Northern Rock has pulled its 125% mortgage after heavy public criticism for the super-size homeloan. The troubled bank will no longer offer the Together mortgage to new customers as it seeks to move towards low-risk lending and shrink its mortgage book. Alliance & Leicester, Abbey, Coventry Building Society and Godiva all pulled their 125% homeloans earlier this week. The only lender still offering 125% mortgages is Birmingham Midshires and experts have suggested it will soon take the product off the market. Fears have been raised that those coming to the end of 100%-plus mortgages may be in for a payment shock and unable to find credit elsewhere. Mortgage lenders have been reassessing their ranges in response to tighter market conditions and have become more reluctant to lend to those with chequered credit histories or high loan-to-value ratios.
Archive for the ‘Personal Finance’ Category
Northern Rock axes 125% mortgage
Friday, February 22nd, 2008Just how safe are overseas banks?
Thursday, February 21st, 2008New banks from foreign shores are tempting savers with top rates of interest on internet accounts. Kaupthing Edge is owned by Icelandic Bank Kaupthing and its UK subsidiary Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. ICICI Bank UK, a subsidiary of the huge Indian ICICI Bank, operates in 18 countries and has 24m customers worldwide. FBN (UK) Ltd, whose account, under the brand name FirstSave, is also in the best buy tables, is a subsidiary of First Bank of Nigeria. With all three banks the money in your savings account always stays in the UK and is invested mainly in cash and short-term bonds - or near cash - to finance the bank’s UK business. Your money will not end up in Nigeria, India or Iceland. Given the distinctly dodgy reputation of some Nigerian operations - it is the home of internet fraud and corruption is rife - this should provide reassurance to anyone considering FBN’s account. Savings in any of these three banks are covered by the UK’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). If any of these banks go bust then you can claim up to £35,000 per person per bank as they are all fully authorised by the FSA.
Insurance reminder for Landlords
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008Landlords are being reminded to value their properties accurately for insurance purposes. Around 2.76 million properties are owned by landlords across the UK. They are currently valued at approximately £641 billion, up from £571 billion this time last year. It is recommended that portfolios should be reassessed every two years to avoid the risk of underinsurance. Meanwhile Halifax General Insurance is reminding all property owners of the scale of storm damage experienced across Britain last year. Over 1.5 million homes had their roofs damaged by high winds and the value of claims resulting from water entering properties from a hole in the roof totalled £2.5 billion. Storm damage appears to be on the increase in the UK and Martyn Foulds, senior claims manager at Halifax Home Insurance, warns: “homeowners without adequate buildings insurance cover risk finding a huge hole blown in their finances by the cost of repairs”.
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