July 2009 - Product Reviews

Remortgage - National Housing Federation Predicts That Average House Prices Will Rise In England

National Housing Federation Predicts That Average House Prices Will Rise In England The National Housing Federation has predicted that house prices will increase by 25% by 2013. This will take the average value of a home to £274,000 from the current £180,000 as measured by the Halifax price ... More

Unsecured Loans - Unsecured Lending Down By Half

Unsecured Lending Down By Half It has been a tough couple of years for lenders. Recent surveys have shown that the unsecured loans market bears little resemblance to the one that we all enjoyed when the economy was at full throttle and interest rates were low. Moneyfacts.co.uk has just ... More

Remortgage - Home Repossession On The Decline

Home Repossession On The Decline Homeowners face many fewer repossessions in 2009 than in earlier years, according to a spokesperson for the Council of Mortgage Lenders recently. They have reduced their forecast for total repossessions in 2009 down to 65,000 from 75,000 and base this on the ... More

Debt Consolidation - Britain In The Most Debt In the EU

Britain In The Most Debt In the EU The boom has turned to bust – well, almost. Given the size of our economy and the heavy reliance of financial services prior to the meltdown, it was inevitable that any central intervention to help bail out the banks would lead to telephone number sized ... More

Debt Consolidation - IVA On The Increase, Is It Right For You?

IVA On The Increase, Is It Right For You? Getting control of your finances can be hard – especially if you have had a sudden and dramatic change in personal circumstances caused by redundancy, relationship breakdown or serious, long term illness. Once you realise that circumstances have ... More

Remortgage - Bank of England Says Financial Crisis Is Easing

Bank of England Says Financial Crisis Is Easing It seems that the Bank of England has started to see an end to the financial crisis that has so badly affected global markets and many household name institutions in recent months. Speaking recently, Paul Fisher, Executive Director Markets at ... More

Unsecured Loans - Unemployment At Highest Level For 26 Years

Unemployment At Highest Level For 26 Years Unemployment is soaring to levels not experienced since the early 80s. Records of all kinds are being set during this recession – most of them not ones that you would hope to be beating in an industrialised, developed economy in the 21st century. But ... More

Bank Accounts - More Money Lost By RBS Than Any Other Global Bank

More Money Lost By RBS Than Any Other Global Bank Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) now holds an unenviable record. It has been reported by The Banker Magazine that RBS managed to rack up over £36bn worth of losses during 2008 making it the worst performing organisation in a list of over 1,000 ... More

Bank Accounts - The Super Rich Are Hit Hardest During The Credit Crunch

The Super Rich Are Hit Hardest During The Credit Crunch Recessions are not good times for most, but the super rich tend to be hit hardest since their assets tend to be more widely diversified than ordinary folk. Evidence contained within the Sunday Times Rich List 2009 shows that £155 ... More

Debt Consolidation - Struggling To Keep Up Your Repayments?

One of the consequences of the recession is that it can change family finances at a stroke and without warning. What was once a comfortable and pleasant lifestyle can suddenly become a grind and constant worry. When times are good, we have a tendency to live life to the full. One of the key ... More

Remortgage - Gap In UK House Prices Is Getting Smaller

Gap In UK House Prices Is Getting Smaller There may be some hope that the property price slide is nearing the bottom of the cycle. Recent research conducted by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has found that the gap between asking and selling prices has started to narrow, although ... More

Debt Consolidation - Debt Overtaking Earnings

Debt Overtaking Earnings Who would like to be a resident in Kingston upon Thames? Beware before you answer as, according to a recent survey conducted by confused.com, they have the highest level of indebtedness compared to their average annual earnings of anywhere in the UK. They owe a massive ... More

Unsecured Loans - Are Personal Loan Rates Returning To Normal As The Fear Of The Credit Crunch Eases?

Are Personal Loan Rates Returning To Normal As The Fear Of The Credit Crunch Eases? What constitutes 'normality' in the current market conditions remains something of a debating point. It is clear that the financial markets have endured the greatest upheaval since the depression of the 1920s. ... More

Unsecured Loans - Enormous Mountain Of Debt To Cimb In The UK

Enormous Mountain Of Debt To Cimb In The UK Oh dear. After all the ranting and raving against consumers who were living a life that they couldn't afford on borrowed money, the Government has done exactly the same. The root cause of the problem lies in where your political preferences lay. ... More

Remortgage - New Mortgage Products On The Increase

New Mortgage Products On The Increase Given the financial markets turmoil over the past two years, it would be easy to think that there was no appetite amongst lenders to increase their range of products on offer. As the worst of the global meltdown took its toll, there was a significant ... More

New Mortgages - Mortgage rates set to rise

Mortgage rates set to rise The boom days of the last decades are well and truly behind us. During the 80's and 90's we saw a tremendous growth in the number of financial services institutions that started to offer mortgage loans. We also saw the introduction of new products such as fixed term ... More

New Mortgages - Over 15% increase on new mortgages

Over 15% increase on new mortgages Introduction The housing market in the U.K. has shown definite signs of revival in recent months, with a steady monthly increase in the number of mortgage loans approved - to levels last seen in early 2008. The total number of mortgage loans approved rose ... More

Reclaim Charges - Have you been charged Payment protection insurance on a current or previous loan?

Have you been charged Payment protection insurance on a current or previous loan? One of the biggest mis-selling scandals of recent years has been those relating to the provision of payment protection insurance (PPI) on loan products sold by major financial institutions. On the surface, PPI ... More

Debt Consolidation - Top Tips To Ease Money Worries

Top Tips To Ease Money Worries Seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. An old saying that many believe originates from the scriptures but it does seem to have a ring of truth. Even if there is a half truth in this saying, then it makes sense to prepare for the bad times when... More

Debt Consolidation - How to become debt free within 5 years

How to become debt free within 5 years Introduction The United Kingdom remains in the grip of the worst recession since World War II, and one of the inevitable consequences of any recession is growth in unemployment. Unemployment in the U.K. already stands at just over 2¼ million – its ... More

Remortgage - Housing Market Slump Close To An End

Housing Market Slump Close To An End After many months of watching house prices fall in response to the chaos in the financial markets and global meltdown of economies, there may be some rays of hope that the bottom has been reached and prices may be beginning to harden. Residential property... More

Reclaim Charges - Nearly £1.2 million unclaimed in utilities compensation

Nearly £1.2 million unclaimed in utilities compensation Did you know that consumers are failing to claim nearly £1.2m per week from their energy and water suppliers? According to recent research 69% of people are unaware that they can claim compensation from their gas, electric and water ... More

Debt Consolidation - Debts spiralling out of control? Consolidation with an unsecured personal loan or a Debt management

Debts spiralling out of control? Consolidation with an unsecured personal loan or a Debt management plan could see you debt free sooner than you think Introduction The effects of the credit crunch – which has, in fact, become the worst recession since the Great Depression of the Thirties – ... More

Reclaim Charges - Compensation available for Homeowners duped by Buy and rent back companies

Compensation available for Homeowners duped by Buy and rent back companies From July 1st this year anyone duped into selling their home and renting it back from unscrupulous companies may be able to claim compensation for their financial losses. This could be good news for the 50,000 ... More

Debt Consolidation - Top tips to become free of debt.

Top tips to become free of debt. With the recession lurking and job uncertainty still playing of the minds of many, there has never been a better time to try and pay off all those debts that have accumulated over the sunny, high-living days of recent years. When times were good, with income and... More

Debt Consolidation - Citizens advice bureau redundancy enquiries rise by 179%

Citizens advice bureau redundancy enquiries rise by 179% When times are 'normal', the level of redundancies remains at a relatively static level. Companies reduce or increase their workforce in response to customer demand or competitive pressure. Redundancies happen when a job disappears. ... More

Remortgage - House prices increase the 4th month running

House prices increase the 4th month running After a period of dropping prices, homes in the UK appear to have started a slow rebound in value. For the fourth month in a row, house prices have shown a month on month increase in value and given a hint that perhaps the worst of the property value ... More

Debt Consolidation - Take the headache out of your debt problem, seek advice from a debt management professional

Take the headache out of your debt problem, seek advice from a debt management professional As with all tasks we undertake, some of us do better at some things and others we do not so well. It is usually based on how frequently we practice the skill that we are being asked to use. Things we do ... More

Debt Consolidation - Considering Bankruptcy? See if a Debt Management plan can replace the stigma

Considering Bankruptcy? See if a Debt Management plan can replace the stigma Easy credit combined with a booming market led to a huge growth in borrowing during the 90's and 00's. Competition was fierce and lending criteria slipped as there was too much capacity in the loan markets. A ... More

Remortgage - Intelligent Finance pulls out of the mortgage market

Intelligent Finance pulls out of the mortgage market Intelligent Finance has announced that it is to stop providing offset mortgages and concentrate instead on offering a range of savings and investment products. Intelligent Finance is a division of Halifax plc and was formed in 2000. ... More

Debt Consolidation - The current Credit Crunch shows an increase in IVA Applications

The current Credit Crunch shows an increase in IVA Applications As the recession bites hard, it is the lag impact of unemployment which, perhaps, has the hardest impact on individuals and families. The boom years now seem a long and distant memory, and we find ourselves sorely missing the ... More

Unsecured Loans - You can still get an unsecured personal loan even with bad credit

You can still get an unsecured personal loan even with bad credit Times have never been tougher. The financial turmoil in the global markets followed by a severe recession has taken a heavy toll on national and family budgets. During the years of boom in the latter part of the last century and ... More

Unsecured Loans - Been refused a loan at your bank?

Been refused a loan at your bank? The first and most important thing to find out is why you have been refused a loan. Did you ask for too much? Is your credit history poor? Do you have something in your application that just doesn't stack up? A lender is not obliged to lend you money. It is ... More

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