Latest featured news

• Building on booms & surviving slumps – does debt consolidation make sense today? [01/09/2008]
  When house prices soar, then slump, does it make sense to use your equity to sort out your finances, consolidating your debts with a secured loan? The answer may depend on where we stand today, but first we need to take a look at how we got there…
• Consolidation loans – not always enough on their own... [06/08/2008]
  Why take out a consolidation loan? As anyone struggling with multiple debts can tell you, simply keeping track of them all can be one of the biggest challenges. Missing a single payment can incur penalty charges and damage your credit rating.
• Online shopping: still going strong [03/07/2008]
  As the credit crunch takes hold, people are beginning to wonder how far their money will stretch in the months to come. The High Street is just beginning to feel the strain: John Lewis recently reported a significant downturn in sales, with DSG (owners of Currys and PC World) announcing big yearly losses. So it may come as a surprise that online shopping is continuing to grow at an impressive rate.
• Inflation: how much have costs of living really gone up? [26/06/2008]
  For those of us keeping a keen eye on our finances, the official 3% rate of inflation might seem a little low. It may be above the Government’s target inflation rate of 2%, but a 3% rise in average costs would still be affordable for the majority of British households.
• Tax Freedom Day [11/06/2008]
  You may have noticed your wallet feeling a little heavier lately. If you’re wondering why that is, it’s because you’ve just earned your first wages of the year.
• Debt consolidation mortgages - 3 questions to ask [19/05/2008]
  Today, anyone looking into debt consolidation mortgages is facing a market that’s grown a lot tougher over the last eight months or so. With credit harder to find and more expensive – and the future of the housing market looking uncertain – they’ll need to ask themselves three questions:
  • Will anyone give me a debt consolidation mortgage?
  • Would that debt consolidation mortgage be affordable?
  • Is there enough equity in my house to make it worthwhile?

  Will anyone give me a debt consolidation mortgage?

• The Bank of England - swapping secure assets for `problem` debts [29/04/2008]
  Today’s money markets have too many debts, too many problems – and not enough cash. No-one knows how much money banks and other lenders will recoup from the loans and mortgages they’ve given out, and this is restricting lending.
• Reasons for debt; solutions to debt [22/04/2008]
  What’s the solution to debt? Whether you’re addressing an individual’s debt or looking for a solution to the UK’s personal debt problems, you need to start by understanding the reasons behind that debt.
• Household spending: cutbacks in 2008 [11/04/2008]
  This year, almost three quarters of households are planning to cut back on their spending, says a survey by financial services provider Axa.
• Charging orders: security matters [04/04/2008]
  As a nation, we owe over £1.4 trillion. For some people, their share of that total is simply too much – and when borrowers worry about debt, so do lenders.
• The mortgage market slows down [28/03/2008]
  When house prices were going nowhere but up, mortgages of 100% were quite common. Since the property was almost guaranteed to increase in value, banks and building societies felt confident about getting their money back.
• Where does the credit go? [20/03/2008]
  From October to December 2007, UK residents spent £32.4 billion on credit cards, says APACS, the Association of Payment Clearing Services. Approaching £700 per adult, this was the second-highest total for any three-month period in history.
• Debt freedom day - an ‘interesting’ concept [14/03/2008]
  From 1 January to 10 March 2008, the ‘average Briton’ didn’t really make any money for themselves. Believe it or not, they’ll need every penny they earned just to pay this year’s interest on their credit card and loan debts, without even touching the debts themselves.
• The housing market: shrinking growth, not shrinking prices [10/03/2008]
  According to the Land Registry, the average price of a house in England and Wales fell by 0.5% in December 2007. This was the first monthly decrease since August 2005, and the largest since the Land Registry’s House Price Index became available in April 2000.
• Diamonds are forever, but debts can become unenforceable [29/02/2008]
  Everyone knows: when someone borrows money, they have a responsibility to make sure it is repaid. But not everyone knows that the creditor shares that responsibility.
• IVAs and Bankruptcies to rise in 2008? [21/02/2008]
  This February, the Insolvency Service announced that the number of insolvencies (bankruptcies and Individual Voluntary Arrangements or IVAs) in England and Wales had dropped in 2007. After reaching an all-time high of 107,288 in 2006, the total decreased by 0.6% last year, down to 106,645.
• Rumours about debt: be careful who you listen to [14/02/2008]
  When we listen, we learn – but what exactly are we learning? Listening to rumours is always risky, and when they concern complicated issues with potentially serious consequences, the wrong advice could easily make a bad situation worse.
• Are overdraft charges testing consumers` patience? [21/01/2008]
  Banks are businesses. Their objective is to make money. However, the way they go about earning their dough is now being put to the test in the high court after a number of complaints from consumers of unfair overdraft charges, which in turn caused debt problems to arise.
• Debt problems making Brits `financially unfit` [20/12/2007]
  We have all heard of obesity but a recent survey has found that over two-fifths of Brits are now financially "unfit". Debt problems throughout the UK have got so bad that a number of experts have declared that the country is on the verge of a debt "epidemic", similar to that which has been claimed of obesity.
• Consolidation loans - an effective solution? [29/11/2007]
  According to Sainsbury`s Bank, over 40% of personal loans are taken out to consolidate debts. Debt consolidation is the number-one reason for taking out a personal loan, followed by home improvement and car purchase.

Back to top