UK Finance News

Recent research by Yorkshire Building Society shows that the number of mortgage borrowers now on their respective lenders’ SVRs (Standard Variable Rates) is over 2.3 million, representing 28% of the total mortgage market.

Typically these households have come off fixed term discounted mortgage deals which were available two or more years ago.  Lenders SVRs, currently averaging [5.04%] are now well above current best buy deals and could benefit from switching to a better deal.

However in the present environment the most competitive deals are only available for loans that have low LTV ratios, typically less than 85% (meaning over 15% in equity). Those coming off special deals on to SVR, but with LTVs remaining above 85%, will be unlikely to remortgage to a more attractive rate.

The good news is that 75% of the current 2.3 million SVR mortgage payers are ‘free to move.’ These 1.7 million (21% of the total UK mortgage market) who have LTVs below 85% have over £116 billion mortgage assets and are free to move to more competitive rates that could collectively save them up to £1.8 billion a year interest payments.

There is also good news for first time buyers who will enter the market as it is starting to open up and incredibly there are deals available where as little as 10% deposit can secure a mortgage at a reasonable rate.

The bad news however is that 440,000 mortgage payers are on SVRs with LTVs above 85% (357,000 are above 90% LTV).  These mortgage borrowers, with loans totalling over £68 billion, are currently unlikely to obtain the best buy new deals due to lack of equity.

There is an easy way to find out how much you could save by switching providers, simply check out Yorkshire’s 3 Minute Mortgage Check. Eight out of ten users have found that they are able to make savings by switching their mortgage provider.

Tom Girling, Mortgage Product Manager at Yorkshire Building Society says;

“A record number of mortgage customers are currently stuck in ‘mortgage limbo’ on SVR rates that are generally far higher than best buy deals. Our analysis shows that the vast majority could make significant savings by switching to a better rate mortgage and with 80% having at least 15% equity in their home, they are free to switch lender right now.”

Several years ago I found myself in a position where I was able to pursue a personal ambition of leaving the UK and spending some time experiencing life in another country.

As it had been a dream for most of my working life, when the opportunity arose I felt that I had to take it. Our children had lives of their own and while anxious about us leaving were supportive and keen that we should give it a go.

Having found tenants for our house in the UK but not having a time span in mind, we gave away or sold as much of our belongings as we could and travelled to Europe by car with me, my wife and our dog and a boot load of personal items.

We headed for the sun and ended up in Southern Spain, and finding a wonderful warm climate in November, we decided to stay.

We chose to live in a mainly agricultural area in the foothills of the mountains where there were other Brits and Northern Europeans but predominantly Spanish people.

We spent seven years living in Spain and during that time allowed our UK credit cards to expire in favour of doing business the Spanish way, with hard cash.

Recently for reasons beyond our control it became necessary to return to England and back to our old home. While we were aware that we needed to purchase essential furniture for the house, we hadn’t given any thought to our lack of credit cards.

OK we had cash at the bank, but we arrived with no car and a difficult though not impossible walk to reach the bank, where there is a daily limit for withdrawing cash.

It was obvious that we needed to apply for a credit card to make our lives that much easier and set about re-furnishing our home.

A few months later we are still getting there, but we have the essentials in place, thanks to the enormous array of online shopping sites and of course a valid current credit card, something that we have found it is impossible to live without in the UK in our current circumstances.

Despite the dreadful English weather it is nice to be back home, until the next time.

A recent survey of over 200 of the UK’s leading estate agents across the UK, carried out by leading property specialists movewithus, has revealed the top 14 ways in which home owners can add value to their property ahead of a sale.

The results of the survey published in this months Great British Life magazine make interesting reading particularly to anyone who is considering putting their property on the market in what is still considered to be a buyers market in the UK.

The report says that based on the average house price, as reported by the Land Registry, adding an extra bedroom could increase the value of the average property by just over £14,500 while a loft conversion would increase the property value by £11,757.

Other improvements are shown in value order:

Extra Bathroom              £10,101

New Kitchen                     £ 9,605

Central Heating               £ 8,942

Off Street Parking           £ 8,611

New Bathroom                £ 8,445

Conservatory                  £ 8,280

Double Glazing                £ 6,955

Conservative Decor      £ 6,127

Landscape Garden         £ 5,961

Insulation                        £ 3,809

Wooden Flooring           £ 3,312

Alarm System                  £ 2,650

Movewithus add that the most common factors that devalue a home for potential purchasers are;

Structural Damage, Extreme Mess, Damp, Poor or Personalised Decor,  Strong and Unpleasant Odours and an Overgrown Garden.

So if you are wanting to sell your property quickly get rid of the fancy coloured walls and choose a neutral colour scheme through the house, if the outside has been overlooked for sometime there are always decent gardeners and landscapers available.

There are also four tips from movewithus to add value to your house for less than £100:

Clean it, Hide all the clutter, Freshen up the paintwork & Tidy up the garden.

Almost every entrepreneur and small business owner has been there at least once. You come up with and put into practice an idea to start something you believe is special and therefore very important to you, something that you think could shape your destiny and that could lead to a safe and secure future for you and your loved ones, and then in the blink of an eye disaster strikes and it could all be ruined.

If you own a small business you are always at this kind of risk, but it is a risk that you simply have to take in order to succeed. It could be anything – a flood, a deal gone wrong, an unavoidable difference of opinion, a stolen laptop or even an unfortunate occurrence to one of your employees.

Either way, the situation can be extremely difficult to handle both financially and emotionally for any entrepreneur no matter how experienced they may be. However, if you are covered by business policies such professional indemnity insurance, you can go a long way to putting your mind at ease in the knowledge that whatever happens to your newly developed business, there will be a safety net for you to fall back on.

When you take on the fascinating challenge of starting your own business it is simply impossible to monitor everything when you first start out. At the early stage of proceedings, where you are solely concerned about high profits and low costs, you cannot cover all the bases at once. Therefore getting good employers’ liability insurance and public liability insurance is critical in order to protect yourself should one of your very first members of staff suffer an accident.

Can you think of anything more damaging than getting a bad reputation as a careless boss early on in your business career? There isn’t much worse – especially as the progress of your business is hugely reliant on the power of word and mouth. If a personal accident happens to one of your employees in the work place and you are not insured, then this is the exact reputation you will get.

However, if an accident occurs in your workplace and you can get it sorted swiftly while keeping your employees somewhat happy, you can quickly gain popularity among your workers and that word can spread quickly. But what if things don’t go this smoothly? There is a trend rife in the business world – claims culture – where the rights of employees against their employers are getting ever greater.

As time goes on, it becomes easier for employees to have power over their bosses and to be able to sue for even the most trivial of mishaps. Entrepreneurs are becoming more and more open to this everyday and therefore must be prepared for it with a sound employers’ insurance policy.

What if you were to lose your first big contract – one you had relied on to fund your entire business operation? This contact is at this stage imperative to the success of your business and you have been through all kinds of meetings, negotiations and networking in order for it to come through.

From here you can look to expand – maybe you plan to hire an assistant or another salesperson, perhaps you’re looking to advertise some more. Your golden contract is signed and the future looks bright but then, through no fault of your own, it all falls apart as the company you did a deal with states that the service you provided was not what they were expecting and that it wasn’t for them anymore. What now? Where do you go from here? How do you finance your dream now your main source of revenue is gone?

Well, if you have professional indemnity insurance, you can be covered. Why this is so important to people starting up businesses is that, as skilled as you may be at your work, you are bound to make the odd mistake – despite your best intentions. As confident as you may be and as excited as you are about starting your own company, the execution of your delivery could well be, at times, somewhat patchy as you start to learn the tricks of the trade. Therefore, it is imperative to cover yourself for any mistakes you may make as you try to become better at trading and attempt to bring in more customers.

What has to be remembered in all of this is that if you choose to start up your own business in the first place, then you will be greatly admired. It is a wholesome operation that takes skill, nerve, acumen and a huge desire to succeed and there are few who have these traits all in one place.

However, as in anything in life, the challenge of managing your own organisation is what subsequently makes it so rewarding, for the benefits it can bring are enormous. Being your own boss brings so many perks including power, control, choice, freedom to express yourself in your work, the ability to decide when to do a job and when to be with your family. The list, it seems, is endless.

Britain’s most famous entrepreneur, Lord Sugar, has said on more than one occasion that it would take wild horses for him go back to having a boss. But, as is the case in any ambitious activity whether it is business or any other industry, all the hard work and all the bright ideas could all be unlocked in the blink of an eye. It is therefore critical that you acquire the right kind of business insurance to protect your obvious talents, your income, the wellbeing of your family and the dream of seeing your own business succeed.

Now that the short and sweet honeymoon period has passed for the recently formed UK coalition government, business owners and public alike are taking stock of the spending cuts announced in the emergency budget.

While it was not unexpected many have been left reeling at the severity of the austere measures announced by George Osborne, wondering what the next few years have in store for debt laden Britain.

Far from seeing a light at the end of the tunnel as many had hoped coming into the election, the government has laid out the finances of the country clearly for all to see and it is not a pretty picture.

For the general public the future may look bleak, many of us are already struggling to make ends meet and further cutbacks in the household budget will obviously prolong the pain, but generally being British we are prepared to face up to things and move forward.

Tightening an already strict budget is nigh on impossible and we are often being asked for advice and tips for money making or saving opportunities.

There is no easy answer, get rich quick schemes as we already know exist only for those selling the scheme and often the only alternative course of action is to resort to selling off unwanted household items at boot fairs  or on ebay or to sell unwanted gold and jewellery to a specialist.

If you have the time and some available finance it is possible to make decent money from buying other peoples unwanted items and selling them via the internet or through boot fairs and the like.

However this may involve having to register yourself as self employed and your earnings would then be subject to UK taxes and National Insurance contributions.

The next few years will undoubtedly take their toll, we may have to work harder or longer hours to survive unscathed and now is the time to prepare ourselves for the journey.