Archive for the ‘Personal Finance’ 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, April 23rd, 2008
Here are a list of what you can do:
- If your mortgage is interest-only, switch to repayment asap. It will be more expensive in the short term but will save you thousands in interest in the long run.
- Pay extra on your mortgage every month. This will reduce the debt and cut the interest that you are charged each month. But check how much you are allowed to repay penalty free.
- If you want to repay more than the bank will allow penalty free then put the extra cash into a cash Isa first for tax free savings. This can then be used to bolster your equity when you want to move home or remortgage.
- Don’t be tempted to borrow from other sources such as credit cards to repay your mortgage.
For more information, visit thisismoney.com
Tags: interest-only, Negative equity, remortgage, repayment
Posted in Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Home loans, House prices, Mortgages, Negative equity, Personal Finance, Property Market, Re-mortgage, Savings | No Comments »
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
Several small building societies have been restricting or halting lending as a result of the financial turmoil. With lenders’ funds drying up, higher deposits are being demanded from first-time buyers. The Co-operative Bank now demands a higher deposit by cutting its maximum loan-to-value ratio from 95% to 90%. Bigger lenders, such as the Halifax and the Woolwich, have slightly increased the interest rates on certain tracker or fixed-rate deals, while making other deals available only to those able to put down a 40% deposit. The Cheltenham & Gloucester, part of Lloyds TSB, has also raised the interest rate charged on some deals. More than a million fixed-rate deals, typically lasting for two years, are due to expire in 2008, which will add to demand. As a result, the smaller building societies are withdrawing deals instead of being swamped by demand. Those wishing to move house are being told to act fast on mortgage deals as lenders are changing their deals frequently, sometimes several times a week.
Tags: building societies, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Co-operative, Credit crisis, Credit crunch, First-time buyers, fixed-rate deals, Halifax, higher deposits, Lloyds TSB, mortgage criteria, Nationwide, TSB
Posted in Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Finance, First-time buyers, Halifax, Mortgages, Nationwide, Personal Finance, Property Market | No Comments »
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
The Saving Gateway scheme could hand you £600 for free over two years as long as an equal amount can be put forward over that period. The aim of the scheme is to encourage those on low incomes to save by possibly matching their contributions. It will not be launched until 2010 and the consultation stage will carry on until June this year. The Government suggests encouraging saving by offering either 20p, 50p or £1 for every £1 saved. The two pilot studies in 2002 and 2005 used these varying amounts but the Government has yet to decide on how much it will offer and is open to suggestions from members of the public at Saving Gateway Consultation, Room G67, HM Revenue and Customs, 100 Parliament Street, London SW1A 2BQ or julie.duffy@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk. Evidence from the pilots however, showed that the ‘match rate’ did not need to be as high as £1 per £1 to encourage people to save. Eligibility has been reined back to very low income levels but consideration is still made on an individual basis, so several people in the same household can sign up to the scheme.
Tags: government scheme, pilot sheme, saving gateway scheme, Savings
Posted in Government, HM Revenue & Customs, HMRC, Investments, Personal Finance, Savings | No Comments »
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
Hidden away in the budget are new powers which mean taxpayers face massive increases in how much they can be fined simply for failing to understand their tax returns. The new penalty rules mean people who fill in their own tax forms face what is effectively a fine of up to 30% of any amount they understate which is then spotted by the taxman on grounds that they ‘failed to take reasonable care’. So for example, if they understate their tax by £1000 they face a payment of £1300. Until now penalties were rarely above 10%. Deliberate understatement of tax would now attracts a 70% fine. Unfortunately, yesterday’s press releases by Revenue & Customs ran to a record 270 pages, most of which are of interest only to accountants.
Tags: Chancellors budget, HMRC, NI, stealth tax, tax returns
Posted in Finance, Government, HM Revenue & Customs, HMRC, Personal Finance, Politics, Taxation | No Comments »
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
A new 13 road tax band will replace the existing A to G categories from 2009/10. The new top band M - for cars emitting more than 255g of carbon dioxide a kilometre - faces a £455 annual charge from 2010-11 and £950 in the first year only. This would affect the so-called Chelsea Tractors such as Land Rover, Toyota Land Cruisers and high-performance sports cars such as Porsches which are blamed for high emissions of the greenhouse gas linked to global warming. The government claims that the new band M cars are charged more in the first year to reflect the environmental cost. Some low emission cars will have their tax reduced, some for free and others with inflation busting increase. A reduction in the capital allowances on company cars on the most polluting fleet cars was also announced, aimed at encouraging employers to offer staff more green-friendly cars. Compare new tax bands with your current tax band to see how much it will cost you from April 2009.
Tags: chelsea tractors, land rover, porsches, road tax, road tax band, toyota
Posted in Consumer, Government, Personal Finance, Politics, Taxation | No Comments »
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
Borrowers with bad debts are getting better mortgage deals than first-time buyers without a deposit. The cheapest deal for a first-time buyer with good credit history but without a deposit is with Bradford & Bingley - 6.89% with £999 fee. But a sub-prime borrower with missed mortgage repayments (in the past year, one of which is in the last six months), could get a rate of 6.69% with a £995 fee with Chelsea BS. However, those with a 25% deposit could get a rate of 4.75% from First Direct with a £1,498 fee. A year ago, 27 banks and building societies offered 100% mortgages compared with just 11 today at much higher rates. As the credit crunch hits banks and building societies, first-time buyers have been left out in the cold.
Tags: 100% mortgages, Bradford & Bingley, Chelsea BS, Credit crisis, Credit crunch, credit history, cub-prime, First Direct, First-time buyers, subprime
Posted in Credit crisis, Credit crunch, First-time buyers, Mortgages, Personal Finance, Property, Sub-prime | No Comments »
Monday, March 3rd, 2008
The Government has pledged £12m for a large-scale trial of a free personal finance service that will offer general advice on issues such as managing debt, budgeting, retirement planning and understanding financial jargon on a two-year trial. The “money guidance” pilot project was the main recommendation of the final report of a 14 month long work led by Otto Thoresen, chief executive of life insurer AEGON UK which proposed an impartial, sales-free, personalised advice service to help people better manage their money. The report also claimed that consumers could be more than £15bn better off if they had access to financial guidance over the next 50 years. Over the same period, it could save the government some £6bn through reductions in Pension Credit payments and other benefits and also make the financial services industry £5bn because they would benefit from lower levels of bad debt, a better relationship with consumers and a reduction in advertising and selling costs. The recommendations come at a time when Britons have raked up a record UK personal debt of £1.4 trillion and are increasingly feeling the effects of the credit crunch.
Tags: advice service, AEGON UK, budgeting, Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Debt Management, financial guidance, financial jargon, free financial advice, life insurer, money management, pension credit, personalised advice, pilot scheme, retirement planning
Posted in Consumer, Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Debt Management, Finance, Government, Pension, Personal Finance | No Comments »
Monday, February 25th, 2008
Nationwide increased the minimum deposit required to secure its best rates from 10% of the value of the property to 25%. With the average price of a London house now more than £300,000, buyers will have to raise at least £75,000 up front. It is a major blow for first-time buyers in particular. The clampdown by Nationwide comes as banks and building societies tighten lending conditions following the credit crunch. Until today, borrowers needed only to raise a deposit of 10% or more to take advantage of Nationwide’s best rates. They now need 25% or more - or face an extra 0.2% of interest. The rise only affects new borrowers and wipes out the benefit they would have enjoyed following this month’s cut in interest rates by the Bank of England. Nervous rival lenders are set to follow suit as they chase margins rather than market share.
Tags: best rates, deposits, First-time buyers, Nationwide, Nationwide best rates
Posted in Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Finance, First-time buyers, Mortgages, Personal Finance, Property, Property Market | No Comments »
Sunday, February 24th, 2008
Estate agents can cost you thousands in fees - so more and more people are turning to the web and listing their homes privately. The new breed of private-sale websites and bargain online estate agents claim to be doing well despite the credit crunch and a jittery property market. So how easy is it to go it alone? “Private selling isn’t for everyone, particularly those who lack the time or confidence to arrange and conduct viewings and negotiate with potential buyers,” reckons James Tallack, a senior researcher at the consumer rights group Which?. “However, if this doesn’t bother you, then there are huge savings to be made.” So why do we bother with estate agents? If somebody is selling privately, will they be able to do as good a job as a good-quality estate agent? Will they be able to negotiate the best price? Can they really check out all the buyers’ credentials? Can they try and help control the chain? “When you get these tougher markets, as we did in the early 1990s, then the good-quality estate agents really show what they are made of” insists Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents.
Tags: estate agent fees, estate agents, private sale, private selling
Posted in Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Finance, Personal Finance, Property, Property Market | No Comments »
