‘We need to be doing much more saving’, says expert
June 7, 2008 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
With the economic downturn increasingly putting a strain on people’s finances, the country needs to “be doing much more saving”, an expert has advised.
Jamie Elliott, coordinator at Transact, which is a UK-wide network for people committed to promoting financial inclusion, pointed out that Brits have one of the lowest saving ratios in the world.
“It’s a huge problem and we need to shift from a culture of borrowing and seeing borrowing as the solution to our problem[s], to living within our means.”
He added that people should also be saving for “difficult times” and the financial industry will be making efforts to encourage this, for example by allowing people on low incomes to open bank accounts with the government adding a maximum of about £250.
Recent research by Credit Action revealed that total secured lending on homes was £1,207 billion at the end of April this year, which represented an increase of 8.7 per cent over the last 12 months.
Credit crisis may force people to use more expensive lenders
April 16, 2008 by admin
Filed under News, News-Loans
The global credit crunch and more restrictive borrowing terms that many lenders have implemented may force consumers to go to higher-cost lenders, an expert from Equifax has said. 
According to Credit Action, personal debt in the UK stood at £1,421 billion at the end of February 2008.
Total lending in February was up by £9.8 billion on the previous month, of which secured lending accounted for £7.4 billion and consumer credit was £2.4 billion.
Neil Munroe, external affairs director for Equifax, said that if banks reject more loan applications people “may be forced into more high-cost borrowing, so forced down into the subprime or near-prime market, whereas before they might not have considered going there”.
However, he also pointed out that banks have an “appetite” to lend people money, they will simply be more cautious when deciding whether to lend to people who they believe may not be in a position to repay the loan.
