POUND NOTES
Financial fact:
£87.1BN was put into workplace pensions by eligible savers in 2016, according to figures from the Department for Work and Pensions showing the progress of automatic enrolment.
This was an increase of £3.8bn on the total amount saved in 2015.
New talking card reader to help banking customers:
BARCLAYS has launched a new talking card reader with “supersized” features and an improved high-visibility debit card to help customers with sight and dexterity issues to access its services more easily.
Some customers, particularly older ones, told Barclays they found a card reader difficult to see and use because of its size, so now the bank has developed a device with bigger buttons and a larger screen.
Small handheld card readers are used by customers logging into their online banking from home, to provide an extra layer of security.
Consumer credit complaints to the ombudsman increase:
A “STRIKING” surge in consumer complaints about credit, including payday loans, has been seen by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) during the past year.
In its annual review of complaints, the FOS said that complaints about payday loans tripled in 2016-17 compared with the previous year.
Complaints about catalogue shopping, debt collecting, hiring, leasing and renting, pointof-sale loans, credit reference agencies, guarantor loans and logbook loans – where the borrower’s vehicle is put up as security – also increased yearon-year.
40% of expectant parents “already saving for child’s education”:
AROUND 40% of parents-to-be are saving for their child’s education before they are born, a survey has found.
Expectant parents anticipate that they will have put aside £1,204 in savings by the time their child turns one year old, saving an average of £904 before their baby arrives, comparethemarket.com found.
Simon McCulloch, director of insurance at comparethemarket.com, says: “It’s a good idea to put aside what you can before your baby is born and before the cost of childcare, nappies and baby clothes start to kick in.”