With household incomes under increasing pressure from inflation and unemployment more consumers are turning to price comparison services to help them reduce their outgoings and the New Year has seen the launch of several new sites. Insurance specialist comparethemarket.com has launched a new service which allows consumers to find which credit cards and loans will [...]
Consumers don’t bother to put money aside for the future because of low interest rates and complicated best buy introductory offers, a financial expert has claimed. Andrew Hagger of Moneynet.co.uk said consumers are “baffled” by the complex special offers banks use to attract new customers. “It is no surprise that many consumers, baffled by complex [...]
Potential first-time buyers who are dreading the end of the stamp duty holiday are being cheered on by moneysupermarket.com. The price comparison website has calculated that the number of mortgage products available to those keen to get a foot on the property ladder has risen to 1,354, up 18.3% on August’s low. The firm’s mortgages [...]
Latest figures from moneysupermarket.com indicate that confidence in the UK’s property market is recovering. Since January, the price comparison website has recorded a 20% rise in the number of searches for mortgages for house purchasers. As a result, the number of property movers visiting the site has exceeded the number of remortgagers. Remortgage searches fell [...]
Moneysupermarket.com has issued an “interest only warning” with regard to mortgages. According to the financial website, 23% of UK mortgage holders are currently only paying the interest on their loans, leaving the amount of capital borrowed in tact. However, switching to a repayments mortgage can save thousands of pounds over the life of a typical [...]
Moneysupermarket.com is continuing its campaign against the mortgage arrears charges that add to the burden of households in financial difficulties. The website’s latest survey shows Lloyds TSB and its Cheltenham & Gloucester unit charging a hefty £206 for repayments three months or more in arrears, while GMAC and Abbey top the tables in the one [...]
The tracker versus fixed-rate dilemma that currently faces homeowners has been investigated by moneysupermarket.com, with the odds laid out as follows: Mortgage borrowers on tracker rates saw their monthly repayments fall substantially, as the base rate plummeted to 0.5%. However, further falls in the base rate are unlikely whereas a rise is inevitable, probably by [...]
With Bank of England cuts in the base rate of interest expected to continue, Brits with savings are best to invest in fixed-rate accounts to protect their finances. This is the advice of price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com, who believe that a fixed-rate ISA is the safest place for savings during the economic downturn. And with [...]
Price comparison website, Moneysupermarket.com, has reported that over 50% of the first-time buyers that approach mortgage lenders using its site are receiving financial support from parents. Those attempting to get a foot on the property ladder have been particularly hard hit by borrowers raising deposit requirements and according to research from Moneysupermarket, parents are providing [...]
Moneysupermarket.com is alerting homeowners to the fact that the average two-year tracker mortgage is offering increasingly good value. The price comparison website’s weekly credit crunch monitor shows that at the beginning of June, there was little difference between the cost of the average two-year fix and the average two-year tracker. However, the latest update puts [...]
Price comparison site, moneysupermarket.com, is warning current account savers to check the small print. For instance, Alliance & Leicester’s Premier Regular Saver offers a huge 12% but only in conjunction with its current account that pays 1.5%. In comparison, the bank’s best current account pays 8.5%. Another example is getting more people to invest in [...]
Gender directive could slash men’s annuity payouts
The EU Gender Directive, which came into force today, could see men losing up to £10,000 from their annuity payouts, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Under the new rules insurers are no longer allowed to take gender into account when setting annuity rates and premiums on insurance products. Men previously enjoyed higher annuity rates than [...]
Home rental costs down in November
The cost of renting a house in England and Wales fell by 0.4 per cent in November, its first dip since March, according to a survey by LSL Property Services. Average rent was £741m during the month, returning to the level seen in September. However, it was 3.4 per higher than in November last year. [...]
Lloyds TSB halts sale of packaged accounts in branches
Lloyds TSB will stop selling packaged account in its branches from 1 January 2013, until its sales procedures are brought into line with those operated by sister bank The Halifax. Lloyds TSB is one of the main providers of packaged accounts in Britain, with around one in three of its customers choosing to pay fees [...]
Housing market recovery to continue next year
Recent improvements in the housing market should continue into next year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) Gross lending is estimated to have increased to £12.9 billion in November, helped by the Funding for Lending scheme which provides banks and building societies with lower-cost funding, which they are then supposed to pass on [...]
Newcastle Building Society exits interest-only mortgages
Newcastle Building Society has stopped offering interest-only mortgages to new borrowers, following the lead of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Nationwide, Co-operative bank and Coventry Building Society. The decision will not affect existing Newcastle customers and applications for interest-only mortgages received before 14 December will still be processed. Prior to the credit crunch, interest-only mortgages [...]
Less than half of Brits considered creditworthy
Fifty-seven per cent of UK adults are at risk of having an application for credit turned down by a mainstream lender according to a new report. The ‘Mind the Credit Gap‘ report commissioned by aqua credit cards suggests that even people with a good credit rating and earning more than £50,000 could have a credit [...]
Monthly incomes £22 lower in 2012
The average monthly income of UK households fell by £22 in real terms compared with last year, according to a survey carried out for the Bank of England (BoE) by NMG Consulting. People on lower incomes have seen their income eroded more than higher earners and households still have high levels of debt the BoE [...]
Savers dig deep to fund Christmas
New research from the Halifax suggests that savers are funding their Christmas spending with money set aside for other purposes. Thirty-seven per cent of 2,138 savers surveyed by the bank at the end of November had withdrawn savings in the last three months. The average amount withdrawn was £1,186, more than double the average savings [...]
Financial data at risk from unsafe passwords
According to a survey by the Payments Council the problem of having to remember a different password for several accounts means that many internet users are compromising the security of their financial data. Internet users have 22 password-protected accounts on average and many use the same log-in details for more than one account, even though [...]
Wonga launches Paylater loans on retailer website
Payday loan company Wonga has launched a new Paylater service on furniture firm Cotswold Company’s website. The service, which allows customers to “buy now, pay later” will be introduced on other retailers’ sites in the near future. Although the Paylater branding is similar to Wonga’s, the Wonga name only appears in the small print. A [...]
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