Sainsburys Bank is advising those travelling abroad to get their currency arrangements sorted out in good time to avoid losing money on commission charges and lower exchange rates.
Travellers who sort their currency out at the airport, as well as those who arrange their currency abroad, will find themselves out of pocket compared with doing it all in the UK prior to trave believes Sainsburys Bank. Waiting to the last minute leaves travellers with no options but to take the poorer exchange rates on offer and ultimately receiving less in their pocket.
A Sainsburys Bank spokesman hoped that travellers would bear this advice in mind. He felt it would be a shame if, after trying to get the best deals all year round on their purchases, they let themselves down on something so important like foreign currency.
Citigroup, the huge financial organisation of which Citibank is a part, is being urged to break up by some union representatives.
A union president has written to the Citibank Chairman asking him to give some value back to the shareholders by breaking up the business into smaller parts. He does not want to see the supermarket approach of offering everything continued, preferring a more targeted approach.
Shares in Citigroup have fallen by over 60 percent in the last 12 months and it is felt that were the businesses to be split up so they stand on their own merits share prices in most of them would rise. Citibank is a part of all this and although there is no expectation of a shake up taking place it will still be interesting to see where the share price goes on the back of the discussion.
Lloyds TSB has this week increased the rates of interest offered on its Plus current account to 6 percent, an enormous 2 percent more than it was previously.
The new higher interest rate is being offered on this particular Lloyds TSB current account for new customers opening their account before July 13. The only proviso is that at least GBP1,000 per month must be paid into the account, something that is quite common anyway.
Increasing their interest rate is quite a move for Lloyds TSB, though they appreciate that customers in the UK tend to be quite fixed when it comes to their current accounts, tending to stay with the same bank for many years. Lloyds therefore feel they have to really make an impact with their message in order to get people to consider moving and an impact it certainly is.
