The internet trading body, IMRG has predicted a huge upsurge in Christmas shoppers going online to make their purchases today. As the busiest day for online shopping, the IMRG expects a record breaking £320 million to be spent online today.

The peak shopping hour is expected to be between 1-2pm as many people are expected to spend their cash during their lunch hour. In this hour alone £28 million is expected to be spent by UK shoppers. 1.31pm has been dubbed the ‘mega minute’ with £1 million expected to be spent in one minute alone.

One in three homeowners could still be paying their mortgage when they retire, a new survey today has shown.

Highlighting the depth of mortgage debt in the UK, the survey by Impartial.co.uk reveals that 1.4m homeowners over the age of 55 still have 10 years or more to run on their current mortgage, with the average amount owed by the so-called “baby boomers” totalling a whopping £55,046 on average and could be facing monthly repayment of more than £700.

One of Britain’s best known builders, Barratt Homes has announced it will be slashing the prices of many of its homes as they are simply not selling.

The availability of mortgages grinding to a halt, particularly for first time buyers, coupled with overdevelopment in major cities has hit the housing market hard, with developers now resorting to fire-sale tactics for properties which has remained unsold and empty.

Savers can look forward to a welcome boost as the government looks to put confidence back into the banking system.

Savers, who were covered for the first £35,000 of savings in any one financial institution in the event of a collapse, will now see that level of cover rise to cover savings of up to £50,000 under new plans due to be outlined later today.

Stock markets were sent into free-fall yesterday as the US Congress rejected proposals for a $750bn bailout of the countries collapsed financial system.

The US Governments proposal would have seen the record sum pumped into financial institutions to help keep the US economy afloat after a series of high-profile collapses, including Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and IndyMac.

The defeat of the bill sent stocks plummeting, with the Dow Jones closing 770 points down (6.9%) – a record points drop in a single trading day.