Mortgage lending in January continued to slump, the Council of Mortgage Lenders has said.

The number of mortgages advanced to people buying a home fell to a record low of 23,400, with only 8,900 first-time buyers able to take out home loans. Mortgage lending was down 28% on December’s figures and 52% lower than in January 2008, when 48,600 new loans were agreed.

The new year is traditionally a quiet time for the mortgage market, but this year has seen a significantly greater slump than in previous years.

The CML said that the falling recession and falling house prices was putting many mortgage providers off lending.

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Gordon Brown has indicated that ISA limits for pensioners could be raised.

Speaking during a BBC Radio Four phone-in, Brown said yesterday that pensioners could benefit from a higher limit on their tax-free ISAs, following recent reductions in savings rates because of the Bank of England’s decision to cut the interest rate to just 0.5%, its lowest level since the Bank was founded in 1694.

Mr Brown explained that he was currently “looking at” making the change, which would allow over-65s to keep more of their savings in the tax free account. The legal limit for cash ISAs currently stands at £3,600.

Pensioners have been particularly hard hit by recent cuts to the Bank rate, since many live off interest from savings. Currently the instant access accounts offer average returns of just 0.17%, down from 2.69% a year ago and 0.28% at the end of January.

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A BBC television programme has demonstrated the ease with which cyber criminals are able to steal people’s credit card details, leaving thousands of consumers at risk.

Researchers for the BBC’s Click were able to obtain hacking software that criminals use to gain access to other people’s computers, after making enquiries in various chatrooms on the internet. The hackers use these machines as ‘botnets’ which are used for phishing - attempting to acquire sensitive information such as credit card details and passwords by masquerading as a trustworthy organisation.

Click was able to take over nearly 22,000 computers in its experiment, which has now been closed. The programme informed all those whose computers were attacked that their PCs were infected, and advised them on how to make their systems more secure. It did not access any personal information on the infected PCs.

Users are normally unaware that their PCs are being controlled remotely by cyber criminals because there are almost no symptoms.

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Scottish GPs have narrowly voted against a proposal to tax chocolate in the same way as alcohol and cigarettes as a way of tackling obesity.

GP David Walker from Lanarkshire said that Britons no longer considered chocolate a “treat” and that many were harmfully addicted to the food, which led to weight-related conditions like diabetes.

However, delegates at a British Medical Association (BMA) conference in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, voted against his proposals by just two votes.

Dr Walker said that he was “disappointed” at the outcome because he saw chocolate as a “major player” in problem weight gain, but was glad his suggestion had brought the issue of obesity into the public eye again.

Speaking immediately after the BMA vote, Dr Walker said, “A little of what you fancy may do you some good, but as nearly one in four people in Scotland are obese a lack of physical activity, an unhealthy diet and larger portion sizes are clearly taking their toll on the health of Scotland.

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The unprecedented snowfall we saw in February has led to a higher number of accidents, according to a leading car insurance firm.

Figures from the AA suggest that the bad weather along with poor road maintenance is leading to record rates of pothole related accidents, putting pressure on car insurance premiums. According to the report, the UK is suffering from a pothole “epidemic” following the harsh winter weather. Over 2,000 drivers filed a claim in February, up from 700 during the same period last year.

Unusually icy conditions are thought to be responsible for the increase, with 20cm of snow in London at one point, the worst conditions since 1991.

Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, said: “Like any injury, a pothole that doesn’t receive first aid will brood and grow into a gaping open sore on the road, inflicting damage to wheels, suspension and bodywork. Worse than that, they often become invisible by filling up with water in wet weather so you have little chance of avoiding them.”

The report also noted that thousands of drivers are likely to have suffered minor damage to their vehicles, but did not think it worth making a claim on their car insurance.

For a limited time only customers who sign up to a Sainsbury’s internet savings account can benefit from a variable rate of 3% AER, with returns guaranteed to be at least 2% above the Bank of England base rate for the next 12 months.

To benefit from the offer, customers need to open an account by 17th March with an initial deposit of between £5,000 and £100,000, and cannot withdraw from their account during the first 12 months. Customers who take out money within this timeframe will receive Sainsbury’s standard Internet Saver rate only, which is currently 0.75% AER variable.

Although the Sainsbury’s account does not offer the market lead on savings, the 12 month guarantee brings peace of mind that no matter how much interest rates fluctuate, your deposit will be gathering a safe, and decent return.

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The average interest rate on instant access savings accounts is now barely above zero, figures show.

The Bank of England said that instant access accounts, offered an average interest rate of just 0.17% at the end of February, down from 2.69% at the same time last year, and 0.28% at the end of January. Customers with branch-based notice accounts are also seeing little return for their savings, as the February rate dropped to 0.18%, half that of a month earlier.

This figure does not reflect the half a percentage point drop in the Bank rate in March, which has resulted in some banks dropping their rates further.

The average interest rate for cash ISAs was 0.96% at the end of February, down from 1.38% at the end of January and 5.06% from a year earlier. Bonds, on the other hand rose slightly on average, from 2.49% at the end of January to 2.56% at the end of February. However, this was a significant drop on the 5.21% average rate a year ago.

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AA found that cases of car insurance firms rejecting claims due to misleading information from customers have gone up by 30 percent over the past six months.

As the credit crunch takes hold, more and more drivers are trying to make a quick buck by making false or misleading claims on their car insurance. Most commonly, car insurers refuse to pay out because of undisclosed convictions, failure to mention previous claims and lying about the identity of the main driver - a practice known as “fronting”. And car insurance fraud is by no means a victimless crime. The AA estimates that the offence adds around £30 to all UK premiums.

“Over the past six months we have seen a huge upsurge of cases where insurers have cancelled cover because customers haven’t informed them of important facts,” said Simon Douglas, director of AA Car Insurance.

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Some customers who booked holidays with failed travel company XL have been refused refunds from the ATOL guarantee scheme.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) which runs ATOL has told customers who booked their holiday using a credit card to go to their credit card company for compensation instead. Credit companies are obliged to refund the full cost of a holiday under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, which states that the bank and supplier share responsibility for any breach of contract for goods or services paid for on a credit card.

However, the consumer magazine Which? says ATOL should take sole responsibility for refunding customers.

When XL collapsed in September, 85,000 of its customers were left stranded abroad, whilst almost 250,000 had holidays they had booked with the company cancelled.

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The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to shut down more than a dozen companies offering repayment plans for people struggling with debt.

The regulator said that the businesses in question had been posing as non-profit organisations in order to attract customers by using web addresses similar to those of well known debt charities. However, they are actually commercial enterprises.

The OFT believes that many customers have already fallen for the companies’ deceptive marketing, and has written to 13 firms telling them to shut down 27 websites deemed to be misleading. The watchdog has warned that companies who refuse to comply with the ruling could lose their consumer credit licences and face prosecution. The OFT has not yet named the companies.

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