Aug/091
Problems Getting Credit? Remove a Default from your Credit Report
There are 3 ways in which you can repair your credit rating to achieve the ultimate result of getting that car or mortgage that you really need. These options are as follows:
1. If your default/delinquent balance is over £300 you should write to the bank in question to claim that you did not receive a notice letter of the bank’s intention to serve you with a default. It helps if you have actually got the letters of correspondence to refer to in your argument but don’t worry if you do not.
2. If your default/delinquent balance is under £300 you should take a softly softly approach and politely ask the bank or financial organisation to remove the default from your report. Use the angle that you feel it is extremely harsh and that you are struggling to provide a good life for yourself and family because you cannot get a mortgage or loan to pay for necessities.
3. Finally, if you have exhausted all possibilities and have written and replied to all letters sent to you, the only choice left is for you to start a programme of repair for your report. This isn’t 100% effectively but it does leave plenty of consumers happy. This basically involves starting up credit agreements where possible (if needed anyway of course) and settling existing agreements in the proper way (avoid early termination arrangements).
Default balance over £300
This is a fairly significant amount of money and if you put yourself in the bank’s shoes for a second you will realise that – unless a genuine mistake was made – this boils down to theft. This is basically why banks take a tough stance over this and throw defaults around like grains of sand. However, if the banks do not take the proper course of action in serving you with a default then they are robbing YOU in the sense that you are unable to purchase a house for example. That is why their practice needs to be scrutinised in the same way as your credit report is search.
Ask the bank if they can prove that a letter warning of a default was sent to the registered address before the default arrived on your credit report. After 2006 the banks tightened things up quite substantially but before this time their operations were quite unprofessional and filled with ambiguity. The bank should then respond to your letter with a reply – probably a standard template reply – but never the less you have you starting point.
From this point you can keep replying until they send you proof that a notice was served and also that the agreement that you entered into is enforceable. At that point you can give up and take the emergency repair steps for improving your credit report.
Default balance under £300
Most success stories in writing off defaults are usually found in cases where the amount is much smaller. This is because the agreements tend to be of a more trivial nature such as mobile hone contracts etc. Having a mobile phone and forgetting to cancel the contract after the 12month period (which you made payments for without problems) should not prevent you from buying a family home. Okay, so this is an extreme example but one which we have heard on more than one occasion.
Be nice, be polite, get to the point, don’t waffle, address it to the bottom of the company pyramid and work your way up until you get a reply from the very top. Hopefully by this point you will have received a positive response but if not following the following last resort to repair your credit rating.
Repair your Credit Rating
Your credit rating is key to a progressive life. Without a good credit rating you will get nowhere unless you are already there – if that makes any sense! You need to make sure it is as immaculate as it can be and no matter what the state of the economy (eg. If there is a credit crunch of any description) you can assure the financial establishments that their money is safe with you.
Step 1
Open an account similar to the Natwest Step account which offers you the opportunity to open a basic account and as you prove your worthiness of managing your account they will offer you debit card, then an overdraft, then an overdraft extension, etc. etc. such progression looks very good on your credit profile.
Step 2
Be smart, realise that a credit card is being used here for a very specific purpose and is not meant for borrowing money over many months or even years. Do not use it as an alternative to a loan.
Step 3
Do not buy a load of new gadgets. Instead buy 1 or 2 and get credit for them choosing to pay the balance over as long a period of time as possible. The more small agreements you have over long periods the better.
Aug/092
UK State Pension Questions and Answers
What is the basic state pension?
The basic state pension is paid to women at 60 and men at 65, who fulfil National Insurance (NI) contribution requirements.
From 6 April 2020, the state pension age for both men and women will be 65.
The government will introduce the change gradually from age 60 to 65 for women over a 10-year period from 2010 to 2020
How much is it worth?
The full weekly rates are (year to April 2009):
Single person: £90.70
Couple: £145.05
Will I get the full basic state pension?
Not necessarily.
What you get will depend on your National Insurance (NI) contributions - and the rules are stringent.
Your pension depends on how long you have worked for and the number of “qualifying years” you have.
A woman with a working life of 44 years will need 39 qualifying years for a full pension and a man with a working life of 49 years will need 44 qualifying years.
The government plans to reduce the number of qualifying years it takes to earn a full basic state pension to 30 as part of its overhaul of the UK pensions system.
However, the contribution record of people who have been unable to work due to unemployment, sickness or caring responsibilities, may be protected by credits or “home responsibilities protection”.
What happens if I have not made enough contributions?
If you have not paid sufficient contributions you may get a partial pension or you may not receive a pension at all.
If you are not entitled to a full Basic Pension you may receive a reduced amount.
But if you retire with less than 25% of the qualifying years for a full pension, you won’t get anything at all.
People aged 80 and over receive a non-contributory pension, at 60% of the basic state pension as long as they fulfil other requirements, such as residency rules.
What about the earnings link?
A link between state pensions and earnings was introduced by Barbara Castle in 1974.
This ensured that state pensions kept up with the rate at which salaries were rising.
However, it was scrapped six years later by Margaret Thatcher, and more pensioners must now rely on private savings to make up the difference.
Restoring the link with earnings would cost an estimated £0.5bn in the first year, rising to £10bn by 2010, according to government figures.
Isn’t the state pension age changing for women?
Legislation to equalise the pension age at 65 for both men and women has been passed.
The change will be phased in between 2010 and 2020 and will not affect anyone born before 6 April 1950.
If you are a woman and born between 6 April 1950 and 5 April 1955, your state pension age will fall somewhere between 60 and 65.
The government’s www.pensionguide.gov.uk has details on the age and date when you will be able to receive the state pension.
Longer term further rises are planned for both men and women, eventually taking the pension age to 68 by 2044.
Source of article: BBC News
Jul/090
Direct Mortgages - The best on the UK market
Mortgage brokers have been dealt a major as The Times Online report that 2 thirds of the mortgages on the market are available through the lender only and the previously commonplace practice of your mortgage broker contacting the lender on your behalf to negotiate a deal could soon be dead in the water. As if this news wasn’t bad enough, many of the deals are actually at a marginally better rate - especially if the consumer visits their branch to arrange it.
The statistics behind this story reflect a gloomy forecast for mortgage brokers. Last year over 70% of mortgages were only available through a broker but clearly the credit crunch has had a huge impact on the banking system and ideas and recommendations that would otherwise have taken years to come to fruition have now become the way of life.
Another reason why banks are doing this is to get a grip on the flow of mortgages being dealt out. They also believe that they can get a better feel over whether handing a mortgage to a consumer is a good idea.
Statistics from Moneyfacts.co.uk
Story from: The Times Online
Jul/090
Save the Children: Child Poverty on the Increase
As you would expect, over a half of children living in poverty in the UK live in either single-parent households or homes were neither parent is employed.
Save the Children (a well respected organisation protecting UK kids) carried out research which shows that almost 200,000 more under 16’s across the nation live in poverty compared to this time last year.
According to the organistation, a rise in children residing in ‘unemployed homes’ has taken place in recent years on an unprecedented scale. This has no doubt been compounded by the fact that we are in the middle of a deep recession but nevertheless the figures look particularly bleak especially when compared to an earlier similar period.
Out of all the UK countries, Wales is experiencing the worst problems. Bridgend, Flintshire, Swansea, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire are the areas pinpointed by Save the Children as the main culprates.
The choices between food, heating and transport costs that these families need to make is a tough one which is putting pressure on their lifestyles to change.
Jul/090
Pandemic flu figures direct gov to take action
A 26 year old pregnant British woman is critically ill with swine flu has been transferred to Sweden for specialist treatment after suffering an extreme reaction to the potentially fatal Swine Flu virus.
The woman was admitted to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, Scotland with H1N1 last week, but after complications, the hospital recommended a procedure in which her blood would be circulated out of her body and oxygenated.
The Leicester unit that carries out this procedure was so full that she has been sent to Sweden.
The procedure is known as extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and involves a machine taking over the functions of the individuals heart and lungs.
The UK has a national ECMO unit in Leicester, however with only 5 beds all of which are taken.
A similar bed was found in Stockholm, where the woman has now arrived .
“Doctors are pleased with how she has coped with the journey, which is obviously good news, but the patient is critically ill, which is why she had to be transferred for this highly specialised procedure.
Jul/090
Unemployment figures in the UK top the 2.3 million mark
As the recession takes as strong a grip as ever, more and more firms are cutting costs in every way possible and the most effective way of doing that is of course to cut jobs. A “worse than expected” set of figures indicated that unemployment has rose by a new record 281,000 to 2.38 million, in the three months to May. The statistics released by the Office for National Statistics said.
The jobless rate increased to 7.6%, the highest in more than 10 years.
But the number of people claiming unemployment benefit increased by 23,800 in June to 1.56 million which was less than analysts had forecast.
Jul/090
Local Governement: One in Five Local Authorities Report Growing Pressure on School Places
There are a few reasons for this but the recession seems to be the cause of most of them.
1) Parents are turning their backs on private education for their children, choosing instead to use the money they have saved up as a contingency for bills and general living costs.
2) The housing market slump has meant less people are moving house meaning a miscalculation in the size of the catchement area.
As a result, the government has announced that they are to throw £200m into the education kitty to combat this shortage. The government is set to announce £200m to overcome the shortage of places as well as a sharp rise in free school meal requests.
The LGA’s survey indicates that that 20% of councils are experiencing this pressure currently and another 13% are advising that they too will soon be experiencing the same situation.
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