New pension rules are going to hit UK’s smallest firms very badly by increasing their financial burden at least by £2,550 per year.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) quoted that as per the Government’s new plans for workers, a typical small firm which is just employing 4 persons with a average salary of £25,000 have to find an extra of £2,550 per year, as the employees getting enrolled in the pension scheme automatically.

A consumer group reveals that savers lose billions of pounds every year by storing their money in low-return accounts. In the UK, half of the saving account providers offer less than 0.5% interest.

It is assumed that approximately an amount of £12 billion could be in the pockets of savers who intelligently move their money to high-return accounts.

The reason why so many savers miss out on the extra cash is because their financial institutes of choice do not make transparent how high the returns actually are. That does not make the customers conscious about better deals.

The latest addition comes in form of an entire credit card payment service for Apple's iPhone. Intuit, a financial utility software developer company, has joined hands with iPhone accessory maker Mophie in order to develop a credit card reading device created exclusively for Apple based devices, reports Mac World.

The service is named as Complete Credit Card Solution, and supposedly runs fine with both iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS with keeping the mid market segment in mind. And soon the iPhone 4 will be offered as it has taken the form of development.

In the midst of all the junk mail that may have popped up in the most recent times, may be they are too similar in all the cases, particularly noticing of a solicitation for a ‘professional card’ or else better recognized as corporate credit card. If there is any such mail in the inbox, beware!

The Credit Card Accountability and Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 or Card Act to state in brief, does not include professional cards under the same.

Banking giant Lloyds TSB will reduce the overdraft charges on its current accounts from 2nd of December this year.

The fee for a bounced cheque will be hacked by 50 per cent, from £10 to £5. The hacked overdraft fees will affect both daily and monthly fees. Customers who go over their overdraft limits without permission will have to face the daily and monthly fees on their accounts cut from December.

Lloyds TSB had been facing criticism from customers as well as banking lobby groups for high overdraft charges.

Mortgage financing giants Fannies and Freddie Mac are in the end seeing the way into darkness. The firms will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange under the order of their federal supervisory body. When they start trading in the penny stock market, shareholder attitudes might see a new face.

The apparent rationale for the Federal Housing Finance Agency's instruction to move them off the big markets is that Fannie's stock recently has averaged no more than the $1 minimum price necessary by the N. Y. S. E., whilst Freddie's has seen a fall of close to that height.

Lloyds TSB has become the second big lender to buckle under the pressure of guaranteeing that its standard variable rate will not rise more than 2% above the Bank of England's base rate: the bank is to introduce a second, more expensive rate for new borrowers from 1 June.

Lloyds will inflict a "homeowner variable rate", now at 3.99%, on all new mortgage customers as their fixed or tracker deal ends. As the shortest mortgage deal it offers lasts for two years, borrowers will start paying the new rate in June 2012.

For MNBA, who are one of the biggest issuers of credit card cheques, it’s an end to their technique of laying awful strategies for its credit card users. The extremely high-interest charging firm is soon going to be exterminated.

However, MNBA has agreed to stop sending out unsolicited credit card cheques to customers FROM March 31.

On an average, 28% of the cheques issued by MNBA have been criticized for charging higher interest rates compared to normal credit card purchases.

A new research published by the National Association of Pension Funds has showed that over two thirds of the respondents believe that their pension funds will not give them enough money at the time of their retirement.

The research also found that over a quarter said they could invest more in pension funds if they were sure that they would not loose money put into these funds. At present, people are allowed to access their pensions earlier but still only 10 per cent said that it would make them more confident about the pension funds.

The researchers have discovered that more than 14m people use their credit cards for everyday spending, with one in five carrying three or more cards.

They posted that more men than women carry multiple cards, with 25% men possessing three of more credit cards compared with around 16% women.

Worryingly, it is the more financially vulnerable who are most likely to use their cards every day, with those under the age of 20 and older than 70 being the worst offenders.

In a recent survey, nearly a fifth of parents admitted that they have broken into their child's savings account in order to get their hands on more money and make ends meet during the financially difficult times.

About 22% of the parents interviewed said that they had been forced to dip into the savings of their children, with around 44% parents borrowing between 200 Pounds to 500 Pounds, as has been confirmed by savings provider Engage Mutual Assurance.

A recent research undertaken by moneysupermarket. com has revealed that about three-quarters of UK's banks are restricting personal loans to existing customers only. 7 out of the top 9 banks who are top ranked and most active lenders in the personal loans market will only "advance money to people who already hold products with them, typically current account customers".

The cost of fixed-rate mortgages is going down as mortgage lenders are axing rates to amid soaring competition for borrowers.

Last week, Abbey and Nationwide slashed rates on their fixed-rate deals, joining other key lenders such as Cheltenham & Gloucester, Alliance & Leicester and First Direct, which have already hacked their rate earlier this month.

As has been confirmed by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the number of mortgage lending granted for the month of October to home buyers across the nation has managed to hit a 22 month high.

In all, as confirmed by official figures, 55,300 mortgages were granted for the month, the highest figure recorded since December 2007, which is also a 9% increase compared to the previous month, and a 43% rise from the lending figure registered for October of 2008.

Taking the Home Affordable Modification Program, a $75 Billion campaign, a step forward, the US Government has announced that it will increase public pressure on lenders to make modifications to more home loans in order to ease some worries of financially troubled borrows.