The Equalizer

Unsecured Bad Credit Loans

2009-12-11T16:32:00.002+00:00

Could it be that unsecured bad credit loans are coming back in vogue? For people who do not have a good credit rating it may well be that such loans are making a comeback, after all the fuss surrounding secured loans in recent times, with the problems that loans secured on property bring. Repossessions are bad enough at a time of recession, but combined with all the other things that have gone wrong with the sub-prime mortgage market it looks as if there needed to be some kind of change,

So the switch to unsecured bad credit loans is well and truly upon us. Brokers and intermediaries up and down the land will be starting their advertising campaigns, and no doubt the online equivalent will have already started, with those people who play around with PPC advertising taking the lead in drumming up traffic to their sites.

Unsecured loans for people with bad credit are nothing new. As a matter of fact, unsecured loans have been with us for a considerably longer time than their secured counterparts. But I think it's fair to say that unsecured finance has seen a shift towards it as a new wave of security begins to grip us. We just don't want the threat of repossession over our heads any more.

Unsecured loans cost more than secured loans, that is certainly true. They cost more because there is no security based on property to underwrite the loan if things go badly wrong. But if we're willing to pay that extra little bit every month for peace of mind then surely that's a price worth paying, isn't it? Unsecured bad credit loans are surely to be welcomed back.

The Virgin One Account Mortgage

2009-09-14T08:27:00.002+00:00

We've just launched our Virgin One Account Mortgage tribute site. Most people don't realize that Virgin sold this to the Royal Bank of Scotland some time ago, and that it's actually the RBS that runs and administers it. But it's the same Virgin product all the same, and people love it.

The best thing about the One Account mortgage is that you can pay more into it every mnonth or less, as you wish, according to circumstances, and you can use this to pay off your mortgage years earlier if you choose to do so. That's why it's also known as the Shrinker mortgage or the mortgage shrinker.

The Virgin one account mortgage is very flexible and should be used in conjunction with your other One Account products to give a holistic approach to your household budgeting on a monthly basis. Go to our site to sign up to the mortgage today.

Best IVA Advice

2009-09-13T09:32:00.003+00:00

If you want the best IVA advice then I'd like to announce a new site which does just that. Far from being a comparison site for Individual Voluntary Arrangemnts (IVAs) it is a whole-of-market application site, where you enter your details and your own circumstances and a distinguished expert panel sifts through the various sources and secures the best IVA for you and your own situation.

The other advantage is the tiny amount of work involved on your part. You apply for the best IVA advice using just one online application form and that's it. That's all you have to do. The system then goes into action as you can sit back and let dozens of sources and brokers fight for your business!

So apply for the best IVA advice today and be assured that you will end up with the best one for your own individual or family needs.

Guarantor Loans

2009-09-11T16:33:00.002+00:00

If you want to actually repair your credit rating I recommend you take out a guarantor loan for the sake of credit repair if nothing else.

A guarantor loan is underwritten by someone else, usualyy a friend or close relative, and it is on that person's credit rating that the loan is based. That measn that you are subject to no credit checks yourself, which is grteat if you have a bad credit score or have no credit score because you have just started work or college, etc.

It's generally the case also that guarantor loans are unsecured, which means that, in the unlikely event of a default, noby is going to lose their home. So get yourself a guarantor loan today.

Reduce Credit Card Debt

2009-09-01T07:39:00.002+00:00

With the credit crunch still very much with us and employment figures getting worse by the week (despite signs that some aspects of the economy are on the mend) people are naturally wondering about the best ways to reduce credit card debt. This goes for personal debt as well as household debt where people may be tempted into such things as consolidation loans.

Those wishing to reduce credit card debt would do well to consider the number of options available. Firstly there is the obvious one of checking to see if your debt is unenforceable. Because, if it is unenforceable, why are you paying so much every month (possibly to a debt purchasing company who only bought the data - i.e. your contact information - about the delinquent account for pennies on the pound anyway, and not the debt itself, which has been written off by the bank for a nice tax break and an insurance claim!).

So how do you rind out if it is unenforceable? Well, you write to the company 'owning' the account and ask for a good copy of the original credit agreement. If they cannot produce it, or if it does not come up to muster according to the 2006 amendment to the Consumer Credit Act of 1974, then it is unenforceable. Now there's a good way to reduce credit card debt!

Other ways to reduce credit card debt include a consolidation loan and taking out an IVA. Bankruptcy should only be considered in the most desperate of situations.

Unsecured Guarantor Loans

2009-08-23T10:34:00.002+00:00

Announcing a new way to repair your credit rating, and not a moment too soon!

We've all taken a bit of a pounding with the recent recession, with people losing their jobs and not being able to pay their bills and falling behind with the mortgage or rental payments. Well now with unsecured guarantor loans all that is a thing of the past. You can apply for one of these guarantor loans by getting a friend or relative to help you take out a small loan (the average is from £2,000 to around £5,000) and then when you pay it back successfully you can be said to have contributed brownie points to your credit history.

By doing the unsecured guarantor loans thing you can thereby boost your credit rating and also your credibility. Banks and commercial companies who operate using credit all know that people have their ups and downs. By taking out one of these loans and then successfully paying it off again, banks can see that you are on the up, rather than on the down.

Remember, http://www.unsecured-guarantor-loans.co.uk could well save your financial bacon!

Write Off Credit Card Debt

2009-02-17T09:25:00.002+00:00

If you want to write off credit card debt you can do so fairly easily with a little help and some template letters.

Alternatively you can get specialist help to write off credit card debt from a solicitor who works in insolvency. Such legal help is not cheap, but it needn't be extortionate either. Steer clear of the people offering to do this for you for 50% of the written off sum. You can get a qualified expert to provide this service for you for much less - around 12% I've seen. These better providers also stipulate that you can pay over a period of 4 months. It's rather like just paying the minimum on your credit card for 4 months - and then nothing more!

How wonderful when you think of it that way. It's the same as continuing to pay the minimum on your credit card over 4 months and then not paying anything else at all, because by that time the capital sum of the debt, sometimes called the principal, will be written off. So you can write off credit card debt in the same way as if you were just paying off the minimum each month and then suddenly it no longer exists!

So write off credit card debt the smart way by shopping around for a specialist solicitor in writing off debt and who knows what he's doing.

Or you could try doing it yourself. More on that later.

Write Off Credit Card Debt

2009-02-13T07:06:00.002+00:00

If you want to write off your credit card debt then here is the service for you. The service applies to any debt or credit agreement taken out before 6th April 2007 and relates to all sorts of loans and credit - that includes credit cards, store cards, secured loans, unsecured loans, hire purchase, car loans and any type of finance.

The proviso to write off your credit card debt is that the debt must be under £25,000 when the loan was taken out (actually this rules out certain secured loans, but we must also conclude that secured loans tend to be better drafted and would not fail the prescribed test - see below).

The so-called write off credit card debt loophole came about when the consumer laws which were originally laid down in 1974 were amended this century to make them more consumer-friendly. The result was that 7 out of every 10 credit contracts did not meet the new terms of the law which stated that all the relevant details should be displayed on the contract. And this is completely date-reversible! So suddenly all the loans and credit cards could effectively be written off as they are unenforceable.

If you want to write off your credit card debt see the site above for more details.

Used Games Store Opens Online

2009-01-14T13:53:00.002+00:00

A new online used games store has just opened online. It can be found at Used Games and is a client store of Ebay.com.

Why pay the full cost of games when you can get the same thing for a fraction of the price? What's more, it's exactly the same thing - the same files, the same packaging and, most important of all, exactly the same user experience!

Used Games Store is a subsection of the popular Freebie Express site.

Barclaycard Takes Over £2000 From Barclays Bank Customer's Account

2008-11-01T09:56:00.003+00:00

This is a warning for anyone who is stupid enough to think about opening an account with Barclays Bank.

Barclaycard shows no mercy if one of its customers goes into arrears on its credit card account. If the unfortunate person happens to have a Barclays bank account Barclaycard just helps itself and takes the money out of the account, leaving the helpless account holder unable to pay the bills. The unfortunate victim was unaware his account was even in suspension. Nobody had bothered to tell him.

That's what happened to one Barclays Bank account holder in September. Barclay's attitude was "Hard luck!" There was nothing they could do about it. Apparently this kind of behaviour was allowed in the small print.

But there is a twist to this. The customer concerned also has a business account with Barclays. As a business customer he pays £23 a month for the privilege of having a business account. But even his business banker could do nothing to get the money back.

But it gets worse.

The money Barclaycard took, nearly £2,200, was a gift from the account holder's 79 year old mother.

Still, both Barclaycard and Barclays didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with what they did.

Was the he angry about this? You bet! Here's what he did next: http://tinyurl.com/6beu3t

Best Student Possessions Insurance

2008-09-29T09:56:00.001+00:00

A friend of mine's son went off to university the other week. He was a bit concerned about getting himself insurance for his personal belongings, such as his laptop, his guitar and books and various bits and pieces, and was wondering where to get the best student possessions insurance.

We did a bit of a trawl through the search engines and found a site called, strangely enough, Best Student Possessions Insurance. They are associates of a well established student insurer, so there should be no nasty surprises. Also, they may have established ties with your hall of residence or some other types of student landlord, so Ian's son got quite a good discount.

He's now found the best student possessions insurance for him, and he's quite happy that he needn't keep his laptop by his side all the time in future.

LLoyds TSB Bank Charges Student £800 For 8p Debt

2008-07-25T13:40:00.002+00:00

Lloyds TSB Bank have run up bank charges of £800 ($1,600) on a debt of just 8 pence (£0.08p or $0.16) on a student's bank current account.

20 year-old Laura Gibson, an A Level student from Cheltenham, UK, said that Lloyds TSB had run up the £800 charges which started off when her account went 8 pence into the red. The original charges for the overdraft were £60, but then further charges were imposed month after month until they stood at £800. "The whole episode has been a nightmare" said Miss Gibson. "The way I've been treated is disgraceful".

The unemployed student is now working part-time in an effort to pay off the overdraft, which was run up by Lloyds TSB Bank, and which represents bank charges averaging £166 per month for an overdraft which originally started out as £0.08.

Lloyds TSB Bank insisted, in Metro, that the overdraft related to another matter which was stretched over a longer period. When we tried to contact them there was nobody available to comment on the matter, but the personal finance website MoneyNet said that Lloyds TSB Bank charges were amongst the highest and that the bank were the worst offenders among the banks for penalising overdrawn customers.

To ensure that you pay no interest at all on any of your credit cards see the free service offered today at the Credit Card Balance Transfers site. The UK equivalent site is Credit Card Balance Transfers .

Dell Reneges on Service Agreements

2008-06-19T11:49:00.001+00:00

Dell reneges on service agreements, as I have found out today.

I bought a Dell Dimension 3000 in 2005 with Microsoft Windows 2003 installed. Except it wasn't installed.

After numerous calls to the Dell helpline, and having to go through their interminable menus and giving my name and "service tag" over and over, I still have not been able to install Office 2003 three years later. Dell now wants to charge me nearly £40 to help me install the software, even though I have already paid for the software which was meant to be installed in the first place. It seems that Dell reneges on service agreement when it suits them.

The problem has always been that an error has resulted because of the presence of one or more files. I have tried to install Office 2003 several times myself, only to be confronted by the same error messages every time. Every time I contact Dell they say I must pay to have the software installed, even though it should have come installed with the computer when I bought it three years ago. Dell Reneges on Service Agreements.

E-On Uses Dirty Tricks To Gain Sales

2008-05-30T19:22:00.001+00:00

I've suspected it for a while, but I now have proof that E-on uses dirty tricks to gain sales.

A man came round last week to "read my meter". He hammered on the door several times, three nights out of seven. On the first night he left a calling card saying he had come to read the meter, which was strange since my supplier is NPower.

Out of curiousity I let him in on his fourth attempt. The E-on dirty tricks became evident after he "read" the meter and the next evening another person knocked at the door, also claiming to be a meter reader.

Partially going along with this, I said that the E-on meter reader had read my meter the previous evening. He said he didn't know how this could be, and launched into a patter about the benefits of switching my supplier. And "who is your supplier for gas?"

I told him that I knew that he was a salesman, and he broke into a wry smile and bade me good evening, the game up. That E-on uses dirty tricks can surely not be in doubt after this little episode, and I urge everyone to be on the lookout.

Debt Consolidation UK Secured Loan

2008-04-17T15:15:00.002+00:00

We all want the most advantageous offers when we fill in the application form for a debt consolidation uk secured loan. But can we guarantee this without making hundreds of applications? Well, in the days of the "credit crunch" there seems only one sensible way to do it.

That is to apply to a large panel of expert lenders all at the same time. The most advantageous way to do this is online. By applying to Accepted, the whole-of-market network of lenders and brokers, you will be ticking all the boxes. This is the best way of getting your debt consolidation uk secured loan.

http://www.uk-loan-quote.co.uk

Accepted is a whole-of-market network of lenders and brokers and so covers the entire debt consolidation uk secured loan market. In that panel there are expert lenders in every conceivable area. So it does not matter if your past borrowing record is bad or good. This does not matter if you have arrears or CCJs against you. Nor will it affect things if you are self employed or your working status is unusual.

Applying to the online panel for your debt consolidation uk secured loan has the advantage over everything else of guaranteeing you two things: you are guaranteed at least one loan offer no matter what your financial circumstances. Secondly, you are guaranteed the most advantageous quote. Because you just accept the best offer and reject the rest. Let the panel compete for your business while you sit back and simply pick the best offer made.

All applications are confidential and offers are swift. All the panel members are regulated by the FSA and other appropriate financial bodies where applicable. Amazing deals are still possible, but you won't know till you try. Make your debt consolidation uk secured loan application now.

http://www.uk-loan-quote.co.uk

Free Bingo Software

2008-03-21T10:29:00.000+00:00

Free bingo software is now available which will pay you £21 just for joining up!

The free bingo software allows you to download the wonderful Blackpool Club Bingo game to your own computer. It also gives you the chance to play for real money. There is a guaranteed bonus of 150% and up to £150 only for Blackpool Club Bingo players!

To get the free bingo software all you have to do is click on the link below and you'll go straight to the download page. Then just follow the instructions and you'll be playing for real money in seconds!

Download your free bingo software now.

Guaranteed Loan Software

2008-03-20T11:31:00.000+00:00

Guaranteed loan software is software that anyone can use to make available a secured loan, whatever their circumstances.

Guaranteed loan software allows anyone with an income to download an easy-to-use utility that works in much the same way as any online loan application. The only difference is that you just make one application and it goes to a panel of hundreds of expert lenders and brokers - all of them experienced in their field of lending to people in a particular financial position.

You can use the guaranteed loan software whatever your financial circumstances, past financial history or credit rating. Because the panel consists of such a vast pool of expertise you can use this software if you have CCJs (County Court Judgments) against you, if you have arrears, or even if you are bankrupt. Our panel welcomes secured loan applications from all difficult cases, including the self employed and those without accounts (self-cert cases).

Download the guaranteed loan software now and see how easy it is to get a loan, no matter what your circumstances.

Guaranteed Secured Loans

2008-03-12T07:43:00.000+00:00

Guaranteed secured loans are not a thing of the past in the UK. Despite the recent sub-prime lending crisis you can still get a loan, whatever your circumstances (as long as you are resident in the UK).

Guaranteed secured loans can be used for any purpose. Apply to our site today and submit just one online application via our secure online form and it will be sent to our large panel of experienced lenders and brokers who have practical knowledge of lending to people of all varieties of credit rating. It doesn't matter if you have CCJs, arrears or even if you are an undischarged bankrupt. Our lenders will make you an offer. All you have to do is sit back and wait for the quotes to come in. Let them compete amongst each other for your business!

This is the smart way to get guaranteed secured loans. If your bank has already turned you down there is no reason to assume that everyone else will. Get ahead of the game by putting your offer before our panel and be assured of the result you want.

Apply to our guaranteed secured loans website. Do it now and get ready for a very pleasant surprise.

Debt Consolidation in London

2008-02-13T16:31:00.004+00:00

Just a quick head's up on a new site, Debt Consolidation in London, which offers true debt consolidation help for people in the UK capitol (and through all of the UK, for that matter) who are financially struggling, as opposed to offering them just another loan, which is what most debt consolidation "services" do, plunging people into even greater debt.

In fact, this happens so much that people have come to think of debt consolidation as being synonymous with loans, rather than with genuine debt consolidation management plans, put in place by qualified insolvency practitioners (IPs). People looking for debt consolidation in London or anywhere else in the UK should really check this site out.

True debt consolidation is based around IVAs (Individual Voluntary Arrangements) which were set up by the government a couple of years ago. Under these laws you can write off up to 70 percent of your debt (just as a corporation would be allowed to write off debt), though in reality it's nearer to 60 percent for most people. But that's not bad! Imagine, just one day next week having 60 percent of your debt disappear.

Visit the Debt Consolidation in London site now to see if you qualify to write off your debt.

Secured Home Loans in London

2008-01-29T19:01:00.000+00:00

This is more of a shameless plug as much as anything else.

The new site Secured Home Loans in London has been launched and I'm rather keen to promote it. It will service the background sites that will help to finance my more consumer-based and free activities. So in order to keep the important stuff free I'm hoping that people will visit the site and make use of it!

Here it is again: Secured Home Loans in London. Enjoy!

How To Use Search Engines for Accurate Results

2007-09-07T07:42:00.000+00:00

Have you ever despaired that you'll ever find the precise thing you're looking for in a search engine? Well here are some of the ways that you might change your search methods to give you better results. These are already actively encouraged by the search engines themselves, but they tend to be in the small print, so most people don't know about them. Well now that's about to change.

The search engines aren't trying to frustrate you, just trying to reduce the prominence of spam. Their answer to this is to lend an unnaturally high prominence to what they call "authority sites". But that means you won't see sites that may have the answer to more specific things you are looking for.

Here's how that works at the moment.

It is said in some quarters that if you are an authority site, and if you have the same words on the page as are contained in the search (they need not even be in the order), as long as your authority seems to match the subject being searched for (inbound links with the same words, etc.) that page will be at the top of the search results.

So the more specific page related to that search will not be found at the top of the search results.

Here's how to improve your searching. These examples are for the Google search engine, though the other major search engines have their own equivalent terms. Google and the other search engines have already published these guidelines, so this isn't anything new - it's just that most people don't know about them.

Put your search term in quotation marks. Typing in a search phrase without quotation marks will include all those words, in whatever order they are in. Pages that are considered by Google to be high authority sites may well return pages in which these words appear in a different order, or somewhere on the page. Typing "best tennis match" into Google's search box will show you a different set of results than if you typed in that search phrase without the quotation marks. Try it. Ask yourself which set of results seems most relevant.

Secondly, search by the title in quotation marks: allintitle: "best tennis match".

This really zooms in on your subject. When you use this search command the results feature only that exact search phrase in the title tag of the web page. The person who made that web page specifically put that phrase in the title of the page because that is what the page is intended to be about.

Search by the incoming links in quotation marks: allinanchor: "best tennis match".

This shows results from outside web pages linking to a page with this exact phrase in the text of the hyperlink itself. So this is what other pages think the page is about.

Search by the name of the web page in quotation marks: allinurl: "best tennis match".

The exact search phrase appears in the name of the web page itself. As with the title tag, the person who made this web page specifically intended this page to be thought of as being about "best tennis match".

These procedures should improve the accuracy and relevance of your searching. Remember that the search engines are not there to hide information from you, they are just trying to prevent spammy pages from being returned in the top search results. Unfortunately this seems to oblige them to give undue weight to authority sites which are known not to be spam pages. The result of this is that pages that may more accurately reflect your search criteria will not get shown in the top results. Use the above techniques and your searches will be much more productive.

Debt Collectors Use Data Protection Act to Intimidate

2007-09-06T16:00:00.000+00:00

There are indications that some debt collection companies, or debt collectors, are using the Data Protection Act to intimidate people who are least able to cope with the debt they already have.

Debt collectors, who nowadays hide under the cover of flashy websites, have hounded a friend of mine, who has had a lot of bad fortune recently. He has noticed the glee with which debt collectors use the so-called data collection questions to soften up their subjects. When asked where the caller was calling from, callers often refuse to say, and continue to press the subject into giving out their personal information.

The normal courtesies of introducing oneself and saying where they are from do not seem to matter to the new breed of debt collector, who have to meet targets like any other sales operative.

Most people don't know this, but debt collection agencies have very little in the way of powers, and the main tool they have is intimidation. They use human nature to empower themselves with weapons based on crude psychology. They thrive on people's guilt and always try to give themselves the moral high ground in any interactive situation like a telephone call. That is the only way they can get at people - through guilt and fear.

It is unfortunate that a law that was designed to protect people from unscrupulous practices is now being used by the very people who are most keen to use intimidating techniques.

Use of the Data Protection Act means that the person contacting you by telephone is allowed to "check" who you are by asking you various question. What is your name, your address, your date of birth, your mother's maiden name, etc.

This may be fine if the matter is simply to establish the true identity of a person. But a debt collector uses this for other purposes: it softens a person up. It makes the subject feel pliable to questioning, and therefore more easily susceptible to further questions and deeper probing which then leads to what are essentially sales tactics.

After putting the subject in this receptive frame of mind, the debt collector then follows up by questions to which the logical answer either has to be a Yes (to the debt collector's advantage) or a No (also to the debt collector's advantage). This technique is often used in hard sell ploys and has but one purpose: the sale. Used by the debt collector, the goal is not a sale, but the voluntary release of money that the prospect cannot afford. The techniques are exactly the same, however, and it is the Data Protection Act that puts the prospect in the frame. The Data Protection Act's very procedures allow the sale to proceed, smoothly.

The modern debt collection industry is based on greed. Debts are bought and sold by different debt collection agencies, and sometimes the "leads" are sold to other call centres around the world. The salesperson who phones you up is like any other salesperson. There are targets to meet and the salesperson - who is usually a very "pushy" type and has a very tight education in this activity at least - will use any tactic to achieve those targets.

The provisions of the Data Protection Act are a Godsend to such people. Whatever the legal requirements, or otherwise, of all those ostensibly necessary questions, the debt salesmen are loving it.

The response is both perfectly sensible and legal: if you sense a debt collector is on the phone treat him or her like any other salesperson. If you don't like what is being offered then politely say goodbye and put the phone down.

Then the salesperson will politely go away. Or, at least, they should.

OFT Has Betrayed Consumers

2007-08-28T14:13:00.000+00:00

The OFT has betrayed consumers. That is the verdict of several of my colleagues and clients after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) decided to launch a test case against the main high street banks over excessive bank charges.

Towards the end of 2006 consumers in the UK learned that their banks could possibly be charging them illegally for things like exceeding overdraft limits or bouncing cheques. As these were construed as costs to the bank, and not fees, the assumption was that these things were costing the bank about the same amount of money as the banks were then charging their customers.

So was it costing the bank £30 to send a letter to a customer telling them they had exceeded their overdraft limit by one penny? Did it really cost £25 to send an automated note to a customer saying that a cheque had bounced? No. Clearly it did not.

Tens of thousands of people began asking their banks for their money back, and the people won. The banks, to everyone’s surprise, did not contest this in the courts. The banks did not bring a test case because they knew they would lose.

Everything was going the consumers’ way. By Spring 2007 thousands of people were taking the banks to court every week, and winning.

Then, on July 27th, in a move that has upset many an applecart, the Office of Fair Trading decided to end this. The OFT has betrayed consumers by taking on the banks over their excessive charging without giving due consideration to cases already in progress. The OFT gave no warning about what it was about to do, but just weighed in and started proceedings, initiating a test case. This will now put on hold all pending claims. Opinion differs as to the length of time these will be put on hold, but some people say that consumers will have to wait over three years to get their money back. The OFT has betrayed consumers, the very people they are meant to be protecting.

In some cases the claims run into thousands. Does the OFT think it is serving the public well by depriving individuals of thousands of pounds of money which should not have been taken from them in the first place? The OFT has betrayed consumers by its action; it has betrayed the very people it is charged with helping.

Caveats are now issued by the OFT (who may now understand their terrible blunder), to the effect that due consideration should be given to cases of genuine hardship. The reality is that, in cases of genuine hardship, the burden is on the claimant to prove that hardship. Specifically this is done with a form N244 (obtainable from the H.M. Courts Service website here).

The problem is that this costs £35 just to send it to the court. Does it not occur to the OFT that people who tend to have racked up so many bank charges in the first place may be in situations where they are least able to pay such fees? This whole thing is about reclaiming illegal fees, not paying more fees. The OFT has betrayed consumers not once, but twice.

In reflecting how the OFT has betrayed consumers it is interesting to note that this case only relates to reclaiming bank charges. Charges can still be reclaimed from credit card companies. See the Credit Card Balance Transfers site for details of saving even more on credit cards.

File under: OFT Has Betrayed Consumers. Watch this space for developments.

How To Claim Back Bank Charges

2007-08-16T10:15:00.000+00:00

When considering how to claim back bank charges, readers of this blog in the UK will probably be aware that people may claim back their bank charges over the last 6 years (5 years in Scotland) by a simple recovery procedure.

This is because the law will construe bank charges as being disproportionate to the costs incurred by the banks to make those charges. Does it really cost £35 to send an automated letter printed by a robot and post it to a customer who has gone £1 into the red? Well, no it doesn't. It probably costs no more than 25 pence, and most of that will be postage. How to claim back bank charges starts with unprogramming yourself in the belief that the banks, like other authority centres, are always right. In terms of charges, the banks are always wrong.

I cannot offer you any specialist knowledge here. But I can show you an excellent guide in the Money Saving Expert's website here
.

Recently the OFT weighed in and ruined the party a bit by taking the major banks to court. This puts existing reclaim processes on hold (probably for a couple of years - the banks will be sure to drag it out). But you can still claim back credit card charges.

If you want to save money on credit card charges in general you can go to the Credit Card Balance Transfers site. Use their free service and you won't have to pay any interest charges for years!

File under: How To Claim Back Bank Charges. Watch this space for developments.

UK Loan Quote

2007-08-15T11:00:00.001+00:00

UK Loan Quote

When looking for a UK loan quote I tend to trust Accepted. I've used them before, and it's as simple as anything to fill in their application form and that puts your application in front of lots of different lenders so that you can guarantee several of them will come up with the loan that's most suitable for you.

I did this a few weeks ago when I wanted a new kitchen. I got several quotes from the master broker (as they style themselves - but their reach is truly huge) and all I did was select the cheapest. Actually it was the second cheapest UK loan quote but they did offer me a five month payment holiday as well, so I took that one. I also got a new kitchen!

I also used them a couple of years ago when I was looking for another UK loan quote to consolidate an existing loan and also finance some refurbishment of the house (and put in a new patio). They were able to get me a good APR and I was paying around the same as I was paying on my previous loan (except now I had the new patio). They didn't have the payment holiday then, though, as far as I can remember.

They were fairly immediate in their response as well. I can recommend them. Their quick application form is here.

File under: UK loan quote. Watch this space for more on the same subject.