Those convicted of dangerous driving must offer proof that they have learnt to drive safely on the roads before they can expect cheaper driving insurance, AA Insurance has said.

The AA is introducing a new scheme to encourage safe driving. Run by the AA Charitable Trust, the scheme will see dangerous drivers take practical lessons on road safety. Young drivers with a poor track record will be put forward for the course of lessons by police with the aim of encouraging them to become safer drivers.

However, AA head of road safety Andrew Howard says that simply attending the course will not guarantee lower insurance premiums. Rather, attendees need to prove that the standard of their driving has improved before they will see a drop in the cost of their car insurance.

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Visa is piloting a new credit card, which the company hopes will help tackle card fraud.

The Emue Card, which is being trialled among Deloitte employees, features a keypad and display. When customers type in their PIN a unique code is displayed which is required to complete the transaction. This means that anyone who finds the card but does not know its PIN will be unable to use it.

Internet and phone fraud account for a large proportion of overall card fraud, because the perpetrator does not need to enter a PIN - only details found on the card itself are required.

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Thousands of private landlords who own buy-to-let properties are struggling to meet their mortgage repayments during the current recession, new figures have revealed.

A report from the ratings agency Moody’s released yesterday shows that almost 4% of landlords are at least three months behind on repayments, compared with just under 1% a year ago. The number of buy-to-let properties repossessed in the first quarter of this year had also increased slightly to 0.18%, up from 0.13% in the same period last year.

There are around a million buy-to-let landlords in Britain.

In a speech to the mortgage industry yesterday, Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, warned that the buy-to-let market could produce “significantly higher arrears and defaults than the owner-occupier segment “. He warned that whilst repossessions of buy-to-let properties were unlikely to reach the levels seen in the early 90s, an increase in the number of landlords defaulting on mortgage payments could result in significant losses to the industry.

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A new study by the Office of Fair Trading has revealed that a third of internet users are still afraid to use their credit cards to purchase goods and services online, for fear that their details could be obtained by fraudsters.

One in three UK consumers refuse to shop online because they believe their credit card details could be delivered into the wrong hands, the survey found. The OFT report follows similar surveys showing that shoppers are still wary about using their credit cards online.

Moreover, of those consumers who did shop online, three quarters said they still had misgivings about entering their card details.

In spite of the gloomy findings, the OFT survey shows that consumer confidence in general is on the up, and that consumers are more aware of their rights. Almost three quarters knew that they were not liable if their credit card was used fraudulently, compared with just two-thirds a year ago.

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Many Britons are reducing their level of car insurance cover in order to save money during the recession, new research has shown.

According to a report from the British Insurance Brokers Association, a significant number of drivers in the UK are cutting back on their car insurance as the credit crunch continues its grip, but they could end paying expensive bills that could have been covered by more comprehensive cover, the organisation has warned.

BIBA surveyed its members to see how the recession has affected brokers’ business. One in five brokers reported a reduction in the level of cover that their customers purchased since the recession kicked in. The survey found that 96% of these reductions took place in the car insurance and home insurance sectors.

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A major holiday firm has confirmed a continuing high demand for long-haul holidays, despite the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico.

TUI travel, which owns Thompson and First Choice holidays said that bookings were up 2% in the last fortnight, whilst cumulative bookings dropped by 25%, with those due to fly out to Mexico selecting alternative destinations.

Of TUI’s 2,500 customers who were holidaying in Mexico at the time of the outbreak, only one tenth decided to come home before the official end of their holiday.

Thompson cancelled all its packages in Cancun and Cozumel, Mexico, until last Friday, giving customers the chance to switch destinations or cancel their holiday altogether and receive a refund.

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The Bank of England yesterday stepped up its campaign to boost economic growth by pumping an extra £50 billion into the UK economy. It also held interest rates at 0.5%.

The unexpected move by the Bank to trigger growth through quantitive easing, known colloquially as ‘printing money’, will bring the government’s current purchases of government bonds from £46 million to a total of £125 billion.

The measures will be extended for three months until the end of August, after an initial phase that was due to finish at the end of this month.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Committee also held interest rates at 0.5% for a second successive month, amid warnings that the global recession is showing no signs of easing yet.

The Bank of England’s decision to start printing more money immediately came as a surprise to economists, who had predicted that such a move would not happen for a month. It has sparked fears in the City that the Bank expects the recession to be deeper and longer than earlier predicted.

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Britons will have to work up to their 70th year if the UK’s public debt is to be brought under control within a decade, according to a report from the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR).

The institute said that increasing the age one can receive the state pension by five years could help to ease the UK’s national debt. Other options include raising basic income tax by 15p to 37p in the pound and slashing government spending by 10%, which would hit front-line services including education and the NHS.

“The choice is we have got to raise income tax a lot, cut spending a lot or work longer,” Ray Barrell, senior research fellow at the institute told the Daily Telegraph.

“There is a stronger case for extending working lives because we’re all living longer.”

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The consumer association Which? has accused holiday firms that refuse to compensate customers for not travelling to Mexico of acting unfairly.

Some holidaymakers following Home Office guidelines that strongly advise against travelling to Mexico because of swine flu have found that they cannot claim a refund from their holiday from tour operators, and have also been refused cover from insurers.

Holiday firms normally offer customers alternative destinations or dates, but may not give a full refund. However, some customers say they only want to go to Mexico and are not interested in an alternative holiday.

Some customers who have booked flights and hotels with separate companies have found that they have been offered different alternative destinations by each firm, and have been unable to claim a refund on either their flights or accommodation.

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The fall in UK house prices is accelerating, according to a recent Halifax survey.

The mortgage lender, which is a member of the Lloyds Banking Group, reported that prices fell by another 1.7% in April, pushing the annual decline from 17.5% to 17.7%. Economists had expected a fall of just 1% on the month and a three-month annual decline of 17.7%.

Halifax said that house prices had fallen by 22% since reaching their peak in August 2007. The average UK house is currently worth £154,716, the lowest level since April 2004, and £33,264 less than a year ago.

“We think conditions will remain challenging over the next few months. The fact that the economy is in recession and unemployment is rising sharply is not a great recipe for demand,” said Halifax chief economist Martin Ellis.

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