BANKING
|
Details
Written up In
Computer Active's Excellant Webguide If you wish your website to be
added to this list call 0870 199 3871 or email :
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Alliance
and Leicester
www.alliance-leicester.co.uk |
|
| Joining
the stampede of banks moving toward genuine Internet banking, rather
than
the first wave of dial-up accounts, is former building society the
Alliance
and Leicester, which went online in January 2000. Services available
include
balance information, transaction details, statement requests and
stationery
orders. There's a limited capacity to move your money around, allowing
you to pay bills and transfer funds to previously mandated accounts.
Uses
three-tier encryption which should allay any security fears. |
egg
www.egg.com |
|
| It
must be a bit of a blow when you get knocked for being too successful.
Prudential's online banking arm suffered bad publicity when demand for
its credit card became so enormous late last year that new customers
were
having to wait weeks for their accounts to be opened. But now the
hysteria
had died down you have to admit it, it's a great product. Egg has been
moving towards an Internet-only existence, and the fact that egg makes
you the customer do all the work means it can offer top rates. |
First
Direct
www.first-direct.co.uk |
|
| Appropriately
named, HSBC's offshoot was the UK's first direct banking service, with
years of experience of telephone banking behind it. A new twist is that
First Direct has not only made the move to Internet banking, rather
than
the dial-up kind where you had to download its own software, but it's
also
become a free Internet service provider. And that means your account is
even cheaper to access and run. |
First
e-com
www.first-e.com |
|
| Billing
itself as Europe's first internet-only bank, First e-com is the
brainchild
of a consortium of companies who've decided to take on the banks at
their
own game, cut out the branch network and offer business and personal
customers
preferential rates of interest. Interesting to note that one of the
consortium
is Intel - there's a better than even chance that it made the processor
that powers your home computer - a company with every reason to get as
much business online as possible. |
Natwest.com
www.natwest.com |
|
| As well as checking
balances,paying bills, viewing recent tranactions, and more,
natwest.com
gives you useful information on things like going on holiday, buying a
car, moving home or starting and running a business. As we update it
and
make it more interactive natwest.com is sure to have lots to interest
you. |
Net
Banker
www.netbanker.com |
|
| What
do you do to switch to online banking? That's right, stick with the
bank
you've been with for the last 15 years and blithely sign up for their
account.
But the beauty of the internet is that you can shop around, and not
just
in your local high street. Want a bank in Bahrain, Bali or Boston? This
is the place to look. |
Charles
Schwab
www.schwab-worldwide.com/europe |
|
| Charles
Schwab has over 25 years of brokerage experience in the US and over 12
years in the UK, and there is some justification for its boast to be
'Europe's
leading online brokerage firm'. Schwab Europe aims to provide a
complete
execution-only service for the private investor. In other words,
whether
you click onto its 'UK Market' or 'US Market' service, you pay a low,
flat
fee for your trade, rather than a big commission for expert advice. |
Smile
www.smile.co.uk |
|
| If
the first generation of Internet banking was the bank's piecemeal and
clumsy
attempts to hook up their existing accounts to the net, then smile is
part
of the second wave - joining egg as a bank that exists in cyberspace
alone.
It's part of the Co-op Bank, a selling point in itself with the Co-op's
ethical investment policy and, not having to pay for branches, it joins
egg in offering excellent interest rates on current accounts, student
accounts
and credit cards. |
Norwich
and Peterborough Building Society
www.npbs.co.uk |
|
| The
mutual movement may be under threat in Britain, as building societies
trip
over themselves to become banks, but there are big advantages for
savers
and borrowers who stick with a building society - higher rates for
savers
and cheaper mortgages. And just because the Norwich and Peterborough
have
stuck with tradition doesn't mean there's anything old-fashioned about
their set up. This site offers true Internet banking, and you can
manage
your accounts online. |
|
BANKLIST
|
|
FINANCIAL
BODIES
|
bridge
www.bridge.com |
|
| Weighty
and authorative US site that digs beyond stock market listings and
prices
to examine the economic background to the markets. Rather similar in
flavour
to our own Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal, reading Bridge
gives
you a frontiers-free view of world news. The breaking news on the day
we
surfed included BT's move for a Norwegian telecoms company; the merger
of Germany's HypoVeirens and Dresdner banks; and the People's Bank of
China
selling off its silver reserves. |
Bank
of England
www.bankofengland.co.uk |
|
| Since
Gordon Brown handed over the reins five years back these are the
chaps running UK plc, so if you want to sort your macroeconomics from
your
microeconomics, this is the place to start. Every press release, every
forecast, every bill about to wend its way through Parliament, plus
everything
you need to know about the euro, the price of gold, and details on how
to visit the Bank's museum in Threadneedle Street. |
The
Internet Stock Report
www.internetstockreport.com |
|
| If
anything, its name actually sells it rather short. Rather than just
focusing
on the happening stock market sector of the 21st Century, the Report
looks
at the whole basis of the global economy as it shifts from physical
space
to hyperspace. Fascinating views of up-and-coming businesses, but also
how our world is going to change as labour disappears and information
takes
over. |
CNN
FN
www.cnnfn.com |
|
| Seems
like if there's a pie, there's Ted Turner with his finger in it,
courtesy
of CNN. The CNN financial news site is as globally sussed as you would
expect from a news network that is always on the scene for world news
regardless
of where it breaks. It shares the bright, breezy and unstuffy style of
CNN television, and its unrivalled network of correspondents means that
this site is often first with economic news whatever the country. |
The
euro
www.euro.gov.uk |
|
| The
euro's credibility may have been damaged a tad as it's plunged ever
downwards
toward parity with the Albanian lek, but good or bad, the currency of
federal
Europe is here to stay. And even if Britain is not putting its pocket
money
where its mouth is just yet by signing up, it's a currency we're all
going
to have to deal with whether we're holidaymakers or business trading in
Europe. |
HM
Treasury
www.hm-treasury.gov.uk |
|
| Surprisingly
accessible and easy to navigate, the website of Her Majesty's Treasury
covers everything you are ever likely to need to know about taxation
and
fiscal matters in the United Kingdom plus, we would hazard, a whole lot
more. You'll find texts of all laws, decrees, announcements on
taxation,
the euro, alterations in excise duty, reports on the latest budget, as
well as reports on the UK's current economic position. |
International
Financial Encyclopedia
www.euro.net/innovation |
|
| Encyclopaedia
is the right name for this extraordinarily informative, yet easy to
follow
site. We went straight to the dictionary, which alone would make the
site
worth a visit, with its facility to cut through the jargon of the
financial
advisers and tell you what 'APR' and 'pound-cost averaging' really
mean.
There's a handy bibliography of articles, magazines and market research
published on the web, and a 22-part guide to financial matters
confronting
managers in the information age. |
|
FINANCIAL
NEWS
|
Finance
Wise
www.financewise.com |
|
| There
are a host of online financial newspapers delivering you a digest of
the
news. Of course, that's always predigested by someone else. Finance
Wise
bills itself as the first search engine to focus specifically on purely
financial content, which means you can ask it to trawl the entire Web
for
news stories on Ford Motors say, or diamond prices. Every topic, from
risk
management to syndicated finance and equities is indexed in depth. |
Daily
Telegraph
www.telegraph.co.uk |
|
| The
Telegraph boasts some of the most weighty and respected business pages
outside the Financial Times. And while the Pink Un may be a bit too
much
of a heavy read for us finance amateurs, the Telegraph wraps them in
excellent
news and sport pages too. Finance pieces within the context of top-rate
coverage of the UK political scene, the daily Alex cartoon and the
crossword
should you need some heavy relief. |
|
Perhaps the most compleat financial internet site.Established in 1972
it
incorporates the most beneficial plans for tax mitigation as well as
different
investment opportunities. Its city watchdog column shames rogue
financial
institutions. News on money making, retirement, day trading,
e-commerce,
banking, credit cards and much more. |
The
Economist
www.economist.com |
|
| The
Economist is the International journal of news, ideas, opinions and
analysis
and its website is equally prestigious. There's plenty of content
pulled
from recent issues along with a fabulous archive of articles from the
past
few years. The detailed reports on specific areas of the world are must
reads for business people and don't miss out on the online version of
the
definitive Economist Style Guide - a guide to good magazine and news
writing. |
UK
Invest
www.ukinvest.com |
|
| Very
good UK site that manages to straddle the personal finance and serious
business ends of the market. A mix of up-to-date financial news (the
news
briefs are headed by a bar giving the date and time of last update),
share
prices, news briefings and clippings from the week's financial press. A
special section on Internet News will be of special interest to those
of
us investing our hard-earned cash in those fast-climbing IT and new
media
stocks. |
Financial
Times
www.ft.com |
|
| You
have a bit of a head start when you're the world's most famous
financial
organ, but the FT's site doesn't disappoint. Clad in trademark pink,
the
website has the advantage not just of the newspaper's kudos but of
access
to a huge database of information. From the FT share indices
themselves,
to a wealth of archive features from the paper, plus reports on
individual
companies - it's a tremendous one-stop resource for researching firms
whose
shares you're thinking of adding to your portfolio. |
The
Motley Fool
www.fool.co.uk |
|
| One
of the true stars of the personal finance online world. The Motley Fool
takes 'to educate, amuse and enrich' as its brief. Suffice to say it
does
all three, breaking through the arcane terminology of the professional
dealer to give the message to all of us who are scared of taking
control
of their own finances - 'you can do better than the professionals.'
Read
this and you'll be disturbed just how badly the guys handling your
pension
actually perform. |
News
Review
www.news-review.co.uk |
|
| With
so much financial news coming from so many sources, you're never going
to read more than a tiny fraction of it, so what do you do? Simple. Get
someone to read it for you. A comprehensive summary, compiled by
financial
journalists, of the business news from the quality UK weekend
newspapers.
The Review is available from Sunday evening by email. Get it tailored
to
your needs by registering the list of companies you follow and receive
only articles which relate to those companies. |
Online
Investment Week
193.128.244.173/invweek |
|
| Excellent
online newspaper tailored to the stock markets both here (click
Investment
Week), and abroad (click International Investment Week). Very good
digest
of moves by governments worldwide, up and coming legislation, and
investment
programmes. All viewed, of course, through the filter of the markets
and
what the effect is likely to be on prices. Simple site to navigate -
every
headlined story has a brief synopsis so you can dig deeper or skip on. |
This Is Money
www.thisismoney.com |
|
The
pages are clad in friendly and non-intimidating primrose yellows and
blues,
and though there are a multitude of buttons and links on the Home Page
to Savings Rates, Your Portfolio, Company Contacts and many more, the
site
never appears cluttered or hard to navigate. Drawing on the expertise
of
the financial writers at the Mail, Mail on Sunday and Standard, the
content
is predictably impressive, pitching heavily for the average punter who
wants to prepare for the future while managing the present a little bit
better. There are constant updates to a good news section, plus some
excellent
features - unlocking the value of your home, all you need to know about
loans - all with real-life case studies. The very good Money Savers
section
compares prices on credit cards, overdrafts, life cover and loans, in
fact
if you're looking for a site that will save you money before you start
making it, look no further. |
|
INSURANCE
|
Car
Insurance Centre
ford.carsource.co.uk |
|
| Britain
may not have too many growth industries, but car theft seems to be the
ignoble exception. Year-on-year premiums are rocketing as thieves take
a ride at our expense. Shopping around is the key to bucking this trend
of course: the Car Insurance Centre reckons the average driver could
save
£150 by doing just that. And it's easy - on this site a number of
brokers have got together to let you get multiple competitive quotes
with
one request. |
Moneyworld
www.moneyworld.co.uk/insurance |
|
| Moneyworld
has long been one of our favourite personal finance sites - it's been
around
for a good while, it's well organised and professionally written. The
insurance
section of the site is no exception. More than just a bland listing of
insurance brokers and their contact numbers, Moneyworld actually
provides
guidance and help on finding the right motor, home and personal
insurance
cover for you. And of course you can get an online quote. |
Directline
www.directline.com |
|
| They
revolutionised the insurance market with telephone cover in the
eighties
(loads of operators working from call centres? That'll never catch on)
and now they're doing the same with the internet. The little red phone
with the annoying tune now wants to get hooked up to your modem. Home,
travel and motor insurance, and Direct Line is now in the high-interest
savings business too. |
Directory
of UK Insurance Companies
www.insurancecompanies.co.uk |
|
| The
Directory takes a slightly different approach to many of the online
brokers
and listings companies we've looked at here, finding you a broker by
geographical
location. Click on the South West and you'll be given brokers in
Plymouth
and Truro, say. While it may seem that the Internet makes geographical
location irrelevant there are still advantages in dealing with a local
firm - finding a marine insurance specialist who knows your locale may
get you a more competitive quote. |
Find
www.find.co.uk/insurance |
|
| In case
there's any confusion about what this site does, it finds online
insurance
companies for you. A very slick site that does the simple stuff very
well.
There's a mix of brokers (who'll offer you insurance products from a
number
of companies), and insurance companies themselves, selling their own
products.
All listed A to Z with a brief description of what services they
specialise
in, and a hotlink to the sites. |
Moneyshop
www.moneyshop.co.uk/direct/moto0000.htm |
|
| The
days of the high-street insurance brokers are numbered. For years most
of us have gone back to the same insurers again and again, not
realising
most of us could save money by going elsewhere. But in addition to
offering
a list of links allowing you to get the most competitive quotes,
Moneyshop
aims to up the standard further, getting readers to vote for their
favourite
online insurer and why. Offers to find a quote for you if you've had no
luck. |
Screentrade
www.screentrade.com |
|
| Reduce
premiums on the spot, then buy online or by phone" invites the website.
An irresistible offer. Screentrade isn't an insurance company but a
broker,
so it is able to offer the best deal to fit your circumstances from the
thousands of policies on the market. Brightly attractive site, simple
and
quick to navigate and you can buy a policy by tapping in your Visa,
Mastercard
or Switch number. What could be easier? |
Top
Insurance Sites in the UK
www.netcreations.co.uk/topsites/insurance |
|
| Nothing
flashy about this one - but then if you're buying insurance you don't
want
flash, you want information and you want to save money. Detailed list
of
just about every UK insurance broker you can think of, each one
followed
by a 20 word description of its specialist area - no point clicking on
the BUPA site if you're looking to insure your boat after all. |
|
PERSONAL
FINANCE
& MONEY
|
Citibank
www.citibank.co.uk |
|
| Citibank
isn't for everyone - you'll need a household income of £30,000 or
more and a deposit of £2,000 before they'll consider your
application,
but this American bank has a slick Internet operation with a number of
unusual selling points. Current accounts pay a variable but generally
generous
rate of interest; banking is completely free. You also have access to
up-to-date
account information and can view and print a balance summary, account
details
and account activity. |
Armchair
Millionaire
www.armchairmillionaire.com |
|
| 'The
five steps to financial freedom', 'Get rich slowly but surely', 'Common
sense saving and investing' - you can't accuse the Armchair Millionaire
of being short of a snappy slogan. This site sets out to make sorting
out
your money fun, and it succeeds in spades. Zippy cartoon-style graphics
meet real-life case studies and tutorials on 'ditching your debt for
good',
'fund-amentals' (ho ho) and 'savvy investing'. |
Bonehead
Finance
ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Bonehead_Finance |
|
| That's
the thing about people who've got their financial affairs sussed, they
just can't help evangelising about the virtues of debt reduction,
compound
interest and the importance of budgeting. Providing you don't object to
being referred to as a bonehead, you'll find loads here to educate,
entertain
and set you on the right financial road. Budget basics, investment
basics,
share dealing basics, and if that isn't basic enough, a glossary of
financial
language. |
|
Barings is
still the cover story,
but there are articles on the mafia, insider trading, insurance fraud,
and money laundering. plus how to do your own financial investigations
of politicians, judges, and the police, amongst others. |
Personal
Finance 101
www.ralphphillips.com/personalfinance |
|
| While
most of these sites are chockful of the thousands of financial products
jostling for attention in our overcrowded markets, and many offer
useful
features on sound financial management, Personal Finance 101 is almost
unique - a school-type series of lessons on gaining control of every
aspect
of your financial life. Planning covers bank statements, getting
organised
and taxes. You then move through Assets and Debt, Investing and so on
to
Retirement. |
Microsoft
Money
www.moneyextra.com |
|
| Of course,
if you've opted for Microsoft's 50 per cent of the personal finance
pie,
you'll be wanting to click to the Money site. And even the most
virulent
hater of all things Gates would be hard pressed to knock this one.
Basically,
Money is a brilliant package that is only improved by live information,
and Moneyextra provides it on a plate. Share prices delivered with a
15-minute
time lag (fine for all but the day traders), excellent articles on
insurance,
family finance, investments and so on. |
| Rating
: 4/5 |
Moneynet
www.moneynet.co.uk/ |
|
| Moneynet
pushes itself as the first UK website to publish a comprehensive and
independent
overview of the products available in the personal finance sector. This
Is Money and the rest might quibble with that, but Moneynet is
unarguably
one of the most comprehensive and easily searchable. Details of
mortgage
and savings products from more than 100 providers, plus details of many
more credit cards and personal loans. Interest rates are updated daily,
plus details of the other terms that apply to each product. |
Moneywise
www.readersdigest.co.uk |
|
| Refreshingly
balanced site, Moneywise. As well as heavyweight articles on investment
trusts, pension, mortgages and the like, many drawn from Readers
Digest's
popular Moneywise magazine, the site places itself firmly in the home
by
featuring pages on gardening, DIY and food and health. And, surprise
surprise,
there's a Prize Draw! |
Quicken
www.quicken.com |
|
| There
are two real players in personal finance software these days. One is
Money
from the all-conquering Microsoft, but Quicken from Intuit is preferred
by many, and its online arm doesn't disappoint either, complementing
the
friendliness and simplicity of the finance software with an
astonishingly
comprehensive site. It has all the news, info and updates you'll
require
to make your financial moves - mortgage and savings rates, personal
finance
news, frequently updated share prices and access to Financial Times
reports. |
Yahoo
UK Finance
finance.uk.yahoo.com |
|
| In their
bid to build brand loyalty among us notoriously promiscuous net
surfers,
search engines such as Yahoo are cementing ever more content into their
site. And long may it continue, if it means we get sites like UK
Finance,
bristling with top-notch features, superbly organised and ordered links
to a zillion finance websites, and up-to-the-minute stock exchange
prices
ticking along the top of our browser windows. |
Gay
Financial Network
www.gfn.com |
|
| Okay,
we here you ask, what's the point of a 'gay' financial page? Surely
borrowing
and saving are blind to your sexual orientation? First off, let's say
that
this is an excellent personal finance site whether you're gay, straight
or would rather have a nice cup of tea, but pensions, life assurance
and
personal insurance raise a number of issues for gay couples that the
nuclear
family never has to deal with. |
| Cassandra's
Revenge |
|
| So who
is Cassandra? And why does she want revenge? She doesn't really. What
she
wants is for women to begin thinking about wealth, money and investing
in new, more powerful ways. Why? 'Wealth is an important tool to a
happy,
safe and productive life. When it comes to financial literacy and
wealth,
women are sadly behind the curve, but it's never too late to improve
your
financial well being.' |
Ethical
Investment Co-operative
www.gn.apc.org/eic |
|
| So you
want to save but don't want your money lent to people who are
despoiling
the environment? Or you want to borrow, but you don't want to borrow
from
a bank which finances arms dealers? You can follow your conscience and
still get a good deal on your money; your first port of call should be
the Ethical Investment Co-op, a network of independent financial
advisers
who are worried about more than their commission. |
Lycos
guide to loans
www.lycosuk.co.uk/webguides/pfinance/t_loans.html |
|
| Search
engine Lycos does the hard work for you here, editing out the zillions
of financial institutions from all round the world who, let's fact it,
you're never going to be dealing with, and instead giving you a
definitive
list of UK financial institutions, plus a brief run down of their
products
and specialisations. If you want to borrow or lend money in the UK take
a look at this well-maintained and thorough index. |
Moneybags
www.moneybags.co.uk |
|
| UK financial
information, stock and share tips, investing ideas and advice, personal
finance, articles, stockmarket analysis, financial links and investment
books. Moneybags offers an independent online resource for UK investors
with attitude. 'Our sole aim is to help you get the most out of your
money',
and the site does a good job of hunting down the best current savings
and
loans deals in the UK. |
Wisebuy
www.wisebuy.co.uk |
|
| This
online Investment Guide is aimed at expert and beginner alike. Unbiased
information on over 100 different types of savings and investments,
equating
to more than 200 pages of information in the original paper version.
Banks
and building societies, co-operative societies, friendly societies,
gold,
investment trusts, local authorities, national savings, offshore banks,
pensions, property , OEICs... is that enough for you? They claim they
have
101 ways to invest. |
Yahoo
Loan
loan.yahoo.com |
|
| If all
your investments, foreign currency and futures deals, auction bids and
e-shopping have left you short of funds, click onto the personal loans
site of one of the world's largest search engines, for a selection of
finance
options. Each section - car loans, home loans, personal and so on, has
an introductory essay on the pros and cons of the loan process. Still
interested.
Then you simply click at the bottom of the page for an online quote. |
|
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