Thrifty Loans

New home demand will fall, say Barratts

Britain’s biggest housebuilder, Barratt Developments, has warned that the problems of credit and the crisis at Northern Rock will have a detrimental effect on the demand for new homes, which could prices down. Chief executive Mark Clare said: “Over the last week, since the Northern Rock crisis blew up, we have seen other mortgage lenders [...]

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Financial famine

Banks are beginning to force the issue for mortgages and loans in the wake of the credit crunch. Fears for bad debts are causing banks to turn away business, cut lending limits and push up interest rates. Rates as high as 11.5% (double the Bank of England’s base rate) have been seen from companies which [...]

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With-profits customers lack advice

The Financial Services Consumer Panel (FCSP) has reached some damning conclusions about with-profits funds. The body, set up by the Financial Services Authority says that around eight million of the 11m with-profits customers with fairly modest investments cannot afford advice and therefore lack guidance about what to do with their funds. The FCSP says that [...]

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Mortgages and house prices: more bad news to come

How will recent events affect mortgages in the UK? Talk and debate is just as normal: the base rate may come down; fixed rates may come down; variable rates are likely to go up. The next few weeks will bring a lot of those who had good rates on two-fixed deals back to the mortgage [...]

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