Content Starts Here

The Reporter

No surrender: With just 48 hours to go until Standard Life floats on the stock market, experts are predicting a surge in the number of people cashing in their endowment policies once they have pocketed their windfalls. Cashing in your endowment early is arguably a fairly extreme step. But if you are determined to bail out, you may be able to make more by selling your with-profits policy to a "traded endowment policy" (Tep) firm, which will then sell it on to another investor. One of these companies, Surrenda-link, says the surrender value of a typical endowment policy is £13,000, and adds that selling a Standard Life policy can typically yield 5%-15% more than surrendering. Therefore, policyholders could receive an additional £650 to £1,950 by selling their policy to a Tep firm.

Hard knock Life: A few weeks ago, Guardian Money reported on the curious case of around 500 people who transferred their pensions from Equitable Life to Standard Life. They had discovered to their astonishment that they were not members of Standard Life. Due to a technicality, it was Equitable Life which was the member. However, Equitable had reassured them that it would pass on the windfalls to them. It has now emerged that they will have to kiss goodbye to their free shares - and they can't have a cheque either. If Equitable passes on the windfall shares to its former policyholders, this would be classed as an "unauthorised.....continued below

Advertisement starts

Advertisement ends

payment" and taxed at a rate of 55%. So it says it has no alternative but to use the windfalls to enhance their pensions instead. For some, that will mean their pension income will be "boosted" to the tune of a few pounds per month.

Wedding blings: Star-watchers reckon this summer will be a celebrity wedding extravaganza, with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, footballer Ashley Cole and Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy, ex-Celebrity Big Brother inmates Chantelle Houghton and Preston, and possibly Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie all set to tie the knot. Thousands of normal mortals will also walk down the aisle over the next few months. They probably won't be surprised to learn that the cost of the average wedding has risen to around £15,000, according to insurer More Th>n. It is offering those about to wed 10% extra contents cover free on their household insurance to take care of expensive items such as wedding dresses that find their way into the home around this time. Rather unromantically, More Th>n adds that if it all goes pear-shaped, home insurance customers with its family legal services add-on package can download divorce documents from its website.

Dogged by pet thieves: More than 500 cats and dogs are stolen every day, and cases of dognapping have more than doubled over the past 12 months, it was claimed this week. The research was issued by Sainsbury's Bank, which adds cheeringly that around 47% of people whose pets have been nicked "have never seen them again". Despite this growing problem, more than a quarter of all pet insurance policies offer no reward for the return of lost or stolen dogs. One of the tips offered by Sainsbury's Bank and Missing Pets Bureau on how to protect against pet theft is to "vary your routes when walking your dog" (!).

Housing market is doomed: The press is often accused of talking up the housing market and giving too much publicity to upbeat house price surveys. So here is something to cheer up those who take the view that, to quote Dad's Army, "we're all doomed". The research department at upmarket estate agent Savills this week declared that the housing market's renewed buoyancy "will not continue". It adds: "We expect the slowdown which we started to see at the end of 2005 to take hold again in the second half of 2006. This is because more properties are coming to the market now, so there is less of an apparent stock shortage to push up scarcity value." But Savills certainly does not believe we are on the brink of a crash; it is forecasting that property price growth will average about 3.7% a year over the next five years.

Flaming mad: High street bank Abbey has come up with a novel idea for giving customers a warm feeling about its Spanish owner, Banco Santander. Between now and the end of September, Abbey customers holidaying in Spain who use their Abbey Visa Debit or Visa Electron card to withdraw cash from one of Banco Santander's 4,300 cash machines will get 2% cashback. The money will be credited to people's accounts within two weeks of a withdrawal. Customers need to look out for cash machines bearing the bank's flame symbol. "We are really keen for our customers to experience the advantages of Abbey being a part of the Santander group," says a spokeswoman. It's a nice idea - but this is definitely a case of giving with one hand and taking with the other. Abbey's customers will still be hit with an ATM cash handling fee of 1.5%, plus the standard 2.75% fee for overseas use which is often known as the "exchange rate loading fee".

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006