Both Northern Rock and the Post Office have launched new mortgage deals with lower rates. The Post Office has cut the cost of its Bank of Ireland lifetime tracker loans from 3.29% to 2.99%, or from 3.59% to 3.49%, dependent upon the loan-to-value ratio. Bank of Ireland has also reduced the price of its five-year [...]
Leeds Building Society has launched two new fixed-rate ISAs paying interest at up to 3.5%. The new accounts include a three-year fixed-rate ISA, paying interest at 3.5%, and a two year product paying 3% interest. Both accounts can be opened with a minimum deposit of just £1, and both accept transfers from previous ISA subscriptions. [...]
Santander’s high street banks have launched a range of new fixed-rate bonds paying interest at up to 4.1%. The bonds, available through Abbey, Bradford & Bingley, and Alliance & Leicester, can be opened by new and existing customers with a minimum deposit of £1. The one year bond pays interest at 2.5% gross per annum/AER [...]
The best fixed-rate bank accounts are fast disappearing from the shelves of high street banks and building societies, research by Moneynet has discovered. Keeping a watchful eye, Moneynet saw top deals from the Post Office, Melton Mowbray, Principality, Cahoot, Britannia, the Co-operative Bank, and Skipton Building Society disappear – some of them only days after [...]
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has reported that approvals for house purchase loans increased to 55,000 in October, the highest level since December 2007 and up from a January 2009 low of 23,000. However, October remortgaging approvals remained static on a month earlier at 33,000 and apart from a total of 30,000 in August, [...]
Moneyfacts.co.uk has revealed that the average interest rate on a two-year fix has fallen below 5% for the first time since June. Rates peaked at 5.21% in July but despite declining swap rates have only now come down to a typical 4.99% because banks and building societies, fearful of risk, have been upping their margins. [...]
Santander-owned Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, and Bradford & Bingley have launched a new two-year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4% gross/AER. The bond is available to new and existing customers, and requires a minimum investment of £10,000. Customers opening the account can choose to have interest paid when the account matures, or monthly with a [...]
Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) is offering annual returns of 4.5% to investors who open its 24-month Fixed Term Deposit Account. The bank invests its money ethically according to Sharia principles – meaning you won’t putting your money into arms companies, alcohol firms or tobacco companies. The Sharia principles that govern the account also mean [...]
Leeds Building Society unveiled two new mortgage products this week. The new products include a two-year base rate tracker (BRT) mortgage, and a two-year fixed-rate mortgage. The BRT mortgage is available to homeowners borrowing up to 75% of the value of their property, with interest charged at 2.7% above the Bank of England’s base rate. [...]
Bradford & Bingley (B&B) has launched a new online Notice Saver account paying interest at a variable rate of 3.3% gross/AER. New and existing B&B customers can open the account with a minimum balance of just £1. The account includes an instant access option for savers who need to withdraw their money. Account holders can [...]
A new investment fund from HSBC gives savers the opportunity to benefit from the success – or lose out from the failure – of the world’s leading fund managers. HSBC said the World Selection fund is run by the people it believes are the best fund managers in the world. Savers can only put money [...]
Barclays has launched a new range of fixed-rate bonds paying interest at up to 5.25%. Savers can choose between a one, two, and five year bond, with a minimum deposit of £500. Interest on the five-year bond is paid at 5.25%, on the two year bond at 3.75% and on the one year bond at [...]
Yorkshire Building Society has launched a new five-year fixed-rate savings bond paying interest at 5.3% gross/AER. The building society also launched a three-year bond paying a fixed-rate of 4.65% gross/AER. Both bonds require a minimum investment of £100 and can be opened in branch, over the telephone, or online. Financial advice site Moneyfacts.co.uk said the [...]
Bradford & Bingley has launched a new two-year fixed-rate bond paying 4.35% interest. The bond requires a minimum deposit of £10,000, and no withdrawals are permitted during the life of the bond. Savers looking to take advantage of the bond must have internet access as it is only available online. Reza Attar-Zadeh, director of savings [...]
Nationwide has increased the interest rates on a range of its one-year savings bonds. The building society now pays interest at up to 4.25% on the bonds. Savers with a one year fixed-rate bond or e-Bond will now be paid 3.25% interest for balances above £10,000, and 3% for balances below £10,000. Meanwhile, customers with [...]
Leeds Building Society has launched a new three-year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4.3% gross pa/AER. Savers can open the bond with an investment of between £1,000 and £1,000,000. Interest on the bond is fixed until August 2012, and is paid annually at 4.3%. Interest can also be paid monthly at 4.05% gross pa/4.11% AER. [...]
Barnsley Building Society has launched a range of new Online Bonds paying interest at a fixed rate of up to 5.4%. The three, four, and five year bonds pay a gross/AER rate of 5%, 5.15%, and 5.4% respectively. Minimum balance to open the bonds is £100, and maximum is £500,000. Sarah Lawrence, Barnsley’s senior product [...]
Leeds Building Society has launched a new fixed-rate mortgage for customers with a deposit of at least 25%. Interest on the five-year mortgage is fixed at 5.35%, and customers can borrow at up to 75% loan-to-value (LTV). Borrowers can make up to 10% capital repayments each year without penalty. Kim Rebecchi, Leeds director of sales [...]
Homeowners will be forced to “scramble around” for good value fixed-rate mortgages in the future as interest rates “fly up”, an industry expert has warned. Jacqueline Thornton, financial planner at Re-Financial Planning, said householders that are currently happy to benefit from currently low-priced standard variable rate mortgages will struggle to find a reasonably priced fixed-rate [...]
M&S Money launches 3% cash ISA
M&S Money has launched an Advantage Cash ISA paying 3 per cent, and which allows transfers in from other ISAs. It can be opened with a minimum deposit of £100 lump sum followed by minimum monthly deposits of £25. The 3% rate is variable, but there is no short-term bonus so the return won’t plummet [...]
Google suspends UK Compare Mortgages site
Google has closed its UK mortgage comparison site which it launched in July last year, after it proved to be less popular than expected. Mortgage comparison sites are designed to allow visitors to compare mortgages quickly and easily without having to visit each lender’s individual site. Google was competing with several well-established comparison sites, including [...]
AA launches ‘black-box’ policy for young drivers
The AA is launching an innovative car insurance policy called Drivesafe which could help younger drivers save up to £850 a year. Younger drivers already pay substantially higher premiums than other motorists and these costs are increasing. A new study by Confused.com suggests insurance costs for younger driver have gone up by 5.7 per cent [...]
ATOL scheme updated to protect online bookers
ATOL, a financial protection scheme managed by the Civil Aviation Authority, is being extended to protect up to six million more holidays a year. The scheme ensures that holiday makers do not lose out financially if a travel company collapses, and that they are not stranded abroad. An increase in the number of holidays booked [...]
Home repossessions lowest for four years
The number of UK homes repossessed fell to 36,200 in 2011, significantly below the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ forecast of 40,000, and lower than 2010 when 37,100 homes were repossessed. With interest rates remaining low and lenders adopting a sympathetic attitude to customers in financial difficulty, repossessions fell to their lowest level since 2007. However, [...]
Monthly pay lasting just 17 days
Workers are running out of money just 17 days after receiving their monthly pay, according to new research by the Halifax bank. This means that the average UK worker spends half the month worrying about money. The study, based on the responses of more than 2,000 adults, found that 10 per cent of workers start [...]
Women disadvantaged by auto-enrolment changes
Government proposals to increase the auto-enrolment threshold to £10,000 could put 1.8 million women at risk of missing out on a pension, the TUC has warned. Under the auto-enrolment scheme, which will be phased in from October, private sector employers will automatically enrol workers between the age of 22 years and the state pension age, [...]
Emergency household repairs company Homeserve is taking longer than expected to get back on track after its operations were suspended last October. The company expected customer numbers to fall by 5% this year but it has increased this estimate to 8% and announced the loss of 200 jobs. It estimates that renewal revenue in 2013 [...]
Sale rumoured for Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks
There is growing speculation that National Australia Bank (NAB) may sell Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank after the Australian parent company announced a strategic review of the two banks’ operations. The Australian economy is performing well and NAB reported strong profits for the final quarter of 2011 but with the UK economy at a virtual [...]
More women experiencing debt difficulties
Women in Debt, which offers female-focused debt advice, has warned that the number of UK women facing serious debt has grown significantly over recent years. The organisation believes that more women will need advice on solving debt problems in the future because they are building up an unsustainable level of indebtedness. Women in Debt’s director, [...]
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