Officials from a national debt charity have recently stated that a rising number of people may end up turning to Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) in order to deal with the credit card debt that they accrue in the current difficult financial climate. (more…)
Tags: debt, individual voluntary arrangement, ivaOver the past few weeks many industry officials and groups were convinced that Britain was at last coming out of the other side of the recession. It was widely expected that official third quarter figures would show that there had been an increase in economic output and that the nation would officially be out of recession. (more…)
Tags: Recessions, Late 2000s recession in Europe, Alistair Darling, Quantitative easing, bank of england, Mervyn King, Market trends, MacroeconomicsA recent report has claimed that lenders are being accused to pushing customers onto expensive fixed rate mortgage deals that could see the amount that they owe go up by thousands of pounds. (more…)
Tags: mortgages, fixed rate mortgagesIt has been claimed that the mortgage lending sector for the month of August was largely propped up by first time buyers.
The month saw a drop in the number of people looking to remortgage, but there was a return to the market – albeit a gradual one – of first time buyers who helped to keep the sector buoyant. (more…)
Tags: mortgages, first time buyers, fixed rate mortgagesFigures that were recently released by Nationwide have shown that there has been an increase of 2 percent in property prices in the UK. The lender has confirmed that house prices are now higher than they were at the same time last year by around 2 percent, and that property prices have increased for the sixth month in a row. (more…)
Tags: house prices, property pricesSince the onset of the global credit crunch, which has seen a number of banks become at least part government owned as a result of huge bailouts using taxpayers’ money, the government has been promising to clamp down on the extraordinary bonuses that banking executives were picking up. (more…)
Tags: banks bonuses, banks, bonuses, rbs bonusesAn industry report has recently claimed that it is unlikely that homes in Northern Ireland will see any price increase next year. The report was released by Davy stockbrokers, and claims that even if there is a property value increase it will not be a significant one. (more…)
Tags: northern ireland house pricesNationalised mortgage lender Northern Rock is said to be on an aggressive drive to try and increase its customer base by cutting the rates on some of its mortgage products a number of times within a short period of time. (more…)
Tags: northern rock mortgages, northern rockFor many years landlords in the UK who have been looking to rent their properties out to potential tenants have always been careful to ensure that a credit reference check is carried out on any potential tenant to make sure that they are not experiencing financial problems that could result in them being unable to make payments on the rent. (more…)
Tags: mortgages, buy to letFirst time buyers have faced a number of problems when it comes to getting onto the property ladder, even though property prices have come down. Over the past couple of years banks and lenders have become reluctant to hand out mortgage loans, and first time buyers in particular have suffered because of the high deposit levels that lenders have been demanding, which most first time buyers have been unable to raise. (more…)
Tags: Britannia mortgages, mortgagesAs the Office of Fair Trading waits to hear from the Supreme Court with regards to whether it can set fair overdraft charge levels for banks a report has been released that indicates banks could end up paying billions of pounds back to consumers in returned overdraft charges, which would come as a huge blow given their current financial status. In fact, banks could be forced to pay back up to £20 billion in returned overdraft charges if the Office of Fair Trading wins the case. (more…)
Tags: bank charges, Office of Fair Trading, overdraft chargesEarlier this month struggling first time buyers in the UK received some good news after Abbey, which is owned by Spanish bank Santander, accounted that it was scrapping the legal fees on some of its mortgage loans. (more…)
Tags: first time buyers, mortgages, first time buyer mortgagesUnfair mortgage charges have resulted in a fine for a UK mortgage lender according to a recent report. GMAC-RFC has been fined nearly three million pounds by the UK’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority. (more…)
Tags: lender fines, GMAC-RFC, FSAFor the past seven months the base interest rate in the UK has been at an all time low of just 0.5 percent, which is the lowest it has ever been in the history of the Bank of England, which spans over three hundred years. (more…)
Tags: mortgage rates, fixed rate mortgagesThere is no doubt that over the past couple of years the UK’s property market has been through an extremely turbulent time, with the near financial collapse resulting in a negative effect on the mortgage and property markets. (more…)
Tags: housing market, property marketOver the past few months there have been increases in property prices in the UK, and house price indexes have shown that property prices are now at the sort of level that they were at around twelve months ago, although they are still falling short of the levels they reached at the peak of the property market in the latter part of 2007. (more…)
Tags: housing market, property pricesHigh street lender Nationwide has bucked the trend in the mortgage market by offering 90 percent mortgages to borrowers, which has proven great news for the many first time buyers that have struggled to find the level of deposit that many lenders are now asking for. (more…)
Tags: mortgages, 90% mortgagesSince the property market peaked back in 2007 property prices in the UK have plunged, sending many homeowners spiralling into negative equity and wiping tens of thousands of pounds off the price of properties. (more…)
Tags: property prices, first time buyersAccording to a recent report around one hundred thousand homeowners every month are benefiting from the rock bottom base rate, which has stood at just 0.5 percent since April of this year. The current base rate is the lowest it has ever been in the history of the Bank of England, which spans over three hundred years. (more…)
Tags: low mortgage rates, interest ratesOver recent weeks data has been released that indicates mixed news in the mortgage lending markets. There has been much speculation recently about signs of recovery in the property and mortgage markets, and indeed some of the figures relating to mortgage lending levels have pointed towards recovery. (more…)
Tags: mortgage lending, mortgage approvals, mortgagesOver the past couple of years the mortgage market in the UK has gone through some very tough times, and even now traditional mortgage lenders are being increasingly strict with regards to mortgage approvals, and are putting many obstacles in the way of borrowers that do not have large deposits and excellent credit histories. (more…)
Tags: post office mortgages, mortgagesSome time ago the supermarket giant Tesco announced that it was launching its own bank, which would offer, amongst other things, mortgages and current accounts, improving the choice for consumers in what has become a very turbulent and difficult market. (more…)
Tags: tesco, tesco loans, tesco financeAccording to a recent report many first time buyers would find it cheaper to buy a home than to rent one in most parts of the UK providing they can find a reasonable deposit to put down on the property. (more…)
Tags: rental costs, mortgage costsIt has been reported recently that many homeowners in the UK are using the savings that they are making on their mortgage repayments to make repayments on their credit card debts. (more…)
Tags: interest rates, mortgage repayments, credit card debtOver recent months there have been modest increases in property values in the UK, and this has sparked renewed hope across the nation, with many industry officials claiming that the property price increases were signs of green shoots in the property market and the economy as a whole. However, a number of other industry experts were quick to predict that the property price increases were only a temporary blip and that the situation would not be sustained. (more…)
Tags: house prices, house marketBuying your first home is an exciting, yet daunting experience. It is likely that this purchase is the biggest financial commitment you will ever make in your life and the prospect of taking out a loan that will take you about 25 years to repay is something that could keep you awake at night. (more…)
Tags: mortgages, first time buyers, first time buyer mortgages, first time buyers tipsBrits have always been fond of buying holiday homes and properties in overseas destinations, and over the years have purchased properties in many different places around the world. (more…)
Tags: foreign mortgages, overseas properties, overseas mortgagesThe results of a recently conducted survey have shown that many people in Britain think that now is a good time to buy a home, despite the difficulties in the mortgage markets. (more…)
Tags: buy home, house marketThe Financial Services Authority is the UK’s financial regulator, and part of its job is to protect consumers from unscrupulous actions by banks and financial institutions by ensuring that these institutions and properly and fairly regulated. (more…)
Tags: FSA, homeowner protection, Treasury Select CommitteeAccording to figures received from the Financial Ombudsman Service the highest number of complaints in relation to home loans and mortgages has been received by the Bank of Scotland. (more…)
Tags: Financial Ombudsman Service, mortgage complaints, bank of scotland mortgage complaints, bank of scotland