The UK’s leading banks have agreed a deal that means they will be clearer about their charges for using cards while abroad.

The Office for Fair Trading (OFT) has announced it will impose new regulations that will force banks to make it clear how much they are charging customers for using cards overseas.

The move follows a complaint by watchdog Consumer Focus that many banks were deliberately confusing customers over the cost of using their card abroad.

The OFT has said that the majority of banks have agreed to the changes. These include Lloyds, HSBC, Capital One, American Express and the Co-operative Bank.

These banks have agreed to display the charges that customers incur while abroad more clearly on their monthly and annual statements. You may want to budget easily by looking to invest in Orange prepaid cards.

The OFT says this will lead to more transparency over how much banks charge for card use abroad, and more clarification amongst customers.

Many customers use travel money cards to try and save money by avoiding these large bank fees.

“We are very pleased that the travel money industry has agreed, following an OFT short investigation, to make these significant voluntary changes,” said John Fingleton, OFT Chief Executive.

“We believe they will reduce confusion about the charges that apply when buying travel money in the UK or using cards overseas, and hope they will allow holidaymakers to be far better informed when making choices about how they spend abroad. This should drive greater competition in the UK travel money market.”

Many banks have also agreed to scrap charges for customers who use their debit cards to purchase foreign currency in the UK. There was previously a charge of between 1.5 and 2 per cent levied by most banks.

“Consumers should be able to buy foreign currency without being misled, confused or short-changed. The OFT has agreed with Consumer Focus that people are losing out due to the action of banks and others buying and selling holiday money,” said Mike O’Connor, Chief Executive of Consumer Focus.

relocation services
relocation companies uk

26% of UK executives who left existing roles in 2010 chose to move to a different country entirely. This represents a 6% increase from 2009.

In contrast, Germany, Italy and Spain have emigration rates of only 7-8%. This means that the UK is now the second biggest exporter of senior talent after Central/Eastern Europe. International relocation services and relocation companies UK can advise and assist with a number of important issues, helping you to focus on the task in hand within your new surroundings.

This is one of the key findings of the 3rd edition of Talent Mapping research from international online career and recruitment service, Experteer.

The research suggests that of the total number of company members, over 70,000 senior-level professionals changed jobs in the 12 months leading up to the first quarter of 2011.

15.6% of this group took up a new position in a different country, representing a small drop from 2008-09 levels (17%) but an intriguing rise on 2007/08 (13.5%).

The number of international relocations within this group totalled 11,188, with 7.2% originating from the UK.

So what has contributed to the UK trend over the past two years? Clearly, the continuing impact of economic recession on the domestic job market has played a significant role.

There are also emerging threats to living standards from public sector spending, as well as the introduction of the 50p top personal tax rate for those earning over GBP150,000 (EUR170,000) a year in 2010.

These decisions have made the UK less attractive to top-level talent in a number of areas, making relocation a viable option in a lot of cases.

Germany has been the location of choice for many of this group.

The second largest group chose to migrate even further, beyond Europe in a number of cases. France was the third most popular destination.

Switzerland achieved the highest net gain in imported senior-level professionals, just over 50% in total.

Movement between neighbouring countries remains very common practice. Common language skills, as well as a proximity to home countries, is undoubtedly influencing this pattern.

Of course, any relocation abroad can be a stressful and complex experience.