Owner: Making Sense of Personal Finance URL:http://www.christopherray.co.uk Join Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:12:12 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: News and views about personal finance as it affects consumers in the UK. Site statistics:Click here
Dell Computers: be wary of rip off shipping charges 2007-08-20 03:56:40 I rate Dell computers quite highly. Although they may not be the most sexy PC’s available, I’ve always found them to be reliable with pretty good performance. I particularly like their warranty and support plans, and on the very few times that I have needed hardware repairs, Dell have always worked hard and [...]
Home Information Packs (HIPs): Was the government forced into acting early? 2007-08-17 16:31:34 This article about HIPs assessors has got me thinking.
This is the quote from a HIPs assessor that caught my eye:
“There was plenty of talk about the potential to make plenty of money, but there were no guarantees,” she said.
Nonetheless, there is only so long she will be able to wait.
“If the work doesn’t come in, [...] Read more:forced
Home Information Packs: three bedroom homes will need them 2007-08-17 11:16:56 It was only a few days ago that I was predicting that home information packs will be extended to three bedroom houses soon, but I thought it would be more towards the new year given the need for more energy assessors.
I was wrong with the timing as the Government announced today that home information packs [...]
The Tragedy Of Student Debt 2007-08-16 04:35:49 Whilst writing our article about the importance of a good credit history for newly graduated students on MoneyHighStreet yesterday, it struck me how difficult it must be for students these days.
With it costing around £13,000 per year to go to University, including the tuition fees, money and debt must feature heavily in most students [...] Read more:Tragedy
, Student
Nautilus TreadClimber: 2x The Workout, 2x The Knee Pain 2007-08-16 03:21:27 Fitness is important to me, particularly after my experience working in Cardiology at the local hospital, so I go to the gym or swim most weekdays.
A number of new Nautilus Treadclimber cardio machines have been installed in the gym recently - and I’ve tried them out a few times.
The TreadClimber really does give [...] Read more:Workout
Home Information Packs: Three bed homes to be included soon 2007-08-15 04:05:21 Home information packs (HIPs) have been with us for two weeks, but as they are only required for four bed homes, only around 17pc of house sellers are affected. So far.
Well those individuals and companies who jumped on the bandwagon, hoping to cash in on the huge market for their energy performance certificates and [...] Read more:Three
I’m confused about UK house prices at the moment 2007-08-14 04:32:28 There are two interesting news items about UK house prices today: House prices have continued to rise on the one hand and first time buyers are fleeing the market on the other.
Conflicting news, it seems, however I think what we are seeing is what happened to house prices over the last year before the latest [...] Read more:confused
This site springs back into life! 2007-08-13 16:34:11 Its been over a year since since I last posted into this blog - a very busy year in which I became more heavily involved with finance, particularly with getting MoneyHighStreet.com off the ground.
To my horror, I almost lost this domain, but my registrar, NameCheap, saved it at the last minute. Almost losing my [...]
What is a Credit Crunch? 2007-08-13 14:12:26 If you’ve been following the turmoil in the stock markets over the last few weeks, you are bound to have heard the term “credit crunch”, but what is it?
Basically, a credit crunch is a widespread shortage of credit within the financial system. It’s when banks suddenly decide that lending money is not a good [...] Read more:Crunch
, Credit Crunch
China - the bird flu sandwich 2006-06-20 04:20:17 China has just reported yet another outbreak of bird flu. This time in a northern province.
Last week a lorry driver contracted H5N1 bird flu in a town in the south of China, very close to Hong Kong, and China recently suffered an outbreak in a remote region to its East.
Of course China is a [...] Read more:China
Home Information Packs and Home Improvement Packs 2007-08-23 03:05:39 When I heard about home information packs (HIPs) being extended to 3 bedroom houses on Radio 4 news last Friday lunchtime. I had to chuckle.
I wasn’t chuckling about HIPs affecting more house sellers (far from it), but it was the fact that the newsreader actually said “Home Improvement
Packs” when reading out the news item.
I [...] Read more:Home Improvement
Variable rate mortgages becoming more popular 2007-08-22 03:21:54 Variable rate mortgages are being chosen by many people now instead of fixed rate mortgages. In fact 55 percent of mortgages taken out in July were for variable rate mortgages.
When interest rates rise, most people feel safer with a fixed rate mortgage, but of course this can become a liability when rates start to [...] Read more:Variable
, popular
House prices are slowing down in my area 2007-08-21 03:58:02 House prices in Chelmsford, the main town in my area, seem to be static at the moment and I’ve noticed that a lot of houses that have been been on Right Move for at least three months, are still unsold. Some houses in Chelmsford that had sold are now back on the market again.
So [...] Read more:House
Is your savings account withering away too? 2007-08-28 05:03:41 The news that people are hardly saving any money doesn’t surprise me. As interest rates have been low for quite a few years now, there has almost been a dis-incentive to save and a real temptation to do the opposite - to borrow as much as you can.
Apparently 20 percent of us don’t bother [...]
Ebay - a cheap way of selling your house 2007-08-27 02:06:32 I was interested to read about a couple using Ebay to sell their home, which seems like a great idea.
With conventional estate agents charging at least one percent plus VAT to sell your home, many people are turning to the Internet in search of an effective, but far less costly way of finding a [...] Read more:selling
Northern Rock increases sub prime lending rates - what this means for you 2007-08-24 03:42:09 The news that Northern
Rock will be increasing the interest rates on their fixed rate sub prime
loans soon may not seem important to you at the moment, unless you have an impaired credit history and fall within the sub prime market.
However it is not just Northern Rock who are increasing their sub prime rates [...]
House prices are slowing down - its official 2007-08-30 04:42:02 Much as I has suspected from the number of houses that are proving difficult to sell in my area, house price growth is slowing down across the country.
The Nationwide, in its latest press release about the property market, points out that annual growth in house prices is slowing. The annual rate of growth fell to [...] Read more:House
Credit cards - be wary of hidden fees 2007-08-29 05:49:48 Credit card companies are sneaky. Just when you thought they were tamed by the Office of Fair Trading who forced them to reduce their default fees, we learn today that card issuers are increasing their charges in other ways, according to a report by Which.
One of the main ways that credit card companies are [...]
Home loans shake up after Northern Rock crisis 2007-09-21 13:40:35 Changes are afoot in the loans industry at the moment. The credit crunch and recent difficulties experienced by Northern
Rock is starting to have an effect.
I’m hearing rumours that two lenders are withdrawing from the loans market altogther. I can’t say which ones at the moment as I’m not sure if they have [...]
100 percent mortgages are not as attractive as they may seem 2007-09-20 04:17:54 The news that Abbey is considering providing 100 percent mortgages again got me thinking about how sensible they are at the moment.
The Abbey know what they are doing and take a sensible approach to lending but I personally wouldn’t feel confident in taking out a 100 percent mortgage in the current house market.
After all if [...] Read more:attractive
House prices to remain flat in 2008 2007-09-19 12:04:47 The Royal Institution of Surveyors (RICS) is predicting that house prices will be flat in 2008 and there is a ten percent chance of them suffering a 1990’s style crash.
It is the effect of recent interest rates rises that will subdue the property market, rather than the recent turmoil in the banking industry, according [...] Read more:House
Some good news at last - inflation appears under control 2007-09-18 04:31:31 Let’s celebrate some good financial news today as inflation has fallen slightly to 1.8 percent. As that is below the governments self imposed threshold of 2 percent, it is safe to assume that interest rates will not rise for the foreseeable future.
In fact the next move for interest rates may well be downwards, though [...]
Northern Rock crisis forces government to make unprecedented fund guarantees 2007-09-17 13:33:27 I wonder if the the news that the government is willing to guarantee all the deposits at Northern
Rock is about helping the stricken bank out or about stopping the rot spreading throughout the UK banking system.
With shares in Alliance and Leicester being badly hit in the last half hour of trading - they slumped [...]
Northern Rock Crisis - why we should all be concerned 2007-09-17 08:52:26 “Your money is safe” says Adam Applegarth, the Chief Executive of Northern
Rock, but with people queuing for hours out side Northern Rock branches, desperate to withdraw their savings, what he says and what his customers fear, are worlds apart.
One person I saw interviewed on the TV news just now had been trying to log [...] Read more:Crisis
, concerned
Northern Rock problems - customers queue to get their money 2007-09-14 08:28:40 Confidence is starting to become a scarce commodity with Northern
Rock customers
today. Fearing the worst, many people have been queuing outside branches to withdraw their money from the ailing bank.
Apparently so many customers were logging into their accounts on Northern Rock’s web site this morning, that it couldn’t handle all the traffic.
Confidence in [...] Read more:problems
Northern Rock problems deepen 2007-09-13 16:51:20 Northern Rock has had to go cap in hand to the Bank of England on Thursday to loan enough money to meet its lending commitments.
With the credit crunch biting deeper, banks are becoming reluctant to loan to each other, and as Northern Rock specialises in mortgages and loans, rather than traditional banking, it is more [...] Read more:Northern
, problems
The British Gas HomeCare plans are starting to become expensive 2007-09-13 05:45:37 I’ve long thought that the British
Gas service care products, which provide breakdown cover for domestic central heating, plumbing and electrical systems, have been excellent value for money.
Earlier this year, our boiler started leaking and then broke down. One call to British Gas and they arrived later that day to try and fix it. [...] Read more:plans
Snap up a mortgage deal now before rates rise further 2007-09-12 05:35:49 It was only a few days ago that I predicted that mortgage rates will rise even though the Bank of England base rate has not changed for a few months. Well it seems that this is starting to happen now.
According to the Telegraph today, mortgage rates have hit a 9 year high as lenders such [...]
High LTV mortgages will become more expensive according to Nationwide 2007-09-27 05:43:15 In a short and to the point sentence, the Nationwide
has summed up the new situation for mortgage borrowers following the recent credit crunch problems
“From now on risk must have its price”
This is what they mean by this statement:
High loan to value (LTV) mortgages, which are inherently more risky than those with lower LTV’s, will [...]
Major building company warns of falling house prices 2007-09-26 10:35:41 Barratt Developments, one of the largest house builders in the UK, is warning that house prices may fall in the short term as a result of the recent interest rate rises and a squeeze on credit resulting from the recent problems with Northern Rock.
This is a quote from the Barratt Chief Executive:
“The recent credit [...] Read more:Major
, company
, warns
, falling
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