Archive for the 'Main' Category

Household insurance

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

When buying your first home, insurance can be one of the confusing issues. To help this, we’ve just published a new article on household insurance to help you get to grips with it:

“Making that first step onto the property ladder is a difficult process. First of all you have to save as much as you can for that all-important deposit, which is easier said than done. That?s not the end of it though, there are plenty of smaller things to do that you might not have even considered. Insurance is one of these things and it?s something that first time buyers probably haven?t even considered.”

Household Insurance: the differences between household and content insurance

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Key things to consider when buying a new home

Monday, December 19th, 2011

If you are planning on buying a new home soon, take a look at the article we have just published on ‘Key things to consider when buying a new home‘:

“Buying a new home is one of the biggest financial commitments anybody can make, and it pays to do your research early on and figure out the costs involved at every stage. One of the first things to think about is your deposit ? if you?re a first-time buyer, this is likely to be up to 20 per cent of the value of your house, which can take years to save up for depending on where you live.” read more…

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Base rate stays at 0.5%

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

The Bank of England has today voted to keep the base rate at 0.5% – the rate it has been at since March 2009. The continuing low rate has allowed mortgage holders to save £51bn. One can only hope the length of time this low rate has lasted hasn’t lulled many into a false sense of security – with people getting complacent about taking out large mortgages due to the low rates.

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Base rate stays at 0.5% again

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

The Bank of England has again decided to keep its base rate at 0.5% following today’s meeting. Even though inflation is over double the target of 2%, the lack of movement was widely expected since the economy is still only growing very slowly. It is expected that the first increase will not be until 2012.

The base rate has been at 0.5% since March 2009 when it was dropped by 1%.

Ben Thompson, managing director of Legal & General Mortgage Club, says: ?Our view remains that rates will stay unchanged for the remainder of this year and in all likelihood won?t rise much anytime soon, as we expect inflation to fall back sharply next year, albeit remaining a little above the Bank?s 2% target.

The news probably makes little difference to many house owners and potential buyers since mortgages are still hard to obtain, and interest rates still signifcantly higher than the base rate.

Ewan Edwards, head of retail products at Norwich & Peterborough, reminds consumers that ?while keeping the rate so low is helpful to borrowers, they should be mindful that there is likely to be a rise over the next six to twelve months, so this simply gives them a little more breathing space to review their mortgage and maybe consider finding a good fixed rate deal.?

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Home insurance or Tenants? insurance?

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

With mortgages still difficult to obtain, especially for first-time buyers, many of you will be considering renting until mortgages are more obtainable. A factor to consider when choosing between buying and renting is insurance – we’ve just posted a new article on insurance. Here is an extract:

“Making a decision between buying a home and renting a property often comes down to your budget and whether you can afford mortgage payments or rent. However, one factor that should not be overlooked when assessing what you can afford is home insurance, which differs widely depending on whether you?re buying or renting…”

Click here to read the full article.

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