Barclays will foot the mortgages while Bovis risk footing the bill for future repossessions or other mortgage losses by ring-fencing a portion of its profits from house sales. Unwise or perceptive, do you think?

Well, if the property market continues to fall, or even if it remains static, Bovis profit margins will likely suffer. If, however, we are at the turning point – i.e. the property market falls no lower, then it could be a very clever move indeed.

What’s the relationship between Barclays and Woolwich?

Woolwich  became part of  the Barclays Group  in 2000 and is responsible for the mortgage side of the Barclays business.

Well, there’s not much fun in the world of debt but this interactive debt map from the Centre for Responsible Credit comes close.

In all seriousness, this interactive tool reveals levels of debt throughout the country on a county-by-county and, in some cases, a town-by-town basis. In terms of house repossession, Corby in Northamptonshire, Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Knowsley, Thurrock, Burnley and Luton had the highest proportion of repossession claims per 1,000 of the population in 2009. The tool will also show you figures for personal insolvencies, unemployment rates, bankruptcies, IVA levels, and landlord repossessions (just click on the Data tab followed by CfRC Indicators to see what’s available).

The Centre for Responsible Credit, according to its website, is “an independent, not for profit, research and policy unit.” They publish analysis of policy and regulatory trends and information about the “impacts of debt and financial problems.”

Mortgage Lenders, Halifax, have reported today that house prices fell for a second consecutive month in May and property market activity remains slow. The average house price is now £167,570, which still represents a 6.9% increase on house prices for the same time last year (2009).

The Halifax report is, however, in stark contrast to Nationwide’s report of a 0.5% increase in May, contributing to a 9.7% year-on-year boost.

The Nationwide’s chief economist, Martin Gahbauer, reported that, “housing market conditions remain characterized by thin transaction volumes and a relative scarcity of properties for sale, despite a slow return of more sellers in recent months.” He predicted a moderately upward trend in prices.

Meanwhile, the Halifax representative, Martin Ellis, said their figures were consistent with a slowing market and supported their prediction of flattened.

How to find a cheap mortgage

In April 2010, total lending rose by £0.4 billion and secured lending expanded by £0.5 billion in the month; the total borrowings secured on properties at the end of April stood at £1,239 billion.

Consumer credit borrowed by individuals was £221 billion, representing a decrease of £0.1 billion and a fall in the annual consumer credit growth rate of 0.2 to 0.1%.

In the UK the average household is in debt to the tune of £8,761 excluding mortgages – a figure that rises to £57,915 when mortgages are included. If figures are reworked to include those households with an unsecured loan, of whatever form, the average personal debt figure rises to £18,252.

If you’re troubled by debt, take a look at our debt solutions.

Comparison sites abound nowadays – along with the, mostly irritating, TV ads selling their wares! We’ve recently come across a site that doesn’t bombard our senses with bouncing, moustachioed, opera singers or infuriating jingles.

Car hire excess insurance can seem confusing, but it doesn’t need to be. On this car hire excess insurance review
site you’ll find simple, clear explanations of what excess insurance is and how it works, as well as a detailed look at the small print you should understand for your chosen policy, in plain English.  This very useful site reviews various car hire excess insurances available on the market, so you can see which one is best for you. And all without confusing legal jargon.

WHAT IS EXCESS INSURANCE?

As with most insurance policies, car hire insurance policies carry something called excess.  Excess is the term used to describe that first bit of the bill that must be paid out of your own pocket.  So, for instance, if your policy quotes ‘£100 excess’, you will pay the first £100 of any claim; the insurance company will then pay the balance of the bill.  These excess charges apply even if the damage to the vehicle wasn’t your fault.

With car hire insurance policies, excess amounts vary wildly – in fact, we found variances between different policies of up to £2,000.  This just goes to show that paying excess charges can prove very costly indeed.

Car hire excess insurance does what it says on the tin – for not much money you can eliminate those excess charges, reducing your risk to zero. Or, in other words, if your hired car is stolen or damaged you will be reimbursed in full for any associated charges.

Car hire companies will offer to reduce your risk – i.e. waive the excess fee – but this doesn’t come cheap.  One well known company charges £15 or more per day for this service. Arranging your own excess cover will be far cheaper than this and, in most cases, will also provide wider cover for your money.

If you want to save money on your car hire excess insurance you need to shop around – and we’ve found the site to help you do just that.

On Friday the Daily Telegraph reported that more than 70 people an hour are being declared insolvent as, in record numbers, we fail to keep on top of our debts. Insolvencies have almost tripled in the past five years.

Yesterday, the Bank of England voted to keep interest rates at the all time low of 0.5%, thus postponing a sharp increase in the number of insolvencies that has been predicted to accompany a rise in interest rates. The full extent of the recession, experts warn, is yet to be realised.

Practice partner at insolvency practitioners, Tomlinsons, said:

“Many people who have been struggling with big debts and reduced income have managed to survive the past two years because of low interest rates. When interest rates rise, and rising inflation suggests that this could happen sooner rather than later, the number of people facing real financial difficulties will spike sharply.”

The action the minority or coalition government takes to bring the deficit under control will be critical.

The sad truth is that, whilst Britain is technically now out of recession, the harsh truth is that many of us are still living beyond our means. History shows us that personal insolvencies will continue their upwards trend for some time after the end of the recession.

If, as predicted, the new government raise taxes and reduce public sector spending, a lot of people will need to take drastic action to resolve their financial problems, such as applying for bankruptcy.

The most recently available individual insolvency figures show a total of 18,256 bankruptcies during January to March 2010, and 11,782 Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVAs).

An IVA is an arrangement that is entered into with those owed money, while a bankruptcy involves a formal court order where assets are sold to pay off creditors.

Although an alternative to bankruptcy a debt relief order was introduced in April last year, the restrictions limit those eligible to apply – homeowners and anyone with debts above £15,000 are barred. Nevertheless, the final quarter of 2009/2010 showed an increase in debt relief orders from 5348 to 5,644

The expectation is that 150,000 people will be forced into personal insolvency by the end of the year.

The good news comes with a word of warning from Rightmove’s commercial director, Miles Shipside who said: “with weather disruptions out of the way, more sellers are coming to market and they appear to be ignoring the uncertainties facing potential buyers. Prices are up, but so is choice, and the two are not happy bedfellows in the longer term. This year more than ever the traditional spring seller window is a price-sensitive one. If asking prices continue to rise, all but the most popular locations are building themselves up for some of the gains to be lost later in the year.”

In the same report, we hear that sellers are asking 6.0 percent more for their homes than a year ago, up from 5.3 percent in March. During 2008 house prices dropped up to 20% of their value, although almost 50% of these losses were recouped in the second half of 2009, helped by record low official interest rates and tight supply.

House Price Index
is a government site publishing monthly housing market statistics. For serious research, this site and its associated pages are a mine of information: you will find year-on-year comparisons; statistics relating to new buyers and owner-occupiers; regional variations and all manner of related data

Our Property
provides information from the Land Registry on the actual selling prices of UK wide property; in short, this site helps you see beyond the estate agents’ patter. If you’re looking to buy, you’ll know whether the asking price is realistic or inflated and, if you’re selling, you’ll be more realistic about what your property will achieve.

Property Snake
is the opposite of the property ladder in that it shows you properties where the selling price has been reduced. The site is run by an anonymous owner in his or her spare time; having said that, we tried it out with a couple of post codes and the information was remarkably accurate.

Priced Out
is a campaigning website for first time buyers and provides some very useful links for this particular group.

UK Property Auctions
does exactly what it says on the tin – it is a portal to the UK property auction market.

Bank of England
this is self-explanatory. However this link will take you straight to the Monetary Policy decision page where you will find the latest on interest rates.

Which Way Homes
explains the ups and downs of the property market in a down-to-earth, jargon-free way.

If you find other useful sites or would like to comment on the sites listed above, why not tell us on the forum?

Should you have an ISA?

As a basic rule of thumb – if you have any savings they should be in an ISA.

ISA Basics

An ISA is basically a savings account that is exempt from tax on the interest. When you remember that the government takes 20% of any interest earned on a normal ‘instant access’ savings account, you can see why the basic rule of thumb is , yes, you should have an ISA. And – if you are a higher rate tax payer, the government won’t take 20% of your interest, they’ll take a whopping 40%.

Just as with normal savings, there are a variety of account options with ISAs too, so you can still have your instant access account, your guaranteed base rate account or your fixed rate account. It’s difficult to be prescriptive about which ISA accounts present the best savings opportunities because these change on a daily basis.

Of course, the government will never give too much away – especially in light of the current financial difficulties the Country is in, so there are limits as to how much money you can put into an ISA account. The government sets the limits each year and the period covered by that amount is April to April (so the tax year), which kind of makes sense. The limit is for the whole amount you have in ISAs – so if you have cash and stocks and shares accounts, the amount is what you can invest as a total across those accounts.

The current limit is £10,200, up to £5,100 of which can be in the form of cash. There is no cap on the amount you can have in stocks and shares so you could have the maximum amount in that type of account if you want to. Yet the whole chunk could be used for shares if you wish.

However, following Alistair Darling’s Budget announcement, if the rate of inflation averages out at the Government’s 2pc target during the next year, the ISA limit could rise above £10,400 for the 2011/12 tax year. If the target continues to be met for the foreseeable future, the limit will be more than £1,000 higher, at over £11,200, within five years.

Any savings or investments must be made by 5 April, the end of the tax year; unused allowances (or portions of them) don’t rollover; they are lost for good. So let’s add to our original rule of thumb by saying that an ISA should always be the first place any savings go.

Taking Money out of your ISA

You have just as many withdrawal options with an ISA account as you do with a standard savings account – so, if you’ve gone for an instant access type of account, it does what it says on the tin – you can have instant access to money within the account and still keep earning interest on the money that remains. However, it is vital that you read and understand the terms of your particular product – just as with any other account. The most important point to remember is that you will not be able to return that cash to the ISA – once you’ve taken it out, that’s it, no going back. So, here’s the third part of the rule of thumb, which should perhaps now be called a golden rule – never withdraw cash from your ISA unless it is absolutely essential because you will lose out on your maximum tax benefits for that financial year.

ISA – The Golden Rule

So, the main message about ISAs is this:

If you have money to save, put it straight into an ISA and leave it there.