UK Debt Helper
Debt Blog For People Living In The UK And Looking For General Information About Debt. For Debt Advice Please Speak To A Debt Charity.
Tuesday 26 June 2012
Son Died from Payday Loans
Monday 25 June 2012
Lloyds Recent Debt Report
- 464% rise in the real value of UK household savings over the past 60 years.
- Savings now stand at an average of over £150,000 per household, including pensions, investments and deposit savings, compared with just below £50,000 in 1951 (at today's prices).
- Many, however, have little or no savings.
- Household savings recorded their biggest rise in value in the 1980s. Whilst savings fell in the 1970s in inflation adjusted terms.
- Deposit savings' share of total savings has fallen from 42% to 29% since 1951. Pensions and life insurance's share has more than doubled from 24% to 53%.
- Households have saved an average of 6% of their net income since the 1950s.
- The gross interest rate offered on no notice accounts has averaged 6.01% over the past 60 years. In real terms, savings rates averaged 0.29%.
- Savers clubs to investments funds: there have been significant changes in the UK’s savings habits.
"The UK savings market has undergone some extraordinary changes over the past 60 years, reflecting the changing way we live our lives. Today, the typical saver is very different compared to the 1950s with the vast majority of savers now viewing their nest egg as an investment rather than as something for a rainy day. This change in attitude is partly as a result of the substantial growth in personal wealth over the period.
The value of household savings – including pensions, shares and deposit savings – in the UK has risen by 464% in real terms1 over the past 60 years. This is equivalent to an average annual rate of growth of 2.9%, comfortably outpacing the 1.6% per annum average rise in real earnings over the period.
decisions.
In the 1950s, women earned significantly less than their male counterparts therefore limiting
their ability to contribute to the family savings pot. Today, female savers in the UK have an average savings balance equivalent to 40% of their gross annual earnings, almost double the proportion of earnings saved by men (23%).
The value of deposit based savings6 has nearly quadrupled (up by 290%) in real terms over the past 60 years; from £312 billion in 1951 to £1,218 billion in 2011 (in 2011 prices).
Households have saved an average of 6.2%8 of their net income over the past 60 years. The household saving ratio was highest in the 1970s – at an average of 8.9% between 1971 and 1981 – and lowest during the 1950s (average of 1.2%).
The historical peaks in the saving ratio have been during, or very close to, periods of recession. The household saving ratio reached a 60 year high of 12.2% in 1980 when the UK economy was in recession.
Landlords Told to Minimise Risk for Students
Paris Top Spot for Student Property
- the rise of the middle classes in emerging economies, especially Asia;
- the growing acceptance of international higher education qualifications across the world;
- a new ‘internet generation’ of globally connected and well-informed student consumers
Friday 20 April 2012
Das: Debt Arrangement scheme.
What you do to get out of debt can be one of the hardest decisions you will ever have to make, the first thing we always advice is to get free debt advice from a charity. Be aware of all the options that are available to you and your own personnel situation. For some there creditors start to push for the debt to be repaid if you are able to do this though need a little extra time then the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS) is the option that will let you do just that.
What is a DAS?
If you have two or more debts and know you could pay them back in full then this is the debt management tool for you. The reasons are varied for having to use a DAS it could be you have suffered from ill health and are just returning to work or you could have been made redundant from a well paid job as long as you are confident that things are going to better and that you are able to pay off your debt. Then a DAS is for you.
You set up a (DPP) debt payment plan with the help of a trained money advisor this will be based on your current financial situation, they will approach your creditors to get there approval. The amount of money you have available each month is split fairly between each creditor, though it is usually less than what you are contracted to pay them.
Once the offer has been put to your creditors they have 21 days to respond. If you do not hear from them you can assume they are happy to go ahead. If some of your creditors do disagree it does not necessarily mean you that that your DDP won’t go ahead. As long as your payment plan is fair and reasonable your money advisor will to the debt arrangement scheme for approval. Once it has been approved you will make one monthly payment to a payment distributer who will ensure that each payment is made on time to the creditors. At this stage your creditors cannot arrest your earnings or make you bankrupt.
A creditor’s objection would be upheld if they believed you would not be able to repay and that sequestration is the only option or if you had equity in property that could be liquidated to pay creditors.
If circumstances change what happens?
A DAS has been set up to be very flexible; if circumstances do change with more or less income then your money advisor will change the payments by either decreasing them or increasing them.
I have mortgage arrears what happens to them?
The DAS covers mortgage arrears however you must still be able to meet your regular mortgage payments. Your normal monthly payments cannot be included in your DDP.
However your creditors can still take you to court and try to force repossession, however by applying for a section 2 you can delay this process. The court will take into account your effort to pay them through your DDP. As the arrears are being paid through your DDP the court is not allowed to grant a payment order on arrears.
Will my family and friends know I am in a DAS?
It is theoretically possible for anyone to find out; there is a debt arrangement Scheme register which is publicly available. However it is not the sort of database you would just happen to find people would have to be aware how to go there and then search for your name. If you don’t tell them about it is very unlikely they would just stumble on it.
Entering a DDP will affect your credit rating.
Before entering any debt solution we always recommend that you seek professional debt advice we recommend that you contact a registered charity who will give you the best advice to suit your own personnel situation.
Wednesday 25 January 2012
Wonga branded ‘morally offensive’
Wonga a payday loan firm has caused outrage by encouraging student to help fund their studies by taking out one of their very expensive loans.
This is a trick from Wonga and anyone who falls for it could find themselves in mountains of debt. It is far wiser to keep to more traditional borrowing.
The firms (APR) annual percentage rate is 4,214% typically, and a £300 loan paid back within 20 days would cost £65 in fees, if repayments are late the fees can be huge.
In comparison a student loan has an (APR) of 1.5% though this may not be a fair comparison as a payday loan is meant to only be short term not annually.
Wonga said on its website: "A student loan is fine to help you pay for your university and living costs, but what about those times when you're waiting on money to come in and you need to buy or pay for something unexpected now?
"There's a totally new way of borrowing money to see you through until your next cheque and it's called Wonga.
"A Wonga loan is essentially a short-term loan that can help you manage your cash flow, without having to extend an overdraft or credit card even further, or get a large student loan."
Are they not aware that many students do not have a pay cheque coming? And surely this must be encouraging students to get even deeper in debt..
Surely This Is Wrong
Wonga were asked to remove this from their page. They said they had put it there for SEO purposes rather than to target students.
They would do this so they would appear high in search engines when people on the web were looking for student loans.
With student loans you only need to repay them when you earn over £15, 000, 00 and you repay in proportion to your income. There are no debt collectors and it does not go on your credit file.
The interest rate on a student loan will never be higher than the rate of inflation". Compare that to the 4,214% Wonga charges.
Nobody should sell high priced credit to Students.
There is no financial education in schools and as a nation we are in enough financial difficulty without encouraging even more .
Wonga took this off their site 0n 18/01/2012 let’s hope no students were taken in by it.
Staff at British gas suffering abuse from public over energy costs
The company boss admitted his staffs was being deluged with increasingly aggressive complaints about rising energy bills. Workers on the road have also been the target for abuse in recent times.
The groundswell of anger has increased substantially as British Gas continues to refuse to pass on the reduction in the wholesale gas price to its 9.2 million customers.
Since the wholesale price of gas has dropped 9.4% it has come as a surprise to many that British Gas has not reduced bills to their customers for gas although they have reduced their electricity bills by 5%.
Phil Bentley admitted in a staff email:”We have seen a groundswell of anti-British Gas comments, with increasingly aggressive tones. All our call centres are under extreme pressure from more angry customers struggling to pay bills”
Rather surprisingly the Managing director points the finger at the media for customer anger by claiming they have exaggerated the price increases customers are experiencing.
His email continued: “There is no doubt in my mind that the energy industry is facing a crisis-a crisis of affordability, a crisis of investor confidence, a crisis of relentless media criticism, in short a crisis of trust”.
It is to be hoped that British Gas bow to public pressure and gives their customers a much needed reduction in their gas bills sooner than later.