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.

Welcome Nationwide

We're pleased to announce our latest partnership over at cardtart - we now partner with Nationwide.co.uk and we can now keep you up-to-date with their current mortgage products offers. Nationwide are the biggest building society in the world and within the UK they are currently the largest online mortgage lender.

We'll keep you posted as and when we partner with other mortgage providers.

NatWest Credit Cards

NatWest are one of the latest credit card providers to offer a 13 month period for balance transfers at 0% (2% transfer fee applies). There is a 3 month period for 0% purchases. You can find out more here.

Barclaycard Breathe Credit Card

We've received notice from our partner networks that Barclays are to replace their charity credit card with a new card entitled the Breathe Card. The Barclaycard newsroom describes this new product as such:

Barclaycard has announced plans to launch the first UK credit card that donates 50 per cent of its profits to give people across the country a greener card option. The Barclaycard Breathe credit card will see Barclaycard:

- Donate 50 per cent of Barclaycard Breathe profits to environmental projects dedicated to reducing carbon emissions around the world.

- Offer cardholders discounts and lower rate borrowing on green products and services.

- Take a greener approach to account management including online statements and recycling of card plastics.

Barclaycard Breathe states that it is donate a minimum of £1 million to environmental projects in its first year. The company will then donate 50 per cent of profits from the card in following years.

Barclaycard Breathe aims to help consumers make greener choices by offering discounts and lower rates on green products, for example energy saving products and greener transport options.

The card itself offers a greener customer experience with no paper statements - though note that the egg card has operated this way for several years. Marketing will be directed online and the cards themselves are made from PETg - a more environmentally friendly alternative to current PVC cards. A recycling scheme for old cards will be available when new cards are issued.

We're expecting to offer the card soon. When it's available you'll find it on our dedicated breathe card page.

Post Office Financial Reaches 1m Customers

Post Office Financial Services reports that it has now acquired their one millionth customer. The joint venture with Bank of Ireland was setup three years ago to offer various personal finance products. The Post Office now sells 1 in 50 of all car insurance policies in the UK. In 2006, it issued 1 in 25 of all new credits cards. We promote the Post Office credit card in our credit card centre.

Managing Director Alan Cook said:

Post Office Financial Services entered the market with the aim of challenging what other financial services providers were offering. Gaining one million customers in about 1000 days confirms we were right. People want easy to understand, good value products.

I'd find it interesting to see the figures detailing where the customers came from. How many came via the counter and how many cam via the internet?

7 Yachts To Die For At F1 Monaco GP

So here we all are attempting to better manage our personal finances in order to save a few hundred pounds each year! Meanwhile in the Cote D'Azur there are some incredibly expensive boys toys bobbing in the water in Monaco Harbour. Here are 7, not-so cheap yachts you'll see if you were in Monaco for the 2007 F1 Grand-Prix:

AMEVI

A sparkingly new yacht owned by the steel industry magnate Lakshmi Mittal. Image

AVIVA

A £62m motor yacht owned by billionaire currency trader Joe Lewis. Image

ECSTASY

An £86m boat owned by the Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich. Image

FORCE BLUE

Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore's £62m vessel. Image

KOGO

Mansour Ojjeh, co-owner of McLaren Mercedes owns this £72m baby. Image

INDIAN EXPRESS

Dr Vijay Mallya, India's 3rd richest man is the owner of this £95m super yacht. Image

TIARA

Just £54m for this boat, complete with outdoor cinema and mega sound system. Owned by Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil. Image

Note to self: Keep saving!

cardtart.com Revamp Goes Live

We've published the revamp of cardtart.com today. It's not the complete article yet but publishing on a Bank Holiday Monday when traffic volumes are lower gives us the chance to fix any errors.

We'll be working hard this week finishing off the pages that still need some attention.

Credit Card Borrowing Dips

For the first time since records began, credit card lending fell last year reports the British Bankers Association (BBA). Figures show that the amount lent on credit cards fell by £1.8 billion in 2006, the first drop since 1993 when the figures were first compiled.

The BBA suggests that consumers are looking more closely at their personal borrowings and those that do need to borrow not only use credit cards but also overdrafts, unsecured loans and mortgages. The BBA also suggests the decrease in 0% credit card deals offered by card providers has had the effect of putting some consumers off making further purchases on card or applying for new cards.

From our own experiences with our credit card site, we can confirm that demand for balance transfer deals has dropped off from that of 12-24 months ago. The introduction of balance transfer fees has, in our opinion, had a big impact on the decreasing number of consumers actually transferring outstanding card balances.

A Site Revamp

Over on our main company blog we've posted about our revamp plans for cardtart. Feel free to read about our plans.

Annual Fees To Return On Credit Cards

A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests that banks may introduce annual fees of about £35 to maintain a credit card account.

It is suggested that such an annual fee may be levied by the card issuers to enable them to recoup the money lost on reduced penalty fees. Earlier this year the Office of Fair Trading restricted to a maximum of £12 the amount the banks could charge in penalty fees for customers who defaulted on their payments. Additionally the credit card market is being investigated over the credit card interchange fee (the amount the retailers pay on card transactions) and payment protection insurance products are under investigation too.

Here at cardtart we haven't heard that any of the credit card providers that we affiliate with are about to introduce annual fees. But if they do, we'll be quick to let you know who they are.

Welcome Back citibank

As an affiliate it's great to have citibank back in the mix of finance merchants!

We promoted the citi credit card for a long time before the programme was taken offline some while ago. But now citi are back with a current account offering and what looks like a decent flexible, instant savings account that we've started to promote here. It's suggested that the citi card will also be back online in due course too.

Actually, whilst the credit card market is reportedly not as buoyant as it was say 12 months ago, there are a few new programmes coming on-stream in various affiliate networks. We should have one or two new offerings over at cardtart very soon.