One of the great things about advances in technology is that it makes things easier for us. So easy in fact, that our expectations have shifted and we now demand instant gratification in most aspects of our lives.

A promotion within the year, a click on the red button to vote someone out, lose a stone in four weeks or even get an immediate return on your investments. Perhaps that last link was a bit tenuous, but it was one made to the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) conference this week.

Lindsay Tomlinson, chairman of NAPF, blamed the ‘Twitter effect’ for the pension industry’s tendency to make short-term decisions. To be clear, it wasn’t Twitter, as in the social networking website, that was being blamed but rather how it symbolises the fleeting and trivial demands of today’s modern society.

Tomlinson’s analogy was prompted by comments from City minister Lord Myner, who called on major shareholders to look to the longer term. Although it’s a very worthy ambition, Tomlinson argues that the massive pension deficit means fund managers are forced to use short term goals as a measure of success.

He said “We are all now slaves to the market in a way we were not 30 years ago” – and as we all anxiously watch the monthly house price index, interest rate movements, or the number of ‘likes’ on our status update, it would seem he’s hit the nail on the head.

It may come as no surprise, especially if you regularly check your statements, to see that you’re not getting much in the way of interest on your current account at the moment.

Regular credit interest, a small perk of having a bank account, looks like it’s going down the same one-way road as cheque books and interest-free mortgages.

In fact, more than half of all current accounts no longer pay interest to customers in credit, while a further 28% get just 0.1% or less. Just recently, Natwest and RBS have stopped the practice as have Santander – although they are enticing new customers with a juicy 5% on accounts that have over £1,000 per month paid in.

On the other hand, packaged current accounts – those with a bundle of extra ‘rewards’ for a monthly fee – are booming, with a 100% increase in take up over the past five years. And so the bell is tolling for ‘free’ banking.

Don’t be despondent – there are still options out there for fee-free banking. There are also a few decent savings products on the market; decent compared to 0.1% anyway.

If you’re a saver rather than a spender, you’d do well to look at the fixed-rate bond market which has a number of interesting options, including Tesco. The supermarket monolith has entered the savings market with a bang and is currently offering 2.95% gross on savings left for one year and 3.5% gross for two years or more.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk, www.moneyfacts.co.uk

The Financial Services Authority, our new moral guardian, is proposing some tough measures to halt excessive lending.

The FSA believes that had these rules been in place five years ago, the credit crunch may well have been a lot less, erm, crunchy.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) perhaps unsurprisingly, has a different view. They claim new restrictions would mean many ‘good’ borrowers would not be able to get a loan and therefore be taken out of the market.

The CML says about half of all mortgages taken out between 2005 and 2009 would not have been granted if the proposals were in place at that time. When in fact, the majority of loans – 3.8million to be exact – have turned out not to be a problem. 

The proposals include a requirement for lenders to carry out affordability tests on all new mortgages and to assume the loans will be taken out on a repayment basis, for no longer than 25 years. There is also a recommendation to carry out ‘stress tests’, which calculates the impact of a 2% interest rate rise.

The FSA said its proposals were designed to address the ‘major failures’ that have occurred in the housing market. The regulator cautioned that the impact of past lending practice for some borrowers has yet to be felt given the low interest rates.

The rules aren’t due to come into effect until 2011, but we’ll keep a watching brief for more developments.

www.which.co.uk. www.bbc.co.uk/news

If you’re thinking about how the family budget will stretch to the end of the month, it’s a good idea to assess your outgoings with a ruthless eye.

With such a diverse market for financial products, it stands to reason that some will be more useful than others. There are a number of financial ‘services’ that you could certainly live without if needs must.

The first is mobile phone insurance. This can end up costing more than £150 per year, but in reality isn’t worth that much. Particularly relevant if you got your phone for ‘free’ as part of a contract – It will cost you less to replace it than the cost of the policy. Your phone can easily be added to home and contents insurance for no extra cost.

The second on the hit list should be your ‘packaged’ current account. The majority of high street banks now offer some kind of premium or ‘reward’ account where you pay a monthly fee for a bundle of products.

In a lot of cases, these ‘packages’ are being positioned as a strong alternative to getting interest paid on your current account; something that will become extinct quite soon.

For example, Lloyds TSB’s Premier Account costs £25 a month and includes benefits such as AA breakdown cover, travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, card and ID theft protection and airport lounge access.

Although there are some freebies they don’t suit everyone, unless you’re very keen on pre-flight comfort.

Other products to watch out for include: Pet Insurance, Payday loans and extended warranties.

Source: www.moneywise.co.uk

Consumer champion Which? has revealed the ‘game of chance’ that is dealing with energy suppliers. It found that one in three people think energy companies can’t be trusted to sell them the right tariff.

Energy companies’ behaviour has been flagged to the Government in advance of the Energy Bill due in Parliament in December. It is hoped that greater transparency, improved timescales for transfers and notification of price increases and deals will all feature in new legislation.

Currently customers have to navigate their way through a mind boggling number of tariffs, and its only by chance they get the cheapest one. Which? recommends using an impartial price comparison site, and also checking the small print for contract terms.

However, with wholesale energy prices on the up and non-renewable sources such as gas and oil getting harder to extract, it can only mean one thing – bigger bills. In fact, consumer groups have warned that some households could see increases of up to 100% over the next ten years.

News that the country is due for a complete ‘re-wiring’ and will cost every household £6 a year for the next ten doesn’t help matters. Ofgem chief executive Alistair Buchanan said that an upgrade of pipes and wires, some dating back from the 1950s, is vital if we are to move to a low carbon economy.

The way we use energy is certainly changing, although we’re not all charging our electric cars overnight, and we may have to look at our own consumption in the future.