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Growth will be tepid in early 2010, the CBI claims. Read full post…

The bank follows RBS in reforming its fee structure. Halifax has become the second bank in recent weeks to announce reforms to its charges for overdrawn customers.

The financial firm said that its rate-based system would be replaced by a flat fee from December 6th.

Currently, customers who go into the red pay an annual interest rate of 19.5% on their balances.

Under the new regime they would be charged £1 a day for overdrafts of up to £2,500, a move which would reduce costs for many.

RBS also announced recently that it would cut its fees for overdrawn customers who exceed their authorised limits from £28 per month to £20.

Bank charges are currently the subject of a test case involving the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and several high street financial firms.

An upcoming supreme court ruling is to rule whether or not the OFT can decide on the fairness of these charges.

If the verdict empowers the OFT in this way, hundreds of thousands of people are likely to be allowed to reclaim previous overdraft penalties.

Both RBS and Halifax were part-nationalised by the government last year due to the extreme market volatility caused by the global credit crunch.

The UK taxpayer now owns large equity stakes in both firms, following the bailouts.

However, a Treasury spokesman told the Times that no pressure had been exerted in order to encourage the banks to change their policies for overdrawn customers.

“We have publicly issued a call for the the OFT and all the banks, not just those with a government stake, to resolve the charging situation as soon as possible,” he added.

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Leasing is back.

On Friday, Chrysler Group began offering leases on all 2010 Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler vehicles. The automaker also said in a press release that it plans special leasing deals for certain models, including the Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Grand Caravan, Ram 1500, Journey, Jeep Wrangler, and Liberty.

Credit: daveseven

Should you consider what Chrysler is offering? Or, more broadly, is a lease ever a good idea? Not typically, says Dani Lunsford, Internet Sales Manager for Napleton Chrysler Jeep Dodge, in Kissimmee, Florida.

“The only reason to lease is if you are young, without children, and normally have low mileage amounts a year,” Lunsford says.

But even then, the expenses pile up. New tires, cleaning costs, and mileage penalties or other fees can add hundreds or even thousands, Lunsford says.

This may be why Chrysler wants back in the game. But leasing has its risks for dealers, too. A l

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Material clutter is not the only ‘object’ that we become indebted to. These days, it’s just as easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed out by a different type of clutter. I’m talking about electronic clutter (or E-clutter). You can’t touch it and you won’t need a Two Men a Truck to move it around, but it’s there. And it’s controlling your life – if you let it./p pKind of ironic, isn’t it? Living in a digital world takes no substantive material ’space’, yet it can have such a profound overbearing impact on our ‘mental space’. For some of us, it might make the battle with material clutter seem easy. I’m going to highlight a few of the biggest types of e-clutter and how to fight them. /p pstrongEmail Clutter/strong pUsing your inbox as a to-do list? We’ve all been guilty of it. Keeping emails around as mental Read full post…