Refinance Home – Bad Credit Loans

The value of holding a degree has eroded since the early nineties as a higher proportion of the population has attended university, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Graduates earned 85% more than those educated to GCSE level last year, compared to 95% in 1993.

In this time, the percentage of the population that holds a degree has risen from 12% to 25%.

The pay gap has also narrowed between those that completed some form of higher education short of degree level. Workers with a higher education award earned 45% more than those with only GCSEs in 2010, down from 54% in 1993.

There has been a fall in the number of workers aged between 22 and 64 that have no formal education at all. Some 25% of this age group had no formal qualifications in 1993, compared with 11% in 2010.

A quarter of graduates earned less than the average employee who entered the workplace after completing their A-Levels last year, while the proportion of degree students ending up in low skilled jobs grew… Continue To Read This Post..

The average British credit card holder wastes £279 a year by not taking advantage of 0% balance transfer offers.

Lenders are pocketing some £2.3 billion a year in interest payments that consumers could avoid by moving their debt to another card. This is despite the fact that only 3% of credit card users pay their balance in full every month avoiding any interest payments at all.

Research from Moneysupermarket.com suggests that around 65% of credit card holders have never transferred an outstanding balance to an interest-free card. The website’s poll found that a quarter of respondents either couldn’t be bothered to enquire about transferring a balance or didn’t understand how to.

The survey was published in the same week that two lenders introduced record introductory offers. Borrowers who successfully apply for a Barclaycard Platinum card can take advantage of 0% on balance transfers for 17 months, the longest interest free period the lender has ever offered.

M&S Money launched a card offering 0% interest on purchases for 15 months, also the longest period on record for the firm.

Commentators predict… Continue To Read This Post..

Some 34% of credit card holders relied on plastic to cover their everyday spending during January according to research from the Post Office.

The Post Office Consumer Credit Report found that 11.5 million people were left so hard-up after Christmas that they needed to fall back on credit to cover their day-to-day living expenses. Over 40% of credit card holders used their cards to pay for groceries. Using a credit card to pay for basic purchases is widely considered to be a sign of financial distress by lenders and debt charities.

A tenth of respondents said that they were using their credit card to compensate for the long gap between December and January pay-days, while 11% said that overspending at Christmas had left them unable to make ends meet.

Az Alibhai, Post Office head of credit cards, said: “January has been a tight month for many of us, especially with the long wait until pay day, and we can see that many people are falling back on credit cards to ease the costs of day-to-day living. If the debt is… Continue To Read This Post..

Hundreds of thousands of revellers and shoppers were charged double for transactions processed on their credit cards on New Year’s Eve due to a computer glitch.
More than 200,000 people who visited retailers, restaurants and bars using Lloyds TSB’s Cardnet payment processing system are expected to discover that they have been charged twice for purchases made on 31 December when they receive their January statements.

The “system error” could have affected cards issued by a number of different issuers and is not restricted to Lloyds TSB customers.

A statement issued by the bank said: “A technical error with our merchant system on 31 December resulted in the duplication of certain payments from cardholders to some merchants. Duplicated transactions have been reversed and cardholders are being reimbursed. We would like to apologise to affected individuals for any inconvenience caused.”

Paul McNally told the Guardian: “Santander (my bank) tells me they’ve had a lot of calls about it, but in an email said: ‘Unfortunately, we do not refund payments if they have been debited by a third party. We would ask… Continue To Read This Post..

Millions of homeowners are at risk from a rapid rise in interest rates the Bank of England has warned.

The historically low base rate has tempted many families to opt for tracker or variable products as opposed to fixed rate deals leaving them vulnerable to a sudden increase in prices.

The Bank’s financial stability report says that many households could face mortgage misery if interest rates rise next year as some analysts predict. If the base rate goes up from 0.5% to 1%, the cost of repaying a £150,000 mortgage would rise by £43 a month or £516 over the course of a year.

Eight million mortgage holders are now on variable deals which means that if the Bank decides to increase rates to drive inflation down, their mortgages could rise dramatically. The average fixed rate deal currently charges an interest rate of 3.54% compared to the typical tracker at 3.51%. Consumers coming off fixed rate deals have not been looking to renew as a consequence.

The report said: “Currently, around two thirds of outstanding mortgages in the United Kingdom… Continue To Read This Post..

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