If you are thinking about taking out a secured loan it is important to make sure that you have a clear understanding of exactly what is involved. Secured loans have a number of advantages and disadvantages and whether or not they are the right product for you will depend on your circumstances. If you do decide to opt for this kind of borrowing then you can compare secured loans by using a comparison website to help you determine which lender and product best meet your needs. How Does a Secured Loan Work? You can only get a secured loan if
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Monthly Archives May 2012
The Rotten Core of CitiGroup
If you want to know why the world is currently in financial turmoil then this is a very insightful read: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-31/woman-who-couldn-t-be-intimidated-by-citigroup-wins-31-million.html To summarise, Citigroup (a whopper of a US bank with all sorts of questionable ties and one that received a massive bailout from the US Government) sold mortgages and they also bought mortgages from other financial institutions. It then sold on these mortgage debts to other lenders and that alone is enough to make some people’s head spin. The debts were sold on because they had value because the people who actually owed the money were paying interest. Lenders
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Ah, Facebook. You line ’em up…..
I came across something about Facebook that made me laugh and it inspired me to go ahead and write something I’ve been mulling over for a while now. Ever since MZ (Mark Zuckerberg) was slated for wearing his hoodie to meetings with investors and the much publicised IPO I’ve been itching to write something but this is a bit of a fail because I’m going to re-post something someone else did. But first, so what if he wore a hoodie! I’m more interested in what he said in the meetings! But I couldn’t find much about that in the press…
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TV Life Insurance Ads
A little while ago Aviva launched a series of life insurance ads on TV to try and raise awareness and so they should because apparently the UK population is grossly under-insured. Having been in the industry for but a few short years these were the first TV ads I’d seen for life insurance. It turns out (and it’s not a major revelation if you think about it) TV ads for life insurance have been around in other parts of the world for quite some time and while searching the interweb for ideas and information I came across one from late
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The Impending Doom of the Interest Only Mortgage
Interest only mortgages first came to our attention alongside the infamous endowment policy (but that’s another story), but whilst endowments are no longer popular because of their poor returns and inflexible properties, interest only mortgages have remained a firm favourite with homeowners, mostly because it is cheaper to pay interest only instead of capital and interest. Now they are coming of age and lenders as well as borrowers are beginning to realise that the monthly savings have been a false economy. Many borrowers who said they had an investment vehicle such as an ISA or a pension were not telling
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House Prices to Stay Flat for 10 Years! – Oh No!
A bit of a shocker of a headline! House prices to stay flat for 10 years! That was the headline I read for an article I received today based on discussions from the BSA conference. I don’t know why I only received this today when the conference took place in April and I’m not sure how ‘on the pulse’ the delegates are at the ‘British Sociological Association’ when it comes to the wonderful world of finance and mortgage lending. The article didn’t exactly say who had made this claim but it did reference a Mr Robert Parker, head of strategic
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