Helping you keep your finances healthy!

If you took on a risky mortgage during the last decade, you weren’t alone. Thousands did, under the advice that the booming property market made for an unmissable opportunity. Chances are it left you under severe financial pressure.

But it might not only be you who’s responsible.

The FSA uncovered evidence that thousands of UK homebuyers were systematically mis-sold their mortgage deals by a system of greedy lenders and middlemen.

It’s the UK financial industry’s largest mis-selling problem yet. And now thousands of householders who received bad mortgage advice are getting their money back.

Read on to find out if you’re likely to have been mis-sold a mortgage.

The Bank of England has again held interest rates at an historic low of 0.5% but fears are growing that mortgage borrowing costs will not stay down for much longer.

The base rate has been the same for about two years and those on tracker deals would have definitely benefited the most. I was one of those lucky people – signing up for a three year tracker in 2007 at a rate of 4.9% and then gradually seeing my payments get lower and lower until my mortgage company capped the rate at 2.75%. My tracker deal has now ended and my payments are worryingly starting to rise.

With Britain’s recession, tax increases, government budget cuts and an anticipated rise in interest rates, times are getting financially harder for a lot of us. If you’re struggling to pay your mortgage then don’t suffer in silence or risk losing your home – there is help available. One option you may want to think about [...]

What can you be sure of, when it comes to house prices at the moment?

Are they up? Are they down? Does anybody know for sure?

They don’t, and they even admit it. Chris Giles, the FT’s economics editor, talks about the
“persistent uncertainty” in the housing market. Nationwide’s chief economist Robert Gardner
says “the outlook is still highly uncertain”.

This year has become the most competitive year for university admissions in a decade. But as university towns brace themselves for the latest influx of students, we ask just what effect is the influx of students having on local property markets?

New analysis shows that 60% of the UK’s university towns saw house price growth outperform the region that they’re based in. We take a look at what that means for the cost of housing near universities. Is it good news or bad?

Are you still on your mortgage lender’s Standard Variable Rate (SVR)?
 
(Hint: if they’ve not written to you about a rate change in the last year, you probably are!)
 
For some borrowers, it’s been a comfortable place to be for the last year, but for others, changes in the market mean you’re potentially wasting your hard-earned cash each month by not switching to a better deal. Around three out of every four borrowers on SVRs are free to switch mortgage. If that’s you, you could rake in savings of £1,058 per year. Is this you?