In many instances, handing the keys back and going bankrupt is the best advice but usually as a last resort. Instead, there are many 100,000′s of people who have taken advantage of Government legislation to pay these debts off at a huge discount, interest free and still stay in their home. This solution is known as an IVA.

An IVA should always be considered ahead of Bankruptcy and other solutions such as debt management or an IVA can get your debts under control and allow you to get your life back.

Taking out an IVA does come with some issues for serious consideration. Your credit history will be damaged as you will not be paying back the amount you borrowed on the terms that you agreed to with credit cards and loan companies at the outset. They will record on the credit register that you have “defaulted” on the agreements with them. This will stay on your credit file for 6 years. Meanwhile people cannot grant you credit during the period you are in an IVA.

An IVA can only be used to settle unsecured debts so, you can’t write off things like mortgage arrears or HP on your car. That’s because these debts are secured against either your house or your car and the bank or finance company will just take these assets off you if you don’t pay.

All-in-all an IVA is a fantastic solution for those that qualify. If you can’t afford to meet your monthly payments and are running up bigger debts each month you may qualify for an IVA.

You need to be earning a regualr salary, you need to owe more than £15,000 and you must be able to pay something back to your creditors (£100+ per month) after your mortgage and essential living costs.

If you are in this situation we have trusted IVA advisers who can let you know if you qualify. Just provide some basic information via our debt section that can be found above and one of the advisers will give you a bell back within minutes (within working hours).

It beggars belief how out-of-touch the decision makers of this country actually are.

If somebody wanted to bankrupt the country, they could easily do it by making every mortgage capital repayment now. Why wait until some one needs to move house or extend their property for a growing family to enforce the new proposals? Millions of people are currently making ends meet and managing to pay their mortgage and, that’s on their “interest only mortgage” for you guys in your ivory towers who think that everyone can afford a repayment mortgage. Imagine a doubling or even a trebling of payments on an already tightly-squeezed, family budget.

What’s just as damaging to the current mortgage payers is the blocking out of new home buyers. Very few people looking to buy their first home can afford to go onto a repayment mortgage straight away, most look to repay their mortgage later in life, not right at the beginning.

Those that can afford to go repayment, good on you but, please let’s not have the have not’s barred from owning a property or moving house. It really is not good for the country or the economy as a whole.

If you speak to any adviser worth knowing, life insurance is the first must-have product to be reviewed before any long term savings planning is undertaken to ensure adequate cover is in place. Normally this is necessary to make sure that the mortgage can be paid off – a replacement of income or lump sum will be provided should the worse happen.

However, things have changed. About 15 years ago it was a regulatory requirement that you had a sufficient life assurance policy assigned to pay-off your mortgage in the event of death. This made sure that, at least, the family home was always protected. This is no longer a requirement and less than half of mortgages are now covered by sufficient life insurance.

The lack of take up on new life assurance policies today is scandalous. The banks and building societies insist that a building insurance policy is in place so they don’t lose money if it burns down but, they don’t seem to care if the breadwinner dies as they can just kick the family out and sell the house.

Over they years I have had many people say to me “thank you so much for making us take that policy out. I don’t know what we’d have done without it”. Alternatively, it’s heartbreaking to have people in tears asking if they had taken the critical illness out on a particular policy and we have had to tell them “sadly, you decided you didn’t want to pay the premium.”

Now it’s left to consumer websites and bloggers such as myself to raise your awareness and encourage you into taking the first step in plugging this important gap in you and your families’ personal-protection.

Either find a local IFA or allow us to refer you to advisers who can get you the right policy and remember cheapest isn’t always best. This is your most important insurance product so it’s best to speak to an adviser directly.

All the advisers we refer you to will be independent and not tied to any particular company like most supermarkets and banks.

We are staggered to find how many applications are being declined from the 25 lenders on the panel. The main reason (based on 1000+ enquiries processed so far) that applicants are being declined is that they already have several pay-day loans outstanding. From our point of view these applicants are past the emergency loan stage and are now on the critical list. This is true for more than 90% of all applications made.

I am conscious that every person should do what they can to maintain their credit rating but, robbing Peter Pay-day to pay Paul Pay-day has to stop. Other solutions to these financial woes are available and need to be considered now.

If you have a number of pay-day loans and are rolling them over then it is time to get some independent advice from one of our accredited debt advisers. They will provide you with a free and confidential consultation to discuss the options available to you. This could be one of the following:

• Debt Management Plan
• IVA (Individual Voluntary Agreement)
• Bankruptcy
• Debt Relief Order

Take the first important step now to deal with your troubled finances. After you have spoken to somebody who can help, you will feel like the weight has been lifted from your shoulders.

In the UK today we have an economic phenomenon “pay day loans”. I must admit, I knew this market would grow but, certainly not explode as it has done.

In a recent article in the New York Times http://nyti.ms/zkWkiQ it’s reported that the big US banks are about to enter the pay day loan arena. Madness? Well not really.

One of the reasons the UK Government are currently scratching their heads not knowing what to do about pay day loans, is that a large percentage of pay day loans are used to prevent excessive bank charges for bounced cheques and direct debits. If you applied an APR figure to the banks £20-35 charges for bouncing a £5 direct debit the APR would run into the 10,000′s of percent. So, they can hardly criticise the likes of Wonga.com for saving someone from such excessive charges. If used properly pay day loans are actually cheaper than the banks.

Example;

Miss A.N. Other has a week to go until her month end pay day.

Miss A.N is up to her limit of a £300 over draft and has 3 direct debits to be paid for less than £80 before her next pay day. Her bank refuses to extend her overdraft, therefore they go on to bounce her direct debits, charging her £25 for each one! So that’s £75 in charges and the bank has not even paid the £80 direct debits.

A £100 pay day loan would cost her about £20 in charges and her direct debits would be paid if she paid it off within a couple of weeks at pay day.

In this example Miss A.N. would be massively better served by a pay day loan than her less-than-understanding current bank who’s computers keep saying no.

Where’s this all leading to? Well, UK consumers in particular are sick of the way they have been treated lately, only being offering an umbrella by their banks when the Sun is shining!

You may have noticed some little known bank names topping the “best savings rates” in the weekend papers. These are new type of bank we are talking about.

What these banks are doing is lending to the masses that are being turned away by the mainstream clearing banks. In my mind this is great news for savers and borrowers alike. To borrow from these common-sense type banks you pay a higher rate, as your applications are normally personally underwritten and approved on merit, and not solely by a computer, so a risk-to-reward higher interest rate loading is applied.

The above strategy is great news for savers. These banks offer better savings rates as they lend cautiously to customers deemed a higher risk, but at higher borrowing rates thus delivering attractive margins to the banks and therefore feeding back to savers.

So, will UK clearing banks be moving to pay day loans? On the face of it they would have to reduce their current margins to compete! But, watch out for more stars and stripes on the high street.

Arise a new type of Banker.

Simon Westcott, director in PwC’s Financial Services practice has compiled a fantastic report on the changing financial landscape. The report is titled “Precious Plastic 2012″.

In what can only be described as going back to basics, the Amercian credit card giants seem to be packing up and going home, as consumers choose to cut up the high-charging plastic.

The largest US credit card companies, MBNA and Capital One, are taking such a battering from the PPI mis-selling scandal and rising bad debts, that for the foreseeable future it will be unprofitable to operate in the UK.

Access to easy credit, which fueled the UK’s boom to bust situation, has now been brought under control. It’s now seen to be bad practice for banks and finance houses to be dishing out credit cards like sweeties. This has massively reduced outstanding credit card debts;

“Total outstanding credit card debt fell by 5% in 2011, leaving the average credit card balance at around £1000. Credit cards have lost market share to other payment types – most notably debit cards which have grown by 10% “

The paragraph above which was taken from the report is a trend we expect to see continue.

“In addition, as consumers turn away from credit cards or are unable to obtain credit from mainstream lenders, there is increasing evidence of consumers seeking alternatives such as so called “pay-day loans”.”

The banks need to watch out, a new type of lender is on the street, and they are not pretty, credit cards being replaced by pay day lenders, good or bad? You decide.

For the 5th or 6th time since they came to power, the Government’s proposals to change the benefits system has been thrown out by the House of Lords.

I believe that the benefit system does need looking at but, not enough common sense is not being applied when Ministers are drawing up the proposals.

One huge clanger which can only have been dreamed up by a moron is asking financially-strapped mothers to pay £100 when they need the CSA’s help to chase rogue fathers for maintenance. Hello? They need help because they have no money.

Who agrees for these proposals to be pushed through without proper consultation? Thank god we still have the House of Lords to bring a bit of common sense to what appears to be a farcical administration at this moment in time.

Yes the country needs to save money wherever possible but, Cameron and Co. seem to be allowing the lunatics to run the asylum!

Recent statistics from major insurer AVIVA confirm that there is a huge appetite for more borrowing. Between January 2011 and January 2012 UK consumers fuelled a 48% rise in the level of personal debt from £5,360 to £7,944 per person. The fact of the matter is rising fuel bills and living costs are forcing consumers to use their credit cards for general day-to-day living expenses. Taking into consideration the unprecedented jump in consumer debt, serious steps are now needed to get personal debt under control.

If we look at this jump in personal debt, it leads me to believe that many millions of people are spending £200 p.m. more than they are actually earning. This means that millions are currently insolvent.

If you are currently spending more than you are earning, it’s time to speak to a debt adviser before things get any worse. There are currently 5 million people robbing Peter to pay Paul each and every month, so you are certainly not on your own.

There are many options available such as obtaining cheap consolidation loans or re-mortgages to balance your monthly finances or, if this is not possible, options such as Debt Management Plans or IVA’s.

If you are concerned, at moneybrain we have many debt advisers who can provide a free no-obligation consultation and who will advise you on the best course of action.

One thing you must be aware of is that taking out a debt management plan or insolvency solution will damage your credit rating. Hence it’s always best to try and consolidate first.

Lenders are rolling out attractive buy-to-let mortgage deals to be first choice for the beginning of 2012.

Moneybrain.com are about to complete a moneybrain.com franchise deal with a successful entrepreneur, who also happens to own a well know letting agency. He has identified that the biggest opportunity over the coming years is to serve the ever growing landlord marketplace and he is bang on the money.

One of the most difficult issues facing landlords is actually sourcing a viable property, as most are snapped up before they even come onto the market. Surely the estate agents don’t keep the highest yielding buy-to-let gems for themselves or their pals do they?

At moneybrain.com in 2012 we will be introducing a “buy to let property boutique”. The term boutique is normally the reserve for Investment Houses but, as access to the best properties is reserved for the elite and the subject matter is certainly fashionable this service qualifies to use the term boutique. In addition to the buy-to-let property finder service we will also have a dedicated moneybrain buy-to-let mortgage finder service. Unfortunately our experience with buy-to-let mortgage brokers is not something to shout about as they are predominantly small local firms who have been unable to invest in the technology to capitalise on such a niche and fast moving marketplace.

So if you want to play real life monopoly in 2012, keep an eye on moneybrain.com.

We all know the state of the economy and we have all commented about how Greece is bust and how Italy, Spain and Portugal are teetering on the edge.

The main reason for the deadlock for these countries to be able to do anything about their troubles is not that they have no trade or hope of any recovery, it’s just that they are trapped in a vice-like currency that leaves them with no room to maneuver and are now financially controlled by the Germans.

Now whilst the Germans are dead set on keeping the euro, it was interesting to see how well Siemens, the German industrial powerhouse, have outperformed most in the last ten years by trebling sales. One problem though: their share price has only gone up by 10% in the same period. Great business? YES. Shareholder value? NO. Would the shareholder value been better under the Deutschmark? You decide.

If Greece and Spain were able to devalue their currency (i.e. Peseta and Drachma) then they could make themselves more attractive to trade and release some stress on their people. But this option as a financial mechanism for their respective governments is only a dream from better times.

I have to say that this move by Cameron is his boldest yet and he is dead right to protect the UK and our assets. My only concern is that to really protect our interests we may have to step away from EU membership completely, I have no idea of the ramifications of this.

However, I do wholeheartedly believe that we will still like to buy German products and the Germans will still like to buy British products. Maybe the UK stepping away from the EU may be just the kick start our UK economy needs, after all Charity begins at home!

We are well out of the Euro and if anybody suggests otherwise then they should be sent to the loony bin.

I love our £.