22/09/2012

Available for over a year

Most high street banks are now using automated calls to alert customers to an unusual transaction and to ask them if they have made it. Santander says it is making around a thousand calls a day just to verify cheque payments. But how do you, as a customer, know it's actually the bank calling and not a fraudster trying to obtain your details? Bob Howard reports and Paul Lewis talks to Richard Koch from the bank industry body UK Payments. Inflation fell slightly this week. But the long term prognosis is not so good. Paul Lewis talks to economist and ex-Monetary Policy Committee member, Andrew Sentance, about his fears for inflation. Four major energy companies are offering free home insulation to any householder. You don't have to be a customer of that firm and your personal or family circumstances or income aren't taken into account. It sounds too good to be true - but it isn't if you act quickly. There is also more money going begging for updating heating systems but that is confined to low income households of particular types. Paul Lewis talks to Jessica Forster, Energy doctor at the Energy Saving Trust to find out what deals are available. If you're declared bankrupt but still need a bank account for your wages, your benefits or to manage payments, then your choices are now much reduced. By fifty per-cent, in fact. From this week, the Co-operative Bank has stopped offering a bank account to new customers who are undischarged bankrupts. Which leaves only Barclays on the high street willing to provide them. So why has Coop pulled out? Paul Lewis talks to the Cooperative Bank's Head of Banking, Robin Taylor, and to Mike McAteer, Director of The Financial Inclusion Centre.