By Mark Richards. The new ‘challenger banks’ should have helped consumers be better off and better informed about their finances. But now some of the new banks are running into trouble – and so far, the benefits for the consumer are questionable. Over the last two years, I have written several articles about British banking: [...]
By Mark Richards. Airbnb has changed the face of many cities and ‘destroyed communities.’ Now the residents are fighting back – and it looks like the legislators are on their side. But there are signs that Airbnb will not go quietly. The battle lines have been drawn… I hope you are enjoying the Bank Holiday [...]
By Mark Richards. As we do at the beginning of every month, CL News looks back over the month just ended. What did April bring us? First and foremost – as you’ll see at the end of the Round-Up – it brought us a disappointingly sensible month. What it did not bring (of course) was [...]
By Mark Richards. Last week’s papers were full of stories about spies and security. The UK gave Chinese company Huawei the go-ahead to work on our 5G infrastructure: cyberattacks on small business increased and it was revealed that the UK’s most common password is 123456. At first glance these stories are not connected – but [...]
By Mark Richards We are slightly late this month, thanks to Easter, but here it is. Moneygap’s round-up of the month’s good news. And in the month when Notre Dame burned down, Brexit was kicked into the long grass until Hallowe’en and my football team lost in the FA Cup semi-final, we need all the [...]
By Mark Richards If you have a dog or a cat it makes sense to have it insured. As figures from the Association of British Insurers show, vet’s bills are only going to increase. They are paying out more to settle our insurance claims. But a worrying number of us still do not have cover [...]
By Mark Richards. Disney is about to launch a streaming service – entering a highly competitive market. Can all the streaming services survive? Will Netflix continue to grow its subscriber numbers? Can Apple work out how to make programmes? The industry could see big changes over the next few years… As we wrote at the [...]
By Mark Richards Disney is about to launch a new streaming service. Meanwhile more and more of us have devices like Alexa in our homes. Is this a fantastic new era of entertainment and convenience? Or could it be rather more sinister? Will we end up paying a very heavy price for the films we [...]
By Mark Richards. A House of Lords’ report has just suggested that poor broadband is harming the UK’s seaside towns. In truth, the malaise goes much deeper than that. So has the situation improved since we first wrote about it nearly two years ago? Or are the UK’s seaside towns really on the rocks… Way [...]
By Mark Richards. 5G is going to bring major changes to connectivity and download speeds. Some industries will be changed out of all recognition. So what changes can we expect to see? And what price will we have to pay for those changes? Last week both South Korea and the USA launched commercial 5G services, [...]