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By Russell Cavanagh Staff Writer
Friday, 22 August 2008 |
Money News Roundup
If you only do one thing with your money this week...
Why not compare car loans?
With Moneyback Bank, Alliance & Leicester, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and M+S Money all offering loans with APR figures between 7.6% and 8.9%, you might have enough cash left for road tax and petrol.
 Use our car loan calculator to see which car loans are available for you.
Previous Money News Roundups
See our other recent Money News Roundups and other related news stories:
Money News Roundup (28 Mar 08)
Julia Kukiewicz glances over her shoulder at the week's personal finance and money news, including how no insurance companies are gambling on Michael Phelps as well as why you should compare credit cards to use on holiday.
123 homes to be repossessed every day
Downward trickling property values and rising mortgage rates have combined to make 2008 the worst year in terms of total home repossessions since the 1990’s housing crash, writes Lorrie Kelly
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"HIGHER prices mean cheaper electricity!" was a famous Private Eye cover some years ago.
It’s week 54 of the Credit Crunch and there’s loads of stories flying about – some of which seem to contradict others.
You take the High Street …
THE Office for National Statistics provided hope for retailers this week with reports of increased sales in July on the High Street.
However, a Which? survey reveals 46% of its members say they will cut back on buying non-essential goods, like DVDs, CDs, books and – championing nudism perhaps – clothes.
Indeed, Tesco, Sainsbury, Marks + Spencer and Next collectively lost £4bn off their share values this month.
Maybe we will see a clutch of credit cards offering fabulous deals to get us back spending – with long 0% APR introductory deals.
Compare credit cards offering 0% on purchases
… and I’ll take the low rate
AVOIDING full-blown recession is possible by the Bank of England reducing the base rate of interest according to the British Chambers of Commerce.
So with the Consumer Price Index figures just out showing inflation topping 4.4% last month – well over double the Government’s target of 2% - rumours from the Bank of England of a 0.25% interest rate cut towards the New Year will be welcome.
If reductions are passed on as they should be, this would be good news for tracker mortgage borrowers.
… and I’ll be in county court before ye!
186,649 possession claims were issued against mortgage borrowers in the 1991 recession.
Ministry of Justice figures show this week that nearly 80,000 possession claims were issued against owner-occupiers in just the first 6 months of 2008.
So we are set for a repetition of the 1991 it seems.
However, the number of homes actually repossessed is predicted to be far lower this time.
As an ex-Housing Adviser representing borrowers in court, I put this down to case law guiding Judges to allow longer periods of arrears repayments (Cheltenham & Gloucester – v – Norgan, Court of Appeal, 1996) as well as the increased presence of legal advisers staffing Possession Duty Desks at many county courts today. Always seek advice!
Check out the excellent article on mortgages and repossessions by my ChooseMoney colleague, David Stevens.
While on the home front …
MORTGAGE products on the market on this day number only 3,748 and if you think this sounds a lot, there were actually 13,027 available in August of last year.
Prime lender, HSBC, released research findings this week saying “98% of potential housebuyers have no problem arranging a mortgage.”
Sub-prime lender, GE Money Home Lending, also broadcast research findings that “450,000 mortgage or home loan customers apply on average four or more times to be accepted” and that 3.4m have been turned down in the past 18 months.
You can compare mortgages here.
And finally, if you only do one thing this week …
And finally, if you only do one thing this financial week, why not compare car loans?
With Moneyback Bank, Alliance & Leicester, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and M+S Money all offering loans with APR figures between 7.6% and 8.9%, you might have enough cash left for road tax and petrol.
Use our car loan calculator to see which car loans are available for you.
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