Author RSSNo excuse not to bank online
Online banking has often been described as the future for personal finance, bringing as it does a simplicity, immediateness and speed that traditional alternatives struggle to match. It is for this reason that it should also be considered the present. If ...
Rate falls point to a more positive 2010 for mortgages
Homeowners, house hunters and estate agents alike will be hoping that a new year represents a new start in the mortgage market. If rises in house prices point to a recovering economy – and there is some argument that it doesn’t as first time buyers fi...
Savers splash out for Christmas
After a year of scrimping and saving as households absorbed the impact of the recession, it appears Christmas is set to see the purse strings loosened once more.
Recent research suggests each adult in the UK will spend around £300 on presents this yea...
Insure against heartache at home this Christmas
With less than 2 weeks before 25 December, even the biggest Bah Humbug would struggle to deny that we are now very much in the midst of the festive season. Having already dispatched their wish lists to parents and stand-in Santas up and down the land, chi...
Play the percentage game this Christmas
It is understandable that at this time of year, more than any other, people stretch themselves financially to cover their costs over the festive period. UK households will spend hundreds of pounds on presents and food this year, despite the uncertain econ...
The dangers of travelling light
If the rumours are to be believed, then global warming means the chances of enjoying a traditional white Christmas are receding further with each passing year.
However, even though you’re just as likely to be watching the children ride their new bik...
Savings rates provide food for thought
What are you doing with your spare cash at the moment?
Perhaps you’re still spending, doing your bit to get the economy going again. Or has the downturn seen you take a more circumspect view of your finances, either through necessity or choice, and ...
Wise up this Christmas
With November just around the corner and the daylight hours dwindling, the Christmas season is drawing closer and closer. The event evokes images of families swapping presents and pleasantries, great turkey dinners and crowding round the television to wat...
Fix it for best bonds
The historically low base rate of interest has not been particularly kind to savers in the UK, with the measure falling from five per cent to 0.5 per cent in just 12 months. Those hoping the situation will improve are unlikely to have taken much comfort f...
A stirring mortgage market
It is a subject which splits opinion on a daily, weekly and monthly basis – the housing market. The sector is pored over in minute detail, with many lenders, bodies and other organisations publishing figures at the end of each month, detailing average h...
Back to banking basics?
Much of the analysis during the fallout of the financial crisis has focused on how the events since the autumn of 2007 have affected multi-national organisations and governments around the world. However, normal families have also been hurt by the downtur...
The ISA world is your oyster
As those over 50 try to work out how best to make use of the extra ISA allowance that has now come their way, those of us with a bit more youth on our side still have to wait until next April for the new limits to come into play.
Having come into eff...
Using your child trust fund: easy as learning your ABC
Like the kids who’ll be the first to benefit from them, the Child Trust Fund has done a lot of growing up in the four and a half years since it was launched.
Introduced in January 2005, the accounts are designed to ensure every child has some savin...
The choice is yours
Personal finance has become part of the national psyche since the beginning of the economic downturn, with consumers up and down the land pondering the best home for their money.
On the face of it, savers have had a torrid time of it since the crash s...
A heady fix
To fix or not to fix? It is a question that many potential homeowners have no doubt pondered recently. The ship which sees many borrowers paying next to no interest on their repayments has long sailed, but with predictions of the base rate not reaching fo...