Green Shoots in the UK Economy and Markets?
There's been a lot of positive talk in the UK housing market over the last few days or so........Onward Christian Soldiers.....
Relaxation of the credit stanglehold?
Total net lending to individuals rose by £0.3 billion in October. The twelve-month growth rate fell to 0.7%, and the three-month annualised growth rate increased 0.3% to 0.5%, according to new figures from the Bank of England.
Money for New Mortgages?
The value of building society mortgage approvals in October was £1,511 million - broadly in line with the £1,565 million of approvals in September according to new figures from the Building Societies Association.
Gross lending also remained steady with £1,666 million being lent in October compared to £1,605 million in September.
Within the total, net lending secured on dwellings increased by £0.9 billion, in line with the September increase and above the previous six-month average of £0.6bn. The twelve-month growth rate was unchanged, at 0.8%. The three-month annualised growth rate increased 0.4 percentage points to 1.0%. Within total secured lending, secured lending by banks (excluding the effects of securitisations) increased by £3.1 billion, slightly below the September increase (£3.3bn) but above the six-month average of £2.6bn.
The number of loan approvals for house purchase (57,345) was above the September figure (56,205) and above the previous six-month average, whereas approvals for remortgaging (24,596) were below both the September figure and the previous six-month average.The number of loans approved for other purposes (29,195) was higher than in September and higher than the previous six-month average.
Credit Cards - Britains 'Secret' loan sharks!
Consumer credit fell by a net £0.6 billion, below the previous six month average of -£0.1bn. Credit card lending increased by £0.1 billion and other loans and advances fell by £0.7 billion. The annual growth rate of consumer credit continued to fall, to -0.1%; the three-month annualised growth rate fell to -2.2%.
Housing Market still in Cheyne-Stokes
House prices grew by 0.2% in November according to the latest national house price survey published by Hometrack, the housing intelligence business - the fourth consecutive increase in prices, bringing the year on year rate of house price growth to -2.9%.
Commenting on this month's survey, Richard Donnell, Director of Research said:
“There are three distinct elements to the latest results from this and other recent surveys. This first is that prices continue to post month on month increases. The second is the extent of prices rises across the country and the number of households who have seen an improvement in market conditions over 2009. The third, and most important element, is the short term outlook for prices.”
“This is the third consecutive month that the survey has posted a 0.2% price rise. Add to this a growth in sales volumes and it is easy to see how agents are beginning to feel more confident about sustainable pricing levels - at least in the short term. But this pick up in market activity and prices is not one that has been felt across the whole country. The stark reality is that there are large swathes of the country where prices have remained unchanged or have seen continued price falls.”
Over the last 6 months London and the South East have consistently seen the largest number of postcodes registering price rises - values are up across 78% of London and over half of the South East. Yet in five regions less than 20% of the market has registered any price rise.
Personally I see nothing in these indicators to warrant any change of course by the Bank of England regarding Interest Rates.
It is quite clear however that the money invested by the British people into the Quantitive Easing 'project' is clearly designed to line the pockets of those within the system where the money will not 'trickle down' into the general money supply.
The credit strangulation of SME's and individuals is as bad as ever!
Labels: Business, Consumer Credit Law, credit cards, credit crunch, Debt, Economy, House prices, housing market, money supply, Money System, pump priming, Quantitative Easing, UK government
UK Consumer Law Tested for Loan Protection
Insurance Blogger loves a peoples champion and as this test case has shown UK consumers may now have far more rights and
loan protection under UK Consumer Credit Law than was previously realised....
And the UK Courts will probably be filling up with cases as fast as those dealing with the mis-selling of loan and
mortgage protection insurance products as other legal firms jump onto the bandwagon.
Once again it will be Insurance that underwrites these ridiculous anti-social court cases......
Last week, a debtor secured a five-year block on his home repossession in a claims management case against his lender Blemain Finance, after consumer credit law was used to challenge his secured loan agreement.
The firm acting for Cardiff-based Peter Bentley, claims management company, Cartel Client Review, used the meaning of unfair relationships under Section 140A of the Consumer Credit Act (CCA) 1974 to claim that his loan contract with Blemain Finance was an unfair one.
Blemain also agreed to charge no further interest on the GBP 40,000 loan and cut his repayments from roughly GBP 550 to GBP 150 a month. At the High Court in Cardiff Judge Milwyn Jarman also prevented the lender from levying any charges or legal costs.
The judge barred Blemain for enforcing repayment via repossession for five years, but even after this period, it can only bring repossession proceedings if there are at least 12 months’ arrears on the new level of payments.
Bentley’s lawyers, Consumer Credit Litigation Solicitors (CCLS), successfully argued that Blemain had loaned the money to Bentley irresponsibly and that the agreement took advantage of his desperate situation.
CCLS argued that shortcomings in the decision making procedure on granting the loan, such as in the under writing, affordability checks and valuation processes, led to the credit agreement being unfair.
Andrew Settle, solicitor for CCLS, said: "The relationship between the parties was an unfair one within the meaning of Section 140A of the CCA 1974. CCLS is utilising a significant number of legal arguments, like those used on behalf of Mr Bentley, in thousands of cases on behalf of our clients."
CCLS successfully demanded to have the loan account re written, which is believed to be the first time a loan account has been rewritten under settlement, as a result of the unfair relationships test.
Carl Wright, chief executive of Cartel Client Review, claimed that Blemain made the offer to Bentley in a bid to prevent a judge in a High Court setting a legal precedent against its lending practices.
He added: "The consumer credit rule book is being re-written as a result of High Court settlements like Blemain Finance Limited v Bentley. With consumer victories won recently in the Courts and landmark cases settled, and further cases to be determined by the High Courts, the consumer financial landscape will change irrevocably as we move in to 2010.”
Mr Bentley’s financial problems started when his mother died in 2007. He began part-time work to look after his father, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s, and then took out a GBP 40,000 secured loan in February 2007 to alleviate his financial predicament.
Bentley later fell behind with his repayments and by the time the case was heard in court, the debt had risen to GBP 47,000.
Labels: Consumer Credit Law, credit cards, credit crunch, Debt, loan protection, loan protection insurance, loans, recession, Secured Loan Insurance, UK Courts
Credit Card Companies - Don't you just love them?
Online businesses are at Serious risk from Banks and Credit Card companiesOn the day that CIFAS, the UK’s fraud prevention service announced that the number of cases of identity fraud in the UK in the first quarter of 2009 was up 40% on last year, Insurance Blogger has been taking issue with HSBC Business Credit Cards on this very issue, and I've got to warn you HSBC people - Insurance Blogger is FURIOUS!!
So think on this.....
I arrived at work this morning to see an email in my inbox from Experian - the UK's credit reference agency - informing me that my credit check account had been stopped because my HSBC Business card had been declined!
Now that is seriously bad news, having your credit card refused while trying to buy services to check credit!So a puzzled Insurance Blogger phones the HSBC Busines Cards helpline located in downtown Banglahore or somewhere where it is midnight, to find out what is happening only to be told the following, horrifying news......
That my business credit card has been cancelled!
What!
" Sir, your credit card has been cancelled as it's number appears on a list of cards at risk of potential cloning, identified by the Intelligence team (sic) in our HSBC fraud department. We tried to telephone you two weeks ago to tell you that we were cancelling the card!"
WHAT? Are you telling me that you've been cancelling all my online transactions because you suspect my card has the potentiality to be used for fraud? And you haven't even bothered to put it in writing to us?
There then followed a very heated discussion where I was passed around different departments in the Asian call centre, where I tried to explan that we are an online company and as they can see very clearly from our statements, that there are many suppliers who take money ad hoc on a daily basis, in particular website hosting and intellectual property, and if these people aren't paid our business is at serious risk and ........we are going to hold you HSBC personally responsible for any business losses we suffer........
To make matters worse it turns out that the HSBC business credit card system cannot issue a new card for three to five days after the old one has been finally purged from the system.
I asked them, apart from creating days of work for us going through and changing credit card numbers on countless online accounts, what they were going to do to honour any payments that might get taken out, during the period where one card is cancelled and the other has not arrived?
I pointed out that all businesses need continuity - but the poor girl didn't really understand...
So this matter is still up in the air and our successful online business put in jeopardy by HSBC worried about something that might not happen and would be very easy to correct anyway -
Why is there online credit card fraud anyway? - Money doesn't just dissappear into thin air!
There is always a papertrail!HSBC you have seriously lost the plot and we can't be the only UK company that you have done this to.
How many cards on are on your stupid list?
You are seriously affecting online business and not helping in the fight to stop online fraud.
What was that stupid movie where crime was detected before it actually happened ?- GET REAL HSBC!
I'm currently drafting a motion for our company general meeting to change business banks - the problem is where do you go? All the British Banks are totally out of touch of the needs of the modern UK small business!
And as for the OUTRAGEOUS interest charges that these banks are ALLOWED to charge for the credit card service........enough said!!!!
Hey Mr Brown,
Do something about these credit card companies and Interest rates and you might even stand a dogs chance of getting re-elected!
Labels: card fraud, credit cards, HSBC, identity theft
Credit Cards - time to bring the Banks to order!
The Bank of England steering committee are meeting today to discuss Interest Rates and are likely to drop the base rate by at least half a percent to 1.5%. This will be the lowest UK rate for over 350 years. Will it make a difference? Well certainly to those of us who have interest only mortgage repayments or large commercial borrowings, but only if these banks (source of all the current problems) pass this rate cut onto the us customers. If they dont then the Government have simply increased the banks profits by .5 percent!
Which brings me to Credit Cards. Credit cards are the lifeblood of the Internet and the majority of transactions could not be achieved without them. They are the most used form of transaction and are essential to the free flow of the modern money supply.
So why are the pariah banks allowed to charge extortionate rates for this this form of essential credit? These anti-social institutions are charging you and me anything between 12% to 30% for the privilige. These Interest Rates are outrageous and it's high time the Government cracked down on these thieves and brought them to bear to explain their 'criminal' loan shark rates!
It is essential that credit card rates are brought in line with all the other forms of borrowing if the Government is serious about pump priming the economy.
Write or email your member of parliament today to express your views about these outrageous and economy damaging rates.
The credit card debt in the UK is massive and needs to be addressed immediately if we are to stand any chance as a nation of dragging ourselves out of debt and recession.
If you are lucky enough to be still employed and have a large monthly credit card debt, think about how you are going to pay these extortionate bills should the worst happen and you lose your JOB. Personal Accident provides a range of
income protection and lifestyle protection insurance products which will cover your credit card debt for 12 or 24 months should you become unemployed. Vist
Personal Accident for some future peace of mind and don't forget - Write to your MP complaining about the loan shark credit card companies!
Labels: credit card insurance, credit cards, credit crunch
