Recession proof business - Beat the credit crunch

November 12th, 2008

If you had purchased £1,000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago it would now be worth £4.95.

If you had purchased £1,000 of HBOS shares earlier this week your £1,000 would have been worth £16.50

If you had invested £1, 000 in XL Leisure it would now be worth less than £5

But if you had bought £1000 worth of Stella Artois one year ago, drank it all, then took the empty cans to an aluminium re-cycling plant, you would get £214. So based on the above statistics the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and re-cycle.

Funny Stuff not to be taken seriously

November 12th, 2008

Every now and then we will come across an e-mail that makes us laugh. Now you may have seen them already but if not hopefully you will enjoy them as much as we did. 

Remember, we are not saying we agree with or endorse anything in these postings, just that we found them amusing. In times like this, you need to keep your sense of humour.

Enjoy!

Is this the UK’s Cheapest Aston Martin DB9 - less than £500

November 11th, 2008

A good friend of mine came to me recently and said, “i’m getting an Aston Martin DB9 next week, to be honest the deal was just too good to turn down”. Admittedly the car is nearly 4 years old but with a purchase price of over £50,000, i was absolutely amazed when he told me that the monthly PCP payments would be £470 with a guaranteed balloon at the end of 2 years which would enable him just to walk away if he wanted. Ok, so what about the deposit?. Well £3000 plus 24 payments of £470 adds up to £14280. Now by my thinking, you could go and buy an average saloon car and lose nearly that over 2 years. A bit of a no brainer really. Where’s the catch? Well apparently the finance company had messed up the figures and offered a guaranteed residual after 2 years of £47,000, blissfully unaware or ignorant to the fact that the values of the Aston Martin, along with most other cars, had taken a bit of a bashing lately. At the latest count, the finance broker was doing about 15 of these deals each week (obviously he didn’t feel it was necessary to alert the finance company to their “error).

Looking for insurance for your Aston Martin? Check out:

Take out adequate Life Insurance cover - Winston Churchill 1874-1965

November 11th, 2008

Millions of Britons are without life Insurance cover. Research has revealed that in excess of 30% of the UK adult population do not have any life insurance cover. The alarming statistics were blamed on the current economic climate, and the 37% of individuals considered essential bills and mortgage payments a priority over life insurance cover. Many people consider life insurance to be a personal choice issue and fail to realise the effect on families and loved ones, in the unfortunate event of a bereavement. The people who are affected the most by death are the ones who are left behind and adequate life insurance cover can ensure that they have an opportunity to rebuild their lives in financial security.

Experts believe that more should be done to highlight the issues and new marketing methods should be created too ensure that people realise the considerable risk of not having any or sufficient life insurance cover.

“If I had my way I would write the word ‘Insure‘ upon the door of every cottage and upon the blotting book of every public man, because I am convinced for sacrifices which are inconceivably small, families and estates can be protected against catastrophes which would otherwise smash them up forever. It is our duty to arrest the ghastly waste, not merely of human happiness, but of national health and strength, which follows when, through the death of a breadwinner, the frail boat in which the family are embarked, founders, and women and children of estates are left to struggle in the dark waters of a friendless world”

Winston Churchill 1909

Apple ichat connection issues - the fix

November 10th, 2008

We’ve just upgraded some of our equipment and thought we would give the Apple imac a try. First impressions, great but have had some teething issues, in particular the “ichat” function. Tried everything, just couldn’t get the video chat up and runnning. OK on text chat, but each time we got an incoming video call, the message “…..has terminated the connection”. Changed all the settings on the machine, still nothing so we turned our attention to the router. Bingo, a few simple adjustments to the port settings and we’re up an running. Might not work for everyone, but we got all the information we needed here:
http://portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/

House Prices predicted to Rise by 25%

November 10th, 2008

Some good news, at last! 

David Orr, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, has predicted that the average house price in England will rise by 25 per cent over the next 5 years to reach £274,700. Before we all start popping the champagne corks, the report, published by the Federation and researched by independent economists, Oxford Economics goes on to predict that 2009 may see a further period of decline, with the upturn coming in 2010. The paper, entitled Home Truths 2008, says that house prices will increase by:

• 1.3 per cent in 2010
• 5.2 per cent in 2011
• 9.2 per cent in 2012, and
• 9.3 per cent in 2013 - with the typical price at the end of the period being well above the average price in 2007 of £222,600

UK Interest rates fall to 3% - slashed to lowest rate in 60yrs

November 6th, 2008

In a shock move, the Bank of England has cut the base rate by one-and-a-half percentage points, the largest single cut since 1981. The new rate of 3% puts interest rates at their lowest level for over 60 years.

A reduction in interest rates was widely expected, but such a dramatic move by the Bank of England has come as a complete shock to most experts and analysts. Previous fears of inflation appear seem to have disappeared and the emphasis is now very much on recession with the Bank of England using terms like “very marked deterioration in the outlook” and “severe contraction”.

What now for Mortgages?

Borrowers currently on base rate tracker deals will benefit from the full effect of the reduction, which in real terms represents a reduction of £125 per month per £100,000 of borrowing. Customers on existing variable rate deals will have to wait and see if lenders pass on any, some or all of the rate reduction. Some lenders have already indicated that they will be passing on all of the reduction to their customers, whereas others are yet to make a decision. To have the desired effect it will be necessary for this latest rate reduction to be passed on to existing and new customers, key in reviving the current housing and mortgage markets. Prime Minister Gordon Brown was questioned about this issue in the House of Commons on Wednesday as Abbey had just raised its tracker mortgage rate for new customers. “We want banks and building societies to pass on the interest rate cuts to their mortgage holders,” he said. “What we’ve been trying to do over the last few weeks is to get liquidity into the system, recapitalise our banks and get them to resume the lending that is necessary.”

The decision by the Bank of England to cut rates to 3% came after a week of gloomy economic and manufacturing data, indicating that the UK economy is sliding towards recession.

Time to invest in property as buy to let market set to grow

November 5th, 2008

According to independent research* carried out by The Money Centre, one of the UK’s leading independent buy to let mortgage brokers, one in five landlords expect to increase their portfolio within the next 3 months.

The recent turmoil in the economy has seen property owners and landlords hit from all angles, with increased mortgage payments, falling property prices and difficulty finding tenants. But look at the facts and things, perhaps, aren’t all “doom and gloom” and many landlords are viewing the present economic position as an opportunity to build on their existing portfolios.

Typically, rental yields on buy-to-let properties have grown steadily in recent years and the the demand for rental property generally increases during a period of falling property prices.
With prices already falling by 30-40% in the last 12 months, the opportunity to “pick up a bargain” has never been greater.
History has shown us that property prices have always fluctuated yet it still remains one of the best “long term investments” around. Compared to the stock market, where values of many top companies have declined by up to 90%, property still looks very attractive.

Lynsey Sweales, Director of The Money Centre and herself a landlord, comments “landlords are in it for the long term. It is vital that landlords continue to buy property not just to expand their portfolio but to ensure tenants have properties to rent and help the property transaction market”

Notes
*BRDC research - carried out on 509 landlords in September 2008

This article was not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Money Centre.

Purple Payday Loans - Fast Online Payday Loans Same Day

November 4th, 2008

Fast cash, same day payday loans from Purplepayday Loans

Life has a nasty habit of throwing things at us when we least expect them. Even the best of us can get caught out by unexpected expenses such as blocked drains, faulty boilers, car trouble and the list goes on. Payday loans, also known as a ‘short term loan’ or ‘cash advance’ are for exactly this type of situation. www.purplepayday.com allow you to borrow any amount up to £750 and will give you and instant decision and if approved will put the funds in your account the same day.

Pay back the full amount plus interest on your next pay day, within 31 days.?Usually, your credit history will not be a factor so even if you have a bad credit rating, you will probably still qualify for a payday loan, as long as you have a bank account with a cheque card, proof of address and a regular wage. Using a payday loan to avoid bounced cheques will prevent payment defaults and damage to your credit file.
Apply now and www.purplepayday.com are offering £100 cash back to one lucky customer in every 100.*

*Information correct at time of writing