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Money Box: Budget lowdown, how safe are your savings, and when is 0% interest not 0%?

Budget lowdown, how safe are your savings, and when is 0% interest not 0%?

23/03/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Money Box, Budget lowdown, how safe are your savings, and when is 0% interest not 0%?

The latest news from the world of personal finance, presented by Paul Lewis.

Paul Lewis asks what the Budget means for listeners, Cyprus sparks concerns about the safety of our savings across Europe, and the perils and pitfalls of 0% credit cards.

HELP WITH MORTGAGES
Help to Buy is the new multibillion pound scheme to assist homebuyers with 5% deposits buy homes worth up to £600,000. Equity Loan will lend up to 20% of the price of a new build home - interest free for five years and with a low rate thereafter - repayable on the sale (20% of the sale price whether it is higher or lower). Mortgage Guarantee will take some of the lender's risk away by guaranteeing up to 15% of the price of new build or existing homes if the buyer defaults on the loan. We ask what effect Help to Buy will have on the housing market. 

TAX CUTS FOR SOME BUT NOT OTHERS
The personal tax allowance will rise to £10,000 from April 2014. But thousands of taxpayers over the age of 65 will see no benefit. With their pension rising and tax allowances frozen they will pay more tax in 2013/14, 2014/15 and beyond.

CHILDCARE HELP WILL CHANGE FROM 2015
My childcare costs more than my mortgage, one desperate man tweeted me before the Budget. We need help now not in 2015, tweeted another. So just what are the plans for the new Tax-Free Childcare Scheme which will replace Childcare Vouchers from autumn 2015? Who will be better off and who will lose out?

CYPRUS
There are few good outcomes for people with money in banks in Cyprus. Either a percentage will be taken - in exchange for bank shares which may be worthless - or the banks could be abandoned by the European Central Bank and go bust on Tuesday, which could cost savers more. Independent banking commentator Frances Coppola, answers listeners concerns about the safety of their savings in UK branches of foreign banks.

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