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Money Box: Royal Mail shares; Water bill deal; Help to Buy 2

Royal Mail shares; Water bill deal; Help to Buy 2

12/10/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Money Box, Royal Mail shares; Water bill deal; Help to Buy 2

Sharing out Royal Mail, SmartSource Water customer anger, and Help to Buy 2.

Who's getting a share of Royal Mail? Water bill deal backfires, Help to Buy 2, John Lewis underpay and why travel and financial services companies are exempt from phone line deal.

Individuals applying for shares in Royal Mail either got £749.10 worth or nothing. The cut-off point was £10,000 - if you applied for £10,000 worth or less you got 227 shares at their price of 330p each. If you applied for more than £10,000 you got nothing. Individual investors will have to wait for a couple of weeks to get the balance of their money refunded. Commercial investors could get any amount of shares - though many got nothing as it was vastly oversubscribed. And those who have already sold made a 33% profit.

Thousands of customers of a firm that promised to cut their water bills by 8% will have to pay twice for their water after the firm went out of business this week. SmartSource Water took monthly payments and promised to meet their water bills after negotiating a reduction with the supplier. But earlier this year SmartSource Water stopped passing on money to water companies leaving some customers in debt and with estimates of up to £4 million missing. 

Five major lenders have now signed up for the Government's mortgage guarantee scheme known as Help To Buy 2. It will enable lenders to offer 95% mortgages with the Government insuring some of the risk to refund 14.25% of any loss. Only two have announced the rates they will charge and one has reported queues and major interest from customers. But another bank, Yorkshire and Clydesdale, is already offering a better deal outside the scheme. What should buyers be aware of before taking the offer up?

The retailer John Lewis has upset former staff by refusing to reimburse them for underpaid wages. But it is giving compensation to current employees and retirees. These ex-employees may have a legal case. But can they afford the new £250 fee to go to an Employment Tribunal? A lawyer explains their rights.

Your call is valuable to us. Especially if it is on a 08 number where the recipient makes money as well as the carrier. New EU rules will mean that retail firms have to offer customers complaint lines where normal landline costs apply. But there are exemptions - financial firms and holiday suppliers among them can continue to make us pay when they fail us. Why?

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