Where does one go for financial advice nowadays? More and more, it seems that decent impartial financial advice isn’t easy to come by – after all, as impartial as people claim to be, quite often you can’t confirm this yourself.

Because of this, the best way to get properly impartial advice is to make as many enquiries as possible yourself. Your bank might tell you that they have a great deal on a loan or a credit card, but you might find that by making enquiries elsewhere, you could get a far better rate or deal on what you want, which is where services like price comparison sites can really play to your advantage.

Just by tapping in a few details and hitting that button, you can view details on a huge number of deals on the product you’re looking for, ranked to be as close as possible to the parameters you set in the first place, and many of which you can apply for directly.

Of course, this is all well and good, but who do you turn to if you don’t know what you want? Well, the advice given to you by your bank can normally steer you in the right direction, just don’t assume that they will be able to offer you the best deal – often they will be able to, due to a special “existing customer rate” or similar (This is often true for loans, as your bank has a greater knowledge over your financial dealings), but quite often it can be worth shopping around – especially in the case of cash ISAs at the moment, where some banks are offering just .05% interest rates and standard savers often offering little over 3% – Which, when you consider that, according to moneysupermarket.com: “A higher rate taxpayer needs an account paying at least 6.17% in order to earn a positive return [on their savings], while someone in the basic taxband needs to be earning at least 4.62%” Means that at the moment, finding the best place for your money is even more important than ever.

There is a lot to be said for carefully considering your financial position, learning about the different options available and then choosing the one most appropriate to you. True enough, this may not be the quickest way, but do you really want to rush into what could be a very important financial decision? moneysupermarket.com can make this decision easier, offering not only detailed price comparison, but a wealth of other information that can help you decide on what product and what type of account is right for you.

The most important factor when choosing to manage your personal finances effectively is time. A greater time investment will almost always result in a greater financial return.

Therefore the sooner you start to manage your finances, the greater return and financial ease you will feel in the future. Many people fail to plan ahead, which results in struggling to juggle finances at a later point in life.

Money management should focus on four primary questions:

1.       What financial goals would you like to achieve?

2.       When can you expect to achieve them?

3.       What finances do you currently have?

4.       What level of risk would you make to achieve these targets?

Choosing somewhere to live is an essential in everybody’s lives, and therefore, buying a house will be the biggest financial purchase that people will make. The financial investment into a home will affect all your other finances.

Making big decisions on your lifestyle will affect your financial goals. If you consider a luxury holiday to be one of life’s essentials, you will have less money left over for savings and investments.

When do you want to retire? What expenses do you currently have? Deciding what your priorities are will help to determine what money you will have left.

It is worth assessing your current liabilities, as these expenditures and assets could be reduced or sold and free up money for the future.

Calculate how much spare money you have so that you can form an investment plan. Investments can vary dramatically. Some are high risk for higher reward or loss, and some are low risk for a steady growth on investment. It’s up to the individual to decide what level of risk you are prepared to make.

Once these considerations have been made and your plan is in places, it’s important to assess the decisions you’ve made and how they affect you on a day to day basis. You plan may be too restrictive, leaving you with not enough money to live on, or perhaps you could make greater short term sacrifices to benefit you in the long term.

A small amount of time spent on your current finances can be highly rewarding for your future.

The US economy saw its first growth in over a year, rising to an annual rate of 3.5% between July and September.

Experts believe that a major spending plan by the US government which featured a scrappage scheme to encourage the car sales market has been the main cause of the upturn.

Some economists believe that there could be more setbacks lurking ahead, despite the official statistics showing that the recession is over.

A spokesman at the White House announced that recent economic progression was “a welcome milestone” but it would take more time for a full recovery to be recognised.

The US economy had risen 0.9% in relation to the previous three months, whereas the UK economy remained in recession, unexpectedly dropping 0.4%.

Hugh Pym, the chief economics correspondent for the BBC, revealed that the growth rate of 3.5% was greater than the 3.3% predicted by most experts.

He continued:”The sheer scale of the stimulus in the US has made a big difference, it was much bigger in percentage terms than that in the UK.”

“That the US, the powerhouse of the world economy is growing once again, is good news for the global economy has a whole.”

The last time the US economy grew was in the second quarter of 2008, by an annual rate of 2,4%.

The National Bureau of Economic Research will reveal the full extent of the US economic climb from recession when it analyses all the factors.

Some factors were significantly responsible for helping US economy during the third quarter, according to the Commerce Department.

The spending on durable manufactured products rocketed up at an annual rate of 22.3% which was the highest quarterly figure since 2001 and was spearheaded by the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ scheme helping new car sales.

Consumer spending increased on housing products by 23.4%, the greatest quarterly surge in 23 years, and came as a result of an improving housing market.

The big increase is considered by many to be due to the government’s $8,000 tax credit provided to first-time house buyers.

Government spending increased by 7.9% as stimulus spending spread and exports saw their biggest rise since 1996, rising by 21.4%.

Brian Bethune, an economist for HIS Global Insight stated that “it’s good to have the economy growing again.”

“But we don’t think that rate of growth is sustainable because it is distorted by all the government stimulus.”

“The challenge here is to get organic growth - growth that isn’t helped by fiscal steroids.”

However, unemployment is at a rate of 9.8% and a sharp fall came in September in the car sales industry as a result of the popular car scrappage scheme coming to an end in August.

Dean Baker, co-director of the Centre of Economic Policy Research believes that “you can say that the recession is over, but it sure won’t feel like that.”

“There is a lot of downward momentum that isn’t going to go.”

Plans to split British bank Northen Rock in two which would allow for its partial sale has been granted by the European Union.

The divide would result in two separate banks forming and are already being described as the “good” and “bad” banks.

The “good” bank would offer new lending, retain some of the existing mortgages and hold its savers’ money.

The “bad” bank would be used to repay the existing government loans and hold the remaining loans.

 Decisions made by the EU to accept the move are seen by Northern Rock as “an important and positive step.”

Changes to the existing setup will be made towards the end of the year.

The EU revealed that the good portion of the bank would be expected to grow and then be sold to third party, with the bad bank allowing its assets to dissolve then becoming liquidated.

The good bank may be sold prior to the general election next year with potential buyers being speculated already, with Virgin and National Australia Bank, owner of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank, among the interested parties.

EU Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, believes that the move would make the bank a good long-term option, revealing that “this decision demonstrates once again that the EU’s state aid rules provide an appropriate framework to allow state support for a sustainable restructuring of banks without giving individual banks an unfair competitive advantage.”

Whilst Jonathan Todd, European Commission spokesman, said caps would need to be applied for the duration that the good bank remains owned by the public.

Some of the caps include a balance sheet reduced to a quarter of its size prior to the crisis, not being the market leader for loan interest rates, a cap set to limit its lending to one-third of Northern Rock’s 2008 levels and also a cap on retail deposits to be slightly lower than the pre-crisis level.

An investigation was engaged by the EU into Northern Rock in April 2008, two months after its nationalisation.

The results from the investigation showed that the UK government was kept at a “necessary minimum”.

By 30 June, the bank had paid back approximately half the taxpayers’ £26.9bn loan and will gain a further £8bn from the government during the end of year restructuring.

The EU stated that the restructuring would reduce its market share to below half of its pre-crisis level and “correct the excessive expansion of Northern Rock pre-crisis.”

Northern Rock released a statement, saying “this approval is an essential requirement of the planned legal and capital restructure, which is central to the business plan for Northern Rock.”

“The restructure will strengthen the capital and liquidity position of Northern Rock significantly, and offers value for money to taxpayers” and it would be “business as usual” for its customers.

According to official figures, the UK experienced an unexpected contraction of 0.4% for the third quarter, showing that the UK is still stuck in the recession.

This quarterly contraction is the sixth consecutive contraction, the worst run of figures that UK gross domestic product (GDP) has experienced since records began 54 years ago.

The GDP of a country represents the value of goods and services produced by a country. The figures released may be altered at a later date, as this is just a first estimate.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS), had been expected to show quarterly growth of 0.2%. However, no growth in retail sales for September and a 2.5% fall in industrial output for August had dented people’s positive expectations.

Experts have revealed that one of the main causes of the contraction was an unexpected drop in the services sector, with distribution, catering and hotels generating some of the worst figures.

Nearby countries France and Germany exited the recession earlier this year, and it is generally considered that the UK’s reliance upon the services sector, and more specifically, the finances sector being the main reason.

The UK economy has now experienced a 5.9% contraction since its high point prior to the recession.

The Bank of England is set to re-think its quantitative easing plan after seeing such a poor result in GDP figures. Quantitative easing involves the Bank of England printing money to buy bonds from companies and banks in an effort to encourage positive activity in the economy.

HSBC’s Bronwyn Curtis spoke with the BBC, revealing that “back in August we had a worse-than-expected second-quarter GDP number and that is the reason that the Bank of England extended the quantitative easing programme,”

ING’s James Knightly felt that the data was “awful with no positive news” and “clearly suggests that the likelihood of an expansion in quantitative easing by £50bn or so over the next quarter is rising, although [it] is not a foregone conclusion.”

It is considered by many experts to be disturbing that measures taken by the government and the Bank of England have failed to make a positive impact. However, David Kern, the chief economist with the British Chamers of Commerce believes that “continued intervention - including help for businesses to access finance, and incentives to promote investment - is still needed.”

“Above all else, business confidence must be nurtured, to ensure that recovery is not further delayed.”

Alistair Darling has announced that the government must borrow its way to recovery and believes that it’s the best avenue for the UK economy in the long run.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer confessed that further national borrowing “may feel counter-intuitive,” but “will mean the bills we face as a country are lower” in the long run.

However, many believe that the levels of government debt are already too high, with cuts in public spending and tax rises required. The government has already raised borrowing during the recession by high amounts.

Following Mr Darling’s speech, a question-and-answer session was held, with the chancellor finding agreement with Mervyn King, the Bank of England Governor, stating that there were “no simple answers” when it came to the reform of big banks.

According to Mervyn King, their core business may need to be divided into other practices to prevent them from becoming so big that they aren’t allowed to fail.

Mr Darling was concerned that “we cannot have a regulatory regime that excludes the possibility of failure.”

He went on to state that the banking sector needed more competition, and when the government came to selling its bank stakes that were bought during the financial crisis, it would be hoping to develop greater competition.

Many are calling for a reduction to the borrowing and spending that has caused so much debt, but Mr Darling believes that withdrawing government support would be “wrong and dangerous,” and the country would have to make a big decision.

At a speech in London, Mr Darling declared that “we can resign ourselves to a decade of austerity, low growth and low employment, or we can embrace change, turn it to our advantage and seize the huge opportunities a global recovery will bring.”

He continued by warning that withdrawing government support to the economy “would put the recovery at risk and abandon people facing unemployment.”

In a bid to encourage demand during the recession, the government has pushed billions of pounds into the economy through its £175bn quantitative easing plan, cut the VAT rate and helping ailing banks.

According to Mr Darling, a great deal of work was still required to steer the country out of the recession, including three big steps.

“First, we must support the economy until we’re sure the recession is over. Some are tempted to think the crisis is over. It’s not. Banks all over the world are still dependent on government support.”

The second step would involve raising taxes to regain financial strength and taking “tough choices on public spending for the years ahead”.

He added, that it “will mean cutting costs, cutting waste and cutting lower priority budgets, while continuing to invest in our priorities and our future.”

His third step would involve a government plan of growth.

“We need growth, because when we grow, the economy becomes bigger, we all become richer as a country, and it gets easier to pay back debt.”

 Unfair

Northern Irish politicians are asking Gordon Brown to compensate nine and a half thousand people who lost their savings after promising to protect savers when any UK financial institution got into trouble.

However, seven months ago Presbyterian Mutual Society collapses and none of its savers have received their money back because the government insists they were not ‘savers’, but rather ‘investors’.

MP Jeffery Donaldson, a member of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly and assistant to the First Minister Peter Robinson said that he doesn’t accept that view.

He says: “We believe a mutual society like Presbyterian Mutual Society is on a par with building societies who have been helped by the government.

!If you are living in Northern Ireland as a British citizen and you hear your prime minister say that all savers will have their money protected and yet a UK financial institution like Presbyterian Mutual can’t have savings protected, we think that is unfair.”

Fighting For What’s Theirs

The First and Deputy Ministers will be meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown to discuss the Presbyterians collapse, with the main objective of the meeting being that the Prime Minister has not met his promise to make sure that no UK savers lose out if their financial institution get into difficulties.

Representative of the Presbyterian, Ian McGimpsey, said that the situation was a great hardship. “Some people have sold a business and put their money into the Presbyterian Mutual Society and they haven’t got the money to pay their income tax. They are having to borrow it.

 “People in care homes – their savings are frozen, they are in terrible difficulties and are so worried,” he added.

Jefferey Donaldson insists that it is the governments responsibility to compensate the money and not the Northern Ireland Assembly.

He says: “Our legal advice is that it is not a devolved matter in relation to government intervention. Although Presbyterian is registered with the Department for Enterprise in Northern Ireland, financial service is not a devolved matter and banking is not a devolved matter.

“The Secretary of State [Shaun Woodward] did say in the House of Commons that he was prepared to intervene. We are now waiting to see what that intervention will be.”

What Do You Think?

Is the government letting down Northern Irish savers? Who is responsible for paying savers back? We would love to know your thoughts and opinions. Leave your comments here.

It seems that if savers are wishing to make any sort of decent return on their savings these days they are going to be forced to part with their money for a long time.

Official figures from the Bank of England show the average interest rate on instant access accounts including current accounts was 0.15% at the end of April. This is down on a month earlier even though the Bank interest rate is still the same.

According to one analyst, more competitive deals are available on fixed-rate bonds, but these can tie up funds for a few years.

The economic crisis has arguably hit savers worse than anyone as interest rates on accounts plunged from 5% in September, to 0.5% now.

Pensioners in particular, who use interest payments on life savings to top-up their pensions are making their feelings about this known.

Competition Is Slowly Re-Emerging

The Bank’s figures also show that the average return from instant access accounts fell from 2.42% to 0.15% in just twelve months.

For tax-free Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) are currently 0.41%, down from 4.81% a year earlier.

However, according to Rachel Thrussell from Moneyfacts, more and more competition is emerging over fixed-rate bonds now that some of the dust has settled after the Bank rate changes at the beginning of the year.

In the past few weeks, interest rates on four or five year fixed-rate bonds has just gone above 4%.

Andrew Hagger from Moneynet said that Child Trust Funds have also taken a battering .

Child Trust Funds Suffer In Silence

The average rate on cash-based Child Trust Funds in October was 6%, the highest rate of interest at 7.75%. Now, interest rates are struggling at 2.38%.

Since 2002 the government have started giving every newborn £250 for their parents to invest in their future.

Mortgage holders however are receiving some good news for a change. The average cost of their repayments has dropped.

The average standard variable rate (SVR) that was being charged for home loans was 3.83% at the end of April compared to 7.23% this time last year.

The prices of Tracker deals has also fallen, but analysts generally believe that the mortgage rates have reached the lowest point they will get to.

What Do You Think?

We would love to know your thoughts and opinions on this. Leave your comments here.

From October of this year, people over the age of 50 will have the chance to top up their tax-free savings in Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) as the limit is extended from £7,200 to £10,200.

The change will take place on 6 October this year for those over 50, however, everyone else needs to wait until April next year to see the same benefits.

The cash limit on the overall allowance will also be raised from £3,600 to £5,100 and the rest of the money can be invested in shares.

ISAs were introduced a decade ago by Gordon Brown who was then the Chancellor in order to try to encourage people to save money. Today around 18 million ISA accounts exist and around 5 million of those use the full allowance each year.

How Will This Affect You?

Until the changes come into force, you can currently have £7,200 in these accounts, and the maximum cash investment on this is £3,600. However, this will be increased to £10,200 and half of which can be a cash investment. This is expected to cost the Treasury £60 million in total by 2011-2012.

Many experts are welcoming this move. Catherine Ross for example has said that: “This is not a case of tinkering around the edges. For a lot of people a great deal of their savings will now fall outside od the tax net.”

However, Defaqto’s David Black has pointed out that unless interest rates start to rise again, the benefits this action could have are limited. Even at the best interest rates that are currently on offer, the change means that the increase in tax-free interest is only £54.15.

From the Building Societies Association (BSA), Brian Morris says that ISA providers will be given a little breathing space before making sure that they have applied the changes to their accounts. He said: “We will be checking with our members that six months is sufficient.

“The increase in the limit is very welcome and something that we lobbied for. However, we would have preferred for this to all come into force in one go,” he added.

What Do You Think?

A good move or a bad one? Will this change help people or will it have little effect? We would love to know your thoughts and opinions. Leave your comments here.

Average interest rates on savings accounts that allow instant access to savers money is barely above zero, at 0.17% at the end of last month, therefore not taking into account interest reductions that came into force at the beginning of March.

Those with variable or tracker mortgages have seen the benefit of the reduction in interest rate, but savers and pensioners in particular are feeling the pinch.

Those with branch-based notice accounts are also seeing little reward on their savings. At the end of February, the average rate was 0.18%, which is half the figure at the end of January.

This time last year, interest rates on instant access accounts were 2.69%, much higher than the current 0.17% average.

‘Savers Being Punished’

Moneysupermarket.com’s Kein Mountford said: “savers are being punished for the mistakes of others, and that so many are looking to find better rates at a time when you would imagine security and service would be paramount, shows just how badly savers are being squeezed.”

ISA interest rates also dropped to an average of 0.96% from 5.06% this time last year.

On the other hand, interest on fixed rate bonds has risen a little, from 2.49% at the end of January, to 2.56% at the end of last month. Although, this is still around half the amount they were at this time last year.

Savers may be suffering, but mortgage borrowers are looking at lower repayments on their loans.

Customers with a standard variable rate (SVR) deal are currently looking at an interest rate average of 4.41%, nearly half what it was a year earlier at 7.5%.

Does Anyone Really Benefit?

This shows that neither borrowers nor savers have really been seen the benefit of recent interest rate cuts.

Experts are saying that interest rates can’t really fall any further, and are suggesting a longer-term fixed-rate mortgage deal could benefit mortgage borrowers more over time.

Though it has to be born in mind that it is hard to determine how many people in the UK are borrowing and how many are saving their money at the moment, it is fairly safe to assume that overall, there are more savers, but most UK householders are net borrowers.

The stats show that overall, total household savings are about £987 billion with banks and building societies, on top of £90 billion of National Savings. On the other hand, borrowing reaches £1,225 billion in mortgage debts, plus £233 billion in other consumer debts.

The funding gap – the difference between these two figures is the amounts banks are borrowing in wholesale markets, much of which comes from abroad.

What Do You Think?

Have you been badly affected by savings interest rates crashing? Do you have any advice for other people? Leave your comments here.