Plan your finances through the OFT website
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.THE Office of Fair Trading exists to ensure companies play by the rules when they deal with the public and with each other. The OFT is not averse to showing its teeth to the financial services industry and has published critical reports into health insurance and pensions. The pension report was one of the factors prompting the Government to re-examine private pension provision and to propose the new stakeholder pension.
The OFT has added a personal finance area to its internet site aimed at the general consumer. The OFT site carries articles on each of the main groups of financial services. This ranges from the very basic, such as bank current accounts, to more complex products such as open-ended investment companies (Oeics) or PEP mortgages.
The site starts by looking at financial planning, something it suggests we should all do more of. The OFT formulates an action plan for improving wealth. Its suggestions are all sensible, if hardly radical: you should review income and spending, pay off debts before building up savings, avoid borrowing on credit cards, build up an emergency fund for unforeseen problems. The section includes the usual monthly budget planning sheets, although these are not interactive and there are no on-screen calculations. The OFT site takes the same no-nonsense approach to mortgages, insurance, savings and investments and pensions. The site goes into more detail on insurance, pointing out that the decision on whether or not to take out a policy depends on the consumer's attitude to risk, the scale of the risk and the cost of insuring against it.
One of the strongest sections is on mortgages. The OFT goes in to quite some depth on the various ways of paying back a home loan, including the way most lenders calculate repayments. The OFT suggests that especially towards the end of the mortgage, where home owners with repayment mortgages are paying more capital, lenders should look to switch to a system which credits repayments as they are made, rather than once a year. The pages give a clear explanation of endowment policies and warn of the dangers of giving them up. Finally, there are links to official bodies, ombudsmen and trade organisations dealing with consumer complaints.
The OFT site's address is: http://www.oft.gov.uk/html/finance
Stephen Pritchard can be contacted at hi-tech-investor@dial.pipex.com
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments