In brief

A round-up of other personal finance stories

Taxpayers fail to claim 60% of refunds

Many taxpayers are still not claiming their entitlement to tax refunds for certain expenses, according to Fine Gael spokesman Richard Bruton. Taxpayers received €301 million in tax refunds in 2005, compared to €185 million in 2003. But Mr Bruton said this was only a fraction of the refunds for which people are eligible.

"In the case of medical expenses, private rents and bin charges, over 60 per cent of refunds are still not being claimed. In these areas alone, over €250 million more would be repayable if all people made their legitimate claims," he said.

UK switches to pin-only payments

Consumers in the UK now need to know their Personal Identification Numbers (pins) in order to pay for goods by debit and credit card. Since February 15th, retailers can turn away people who do not know their pins, although some major retailers in the UK have not yet installed the correct keypads that would allow them to accept payment by pin.

In the Republic, a handful of retailers have erected signs saying they no longer accept card payments if customers do not know their pins. However, no date has been set by the Irish Payment Services Organisation for a formal changeover from signatures to Pins.

Ulster launches seven-year bond

Ulster Bank has launched a new version of an actively managed seven-year investment product, the Income and Growth Bond.

The returns are based on the performance of 30 high-yielding FTSE Global Index equities. The bond pays an annual dividend of up to 5.5 per cent gross and has 100 per cent capital security.

Prestige opens Polish fund

Property finance company the Prestige Group has opened ainvestment fund in the Polish residential market for investors with a minimum of €50,000.

A fund of €20 million of Irish investors' money will be leveraged up to €100 million and used to finance developments on three sites in the Warsaw area. When the residential developments are completed, the properties are sold back into the Polish market. The term of the investment will be five years or less and Prestige is projecting a return of 16 per cent per annum.

New investment offers at Rabodirect

Online bank Rabodirect will offer two new investment funds from next month. The Dutch bank, which opened for business here last year, will add a European equities fund from fund managers Henderson, and a Merrill Lynch fund investing in Latin American markets to its range of investment products.

The bank now has over €550 million lodged in its online deposit account, which it launched last May.

Fund mixes high, medium, low risk

Liberty Asset Management has launched the second edition of its Flagship Fund, in which the money invested is split between three sectors: low risk, medium risk and aggressive.

The low-risk sector comprises bonds and cash. The medium risk sector is made of property funds and the aggressive sector invests in specialist equity funds, commodity funds and high-yield equity funds.