This is Money Blog

So what if you're regulated by the FSA?

It's been an interesting week as we've delved further into the murky payment protection insurance pool, with some amazing stories being emailed into us from our readers. One of the most troubling tales concerns Joanne Linden, who claims to have been forced to take out a PPI policy with her car loan. You can read her full story here.

But Mrs Linden's story is more than just a good illustration about the cost of PPI. It's a stark warning to everyone who takes out a loan, to double check the total cost over the period of the loan. Companies like Welcome Financial Services specifically market themselves towards people who have a poor credit history and in return for offering them a loan, they charge through-the-roof interest rates of up to 30%.

The corporate affairs director of Welcome Financial Services vehemently defended his company when I approached him with Mrs Linden's story, by saying that they comply with FSA regulations.

But in many ways, that defence is not worth the paper its written on. We're getting loads of readers emailing us telling us a similar story to Mrs Linden - that they were forced to take out PPI when they applied for a card or loan. And these firms - banks, card providers and other finance companies - are all regulated by the FSA. Is it not possible that salespeople from all of these institutions are so keen to earn their huge PPI commissions that they ignore the rules and their bosses turn a blind eye?

So keep your stories coming into editor@thisismoney.co.uk - and for goodness sake, use our switching service to find a loan with a reasonable rate if you need one, rather than opting for a 30% APR.

- Sascha Hutchinson, This is Money

Useful links

• CAMPAIGN: More stories and information
• WHY PPI? We explain our campaign
• GUIDES: Our impartial guide to PPI
• Q&A: What is PPI and who doesn't need a policy

Dad, sell your Standard Life shares

My dad has been asking me whether he should sell or hold his Standard Life shares.

The insurer is due to float on the stock market on 10 July. You can keep up to speed with the latest in our special round-up.

The latest advice from the experts is mixed. Some think that investors would be wiser to sell their shares and back other, better value insurance companies. Read advice from independent financial advisers.

The point is a more simple one. As I said to my dad, why would any small investor, who pays only a passing interest to the stock market, directly hold shares?

I understand the importance of investing in equities - they have easily been the best-performing asset in the past hundred years. However, how can individual investors ever hope to beat the professionals by holding individual stocks? Star fund managers dedicate their working lives to hunting out the cheapest shares and are normally backed up by teams of analysts. The top-performing UK fund in 2005, for example, returned 37% against a 20% rise in the FTSE 100. (Read more). Funds can also give you access to potentially high returns on foreign markets and the risks are spread with a very broad portfolio, typically anything from 40 shares up to 800.

So the advice to my dad - sell up your Standard Life shares and put the money into a fund. But don't take my word for it - speak to an independent financial adviser, who will be more than happy to earn the lucrative commission from recommending funds to you. You can cut the cost of fund investing (and cut out the cost of an IFA) by using a fund supermarket or discount broker - only do this if you're sure you don't need advice. This is Money has some fund tips from IFAs at www.thisismoney.co.uk/fundtips and our Fundwatch column is a great starting point - www.thisismoney.co.uk/tips

But I don't want to be a total killjoy - I know picking stock market winners is a buzz. So if you're one of the gamblers willing to go up against the City's finest then This is Money's financial data can help... www.thisismoney.co.uk/marketdata

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, This is Money

P.S. Our New Issues centre has the latest on the Standard Life IPO... www.thisismoney.co.uk/newissues

Or this link takes you direct to Standard Life's listing...http://investing.thisismoney.co.uk/cgi-bin/digitalcorporate/thisismoney/security.cgi?username=&ac=&csi=186960

And don't forget to bookmark... www.thisismoney.co.uk/standardlife

Take the easy way out

People who know me would say I'm pretty easy going, but I'm feeling distinctly uneasy about writing this. Sitting in my easy chair with some easy listening music in the background, I could easily fall foul of eagle-eyed lawyers determined to make sure none of us can take it easy – unless our name happens to be Sir (easy)Stelios that is.
It's just that the easyJet founder has a habit of dropping like an aircraft that has run out of fuel on anyone who wants to use the word 'easy' in any sort of business context.  Just read our report of the humble pizza delivery business if you don't believe me.
I'm sure Stelios is a lovely chap, but there's a hint of world domination in his business model. A few years ago, easyGroup attempted to register its exclusive right to use the 'easy' prefix on a huge range of goods and services  including many foods such as meat, fish, eggs, tapioca and even treacle. Who knows, it could have become illegal to suggest something was as easy as pie (unless it was filled with easyTreacle).
The attempt failed, but there are already more than enough variations on an 'easy' theme for the company to get heavy with anyone it sees as infringing its brand name.  Before he damages his reputation, I suggest Stelios should take it easy on the little guys. But then I suppose its easy for me to say that.
Perhaps it would solve all his problems at once if he settled for easyEverything as a name. What's that you say – he's already done it!
Oh well, everybody sing after me: Summertime and the living is . . .
Who's that knocking at the door?

- Simon Moon, This is Money

Michael Owen and the Northern Rock hoodoo

They won't thank me for bringing this up but there's a rumour going round about a Northern Rock hoodoo.

This mysterious jinx claimed its latest victim when England striker Michael Owen collapsed to the turf on Tuesday night. Owen's unlucky injury to his cruciate knee ligament came as bad news to England fans and Sven - with his three strikers and one untried teenager policy looking a touch sparse.

But it will also have come as huge blow to the Newcastle-based bank for whom Owen is fronting a World Cup campaign. In the adverts - now withdrawn - Owen is pictured in the kit of his club Newcastle United, also sponsored by Northern Rock, with the slogan Can we have him back in one piece please? The answer now is sadly, 'no.'

This represents an unhappy hat-trick for Northern Rock and its sports star sponsorship. It's other two poster boys are England's Rugby World Cup winning star Jonny Wilkinson, who has suffered on and off injuries since the team's 2003 triumph, and England bowling colossus Steve Harmison, who played a pivotal part in last summer's Ashes win over the Australians and has since missed a raft of games with injury.

Could Geordies' talk of a Northern Rock hoodoo be true? Perhaps the company could sponsor Argentina for the rest of the World Cup to find out.

- Simon Lambert, This is Money

PS good luck with the recovery Michael.

Useful links

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This is Money's Protection Racket campaign

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The great PPI rip-off

It's Day Two of our campaign to raise awareness about the massive con that is Payment Protection Insurance, and we're really pleased with how it's going. Michael Clarke commissioned some research to be done by MoneyFacts and we've exposed NatWest for their rip-off policy, and we've garnered the support of Lib Dem MP Lorely Burt, which is fantastic.

The Daily Mail also ran a story highlighting the issues we've raised, and we're hoping that it will start the ball rolling in terms of getting some action from the OFT, which is investigating this issue as we speak.

We've also been really pleased with the response from our readers, who have contacted us with their stories about being mis-sold policies, or being unable to claim on them, despite having added thousands of pounds to their loans for this type of security. It's very often through hearing from our army of loyal readers that we get some of our best stories that expose these types of consumer rip-offs.

So please keep your emails coming in. Post your comments below telling us what you think of our campaign, and send me an email directly if you think you have some information that could be of assistance to us as we expose the dodgy tactics of banks and lenders. Get in touch by emailing editor@thisismoney.co.uk and I'll be sure to get in contact.

- Sascha Hutchinson, This is Money

Become a vegetable vigilante

It’s not often I seek to associate myself with the Women’s Institute and it’s even less frequently that I seek to associate myself with a WI member wrapped up in clingfilm (well, at least not during work hours.)

But today I am adding my support to the WI’s campaign to cut out excessive packaging. The Institute is urging people to say ‘no to packaging’ and start helping the environment by bringing supermarkets to account over their wasteful wrapping of food.

To promote the campaign some WI members will apparently be wrapping themselves in clingfilm – so if you see a shrink-wrapped, middle-aged lady on the streets, don’t run away but lend your support.

According to the WI supermarket groceries account for 70% of the UK’s £9bn packaging market, and we all know how unneccessary most of that is.

To highlight the problem the WI has chosen the noble cucumber, that staple of sandwiches on the lawn, which often arrives on our shelves tray-packed and shrink-wrapped, despite surviving quite well in the wild without protective plastic coating.

With talk of taxes on those who don’t recycle enough the problem of packaging is a big issue. So, fight back and become a vegetable vigilante by unwrapping over-packaged goods and leaving the surplus in-store. On top of this complain to your supermarket, refuse carrier bags and support small shops.

And if you don’t act now we’ll end up stuck in an apocalyptic world of unused plastic and clingfilmed WI members.

- Simon Lambert, This is Money

Useful links

Give us the chance to recycle and we will

Bring back brown paper bags to save the world

Money saving advice to make you richer

The latest property and mortgage news

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