All too easy: The banks are relentlessly pursuing an agenda to take us away from using cash but it doesn’t work for everyone Slowly but surely, like a Number 9 bus, we are moving towards a cashless society where plastic and payment apps rule. Move over bank and building society branches run by tellers with friendly … Read more
What is the coronavirus? A coronavirus is a type of virus which can cause illness in animals and people. Viruses break into cells inside their host and use them to reproduce itself and disrupt the body’s normal functions. Coronaviruses are named after the Latin word ‘corona’, which means crown, because they are encased by a … Read more
The carnage is horrific as this hideous pandemic carves through care homes across the country, killing hundreds of residents despite the best efforts of devoted staff. Thirteen people died with coronavirus symptoms at Stanley Park home in County Durham. Fifteen fatalities at care homes in Liverpool and Luton. Thirteen deaths at one in Glasgow, nine … Read more
Retired homeowners looking to convert their home equity into cash have in the past had limited options. Traditionally, the route to do this was through equity release, usually through a lifetime mortgage – but these are often expensive, and can eat into a borrower’s remaining home equity, limiting what they leave behind in inheritance. But … Read more
For nearly 250 years, building societies have played an important part in maintaining the financial fabric of communities up and down the country. Providing loans for home buyers and a safe place for savers to squirrel away their hard-earned cash. Although their numbers have shrunk dramatically over the years, the stoic 43 that remain continue … Read more
Modern society is ‘so afraid of death’ no one asks if lockdown measures to battle coronavirus are the right approach, says former Supreme Court judge Former Justice Jonathon Sumption, 71, said public have ‘irrational’ fear of death He listed historical epidemics with higher mortality rates and lesser ‘hysteria’ Suggests that government measures will lead to … Read more
Lockdown, what lockdown? London’s social scene might have been put on the backburner, but its movers and shakers are refusing to let the fun come to an end. Everyone from the Duchess of Cornwall to Health Secretary Matt Hancock and, reportedly, David Cameron is now socialising via Houseparty, the social network which allows group video … Read more
Savers looking for monthly pocket money have been dealt a blow by the news one of the nation’s largest building societies will no longer pay monthly interest on its fixed-rate bonds. Yorkshire Building Society previously offered monthly interest payments to savers who held its one, two and three-year fixed-rate bonds and Isas, but now only … Read more
An incredible picture of a fox foraging for food on a car bonnet has scooped the top prize in the Mammal Society’s annual photography contest. Other breathtaking images from the competition include a mountain hare rolling in snow, a bat in flight and a squirrel peeking out from behind a tree. The winning photo of … Read more