Archive for the ‘Credit crisis’ Category
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
Websites such as freecycle.org.uk, snaffleup.co.uk and gumtree.com offer good second-hand furniture and what’s more, it’s free. All you have to do is bring the van. In the past 12 months, Gumtree has seen a 49% increase in members using its Freebies section, and a 146% increase in the amount of those using the website’s Swap Shop. Freecycle has 1.5million members in Britain and claims to keep 600 tons of goods out of landfill per day through the 85 countries in which it operates.
You can also use auctionalfie.com for quick multiple auction searches, to help you find those bargains.
Tags: free furniture, freecycle, furniture swap, gumtree, snaffleup
Posted in Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Debt Management, Finance, Personal Finance | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
The number of buyers in the UK housing market has risen three months in a roll, as lower prices boost interest, according to figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). But it said first-time buyers were still largely frozen out of the market, as lenders demand high deposits. Existing homeowners are the main source of the increased interest, as well as investors.
Tags: buyer enquiries, First-time buyers, homeowners, investors, RICS, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Posted in Consumer, Credit crisis, Finance, First-time buyers, House prices, Property, Property Market, Property Prices | No Comments »
Friday, February 6th, 2009
The Bank of England cut interest rates to a new record low of 1% on Thursday. While the Halifax reported that house prices rose 1.9% during January. This is in contrast with Nationwide’s figures last week which showed 1.3% drop in house prices. As the credit-crunch has shown, the supply of finance has driven up house prices. There will be no full scale recovery in the UK property market until finance becomes easier to obtain, especially for first-time buyers. And with rising unemployment, who knows what the future will bring!
Tags: Bank of England, base rate, boe, Halifax, House prices, increase house prices, Nationwide, Rate increase
Posted in Bank of England, Credit crisis, First-time buyers, Halifax, Home loans, House prices, Mortgages, Nationwide, Property, Property Prices, Rate increase | No Comments »
Sunday, October 26th, 2008
The devastating 0.5% decline in Britain’s national output in the three months ending in September was far worse than anyone had forecast. These shocking figures indicate that we are already in recession, that the downturn is going to be deep and prolonged and that many businesses will close down and that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost. Just to add to the pain caused by the spectacular plunge in the pound, which began when Bank of England Governor Mervyn King warned of recession early this week, has gathered momentum with sterling falling to a six-year low in latest trading.
Forecasters now expect the economy to shrink in size by at least 1% in the next year and by a further 0.5% in 2010. This would mean we must prepare for the worst couple of years in a generation.
Tags: Bank of England, Mervyn King, pound, recession, sterling
Posted in Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Government, Politics, inflation | No Comments »
Saturday, October 25th, 2008
Savers with cash frozen in accounts with the UK branch of Icesave will get back their savings through a fast-track refund scheme. Payments are expected to begin in the first two weeks of November. Although the plan has yet to be finalised, it is expected that payments will be made electronically into other accounts. This will happen in stages and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will write to all ‘retail depositors’ to explain how the process will work.
Icesave customer FAQs
Tags: fast-track refund, Financial Services Compensation Scheme, FSCS, Icesave, refund scheme
Posted in Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Finance, Investments, Savings, US Property | No Comments »
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
The Chancellor yesterday morning announce his £500bn banks bailout plan which will see some of the banks part-nationalised. The plan consists of the following:
- At least £200bn for short-term lending to banks to replace funds they normally borrow through the inter-bank market.
- £25bn recapitalisation facility for Abbey, Barclays, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered to boost their balance sheet. However, Abbey, HSBC and Standard Chartered have already declined the offer.
- £25bn top-up fund if the first capitalisation proves inadequate.
- £250bn government guarantee of bank bond issues - again to help shore up the banks’ strained balance sheets.
Click here for more information.
Tags: Abbey, bailout plan, Barclays, Government bailout, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, part-nationalisation, RBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Chartered, £500 billion
Posted in Abbey, Banking, Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Finance, Government, HSBC, Halifax, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, Politics | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
So far, Iceland has claimed that it has the funds to compensate the UK’s 300,000 savers who have deposits with its Icesave accounts, so all customers will have to sit tight for the time being. Compensation must be provided within three months under EU rules.
However, if this turns out to be incorrect, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has said that it will not pay back the full £50,000 if the Icelandic system finds it is unable to pay back any individual’s funds owed up to its guarantee of 20,000 EUR (£16,000). So if you have £50,000 saved with Icesave and the Icelandic system cannot meet its obligation of £16,000 owed, then the UK system will only provide the ‘topped-up’ additional sum of £34,000.
Tags: compensation, Financial Services Compensation Scheme, FSCS, Icesave, savers, savings guarantee
Posted in Credit crisis, Kaupthing Edge, Savings | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
Icesave savers are still unable to withdraw their cash after the internet bank’s parent company was put into receivership by the Icelandic government. About 300,000 UK savers have spent a day unable to access their cash and face a nervous overnight wait to see if they must go to compensation schemes for their savings to be returned. Although a Landsbanki spokesperson said: ‘The bank is still operational and is in receivership. It has not gone bankrupt and so no ‘compensation’
arrangements are triggered.’
Meanwhile, the Icelandic government has guaranteed all its citizens’ savings 100%, but the guarantee does not extend to UK savers and people logging on to Icesave’s website were greeted with a message telling them that the group was not currently processing any deposits or any withdrawal requests on its internet accounts.
Tags: bankrupt, Icelandic government, Icesave, Landsbanki, receivership, UK savers
Posted in Credit crisis, Kaupthing Edge, Savings | No Comments »
Monday, October 6th, 2008
The Post Office is now the safest bank in Britain. The Post Office, which distributes National Savings & Investments (NS&I) deals and Post Office-branded accounts operated by the Bank of Ireland, last week became the outlet for the safest savings available anywhere. This is because NS&I is 100% guaranteed by the Government and all savings with major Irish banks, including Bank of Ireland, are guaranteed by Dublin until September 2010. But what a shame about the queues - in London, where more than 150 branches have shut recently, customers have to wait as long as half an hour.
Tags: 100% guaranteed, Bank of Ireland, National Savings & Investments, NS&I, Post office
Posted in Credit crisis, Savings | No Comments »
Sunday, August 17th, 2008
Britain’s economy may be one step away from recession, with City economists warning that figures due this week could show that growth in the second quarter of the year is already at zero. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King already warned last week that it was a real possibility this year. This week will see the updated figures for growth for the second quarter. The first estimate issued two months ago showed growth at 0.2%. But economists expect the official figure to be revised down this week, possibly to as low as zero, barely above the definition of true recession.
Tags: Bank of England, economists, economy, estimates, Mervyn King, recession
Posted in Credit crisis, inflation | No Comments »
