Do you ever wonder why some friends, relations or work colleagues drive a better car than you? There is a very good reason – because they know more than you do! Want to know more than them? Then download my book and you could be one step better than them! You deserve to drive a great car. By Graham Hill
What are the two most dangerous things that a motorist can do that could result in injury or death? Most people would assume this to be the two things that the government, media and safety organisations obsess over. Speeding and drink driving. We are about to be hit with a campaign regarding drink driving as we run up to Christmas and there seems to be a year round campaign to demonise those that speed. Read more »
I have mixed views over my next piece. You see over the years I have recommended to clients that they make use of the law wherever they can to save money. One area that I have heavily promoted is covered by sections 99 and 100 of the Consumer Credit Act, better known as Voluntary Termination, whereby once you have paid half the total cost of the finance, you can simply hand the car back to the HP provider and they have to stand any loss between what would normally be required to Read more »
Andrew Sentance may not be a name that you have come across before but he is very important in our lives. He sits on the Monetary Policy Committee in the Bank of England. They sit each month and decide whether base rate should stay the same, at 0.5% or increase. Since the rate dropped to 0.5% every member of the committee has voted to keep it at the same level, that is until the October meeting at which Mr Read more »
Insurance premiums are being secretly increased by the application of admin fees according to research firm Defaqto. In 2004 the admin charge on an insurance policy was 2% of premium but that has now increased to 7% in 2010. The insurance industry, like the finance industry, has realised that people ignore the terms and conditions attached to contracts and simply focus on the lowest rate so they use stealth measures to increase the return without touching the premiums. Mike Powell, Read more »
I have issued another general warning about the lack of money available to lend and the subsequent repercussions. I have had many people writing to me explaining that they had strong credit but have been declined for loans on several occasions and are now being told that they have dropped into the sub-prime category, which means they will pay high rates of interest if they are able to secure finance at all. The reason for this is the fact that whilst there are still lenders willing to offer low rates Read more »
Statistics really get on my wick! Speaking to fleet owners and various lenders it is clear that there is less money to lend and businesses as well as consumers are finding it more difficult to finance vehicles. My own association, the NACFB has said that current lending by members is around £7 billion compared to £20 billion in the mid 2000’s. And yet banks and the lender’s association, the FLA say that they are lending more and that, according to FLA statistics their members are lending 16% more to Read more »
One of the last meetings I attended at which we discussed the state of the motor finance industry, we were told by one of the leading accountancy practices in the UK along with a couple of large leasing operations that the biggest problem faced by the industry was lack of liquidity or in other words lack of money to lend to you and me. This has been confirmed by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Read more »
With the banks currently announcing profits well beyond expectations the Government really needs to step in and start rattling their cages as they continue to lend to simply those that are safest but in many respects don’t need it as badly as those who have been struggling and whose credit history is less than perfect. I have never quite understood how someone (or company) who has experienced a problem and Read more »