Christmas spending, energy, property and RBS

With the national and international news dominated by the resignation of the Italian Prime Minister, personal finance has an obsession of its own: Christmas.

Only a few days into December and the festive news is coming thick and fast. Today the BBC reports that ‘debt concerns at Christmas can be alleviated by seeking advice well before the bills come in’. It cites the Money Advice Trust, which runs the National Debtline service. According to the charity, less than a third of people have a Christmas budget. It added that a third would borrow to meet the cost of Christmas.

Meanwhile, new research from user experience agency Sigma has uncovered the tricks that retailers including Amazon, Just Fab, and River Island are using on their mobile sites to pressure shoppers into spending in the run-up to Christmas. Amazon was found to be pushing shoppers to sign up to its Amazon Prime service without stipulating clearly that the free trail would roll into a monthly payment of £7.99. By having a bright yellow button which says ‘FREE one-day delivery – pay later’ at the checkout, customers could be lured in into signing up to this service, not knowing that a subscription charge would be taken monthly as soon as the 30-day trial period was over, as mentioned in the small print. Another brand, women’s fashion e-tailer Just Fab, uses a tactic to convince customers to sign up to its subscription service. The brand advertises special offers for ‘VIP members’ and displays a countdown graphic for the discounts, which don’t apply to those that aren’t a member. It isn’t abundantly clear that by signing up to be a VIP member, customers will be charged £35 on a monthly basis. And it’s not just money that brands are trying to squeeze out of customers. River Island was revealed to be prioritising data collection over its customers’ experience online, by not allowing customers to checkout without going through the lengthy process of creating an account – where they then collected data from shoppers such as their email address. In other festive news, it may be the season of giving, but new research from Policy Expert has revealed more than three quarters of us received a present we didn’t want last Christmas, meaning millions of pounds could be wasted on unused items this year, despite many Brits keen to cut the cost of Christmas.

According to the survey of more than 5,000 people, the average festive spend is £653, some £424 of which is spent on presents for friends and family.

Energy

Energy giants are to be banned from telling their customers how to remove themselves from a new database that will share their contacts with rival suppliers. According to The Telegraph, ‘the database is the Competition and Market Authority’s flagship idea to prompt millions of disengaged households who have languished on expensive standard tariffs for years to shop around for cheaper energy deals. However, critics say it is likely to see customers deluged with junk mail.’ Property Property prices are rising so rapidly in several Home Counties commuter towns that in the past year even average properties have appreciated by as much as the cost of a Range Rover – or two and a half years’ worth of fees at Eton. That’s according to new analysis by the buying agents Garrington Property Finders. According to Land Registry data, in the 12 months to September, average prices of all London property types rose by 11 per cent – outpacing the 10 per cent chalked up in South East England. But big discrepancies opened up across the commuter belt, with price rises in several Home Counties areas easily outstripping those in the capital. RBS Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed to make huge payouts to settle claims from shareholders who say they were misled during the bank’s £12 billion cash call in 2008, according to The Guardian. ‘The bailed-out bank has reached agreement with three out of five groups which brought the claims, worth about £4 billion, over the rights issue which took place before its £45 billion taxpayer bailout.’ Economy London will experience the greatest slowdown in economic growth of any region in Britain over the next three years as the impact of the Brexit vote, higher inflation and an expected slowdown in the services sector hits the capital hardest, The Times reports. EY estimates that ‘London will expand at an average of 1.9 per cent a year until 2019 in gross value added terms, which measures output through goods produced and services delivered. This is a considerable slowdown from the 3 per cent growth estimated for the region last year.’ Agency workers

The BBC reports that the number of agency workers is expected to top one million by 2020 if current growth trends continue.

Describing agency workers as ‘the forgotten face’ in the debate around insecure work, Resolution Foundation, a think tank, calculates that a full-time agency worker gets £430 less than an employee in the same role. The current number is 865,000.