Shares Magazine

Happened to spot a mention in the financial press yesterday that the popular Shares Magazine has been put up for sale by its owners for up to £10m. So, if you've been sucessful enough with your share trading perhaps this might be your next trade?

Barclaycard Tightens The Belt

Today the Telegraph reports that Barclaycard is rejecting about 55% of new credit card applicants and is also cutting the credit limits for users. Although the widely reported credit crunch may be to blame for the increase in rejected card applications, Barclaycard are reported to have been lowering credit limits for 500,000 of its customers over the past 18 months.

Online Banking Continues To Grow

According to the latest figures from the banking payments association Apacs, the use of UK internet banking has grown by 174% in the past five years. In 2006, a total of 17 million people used online banking services compared to only 6.2 million in 2001.

If you're looking to bank online, pay a visit to our online banking section where you'll find an overview of online current and savings accounts plus links to online banking services.

Touch And Pay Card Arrives

We've blogged before about touch and pay cards when we posted about the OnePulse payment card from Barclays. Today we read that Mastercard have launched their PayPass system - a touch and pay card for low value transactions.

The PayPass card is to initially be available in London within the next week and nationwide within the next 12 months. Coincidentally, the OnePulse card is also expected to be introduced next week too.

Whilst there are both supporters and and critics of such cards (convenience v fraud concerns) it's expected that by the end of this year around 500,000 consumers will have a touch and pay card and about 1,000 retailers will have the required terminals to accept the payments.