IHT threshold changes evaluated by financing expert - Published:05/06/07
The government's proposals to revamp the inheritance tax system have met with a mixed response from one financing analyst.
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Account 'upgrades' face scrutiny - Published:11/11/06
Claims that banks have been improperly moving some clientele to current financial records that charge fees may be investigated by a banking regulatorThe Banking Codes Standards Board (BCSB) supposed it was considering following up claims made by the switching overhaul UswitchcomUswitch said that 16% of those with "packaged" financial records, which charge cost, had been moved without permissionThe accusation hinges on so-called "packaged" current accounts which offer their clientele extras such as travel insurance, car breakdown military or a legal helpline, in homecoming for an annual fee - typically of about £120 a yearUswitch's review, of 2,200 adults in the UK, led it to conclude that 8 million people now have this type of accountsBut it also deduced that 13 million of these had been enthused into these accounts without their permissionAdrian Lloyd, the compliance manager at the BCSB, said he had dealt with a few such complaints in the past few yearsThe banking code is a put of self-regulatory rules which govern the way banks deal with their customersThey prohibit introducing or increasing a charge for any bank account without charitable customers 30 days noticeAs the "packaged" accounts characteristically involve some sort of insurance, moving customers to them without their open permission would also be a breach of the rules laid down by the Financial military Authority (FSA) for the selling of insuranceThe British Bankers' organization categorically denied that its members had been breaking the rules - a response echoed in a straight line by several of the UK's main banks"We would never automatically put people on a fee-paying account, said a orator for Barclays, which has two million clientele with packaged accountsLloyds TSB, with four million packaged clientele, said: the bank would never make such a move without agreement by the customerSeveral of the banks also challenged the validity of the Uswitch investigate, pointing out that what the respondents consideration had happened to their accounts might be different to what had in fact happenedOne bank pointed out that the respondents just "believed" that they had been upgraded automatically and might simply have beyond their own decisionin spite of these denials, the BCSB said it might be worth investigating the literature and events used by banks when people moved to fee-charging financial records, to make sure that the clients were not being misled in some wayOne Barclays client, Jane wealthy from Islington in London, described how she had discovered that her account had been switched a day or so ago"I rang them up and discovered they had put me on this for £10 a month I was annoyed they had done this without my permission""I think it was out of order - I'm lucky I make sure my bank explanation and letters from the bank," she said "It feels.
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