Jobtube Money

The electoral roll
If you have registered to vote and your credit file does not show this, please contact the credit reference agencies listed at the bottom of this article and they will investigate the matter. If you have not registered to vote, you may want to contact your local authority about filling in an electoral registration form.

If you move home you can tell your local authority who will tell credit reference agencies about your change of registration in the course of the year.

Court judgments
If you believe a county court judgment has been recorded incorrectly, you should contact the county court, quoting the case number included on your file. If the judgment was recorded incorrectly the county court will alter their records. Credit reference agencies are told about any such changes within four weeks, but if you give them original court documents, in the form of a Certificate of Satisfaction or Cancellation, they may be able to change their sooner if necessary.

If you have paid a Scottish Decree, you should send Registry Trust (address below) a receipt or a letter from your creditor (known as the pursuer) to confirm your payment.

If you write to Registry Trust Ltd questioning the accuracy of a judgment recorded on your file, asking for an entry to be changed, you should send a cheque for £4.50 to cover their search fee. They will then tell the credit reference agencies about any change to your file.

For judgments made in Northern Ireland, if you provide documents from a plaintiff to confirm a payment, the agencies will change their records. If you have any questions about the accuracy of a judgment recorded on your file, contact the court concerned.

Registry Trust Ltd.
173-175 Cleveland Street
London W1P 5PE

Bankruptcies
If a bankruptcy order against you is annulled (cancelled) or discharged (that is, you have met all terms), you should send a copy of the Annulment Certificate or Order of Discharge to the credit reference agencies. They will then update their records. If your bankruptcy has been annulled they should completely remove any record of it from your file. If your bankruptcy has been discharged a record of it will be kept on your file but it will show that it has been discharged.

Voluntary arrangements
If you have any questions about a record of a voluntary arrangement you should contact the supervisor who dealt with your case. If you send documents from the supervisor to confirm that the information on your file needs to be changed, the agencies will change their records.

Credit accounts
After carefully studying the credit account details (credit cards, loans, mortgages, etc.) on your file, if you believe any information needs to be changed you should write to the lender concerned and ask them to give the correct information to the credit reference agencies.

Searches
Credit reference agencies will delete searches only when they are instructed to do so by the company who searched your file. If you are concerned about the accuracy of a record of a search, you should contact the company which carried out that search.

Linked addresses
Links between your previous addresses, or any addresses you may use for correspondence, may be listed on your credit file. The link will only be broken when the reference agencies are asked to do so by the organisation that created the link.

CIFAS
If you have any questions about a CIFAS record, write to the organisation concerned. If you disagree with that organisation over the information on your file, ask the organisation for details of the scheme for settling disputes.

Financial associations (shared financial responsibility)
If a financial association is shown, and you do not share a financial responsibility with the other person, or if that financial association no longer exists, you should write to the credit reference agencies. They will investigate the matter and make any necessary change to your file.

Aliases
If any names are shown on your credit report that you have never used, you should contact the company listed as providing the other name, or write to the credit reference agency and they will investigate the matter and make any necessary changes to your file.

Information about other people
If you share no financial responsibility with any other person mentioned on your file you can ask the agencies to ‘create a disassociation’. This breaks any connection between your information and theirs and so makes sure their information is removed from your file, and that your information is removed from theirs. To do this you must give the agencies your, and the other person’s, full name and date of birth, details of your relationship and any shared addresses.

To view your personal credit information that lenders are currently basing their credit decisions on, apply online for a credit report from Experian, the UK’s largest credit reference agency, now.

You will also receive a 30-day free trial to the CreditExpert Monitoring Service from Experian.

Click here for a free 30-day trial and a free copy of your credit report

Posted by Mark at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)

January 18, 2005

Five Things To Do With A Windfall

The Motley Fool

It's January, traditionally a time for pay rises and bonuses. You may have received some money that you weren't expecting too (inheritance/gifts etc). If you are lucky enough to have come into a lump sum of money and are wondering what to do with it, here are five ways to use £5,000.

1. Reduce Your Debt

It's dull but so worthwhile.

There's no point having a savings account, even one earning 5%, if you have debt on credit cards/loans accruing interest at 10% plus! Paying off your expensive cards and loans should be your number one priority - just think about how pleased you'd be if you had no debt!

And anything left over could go into one of the following options:

2. Put It In Your Pension

Yes, the boring option - you don't want to wait until you're 65 to see it again. But there can be big advantages of using your pension allowance are huge.

If you were to put that £5,000 into your pension, as a basic rate tax payer you would automatically get an extra £1,410 from the tax man. So your windfall is now worth £6,410. You'd get even more if you pay higher rate tax, as you get a refund from the tax man worth an additional £900.

If you are a member of a company scheme, you can pay an additional voluntary contribution, but first check to make sure these charges aren't too high.

3. Pay Off Your Mortgage

Provided your mortgage lender allows it without penalty, overpaying your mortgage is a great way to use a windfall. By reducing the interest payable you will lessen your term or reduce your monthly payments, and generally achieve a better return than you could by saving it as cash.

4. Save It

If you're likely to need your windfall within the next five years, or you don't have a rainy day account for emergencies already set up, putting your windfall in savings would be the most sensible. There are some good rates of interest available (check out our Savings centre for accounts paying 5%+), but for tax-free returns remember you can save up to £3,000 a year in a mini cash ISA.

5. Invest It

Provided you can leave your money along for at least five years, the stock market could be the way to go for better returns than a savings account. That doesn't have to mean buying and selling of shares - there are less scary methods, such as using an investment trust or an index tracker. These are simpler ways to invest in the stock market, with lower charges than most other forms of investments.

If you haven't already taken out an ISA this year, you could open a maxi share ISA with your £5,000, and you'd still be able to add up to £2,000 until April 5 if you wished. And if you have taken a mini cash ISA already, remember you can still take out a mini share ISA with up to £3,000. Have a look in our ISA centre to find out more.

Deciding what to do with a lump sum is a difficult decision, but if you can forgo the idea of blowing it all on a spending spree, you may find it satisfying to make that windfall even bigger!

Above tips by Motley Fool.
Or you could SET UP YOUR OWN BUSINESS!

Posted by Mark at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2005

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcies surge in Britain's debt hot spots

Individual bankruptcies rose by 27 per cent to 45,000 last year, accountants Grant Thornton said this week, adding that London and Northern Ireland are hot spots where debts are at dangerous levels.

They said bankruptcies in 2004 increased by 67 per cent in Northern Ireland and 52 per cent in London and predicted more trouble ahead if house prices fall or interest rates rise.

Personal insolvency specialist Mark Allen said: "Consumer debt is at a historical high, having broken the trillion pound mark, and is now more than the whole external debt of Africa and South America combined.

"Contributing to this still-growing debt mountain is the fact that UK consumers now have a heady total of more than 66m credit cards at their fingertips – a worrying five times the European average."

About 80 per cent of consumer debt is secured on mortgages on borrowers' homes and about £168bn of debt is unsecured. The latter sum is made up of about £100bn of personal loans, over £56bn on credit cards, just over £3bn on store cards, almost £3.5bn on instalment credit and the remainder, over £5bn, on mail order credit.

Mr Allen said: "Soaring unsecured credit continues to go hand in hand with soaring numbers of individuals falling into the spiral of debt – the problem rests squarely on excessive consumer borrowing and spending.

"Bankruptcy numbers have gone through the roof and have reached an average of 126 people declaring bankruptcy every day compared to 97 per day in 2003."

That increase pushed the number of personal insolvencies last year to a level 70 per cent higher than 10 years ago.

Mr Allen said: "Regional variations aside, the picture of debt we are seeing is a familiar one from John O'Groats to Land's End, one of more individuals with mortgages of £50,000 to £100,000 and commonly credit and store card debts of around £50,000."

Grant Thornton calculates that paying for an increase in base rates to 5.5 per cent (they are currently 4.75 per cent), would absorb more than a quarter of average household surplus income in the UK.

Posted by Mark at 05:39 PM | Comments (0)

January 10, 2005

Student Loans

BMA report shows huge rises in medical student debt.

The financial barriers to a career in medicine are growing, the BMA says today (Friday 7 January 2005), as new figures show the average fifth year medical student is in debt by £19,248 - 16% higher than last year - and many owe more than £30,000.

Almost all (98.3%) of the 1314 UK medical students who completed the BMA’s annual student finance survey were in debt. Average debt for students from all years was £13,301 - up 18% from last year - and the largest amount owed was £56,000 – up 15%. This is the first year that all the students surveyed began their course after tuition fees were introduced and grants were scrapped in England, largely accounting for such sharp increases.

The BMA says the figures provide evidence of the threat of medicine becoming an elitist profession. Only one in twelve (8%) of the students surveyed came from a “blue collar” background; compared to 62% who came from a family where the main source of income was from a managerial or professional occupation.

Despite the domination of medicine by the highest social classes an independent inquiry into access to the professions “in a variable fees environment” has said it will not consider the effect of top-up fees on entry to medical school. The BMA is calling on inquiry leader Sir Alan Langlands to include medicine.

Leigh Bissett, chair of the BMA’s Medical Students Committee, says: "This is further evidence of the huge financial problems facing medical students, particularly those from low income families. There is clearly a major problem, and with the introduction of top-up fees it is set to become even worse. If the government is serious about opening up medical careers to students from all backgrounds, it needs to tackle the financial disincentives to studying medicine. If we fail to take the problem seriously we will deny many talented students fair access to careers in the NHS, and deny patients the chance to benefit from their skills."

The BMA survey results also highlight the problems faced by students studying medicine as a second degree. Most graduate students still had an outstanding student loan from their first degree, and those in their first year as medical students already owed on average £8,781 in student loans alone.

Changes to NHS working patterns mean first year junior doctors generally earn less than they did a few years ago. Recent research by the BMA showed that while medical students are graduating with increasingly large debts, the amount they can expect to earn from their first job has gone down.

More results from the survey:

* The overwhelming majority (94%) of students surveyed had a student loan
* Two thirds (65%) had an overdraft
* The average size of overdraft was £1462
* A third of 5th and 6th year medical students had a bank loan

Medicine is one of the most expensive degree courses because it is longer and more intensive than other subjects. Students have little opportunity to work part-time or during holidays and are required to fund transport to hospitals, which costs on average £49 a month, and pay for equipment such as stethoscopes.

Posted by Mark at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

January 01, 2005

Personal Debt

By William Kay - The Independent

New research from Alliance & Leicester Personal Loans reveals that reducing and paying off debts is a priority for half the UK population this year, closely followed by increasing savings. To cut debt, six in 10 said they would start budgeting in the new year and try to spend less. One-third would consider a second job.

Andy Bayes, the head of personal loans at A&L, said: "People are beginning to see that by budgeting better, personal debt can be reduced considerably. This doesn't just mean spending less, but also paying less interest on your debts."

The findings are remarkably close to the advice of financial advisers and debt agencies. They say that, to avoid any pitfalls, you should set firm guidelines, whether you are saving, investing or simply trying to keep the bailiff from your door.

The key to making the least of your debts is to share the problem.

Callcredit, the credit reference agency, advises that you should get in touch with your creditors as soon as possible. Most of them will be sympathetic and let you make reduced payments on a temporary basis. So the sooner you put your hand up, the better.

Above all, do not ignore letters and phone calls from your creditors. If you do not respond, you could be defaulted or even end up with a county court judgment against you. That would remain on your credit file and affect your ability to obtain credit for six years.

Take advice. If you have a bank manager or financial adviser, make sure you talk to them. Otherwise, free help is available from the Citizens Advice Bureau, the National debtline or the Consumer Credit Counselling Service. And the credit rating agencies, Callcredit, Experian and Equifax, can tell you your debt position in a short time.
Meanwhile, keep it simple. Be particularly wary of taking on more debt to pay off your existing borrowings. Debt consolidators are in business to make money out of you, and while they will cut your monthly repayments those repayments will go on much longer.

Consumer Credit Counselling Service: 0800 138 1111.
National debtline: 0808 808 4000.
Callcredit: 0870 0601414, www.callcredit.plc.uk
Experian: 0870 2416212, www.experian.co.uk
Equifax: 0870 5143700, www.equifax.co.uk

Posted by Mark at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

December 15, 2004

Dealing with Debt

There's a discussion board on dealing with debt at the Motley Fool UK website.
Dealing with Debt

Posted by Mark at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)