Mark Williams's Blog – March 2012 Archive (8)

Comparison sites are failing to provide consumers with the best deal and should be strictly regulated, Which? has said.

The Financial Services Authority warned comparison sites they must hold the correct permissions for their activities in June last year.

A Which? investigation has now established that most of the 11 most popular sites were using pre-selected…

Interest-only mortgages have taken another step towards extinction with Nationwide and now Coventry Building Society demanding that new borrowers have 50pc equity in their home if they want to avoid making capital repayments.

Both, which previously lent on an interest-only basis to borrowers with 25pc equity or deposit, sited the need to "manage application levels" following similar moves from competitors. The…

The Chancellor George Osborne will today raise Stamp Duty on the country's highest priced properties as part of a tax raid on the wealthy.

The top-end property market is booming at present, with a huge surge in the amount of homes sold so far this year compared to 2011.

New figures have revealed sales of homes valued at £5m or more in London have jumped by 98% this year,…

Just under half of borrowers, 49%, have not reviewed their mortgage since base was cut to 0.5% three years ago, according to recent research.

Despite base rate being a record-low since March 2009, 42% of fixed rate borrowers are still paying a rate of 5% or higher, with the average rate for fixed rate borrowers being 4.63%.

The average rate paid by tracker mortgage…

The government has formally launched NewBuy, its mortgage indemnity scheme that will offer borrowers 95% loan to value mortgages with taxpayers and builders as co-guarantors.

The scheme is only available on newly-built flats and houses up to a maximum value of £500,000 in England only.

Properties must also not be linked with any other scheme such as shared equity or shared…

Women across the generations are significantly undervaluing the level of protection that they need compared to men, taking out "worryingly low levels" of life cover to protect their families, one life provider has warned.

Its figures showed that men typically protect themselves with around 50% more life cover than women, with the gender gap becoming significantly wider the older people…

Nearly 850,000 customers will see their mortgage rate rise from 3.5% to 3.99% on 1 May 2012 when Halifax hikes its Standard Variable Rate.

This is now the second rate rise announcement by Halifax inside the last seven days as in addition, it has already been reported that thousands of other Halifax mortgage customers would also see their mortgage payments rise as well as it also said that it is raising the cap…