POUND NOTES

FINANCIAL FACT

HOME owners stay put for 19 years on average before moving, a report from Barclays Mortgages has found using data from property analysts Hometrack.

AMAZON FASHION LAUNCHES ‘TRY BEFORE YOU BUY’ SERVICE

PRIME Wardrobe lets Amazon Prime members try items from Amazon Fashion – before deciding whether they want to buy them. On receipt of their order, members have seven days to make a verdict, and then pay only for what they want to keep and return the rest.

COMPLAINTS TO FIRMS INCREASED IN EARLY 2018

THE PPI scandal and banking woes helped to drive complaints to record levels in the first half of 2018, according to the City regulator. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said complaints continued to increase for the fourth half-year in a row, reaching a new record level of 4.13 million complaints made to 3,161 firms. The bulk of complaints continue to be about PPI – which accounted for 42% of all complaints in the first half of 2018.

WARNING TO PENSION SAVERS

PENSION savers are being warned to hang up on cold calls about their pots.

The Financial Ombudsman Service says pension freedoms – allowing people to take their savings as lump sums – have opened the floodgates for phone line fraudsters.

The FOS received 14,912 complaints about this and it upheld a third.

Regulated financial advisers and reputable firms don’t contact people out of the blue, urging them to put pension savings into investments, often demanding quick decisions.

Be wary of offers of a free pension review, a too-good-to-miss investment opportunity or offers to access your money before age 55. If the advice you receive, or the investment, is not regulated then you’ve lost your money.

You can check if an adviser is regulated through the Financial Conduct Authority’s register at register.fca.org.uk