Essentially Home Loans Weblog

Being in a financial bind is a situation that many of us are familiar with. Sometimes, even when we are being good with our payments and budgets, things happen that can through us into a financial hold – be it a medical emergency or sudden unemployment. When getting out of debt becomes difficult to impossible it is time to look to a debt solution. One great option is a debt management program, or DMP.

Has there even been a point in your life when you found yourself going through collections letters and billing statements while having breakfast? You may have felt like there is no easy way to get out of your predicament. Having personal debt is a very common problem. It is a fact that people from all walks of life have to deal with it every single day.

Many analysts in the financial industry are upset at the way many debt management firms are using high interest, increased repossessions, and insolvency rates to sell financial products, sometimes to consumers who do not need them. This trend is growing as fast as the debt management industry itself. This is causing many people to avoid [...]

The number of mortgages approved fell four per cent in May from a year earlier.  The British Bankers’ Association said that home loan approvals fell to 77,443 last month from 80,000. The value of mortgages rose nine percent. “Contrary to the recent stable trend, the banks’ gross and net mortgage lending strengthened in May, reflecting [...]

The Bank of England increased the interest rates from 5.5 percent to 5.75 percent last month. Even as the monetary committee closed their session, analysts are claiming that it is the first of three interest rate hikes expected for 2007. The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) warned that inflation is a worry: “most [...]

The FSA has already referred five mortgage brokers to its enforcement division, including firms whose irresponsible practices were identified in the 2005 study but who refused to improve their practices. The FSA also discovered that half of sub-prime mortgage advisers fail to validate customers’ suitability for a loan and one third of advisers do not [...]

After the recent base rate rise, it is believed that more than six million homeowners with variable rate mortgages will be stretched by more expensive monthly costs.  The Bank of England has increased the base rate for the fourth time since last August and at 5.5 percent, the base rate is now at its highest [...]

Figures published recently showed a 1.04-billion-pound deficit in February, half of what analysts expected.  Economic growth spurred tax receipts and government departments cut spending. With one month remaining in the current fiscal year, Brown increased deficit to 26.9 billion pounds.  However, it was still lower than the 36.8 billion pound gap he expected for the [...]