The average rent fell by 0.8 per cent in the December

A recent survey has suggested that, in December, the price of renting a home – rather than buying a house with a mortgage – in England and Wales had fallen for the second month in a row.

According to this study – carried out by LSL Property Services – the average rent fell by 0.8 per cent in the December compared to November, to £711 a month.

Rent has been recorded as falling in all regions across England and Wales – except for Yorkshire and the Humber, the West Midlands and the East Midlands – with varying levels of decrease depending on the area in question.

The monthly falls seen in November and December are the first falls in 10 months, with rises occurring in each month prior to this.

The LSL has also stated that the seasonal decrease that has been seen is shallower than the previous year.

“The rental market was sheltered from the full impact of the seasonal lull by the strength of underlying tenant demand as many prospective renters took the opportunity to move in the run-up to Christmas at a time when the market is traditionally less competitive,” commented Mr David Newnes director of LSL. Read the rest of this entry »

The tactic of sending the cease and desist letter may be better left for extreme cases of harassment. In most cases, the cease and desist letter only leads to even more difficulties for consumers to navigate through, but it is a tactic that debt negotiation companies often suggest they can use to stop the collections calls. These companies may actually not be able to do everything they promise, or they will make the situation much worse.

What a Debt Negotiation Company Cannot Do

The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) informs everyone of how collections agencies are required to act when they are performing their collections duties. This act does not prevent a collections agency from ever contacting the debtor if a cease and desist letter is sent, but some debt negotiation companies may suggest that they can make this happen. It may be in the debtors’ best interests not to hire companies making these claims. Read the rest of this entry »

Payday loans company Wonga has come under attack for targeting their extortionate rate loans towards students.

The firm, which offers loans at a staggering 4,214% APR, has been forced to withdraw a page of its website that promoted its own short-term, high-interest loans over the standard student loan rate.

"The Wonga Advantage"

[Read more at Which4U]

Credit cards can be a wonderful thing and in a capital driven economy where banks and companies are competing for consumers, the rewards can be high. Yet this is not always the case. Although the CARD act of 2009 was created to provide a tighter reign on banks by restricting their ability to scam unsuspecting card holders into contracts with high interests and fees, banks are still coming up with new ways to make big money by getting around them. Therefore in order to keep reaping the benefits of a credit card without inadvertently falling for the unadvertised fine details which entail high membership costs, unexpected fees and policies, be sure do your homework before you sign up.

Read the Fine Print
You might think you are getting a fantastic deal only to find yourself paying exorbitant fees at the end of the year that far exceed your savings. Read the fine print before you decide to go with a credit card. You might also find after reading the fine print that one bank is actually better than another when you look beyond the advertised numbers. For example, American Express Delta Gold SkyMiles Card has a $99 annual fee and comes with a $99 companion certificate, while the Platinum SkyMiles Card that is also offered by American Express has a $150 annual fee, but comes with a free certificate. Obviously the $198 card that offers its members a higher annual fee is the better deal. In addition, mileage cards and the such can advertise great benefits which in all actuality translate to false or minimal savings. Don’t lose out on the real rewards by not reading the fine print. Read the rest of this entry »

Any ideas? Don’t worry if not. You’re in the majority.

UK savers are protected for up to £85,000 per person per financial institution.

And despite a multi-million-pound television advertising campaign designed to raise awareness about the guaranteed compensation level for savings UK deposits, only 3% of people are aware of the measures at the close of 2011, according to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

FSCS Advert...? (Nope. Me neither)

[Read more at Which4U]

Continued low interest rates have helped make mortgage repayments their most affordable for nearly eight years. This information has come from figures released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. The cloud to this silver lining is that, whilst this is good news for home owners and first time buyers alike, the latter will need a deposit of about 20% on average!

On the flip side, mortgage repayments keep falling, and typically only consume 12% of income – this is the lowest level since January 2004. This also helped those looking to move up the property ladder with home movers paying on average of 9.2% of their income each month – this figure is the lowest monthly level since the CML started its records in 2002.

What this means is that there could well be an increase in activity from first time buyers in the early months of 2012. This seems like it could be even more likely when you consider that the government’s stamp duty concession is coming to an end in March next year. Read the rest of this entry »

"Robbing the poor to feed the rich"

The ‘banking crisis’  is set to strike a new low in confidence at the end of 2011. And there is no Eurozone to blame here; it is a situation entirely of UK banks’ own making.

This week has been a decidedly poor one for banks, and has highlighted several problems endemic within the financial system.

[Read more at Which4U]

How much can you have an acceptable Christmas for? If new research carried out by the charity Family Action is to believed, it could be less than £200.

This survey, conducted by the charity, has shown that the poorest families will spend around one-third of the amount that the average family will during the festive season.

The average family in the UK will spend between £530 and £690 on items related to Christmas including; gifts, decorations, food and drinks. However, when questioned, the majority of families with a smaller income said that they would be spending around £182.

This breaks down as approximately: £34 on food and drink, £28 on decorations, £6 on cards and £114 on gifts, for a basic Christmas.

Many of the parents asked felt that there was an increased level of pressure on them to provide gifts for their children that, normally, would be more expensive than they can afford. Read the rest of this entry »

British Retail Consortium (BRC) has revealed that shoppers are being a lot more reluctant to spend in the lead up to Christmas this year.

The company’s retail sales monitor saw that retail sales only grew by 0.7% last month (November), making it the weakest month for growth since May.

The BRC have suggested that one major reason why this could have happened is due to the mild weather that we have seen across the UK, which will have affected sales of items such as winter clothing and footwear.

Sales of non-food items online, by mail order and telephone have grown by 8.6% compared to the same month last year. But again, this is still the weakest growth since March. Read the rest of this entry »

George Osborne delivered his riposte today in the face of mounting pressures, but weak growth forecasts look set only to further intensify the pressure on the beleaguered Chancellor.

Headline Figures

The Autumn Statement revealed that figures from the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) show a significant downgrading of growth over the coming years.

Importantly, for Osborne, they do not predict a recession. Growth has been revised from 1.7% to just 0.9% for 2011, and is set to contract slightly to 0.7% in 2012, before rising to 2.1% in 2013. The OBR suggests that unemployment is set to rise over this period, even accounting for the growth measures stipulated in the report.

Eurozone & Debt

The Chancellor adopted the OBR’s assessment that the Eurozone was a signficant factor in the downgraded growth prediction. Under pressure to defend his defiance of austerity measures, Osborne sought to contextualise the current situation in the UK via the Eurozone.

Without his austerity plan in place, he argued, borrowing would have been high enough to launch the UK into the centre of the Euro debt storm. Read the rest of this entry »