can be opened online or in branch. Giles Martin, head of Halifax Savings, says: “Feedback from parents showed they wanted to be able to open a savings account for their children quickly and easily, with competitive rates, but they also wanted the flexibility and peace of mind of managing it online.”
DON’T ASSUME INSURANCE WILL COVER HOUSE GUESTS
GOCOMPARE is warning people not to assume that their home insurance will cover guests, in particular paying or business guests. Whether it’s having family and friends to stay, letting a room, running a home business or holding a charity fundraiser, millions welcome visitors into their homes every year.
But standard home insurance policies may exclude cover for lodgers, paying guests or business visitors to homes and, depending on the policy, cover for visiting friends’ and family’s possessions may also be limited or excluded, GoCompare Home Insurance says.
HOMES ‘EARNED’ MORE THAN THEIR OWNERS IN NEARLY A FIFTH OF UK DISTRICTS, REPORT FINDS
HOMES in nearly a fifth of UK local authority districts have ‘earned’ more than their owners over the past two years, research from Halifax suggests. Halifax compared rising property values against people’s average takehome earnings across the two-year period of 2016 and 2017 to make the findings.
The proportion of areas where house prices are outpacing earnings has fallen from 31% in 2016 to 18% in 2017, Halifax said.
FINANCIAL FACT: Bacs, the payments body behind direct debits and Bacs direct credits in the UK, is celebrating its 50th birthday, having started life as the Inter Bank Computer Bureau in April 1968. It has processed over 125 billion payments since launching.