Nationwide has unveiled two new five year fixed-rate bonds, paying interest at up to 4.15% gross p.a./AER. The building society yesterday launched both the Five Year Fixed Rate Bond and the Five Year e-Bond to new and existing customers. Andy McQueen, Nationwide’s savings and mortgages director, said: “I’m delighted to announce the launch of our [...]
Barclays has launched a new individual savings account (ISA) which it claims offers the best return available on the ISA market. The Golden ISA pays a ‘massive’ 3.05% above the Bank of England’s base rate of 0.5%, Barclays said. This 3.55% rate includes a 1% gross bonus for 12 months. Barclays Golden ISA is available [...]
First Direct has launched a new two-year fixed-rate offset mortgage with a rate of 2.99%. The loan reverts to the bank’s standard variable rate (currently 3.69%) at the end of the fixed period and the deal is available to new and existing customers either for house purchases or re-mortgages. The maximum loan-to-value ratio (LTV) is [...]
Equity release provider, Stonehaven, has launched, Interest Select, which it claims is an innovation in the lifetime mortgage market. The new product allows customers to choose the amount of interest they pay each month. The option has been introduced because Stonehaven believes many homeowners who are interested in equity release become anxious at the idea [...]
Leeds Building Society has launched a new one year tracker ISA with a guaranteed interest rate 0.75% above the Bank of England’s base rate. Savers can withdraw up to 25% of the initial amount invested in the Tracker ISA Plus at any time, without incurring a penalty. The interest rate is guaranteed until at least [...]
HSBC is launching a new home loan at the astonishingly low rate of 2.99%. However, the lender’s Premier two-year discount deal is only available to its Premier customers who must hold £50,000 in savings and investments with the bank or already have a £250,000 mortgage with HSBC. They will also need a minimum income of [...]
Santander-owned Abbey has reissued its Super Fixed Rate Monthly and Fixed Rate Monthly savings accounts. The company said it hopes the two reissued accounts will help customers kick-start their New Year’s resolution to start saving. Abbey’s Super Fixed Rate Monthly Saver offers a 7% AER for 12 months, provided no withdrawals are made, and between [...]
Nationwide Building Society has reintroduced a mortgage with a 95% loan-to-value ratio (LTV). The deal is only available to existing customers who are moving house and borrowers signing up for the loan will be on a two-year fix at 7.18% for the no fee version. The minimum loan size is £25,000 and for those prepared [...]
Following the large-scale withdrawal of tracker mortgages last week, as the bank of England’s base rate fell to 3%, a number of lenders have now reintroduced tracker loans, some having increased their margins. Abbey is offering a two-year tracker deal for those with a 25% deposit, at 1.99% above base rate (4.99%) compared with an [...]
Abbey is cutting the cost of its fixed-rate deals with maximum loan-to-value (LTV) ratios of 60% and 75%, by up to 0.35%. The bank has also upped the maximum loan size on its two-year tracker and fixed-rate loans with a maximum 60% LTV, to £550,000. From 30th October, two and three-year loans at 60% LTV [...]
RBS and its subsidiary, NatWest, have launched a new two-year fixed-rate home loan. Borrowers with a minimum 15% deposit can benefit from a rate of 5.74% and a reduced fee of £499. The rate on the new deal is up to 0.45% below those on similar products offered by the lenders, while the fee is [...]
Coventry Building Society has extended its offering of fixed-rate mortgages. The range of home loans now provided by the UK’s fourth-largest building society includes three and five-year fixes at 5.99%. The maximum loan-to-value ratio on both is 75% and no early repayment charges apply. Customers can also benefit from a free valuation and free remortgage [...]
Leeds Building Society is introducing a new range of fixed-rate mortgages. Rates start at 5.95% and a maximum loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 90% can be accommodated in the offering of two and three-year fixed-rate home loans. No fees are applied to three-year fixed-rate deals and the building society is offering in-house legal services for remortgages, [...]
Woolwich, which is part of the Barclays group, has launched a Lifetime Tracker mortgage at 1.19% above base rate (currently 6.19%) and with a maximum loan to value (LTV) ratio of 80%. The new loan sits alongside the lender’s existing Lifetime Tracker at 0.69% above base rate for mortgages with an LTV of up to [...]
Alliance & Leicester (A&L) is reducing interest rates for most of its mortgage products, with immediate effect. Cuts of between 0.10% and 0.55% across all but one of the bank’s home loans are accompanied by the launch of a two-year fixed-rate deal at 5.99%, which is available to both new and existing customers. A 1% [...]
Stewart Milne Homes, the housing developer with projects across Scotland and the North of England, has launched a fixed-rate mortgage equivalent to 4.99%. The loan is fixed until August 2011, after which a bank variable rate applies for the remainder of the term. The Aberdeen-based company, which specialises in family homes and apartments, says the [...]
Yorkshire Building Society has today launched a two-year fixed-rate mortgage with interest at 5.54%. The lender is also tempting customers with a reduced fee of £895. In addition, both Yorkshire and Abbey have announced rate cuts on various loans. Yorkshire has made amendments to an existing two-year fixed-rate mortgage that carried a 3% fee: the [...]
The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) is launching a website that will allow its 10,000 members to advertise properties at no charge. The site should be up and running in October and aims to bring solace to a profession that has been hard hit by the credit crisis. It may also provide strong competition [...]
First Direct, part of the HSBC group, has launched a fee-free offset base rate tracker mortgage. Interest remains at 0.99% above base rate for the term of the mortgage (currently 5.99%) and the lender promises an immediate rate change, following a Bank of England announcement. The loan is only available to remortgagers and is linked [...]
Skipton Building Society has launched two five-year fixed-rate mortgages. The products aim to accommodate anticipated changes in financial circumstances as interest rates on the “Stepping up” and “Stepping Down” loans change annually. In the case of Stepping Up, the starting out rate is a low 5.39%, rising to 6.99% by 2013 for borrowers signing up [...]
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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