BANKS HAVE TO DO BETTER FOR FRAUD VICTIMS

TODAY’S BLOG

BANKS MUST DO BETTER FOR FRAUD VICTIMS

The Financial Ombudsman Service, which manages disputes between financial firms and customers, is ruling against banks in 73% of authorised fraud cases, data exclusively obtained by Which? demonstrates. This means if you have been tricked into sending money to a scammer, you may be able to get a refund from your bank.

The biggest banks are signed up to the voluntary Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code, which is designed so victims of authorised push payment fraud (APP) are treated fairly and consistently when they ask for compensation. If your bank refuses compensation, you can escalate your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

But the number of customer complaints about banks’ handling of authorised fraud – the vast majority of which are APP – landing at the FOS more than doubled in the 2020-21 financial year, from 3,600 to 7,770. And three-quarters (73%) of these were upheld in favour of the customer.

VAST SUMS OF FRAUD – SOMEONE HAS TO PAY

APP fraud – being tricked into transferring money to a fraudster – is fast becoming one of the UK’s biggest frauds. Losses hit £355.3m between January and July, outstripping losses to card fraud. Banks are required to refund you for losses to unauthorised fraud such as card fraud, but not APP fraud. You will have noticed that we ran a couple of items in our client magazine Spotlight about fraud and scams.

The voluntary CRM code was launched in May 2019 and requires signatory banks to provide effective warnings to customers, identifying vulnerable customers and acting quickly when a scam is reported. In return, you are expected to pay attention to take care, have a reasonable basis for believing the payment is genuine, and pay attention to warnings.

Crucially, signatory banks must reimburse customers even if both parties have done nothing wrong. Data shows that many victims have been wrongly denied compensation but haven’t approached the FOS. Escalating a complaint to the FOS is free, and can be done online, but not all victims will be aware of or able to use the service. That’s why Which? wants the government to swiftly take the necessary action to enable the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) to introduce mandatory APP fraud reimbursement for all firms using Faster Payments.

If I were a betting man, (which I am not) I would conclude that Banks will find a way to recoup some of their costs from customers, this normally takes the form of higher interest rates or charges on all forms of borrowing. Alternatively, to end the myth of “free banking”. There is no such thing and its about time we all had a grown-up conversation about it.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk
Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

BANKS HAVE TO DO BETTER FOR FRAUD VICTIMSDominic2023-12-01T12:12:59+00:00

NOT APPY

TODAY’S BLOG

NOT APPY

I am sorry to say that I have decided to withdraw our App. Ever since Apple decided to change the format of our App, it has been a battle to get it how we wanted for the people we wanted. So we have chosen to stop promoting its use and you will no longer be able to send us messages from it.

The truth is that following the changes, the number of users reduced dramatically (seriously – loads less). As our portal began to take shape and is something you can view on your smartphone, tablet, PC or Mac, it felt rather superfluous.

MONTH END

The App is only available until the end of October 2020. If you have any information on it that you want, please download it back to your own hardware of choice. The portal, which provides your valuations and ability to set financial goals for yourself, store important documents, send and receive messages to us securely – remains very much part of our core service and way of communicating with you.

For more information about our portal, please have a look at our video using this link.

PORTAL VIDEO

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk
Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

NOT APPYDominic2023-12-01T12:13:11+00:00

COMMUNICATING WITH YOU VIA OUR APP

TODAY’S BLOG

COMMUNICATING WITH YOU VIA OUR APP

Over the coming days we shall be releasing more information directly to your phone via our app. The aim will be to cut through the noise and cover essential information such as Government updates, tax and finance implications, loans and funding.

As a result, please check that you have downloaded our app to your smart phone, it works on both Android and IO (Apple) platforms.

Head to the App store on your device and search for MyIFA. Click to download and wait for the App to install on your device.
Open the App and enter your email address on the first screen.
Click the arrow below the entry field and on the next screen you will be prompted to enter an Access Code.
1. In this box, enter code: SOLOMONS

You’ll then be taken through to create your own account, where you add your name, create a password, and click the bottom arrow to confirm your details. Once confirmed, you’ll then be in the App.

We want to reassure you we are here to work with you during this challenging time and are here if you have any questions. Here is a video we made a while back about the app.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk
Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

COMMUNICATING WITH YOU VIA OUR APPDominic2023-12-01T12:13:20+00:00

NOW WE’RE TALKING

TODAY’S BLOG

NOW WE’RE TALKING

The end of the tax year is only a few weeks away, the latest online edition of Talking Money is available for you to read and we think you should download our app. Its a really useful bit of kit to hold on your smartphone or tablet. You can access it for free from your usual app shop (apple or android) simply search for “My IFA” and when you locate a rather dull grey icon of of a fella that looks like he may be an outline from the mafia, download and use the password SOLOMONS.

We have created a short video which explains a few of the many features, one I use quite a lot is the mileage tracker which helps me accurately record business miles, but there are loads of features and calculators.

Here is the video of our app

Have a quick look at this video, let me know what you think.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk
Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

NOW WE’RE TALKINGDominic2023-12-01T12:17:37+00:00

Budget 8 July 2015

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

Budget 8 July 2015

Following my recent email and Mr. Osborne’s announcements, I am pleased to confirm the following changes and amendments have been made to our App (which is available free of charge for iphone, ipad and Android platforms).

As the 2016/17 rates are being added after the Autumn Statement, there is only one small change to the 2015/16 rates and the change has already been made earlier this afternoon and is live in your App. The change was within the Main Capital and Other Allowances section of the tax tables and related to the change to the Annual Investment Allowance from 1st January 2016 from the previously announced limit of £25,000 to a new limit of £200,000.

On a separate note, the chancellor has, from April 2016, abolished dividend tax credits. This will fundamentally change 3 of the tax calculators so they will need to be changed when we complete our updates prior to the April 2016 budget. However for the remainder of this tax year, all calculators and tax tables remain fully accurate.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Budget 8 July 2015Dominic2023-12-01T12:20:16+00:00

Estates: Inheritance Tax

So it’s 8th July already and into the second half of the Wimbledon Championships. Looking at your own life, which half do you imagine you are in? (ouch… didn’t see that coming!). Like most people inheritance tax (often referred to as IHT) probably isn’t something that is top of your current concerns (you don’t pay it) however it is a tax that generates more ire than most. In essence, inheritance tax is paid by the Executors of an estate following someone’s death. The amount of tax due will depend on the value of the estate and how it was arranged.

Today the Chancellor will give yet another Budget, but this one, the first as a Conservative Government. Like many I shall be waiting to hear what he says and see how he plans to deliver it. One of the pre-election manifesto promises was to increase the threshold for inheritance tax, perhaps to £1,000,000 for a couples main residence.

He may be less willing to follow through with this now as it was announced that in April HMRC collected £397m as inheritance tax payments, the largest in a single month and way above the longer term average of £260m a month. In fact March, April and May 2015 saw over £1bn of inheritance tax paid to HMRC. If interested, you can see the various taxes collected by HMRC from the data they published at the start of the month, just click here.

The Budget 8 July 2015

We shall simply have to wait for the Chancellor to tell us how and if he intends to adjust the nil rate band (the amount an estate can be worth before any inheritance tax is payable). The nil rate band has been frozen at £325,000 since 2009 and had historically increased with inflation each year, but of course that was before the credit crunch. As ever our APP will be updated with all the changes as quickly as possible (usually before the end of the day). Don’t forget it’s free and easy to use.

Pensions and ISAs are now IHT friendly

The main gripe is that property has continued to soar in value and is invariably the main asset that is left once someone dies. The pension freedom rules have enabled pension funds to be exempt from inheritance tax (though some taxes may apply) and ISAs are able to be passed on to a surviving spouse (previously they would have lost the tax-free status of an ISA).

As a result more people, or rather estates have been brought into the inheritance tax threshold, probably not the original intention of the tax. However the Chancellor will be seeking some wriggle room to keep things as they are given that it raises such significant sums for the Treasury.

A 40% tax rate

As of this morning, inheritance tax is charged at 40% on the excess value of estates worth £325,000. Each individual has a nil rate band and so a couple effectively has a nil rate band of £650,000. In addition, for those that have been previously married to someone now deceased, it is possible to use part of their allowance too.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Estates: Inheritance TaxDominic2023-12-01T12:40:17+00:00

Have you tried our new App?

If you are an iphone, ipad or android user, you can now try our new app. We have invested in new technology to help clients and their friends by placing a really useful tool kit directly in their hand. The app is completely free to download from the itunes store and comes with a stack of useful features. This includes financial calculators – so that you can work out how much income tax you should be paying, how much a change in interest rates will impact your mortgage, what your IHT liability might look like and the impact of inflation on your finances, to name just a few.

Tax year information

We have also included the 2014/15 tax year information, including all of the important changes from the Chancellors 2014 Budget last month. You should gain a better understanding of tax and why we attempt to reduce this for our clients where appropriate. There are also key dates for the tax year in terms of when payments need to made or filed.

Independent thinking

I have also included a bit about us and what we do, as well as links to the website and this blog, along with a link to Morningstar, who provide independent investment research, which we also use to complement the work we do with Cormorant as part of our investment committee work.

Don’t keep it a secret…

I’d be really grateful if you would leave a rating and review of the app on itunes if you like it and can see its usefulness. Of course do let your friends and colleagues know too – after all its a free app that is really useful. If you have any problems or suggestions, please email me or pick up the phone and let me know what they are. We are already planning improvements and added features to make it a really valuable tool, but want to make sure that our clients can benefit from this fully.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

Have you tried our new App?Dominic2023-12-01T12:39:09+00:00

In your pocket

I am delighted to announce that we are working on a helpful piece of kit that will fit into your pocket, or rather on your smart phone or tablet.We are working on a new app, for our clients and their friends. I’m quite excited about it and hope that it’s a great aid to our clients. The new app is being constructed and we are working on the title page. I wonder if you would like to have a preview? You will be able to use the app an iphone and ipad or any android device. Its rich with lots of features, financial calculators, budgeting stuff and of course means that you can contact us easily. We are constantly seeking to utilise proven technology where possible and if it makes sense.

We have another innovation as well that I shall be speaking to clients about, but only for those that use the internet for banking and would like a clever, secure way to view banking, credit cards and investments all in one place safely.

If this is of interest to you please get in touch.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

In your pocketDominic2023-12-01T12:38:56+00:00