The Financial Blog

The temporary nationalisation of Northern Rock is going to cost us taxpayers £110 billion. It was revealed on Yesterday in the press that tax payers will be repaying the bill for years to come.

Northern Rock’s new boss Ron Sandler is paid £90K per month, he’s a former Lloyds TSB boss, no wonder he’s not with Lloyds TSB anymore if Northern Rock are coughing up £90K a month for him to run the company! Mr Sandler wouldn’t comment on the claims made in the press yesterday that up to half the 6,000 staff employed at Northern Rock may loose their jobs.

Mr Sandler said “Public ownership is not about running down this bank. It’s about stabilisation and building it back from a sound, solid platform”.

So the government’s idea is to privatise Northern Rock again, after the next general election in May 2010.

Hopefully we’ll all have been brain washed by then and have forgotten about the £110 billion we’re repaying for their mistakes by then Heh?…

Lloyds TSB Personal loan

The Lloyds TSB personal loan offers a specially reduced rate for Premier current account holders. Even if you’re not a Premier account holder 6.9% Typical APR is up there amongst the best personal loans available today. In fact I think there is only one other loan slightly more competitive in terms of APR.

Premier account holders;

6.4% Typical APR for up to 5 years on new loans of £5,000 to £25,000

If you’re not a Premier account holder;

6.9% Typical APR for up to 5 years on new loans of £5,000 to £25,000

If you are registered for internet banking you can login and apply online immediately, if not then you can call 0800 015 0071 Monday to Friday 8am – 10pm and Saturday and Sunday 8am – 6pm to speak to a Lloyds TSB loans team representative for your quote.

If you click through the options ‘non premier account holder’ and ‘not registered for internet banking’ you can get a quote and using the loan calculator can tailor it to suit either your monthly repayment amount or the loan term.

>>Click here to apply online for the Lloyds TSB personal loan>>

HSBC personal loan

This is another new personal loan offer I’ve added today;

• 8.9% APR typical for Personal loans between £7,000 and £25,000 where the Personal loan purpose is for a car or home improvements
• Instant credit decision – apply online and HSBC will give you an instant credit decision, with no need to complete paper documents
• Get your money immediately – if your bank Personal loan is agreed online HSBC will put the money in your account immediately, available 24/7 365 days of the year
• Personal  Loan amount – bank Personal loans available from £1,000 – £25,000 for any purpose
• Need additional money – if you already have a Personal loan with HSBC and want to borrow more money you can now do this online
• Fixed repayment term – spread repayments equally over one to five years for Personal loans up to £15,000 or one to eight years for Personal loans £15,000 and over
• Deferred repayments – defer your Personal loans repayment for the first 3 months or take a repayment holiday every January for the life of the Personal loan

>>Click here to apply online for the HSBC personal loan>>

The Bank of England has cut interest rates again by 0.25 per cent to 5.25 per cent. The announcement made today comes as no surprise with rising oil and energy costs fuelling the risk of inflation.

Even though this news is welcomed by mortgage payers, 20 per cent of lenders did not pass the last rate cut, in December, onto their customers by reducing their rates on the high street. I’ve got a sneaky feeling that more lenders will not pass on the rate cut this time…

It would seem that UK consumers are getting smarter when it comes to applying for personal finance products like personal loans and credit cards. The price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com revealed today that last month nearly fours times as many people searched through its ‘smart search’ tool for a loan than they did in previous months.

According to their stats 371,000 loan and credit card searches were completed through the Moneysupermarket ‘smart search’ tool compared to only 103,000 searches in December 2006 - Although December 2006 was last month, so perhaps they meant November 2006!?? Whatever the month in question this means UK consumers are starting to realise the need to apply realistically for a product that is suited to their credit rating. Speaking of credit ratings, every time you have an application declined its marked on your credit rating with is damaging when applying for credit in the future, or the lender will simply increase the interest rate because you will be seen as a higher risk.

The Moneysupermarket ‘smart search’ tool matches people with the best product according to their credit rating which can only be a good thing for consumers and lenders.

As nearly a million people miss their loan repayments in the last 6 months, the cost of borrowing especially the cost of loans, is rising.

New research from Moneyexpert.com reveals that the banks are increasing the costs of borrowing far beyond the recent bank of England base rate rises. Since November 2006 loan rates have risen from average of 5 per cent to around 5.5 per cent today.

This must be a bid to stem the losses or at least prevent any further losses for the banks but this is not good news for borrowers. Moneyexpert say this is causing problems and people are struggling to make repayments on their loans.

Sean Gardner, Chief Executive of Moneyexpert.com, said: “With the cost of living on the increase the obvious thing to do for anyone feeling the strain is to borrow money to tide themselves over.

“But people who want to take out a loan to consolidate debts or to make a large purchase must be wary of the overall cost. A set of monthly payments may seem manageable but you always end up repaying much more than you borrow. The golden rule is only borrow what you are certain you can afford to repay.’”

Wise words from Moneyexpert.com, and of course there is no guarantee that you will get the loan you apply for. It might be better for you to ask why your application was not accepted, can you really afford the repayments? It could spell disaster is you apply again and again and end up paying far more to borrow the same amount. Lenders will charge you more interest on a loan if they think you are a greater risk and may not be able to make the repayments.

This Wednesday, 16th January, the Office of Fair Trading’s hearing begins, regarding the law and unauthorized overdraft charges.

Don’t forget the hearing is not to decide if specific banks are acting unfairly but it will address the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations in order to decide if these terms apply to unauthorised overdraft charges put in place by the banks.

If the hearing decides that unauthorized overdraft charges are unfair I would think it will be months before we see any action taken specifically against the banks this declaration is brought against; Abbey National plc, Barclays Bank plc, Clydesdale Bank plc, HBOS plc, HSBC Bank plc, Lloyds TSB Bank plc, Nationwide Building Society and Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc.

The initial hearing will last 3 weeks, for more information visit the OFT website.

The Bank of England today announced their decision to keep the base rate at 5.5 per cent. This was dispite a downturn in Christmas retail spending and will not please retailers who were hoping for a cut in the base rate to encourage high street spending.

The main concearn for The bank of England is probably how the base rate will affect inflation. Therefore we may be forced to wait until February, when the inflation report is released, before the Bank of England commit to a cut in interest rates.

tenant loans are usually for non-homeowners who require a loan to suit their financial status.

However if you live with your parents, if you’re self employed, or have a less than perfect credit history including CCJs, Arrears or defaults, even if you’ve been refused credit elsewhere, you could still qualify for a tenant loan tenant loan.

Most companies providing tenant loans search the market of around 500 lenders to find the best product for your needs. An application for a tenant loan doesn’t need to include your credit history information; in fact some companies will not run a credit check on you until your application has been accepted. With a tenant loan the company usually looks at your current financial status and your ability to repay.

In summary tenant loan companies specialise in being able to help people who have been refused a loan refused a loan elsewhere – whatever your circumstances…

Soaring wholesale energy costs are the reason Npower has given for the price rises announced today. Npower today confirmed that for domestic customers electricity will rise by 12.7% and gas by 17.2%. Not good news for anyone in the New Year as I guess this is just the start of many energy suppliers increasing their prices.

Managing director of Npower’s residential business, Giuseppe Di Vita, said: ‘Today’s decision is not an easy one’.

‘We always try to protect our customers for as long as possible but sadly higher energy prices are a fact of life’.

Can’t energy suppliers decide to take on some of these increases in wholesale prices rather than just passing them off as ‘unavoidable’ and the consumer paying the cost?

This is all the other energy suppliers have been waiting for; one of them to announce price increases and the rest will soon follow suit…