Mortgages Uncovered

The troubled star really needs to sort himself out.  In the last two months, Michael Jackson’s made the news twice over failing to pay his mortgage.  The most recent news says that LA County records show he owes around $150,000 on his Los Angeles home, a house used by Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so you followed the advice in our earlier article and got yourself either the Statutory Credit reports or maybe you went the whole hog and got the all-singing, all-dancing online versions complete with charts and pretty colours, but hey, now what?

Lenders score you on five different Read the rest of this entry »

As house prices have risen dramatically over the last few years, so many people decided to jump on the bandwagon and buy an extra house to rent out… or even two or three extra houses.  For those who got in early enough, they made a mint, but is it still a good time to do it?

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re considering taking out a mortgage, the first thing you really should do before you apply is to check your credit score or credit rating, because lenders will use this to decide whether or not they’ll approve your mortgage application.  Don’t wait until you’ve been refused credit before you find out why.

How To Check Your Credit Score

There are three credit reference agencies in the UK, all of which are listed below:

Equifax – The Equifax Credit Report is priced at the time of writing at £11.95.  It gives an overall summary, organises your accounts by type and indicates any potential risk factors with tips to help you.

Experian – At the time of writing, Experian has a special offer where you can view your credit report online for free, with no indication of prices or when the offer will run out.  To get the free report, you have to accept a free 30 day trial of online, unlimited access to your report – just don’t forget to cancel it unless you intend to take them up on the offer, otherwise it’s £6.99 per month for the service.  To cancel, you just call 0800 656 9000 and choose option 4 at any time during the 30 days.

CallCredit – you can apply to view your report online for just £9.95.  Visit the website and click Buy Now at the bottom of the page

When you purchase a credit report from any of these sites, you will also be offered an optional extra of receiving your ‘credit rating’ as well.  This refers to the National Points Score system Read the rest of this entry »

“Mortgages are evil horrid things that take all your money away for ever. Don’t get one. The end”

This was the statement from a colleague when I told her I’d started this site and I wonder how many other people agree with this?

Over the past few years, mortgages Read the rest of this entry »

Many people have heard of a ‘capped rate’ mortgage but not everyone understands exactly what it entails. Basically, with a capped rate mortgage deal, your interest rate is literally ‘capped’ at an agreed upper level so if interest rates rise, your interest rate cannot rise above that point.

For example, if current interest rates are around the 5% mark, and you were to take out a capped rate mortgage deal at 7%, that means you will pay the current rate, i.e. 5%. If the Bank of England increase the interest rates to, say 6%, then that is still below your capped rate so your interest rate will also rise. However, if the BoE raise interest rates to, say 7.5%, that is above your capped rate so you would just pay 7%. When interest rates come back down to below 7% then your interest rate will decrease too.

So, a capped rate mortgage is a good idea if you believe that interest rates will rise in the future because you will benefit from the protection of the cap.

But what about the collar?

The additional part Read the rest of this entry »

Following The Mortgage Times’ network’s recent application to the FSA requesting permission to operate an investment and pension multi-tie, there has been some speculation on whether the other major mortgage networks will wish to follow suit Read the rest of this entry »

Over the last few months many lenders have been pulling their highest loan-to-value mortgages and yesterday, Northern Rock scrapped its Together Mortgages range, the range that allowed borrowers to take a mortgage worth 125% of the house value.

When 100% mortgages were first introduced, there was Read the rest of this entry »

Just when we thought that whole issue of Northern Rock might quieten down for a little while, there it goes again! For anyone who watched the news yesterday, you will have seen the latest hoo-har.

It seems we taxpayers have lent Read the rest of this entry »

Considering the recent lending climate, January 2008 has shown a surprising leap in the volume of mortgage lending with an increase of 11% in mortgage advances.  This takes the January figures to a similar level to January last year.

According to the Council of Mortgage Read the rest of this entry »