Graham Hill Reveals The 0% Finance Con

Tuesday, 16. August 2011

As the new registration approaches we are starting to see more deals being offered by the dealerships, supported by the manufacturers. So is it always best to look for 0% finance deals? As I’ve mentioned before much of the advice provided by the national and trade press suggests that you should maybe avoid the 0% deals and negotiate a better Read more »

Why Are Lending Interest Rates So High?

Wednesday, 20. July 2011

Whilst I hear many a complaint in the pubs and bars about the fact that you aren’t charged the half percent bank base rate interest when you take a loan or HP, most people understand the reason why. If lenders were to charge half a percent interest they would soon go bust as that wouldn’t cover the cost of the documents let alone all the other costs Read more »

The Reason Why HP Rates Are So Much Higher Than Base Rate

Monday, 11. October 2010

The Bank of England in Threadneedle Street, Lo...
Image via Wikipedia

One of the constant questions I get asked is if the bank rate is at 0.5% why are personal loans running at around 8% – 10% and HP can be much more than that? Well unless you are a banker or you have a tracker mortgage the bank rate is pretty meaningless and this has always been the case when interest rates have been running at a pretty low level. The fact is that the interest a lender charges is his income. He might have a few fees that bolster up his admin costs but he still has his overhead costs to Read more »

Government Aim To Make Credit Reports Free

Thursday, 11. February 2010

The Treasury Select Committee has questioned whether individuals should be charged for copies of their credit report. At the moment it costs £2 or you can obtain a copy for free but it requires you to apply online to one of the credit reference agencies, provide credit card details as though you were going to pay monthly for anytime access, then cancel as soon as you’ve downloaded your current report, Read more »

Loan Sharking Increasing As Consumers Find It Hard To Get Credit

Wednesday, 20. January 2010

A few years ago I was a consultant to Yes Car Credit, a company that I hugely respected because, in many ways, they got it right! However, becoming the UK’s largest seller of used cars in about 4 years carried with it a number of problems that the UK press, as always, was eager to pounce upon. The company was selling nearly 50,000 cars per annum at the point of its demise and I would admit that the combination of Read more »