Has anyone noticed?
New Labour’s much trumpeted partial holiday on ‘Stamp duty’ (for non UK residents this is a sales tax imposed by the state on house sales) is, if it is of benefit to anyone, mostly likely to be of benefit in the north, which at least historically was demographically more New Labour friendly.
New Labour are talking about a holiday for stamp duty under £175K This should cover quite a few properties for sale in the North and proportionately far less in the South, due to regional differences in house prices. Any figures the Government states one suspects will be 'spun' averages.
Could it be that they calculate they have terminally burned their bridges already with the South, so they want to minimise the coming electoral debacle for at least some of their sitting MPs
House sales depend on chains, with new time buyers going in at the bottom of the market and the others in the chain trading up, How far up the chain will theis make a difference?
Of course if you can't get a mortgage in the first place – and that is the major actual problem with the housing market, mortgages having effectively dried up because of the credit crunch. Then what difference will reducing the sales tax of around £1.7K imposed on a few of the sales make?
And let’s not forget that any improvement in the housing market that may actually be had from this piece of spin will have to be paid for in reverse, at the end of the ‘holiday’ in a year’s time, when ther will be a corresponding rush then a step back down in sales.
Showing posts with label Credit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Credit. Show all posts
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Monday, 11 February 2008
Egg faces possible enquiry over cancelled cards
Egg’s dubious cancellation of the cards of customers who are reliable users has now led them to be reported to the Financial Services Authority. This has now been referred to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
New Labour MP, Nigel Griffiths stated: "I am very pleased about that. It shows how seriously they are taking it. I cannot tell you the number of complaints I have had - they just keep flooding in."
Many customers who have had their cards summarily cancelled were adamant that they always paid their bills on time and had excellent credit ratings.
Mr Griffiths said he would be introducing a Commons motion demanding an inquiry into the matter and that he was "in no doubt that is the reason" for the cancellations.
New Labour MP, Nigel Griffiths stated: "I am very pleased about that. It shows how seriously they are taking it. I cannot tell you the number of complaints I have had - they just keep flooding in."
Many customers who have had their cards summarily cancelled were adamant that they always paid their bills on time and had excellent credit ratings.
Mr Griffiths said he would be introducing a Commons motion demanding an inquiry into the matter and that he was "in no doubt that is the reason" for the cancellations.
Friday, 8 February 2008
Are credit card companies over extended?
Are the credit card companies feeling the pinch more than they would care to admit?
In the last decade or so, many of us will have been aware of credit card companies thrusting increased spending limits on people, when they are nearing their current limit and use of the card has slowed.
We are all unfortunately used to what you might call postal SPAM, urging us to take out new cards together with partially completed (where do they get the details?) application forms that we then have to destroy in order to avoid the threat of identity theft.
Recently I have become aware of instances of credit limits being reduced, presumably because of some new panicked arcane algorithms applied to the owners spending habits.
I became aware of a new one the other day though. A credit card actually pulling out of the agreement - for no discernable reason at all. The person pays all their bills on time. In withdrawing the company wrote assuring that there was no problem with the person’s credit record and they could continue to make payments (how kind of them).
Given the current financial climate the owner had prudently cut back on using it and was just making the regular payments in order to reduce it. With the intent of maintain this until some assets were freed up and they could clear the card - though it is surely unlikely the card operator could have known this. Though it does rather smack of breaking up with someone before they can call it off with you.
One can only conclude that the company may be becoming slightly desperate and also possibly needs to look more carefully at it’s computer algorithms as they have lost the sort of reliable customer one would think they would be desperate to hang on to.
Let's hope we arn't going to see any more 'Northern Rocks' too soon - Do we all need to worry more than the Government would have us believe?
It would be interesting to know if anyone can add to this.
In the last decade or so, many of us will have been aware of credit card companies thrusting increased spending limits on people, when they are nearing their current limit and use of the card has slowed.
We are all unfortunately used to what you might call postal SPAM, urging us to take out new cards together with partially completed (where do they get the details?) application forms that we then have to destroy in order to avoid the threat of identity theft.
Recently I have become aware of instances of credit limits being reduced, presumably because of some new panicked arcane algorithms applied to the owners spending habits.
I became aware of a new one the other day though. A credit card actually pulling out of the agreement - for no discernable reason at all. The person pays all their bills on time. In withdrawing the company wrote assuring that there was no problem with the person’s credit record and they could continue to make payments (how kind of them).
Given the current financial climate the owner had prudently cut back on using it and was just making the regular payments in order to reduce it. With the intent of maintain this until some assets were freed up and they could clear the card - though it is surely unlikely the card operator could have known this. Though it does rather smack of breaking up with someone before they can call it off with you.
One can only conclude that the company may be becoming slightly desperate and also possibly needs to look more carefully at it’s computer algorithms as they have lost the sort of reliable customer one would think they would be desperate to hang on to.
Let's hope we arn't going to see any more 'Northern Rocks' too soon - Do we all need to worry more than the Government would have us believe?
It would be interesting to know if anyone can add to this.
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