Home loan approvals rose a little in March, after a slight drop in February, almost 20% up on the year. Mortgage lending has eased off as homeowners paid off debt.

Approved loans for house purchases rose to 34,905 in March from 33,360 in February and up from 29,212 in March 2009 according to The British Bankers’ Association.

The BBA said the figures indicated the effect of the reversal of a temporary increase in the property tax threshold at the start of the year. This had impacted the demand for home loans in February. Read the rest of this entry »

The Office for National Statistics have said that consumer inflation rose more than anticipated in March, led by a knock-on effect from gas bills that remained static last month after falling a year ago.

Consumer inflation rose to 3.4% in March from 3% in February, another contributing factor resulting in the increase was higher fuel and air fare prices. Read the rest of this entry »

A “complete failure” is what a committee of MP’s have labelled the management of the government’s strategy for helping people in debt.

51 different projects since 2004 have been uncoordinated with no-one in charge said the Public Accounts Committee.

The UK population’s total personal debt has almost reached £1.5 trillion. According to the committee’s report 11% of adults were struggling with debts. Read the rest of this entry »

UK home owners injected more than £4 billion of equity into their homes in the 4th quarter of 2009 as record low interest rates encouraged home owners to pay down their debt.

Figures release by the Bank of England on Tuesday show home owners added £4.038 billion of housing equity between October and December, the equivalent of 1.6% of post-tax income. Read the rest of this entry »

Payday loans are high interest loans you can get if you need money before your next payday. They can be convenient in an emergency, provided you’re ready, willing and able to pay them back plus interest. But what happens if you can’t pay them back?

The first thing that can happen you probably already know about, if you were listening to the payday loan provider or if you read the agreement you signed. That is, the payday loan company will continue to debit your account until they receive their money back. Unfortunately, if you do not have the money in your account you’re going to start racking up fees quickly. Read the rest of this entry »