Tag Archives: rates
Procure unsecured loans quickly
People show inclination towards unsecured loans, when they have to borrow a smaller loan amount with a shorter repayment term. For availing an unsecured loan, you need not have to put your home at stake. So, the first and the foremost benefit which you have here is that you can avoid the threat of repossession of your property.
Whether you are a tenant or a homeowner, you can avail unsecured loans for meeting your different needs. The eligibility criteria for availing an unsecured loan is that you need to be above 18 years of age and should be employed. The loan criteria can vary from lender to lender.
An unsecured loan comes with a fixed as well as a variable APR (Annual Percentage Rate). In a fixed interest rate loan, the interest rate would remain the same throughout the loan tenure. On the other hand, with variable interest rates, the rates can go up and down according to the base rates of the Bank of England.
People with poor credit can also seek an unsecured loan, if they meet the specific loan criteria of the lenders. A bad credit history can be anything like defaults, missed payments, County Court Judgments, or bankruptcies. Bad credit unsecured loansnot only helps us in meeting monetary requirements, but can also help us in improving your credit score. Once you have improved your credit score, you can easily avail a loan in the future.
There are various lenders in the UK who provide online loans. You can approach any high-street banks, building societies and private lenders across the UK. Due to the fierce competition among the private lenders, they can offer you a loan on competitive APR (Annual Percentage Rate).
Unsecured loans can be procured fast, as compared to a secured loan type. This is because the valuation of collateral doesnt take place with unsecured loans. Therefore, the turnaround time in the entire loan processing gets reduced.
Fixed Rate Bonds vs. ISA's (Page 1 of 2)
It is difficult to know where to put your money these days to get the best returns, especially with the way the economy has suffered over recent months, pushing the Bank of England to make a string of cuts to its Base rate which have in turn been passed on to savers rates.
With the Base rate now down to the lowest level ever recorded, rates on normal savings accounts have been slashed, which has limited our saving options.
The two obvious choices in today’s savings market are Fixed Term Bonds, and Individual Savings Accounts (ISA). Although both types of savings accounts have their similarities, there are several advantages and disadvantages to each and it is this topic of discussion that this article will be focussing on.
Fixed Term Bonds
Fixed Term Bonds provide a rate that is fixed throughout the duration of the bond, giving savers a predictable income with no surprises. Once you have chosen a fixed term account, you are able to calculate exactly how much interest you will earn, minus the tax, to give you your end balance.
Most Fixed Term Bonds offer very high deposit limits, generally between £500,000 to £2 million, but some, such as ICICI, will let you invest as much as you like. You must deposit the full amount upon opening the account and cannot add to this once active.
There are no limits to how many fixed term bond accounts you can open within any one year, so unlike ISA accounts, if you decide to close your account for any reason, you can still invest any amount elsewhere at any time.
Fixed Term Bonds generally offer the highest saving rates available, but these tend to be on shorter-term bonds, as they carry less risk to significant rate cuts leading to banks and building societies paying you over the odds in interest for long periods of time.
‘What goes up must come down’
If you are extremely lucky and do your research, you could open a fixed term bond before rates significantly fall, allowing you to earn well above savings rates offered to new and variable rate customers. If you cast your mind back to October last year, when the Base rate stood at 5%, you would be very happy with yourself if you were earning this kind of rate on your savings today, with the Base rate now at 0.5%.
A big element to a fixed term bond account is the “fixed term”. You must be realistic with your finances and only go for this option if you can afford to lock your money away for some time. If you find that you need to withdraw any amount from your account, the bond will close and in most cases you will lose any interest to accumulated to date.
As well as the possibility of rates falling during the life of your bond, you could see the opposite effect, with rates significantly rising, leaving you locked in at a low rate. It is always a good idea to look at recent trends in Base rate changes to enable you to make an educated prediction on the direction it’s headed. Many economists believe that rates will continue to fall during 2009, going as low as 0%.