Thrifty Loans

Loan rates on the rise

It is not just mortgages that are seeing interest rates rise. Banks are also raising rates on personal loans by as much as 4% as the impact of the credit crunch continues to widen. Among nine lenders to increase charges in the last week are Bradford & Bingley which has increased the rate on its [...]

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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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Northern Rock borrows from Bank Of England

The Bank of England is bailing out Northern Rock, on the of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders, after it grew concerned that it would run out of cash. Northern Rock is the country’s fifth largest mortgage provider, but it had to go to the Bank of England as ‘lender of last resort’ after it ran [...]

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