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By Julia Kukiewicz Staff Writer
Friday, 29 May 2009
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Previous Money News Roundups
See our other recent Money News Roundups and other related news stories:
Money News Roundup (22 MAY 09)
The week in money with Julia Kukiewicz: find out why Britain's credit rating is plummeting, the price of tea is rising and taking bets on the recession is an unpopular move.
Money News Roundup (15 MAY 09)
In this week's money news roundup with Julia Kukiewicz buy your very own village, get rid of your pin number and find out about the credit cards you can use for travel insurance.
Money News Roundup (08 MAY 09)
In this week's money news roundup with Julia Kukiewicz find out why NatWest's MoneySense scheme is starting to feel more like a MoneyScam, all about thousands of secret credit cards and the £s you need to keep a man happy.
Money News Roundup (1 MAY 09)
Find out why Iggy Pop is out of a job, how the changes to Egg credit cards could affect you and who would buy their botox from ebay in this week's money news round up with Julia Kukiewicz.
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CAR insurance fraud, Santander, sneaky tricks from your bank and the Potato Council in this week's money roundup.
Dangerous Fraud
INSURANCE claims from people who have crashed their own cars to make cash are on the rise according to the Insurance Fraud Bureau.
According to John Beadle, the group's chairman: "Innocent lives are being put at risk and fraudulent insurance claims add approximately £40 to every premium paid by honest policy holders each year."
According to some reports, those out to commit fraud have been preying on other road-users by breaking suddenly and without warning when leaving a junction.
Your new High Street Flame
SANTANDER will soon replace Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley on Britain's high streets in a branding consolidation of its UK bank buyouts. But how will this affect consumers?
Credit cards with the Santander brand name will start to be issued next month but the bank doesn't expect to rebrand everything until the end of 2010.
Inevitably, there will be far less choice for consumers and, since the three brands are often so close to each other, some branches will close. 1,900 jobs will go at Abbey alone.
Santander insisted that competition would be improved since the products on offer were so often at the top of their class. However, this remains to be seen and Which? greeted the announcement by commentating that they hoped that the poor customer service for which Abbey is sometimes associated will be improved.
Spud U (Don't) Like
BRITAIN'S £1bn potato industry could be in jeopardy unless young people start eating more spuds the Potato Council warned this week.
Yes, you read that right. The Potato Council is a real thing.
According to Kathryn Race, marketing director of the Potato Council, housewives aged over 45 account for 66% of the fresh potato spend, so they're concentrating on winning the hearts and minds of the next generation.
Now expecting a strange urge to buy potatoes.
On Borrowing from your Bank
IF you're a Barclay's customer you may have read the following message on your doormat: "As a valued customer we have some fantastic products and services that you may find useful. One of these is the potential to borrow money at some great rates."
Barclays is just one of many banks trying to encourage current customers to borrow from them.
Their motivation is obvious: as credit criteria tighten banks are looking for known quantities and solid evidence of good behaviour. Yet it's also more than this, research has found that we tend to pay off debts from providers that we have other relationships with first.
This leads to attempts to sell customers borrowing but they do have preferential rates for their own customers and the chance to apply without risking poor credit ratings if they're rejected.
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