by: Rachel Lane
Sorting out your personal finances can be a tricky and exasperating time. Whether you are looking to obtain money through a loan, protect your finances with life insurance, medical, travel or car insurance, save some money through an individual savings account (ISA), apply for a credit card or a mortgage, change a telephone or fuel utility supplier, or simply decide what the best current account is for your needs, the choices are seemingly endless as well as being extremely complicated. They can also be potentially serious if you get it wrong. With so many options, and so many companies trying to get you to use their product, it is difficult to know where to turn.
The first method of working out your own finances is to review your needs and compare the products on offer to meet those needs. You could, if desired, visit the banks one by one, burning calories and shoe leather by doing so. Alternatively you may have heard of the World Wide Web, it?s like a sort of big and commercial version of Narnia and you don?t have to go through your wardrobe to get there. And no freaky men with goats legs ?
? not without a login and password anyway.
So, we present the concept of financial product comparison sites, which have been around in the UK since 1997, when small company called moneynet decided to break up the monopoly in the personal finance market. Over the past eight years, there has been an explosion in the number of UK sites seeking to provide information to enable consumers to make informed decisions on their personal finances. These sites provide free consumer financial product comparison services for credit cards, insurance, investments, savings accounts, mortgages, loans, as well as gas and electricity bill suppliers. Additional consumer information services are also often provided such as financial guides, financial newsletters and personal finance calculators. Moneynet, in particular, has a tool which allows registered users to manage all of their accounts online ? securely, including credit cards, savings accounts and current accounts.
You can also obtain financial advice from an independent financial advisor, but this is an expensive way of doing what could be done for free with a little effort. If you do your own homework, then you can use your time with an advisor more effectively by asking informed questions. You?ll have a better understanding of what you?re being sold if you?ve done a little bit of homework first.
Resources:
http://paler.com/uk_financial_comparison_sites.html
About The Author
Rachel Lane writes for the personalfinanosaurus Cashzilla http://www.cashzilla.co.uk. Rachel has been writing personal finance related articles for six months and has learnt so much about mortgages and life insurance, that nobody invites her out to dinner anymore. :(
|
A Guide to Buying a New Home
A Guide to Buying a New Home
by: John Mussi
If you've decided to make the leap from renting a home to owning a home, you might be a little overwhelmed at the prospect of shopping for homes and applying for mortgage loans.
While mortgage loans can seem a bit confusing at first, you'll find that they aren't nearly as bad as they might seem once you've taken the time to learn more about the mortgage loan process.
While this is by no means to be considered a complete list of everything that might come up while shopping for a new home, you'll find below a brief guide to the process of shopping for a home and applying for a mortgage loan.
Searching for a home
The first part of buying a new home is, obviously, finding the home to buy. While there are obviously a large variety of homes available on the market today, it's important to make sure that you stay within the range of what you can afford. After all, you're going to be making...
A Guide to Buying a New Home
Mortgages > A Guide to Buying a New Home
Balloon Home Loans ? Be Careful
Balloon Home Loans ? Be Careful
by: Dan Lewis
In this modern economy, lenders provide loans tailored to just about any situation. Balloon loans are one such loan, but carry a serious downside if you?re not careful.
Balloon Loans
A balloon loan has nothing to do with hot air or floating around the world in 80 days. Fail to plan very carefully when using one of these loans, however, and your financial world will definitely go down in flame like the Hindenburg.
A balloon loan is a mortgage with a fixed interest rate for a set period of years. Unlike traditional fixed rate home loans, the interest rates on balloon loans are nearly as low as those found on adjustable rate mortgages. The problem with balloon loans, however, is the term.
While balloon loans provide a low fixed interest rate for a set period of years, those years are not in abundance. Instead of a fifteen or thirty year repayment term, a balloon loan typically has...
Balloon Home Loans ? Be Careful
Mortgages > Balloon Home Loans ? Be Careful
Mortgage Application Tips
Mortgage Application Tips
by: Suvadip Das
Get a comfortable table or desk and spend the time to fill out your mortgage application neatly and correctly. If you are given a paper application at the bank or credit union, ask permission to bring it home and complete the application when you are not under pressure, and have all of your documents handy. If you are doing it online, use extra caution, watching out for mistypes, misspellings and make sure that you put the correct info into the correct form fields.
One way to smoothly go through the mortgage application process is to create your own application package approximately one year and no later than six months prior to applying for a residential mortgage loan. Gather all of your information, check your credit report and that way you can be aware of any surprises before you speak to a lender. Here are some of the things you should prepare during this period:
List of debts
Make sure...
Mortgage Application Tips
Mortgages > Mortgage Application Tips
Home Loans and Mortgages ? One Third of Homes in U.S. Overvalued
Home Loans and Mortgages ? One Third of Homes in U.S. Overvalued
by: Charlie Essmeier
A new study by National City Corp. looked at home values for 299 American cities and compared them to where they ?should be? based on a number of economic factors that determine home prices. The results were not encouraging; homes in nearly one third of America were judged to be ?extremely overvalued.? That?s the part that?s getting headlines. A complete read of the report shows that things are even worse, as 100 cities in the U.S. have values judged to be too high by 18% or more. What does this mean?
It will come as no surprise to most people that the areas judged to be the most overvalued are in California, Florida, and New York and Massachusetts. Home prices in these states have increased at a rate that far exceeds the increases in salaries in these areas. When homes are priced in a way that is disproportionate to income, they become unaffordable. The mortgage...
Home Loans and Mortgages ? One Third of Homes in U.S. Overvalued
Mortgages > Home Loans and Mortgages ? One Third of Homes in U.S. Overvalued
DIY Guide to iPod Battery Replacement
DIY Guide to iPod Battery Replacement
by: Will Koh
iPods are a great invention, however many have complained about the lack of playtime and poor battery life. Previously, replacing an iPod battery was next to impossible. So when your battery dies, its time for a new iPod. This of course proved to be extremely expensive. As a result, manufacturers have begun producing aftermarket iPOD batteries for a DIY conscious producer. There are even high capacity batteries...
DIY Guide to iPod Battery Replacement
Mortgages > DIY Guide to iPod Battery Replacement
seeds Mortgages Personal Finance ? Why You Should Compare, Not Despair
Sail Away on a Cruise Vacation!
Sail Away on a Cruise Vacation!
by: Briana Liebmann
Cruising is a favorite pastime for many vacationers craving a break from land. Cruises offer many activities which are set apart from any other getaway. For most of us, however, cruises may come once in a blue moon and planning for your perfect trip may seem stressful. This fear is certainly justifiable when a supposed action filled senior trip turns into 7 days of senior citizens and shuffleboard. This scenario...
Mortgages Sail Away on a Cruise Vacation!
Mortgages > Sail Away on a Cruise Vacation!