Why Access Your Credit Record?

With ever growing concern about identity theft and fraud and the ease with which credit is available, checking your credit record should be something you do frequently. However, most of us don’t think to even check unless we’re turned down for credit somewhere and we’re not sure why.

One thing worth keeping in mind is that if you have been turned down for credit, you are within your right to ask the lender which agencies provided information about you. However, even if you have not applied for credit, you’re still perfectly within your right to contact agencies and ask to see your record. As I mentioned, this is something worth doing just to make sure that you are happy that everything on file about you is correct.

Accessing Your Credit Record

There are three main credit agencies in the UK who provide information on your credit history to lenders. They are:-

Callcredit plc
PO Box 491
Leeds LS3 1WZ
Telephone: 0870 060 1414

Experian Limited
Consumer Help Service
PO Box 8000
Nottingham NG1 5GX
Telephone: 0870 241 6212

Equifax plc
PO Box 1140
Bradford
BD1 5US
Telephone: 0870 514 3700

You can write to the agencies to ask for the credit file they have on you at any time at all. With Experian and Equifax, you can also order a copy of your credit record online or by telephone. In order to obtain a copy of your record, you will have to:

• Write to the agency (or all of them if applicable).
• Enclose a fee, which starts at £2 but varies agency to agency. Check beforehand.
• Include the addresses at which you have lived for the past 6 years.
• Provide your full name, date of birth and current address.

The credit agencies are then obliged, by law:

• To respond to you within 7 working days.
• Respond within this time either with a request for further information if they require it, to inform you that they have no file on you or, if none of the above apply, to send you the file.

Accessing your credit record is that simple. If you find information on there that is inaccurate, you should write back to the agency and to the institution that provided the agency with the incorrect information.

Wondering why you always seem to be creeping dangerously low on funds two weeks before the next payday? Ever sit and wonder just where on Earth your money goes? Maybe this is why you’re skint!

Spending at Work

Assuming you work Monday – Friday, have 20 days annual holiday per year plus bank holidays, you will go to work on 233 days each year. With that in mind….

• Buying lunch at £3 per day will set you back £699 per year!
• Buying a coffee at £2 per day will cost you £466 per year!
• Buying a newspaper at 30p per day will set you back £69.90

Now surely that’s a good reason to make lunch at home, skip the Starbuck’s and read the free Metro newspaper!

Brand Buying

Supermarket’s own brand products are often no different to their more expensive branded counterparts. How much more are you spending than you need to?

• A 500g box of Kellogg’s Cornflakes will set you back £1.92. Tesco own brand will cost just 95p for the same quantity. That’s a saving of 97p per box. Buy one a week and that’s a difference of £50.44 a year!
• Fairy’s standard washing up liquid costs £1 for a 450ml bottle. The Tesco equivalent is 51p. That’s a saving of 49p per bottle, or £5.88 eachyear if you buy one a month.
• Heinze 400g cans of soup will set you back 74p each. The equivalent is just 52p per tin if you buy the Tesco brand. That’s 22p difference per can. Let’s assume a family goes through 5 a week, that’s a difference over a year of £57.20

Credit

The cost of credit is rising. Always! Depending on your rates and any charges you incur, anything you buy on plastic is going to cost more than buying it in cash! Get a grip on your hire purchase habits.

Utilities

Of course, we all need our water, gas and electricity. But you might be surprised in the differences in prices between the gas and electricity companies. Shop around and save up to £65 over the course of a year.

Just the few savings illustrated here amount to savings of well over £1000 per year. For someone on a £20000 salary, this is a significant saving.

We all make unecessary purchases from time to time… cutting back on them could save you a small fortune.

The nationalised Northern Rock bank’s charitable arm, the Northern Rock Foundation is to fund personal debt advisers in a bid to help those badly affected by the recent recession.

While the recession is at a formal end, its effects are still being felt and it’s hoped that debt advisors could help those who have been adversely affected by the financial downturn to recover or to manage their debts. The funding will take the form of a £1.5 million grant for the Citizens Advice Bureaux in the North East and Cumbria. These two regions were particularly badly affected by the recession and it is hoped that around 8000 people will benefit from the charitable donation to fund such personal debt advice.

The recession meant rising unemployment for many, pay cuts for a number of people and great financial difficulty for companies and families alike. Housing repossessions rose and while the official figures dictate that the recession officlally ended in the final quarter of 2009, the consequences still haunt millions of us.

Free debt advice is one way in which the CAB helps out the 9000 or so people who contact it every single day with financial worries. The grant from the Northern Rock Foundation will ensure that those hardest hit have more access to personal debt advisors through their local Citizens Advice Bureaux.

Saving money doesn’t have to be all doom, gloom and sacrifice. It doesn’t have to mean never going out and having a good time and it certainly doesn’t mean giving up all and every luxury. Here are 20 ways to save money that don’t mean giving up any form of enjoyment in your life!

1. Take advantage of ‘free events,’ in your area for entertainment purposes. http://wherecanwego.com/ is a great website which lets you search for events in your area and allows you to filter to show only free events. There are a surprising number of free events on as well, some of which you might not have even considered before. Give it a go! For those of us who thrive on being entertained, the cost of gig and entertainment tickets can soon add up and you may find you have just as much fun at one of these more economical alternatives.

2. Don’t go shopping without a shopping list. If you’re anything like me, you’re a marketer’s dream! Bright packaging, a catchy slogan and immediately you’re overcome with the temptation to put it (whatever ‘it’ is) into your shopping basket. Stop. Breathe. Slow down and step away from the brightly coloured entirely unnecessary object that you will probably never use. If you spend an hour or so planning your shopping and producing a shopping list, you’ll find you save money over time. No unnecessary impulse purchases means more money in the bank. Take a list and stick to it.

3. Try local markets for food. Supermarkets are convenient. Yes, absolutely. But you will often find your local market has a number of fruit and vegetable stands, butchers and bakers etc. Not only is it often cheaper than the supermarket equivalent, but in my experience is fresher and much better quality too. Support your own finances and the local economy too.

4. Own brand products. Ok, now I’m odd. I insist upon Heinz for beans. I don’t know why and I know, I know, I know that the supermarket brands are probably ‘just the same.’ But I’m quirky. However, I do buy supermarket brands for a number of other items and it does save a lot of money. Weigh up the differences and see where you can save.

5. Do you really need designer labels? Do you? Honestly? If you can bring yourself to stop buying the designer brands, then do! Of course, a special treat now and then is wholeheartedly deserved, but even then try to shop on eBay or at designer outlet malls for the better prices.

6. Sell your junk! Use eBay or similar sites to sell items you no longer need and earn a bit of extra cash. As this is ‘bonus’ cash that you were not expecting to earn, it won’t have to make up part of your budget and you can therefore just save it!

7. Switch to the cheapest utilities provider. Yes, electricity, gas and water are all very essential. Nobody is suggesting you should cut them off altogether, but do shop around. Electricity and gas prices vary from provider to provider and it’s worth shopping around to see if you could be saving money on your bills. We shop around for the best price on other things, so why not our utilities?

8. Can you trade your car down? Is your vehicle bigger/better/newer/flasher than it needs to be? The savings on fuel and on insurance can be immense by ‘downgrading’ to a smaller vehicle. This is a particularly good idea if you’re only ever driving yourself around and don’t need a big car for multiple passengers.

9. One step further… car sharing. If you drive to work, ask about a car pool scheme at your place of work or even ask around with your colleagues. It might be that someone you work with comes from the same direction as you do. Sharing the journey in means splitting the driving and the petrol costs and doesn’t only save a lot of money but also goes some way to cutting down your carbon footprint.

10. Do you really need that gym membership? Now, of course if you use the gym a few times each week you’re probably getting your money’s worth. But let’s say you’re paying  £30/month and only going once every blue moon. Why do you still have the membership? Cancel it and put the money towards some home gym equipment. Perhaps even consider running home from work a couple of days. You’ll save money on your transport too!

11. Packed lunches. Packed lunches don’t necessarily have to be the nightmarish affairs they may have been when you were at school. No need for triangular shaped jam sandwiches in bright coloured boxes now. But consider the price of a sandwich bought from a shop and then consider the fact that, for that price, you could probably have made lunches for a week if you’d done it at home. Save the cash and prepare your food from home. Besides, you don’t have to feel cheeky asking for extra mayo when you do your own!

12. Take advantage of the library. I read a great deal. But, with the exception of about two books in the whole world, I can’t read the same book more than once. That means new books are read once and then just sit in the back of a cupboard, before your next door neighbour’s friend’s daughter’s school teacher’s cousin’s Mother ‘borrows’ it and you never get it back. Yet brand new paperback books cost in the region of £7, sometimes more. If you even read just one book a month that’s over £80 you could be spending on books every year. Well stop. There’s no need. Libraries are free in the UK to borrow books, educational CD Roms etc and it’s also incredibly cheap to hire DVDs, games and CDs from the library too. So get a free membership and read as much as you like at no cost.

13. Use your skills for a bit of extra income. Sites like www.getafreelancer.com and www.elance.com allow people to sign up either to hire freelancers or to find work as freelancers. Essentially, they put people with skills in touch with the people who need the skills. Whether you’re a talented copywriter, graphic artist, translator, computer programmer or anything else you can think of, there’s probably someone online looking for your skills. The great thing about freelancing is that it is again income you were not expecting to have and therefore does not have to make up part of your budget. So it can be saved! You also have the luxury, with freelancing, of only taking on the projects you feel you can manage!

14. Compare your music before you download it. The i-generation have a habit of logging on, downloading and listening when it comes to music. But thanks to Martin Lewis, of Money Saving Expert, it needn’t be the case. He has launched an awesome music comparison site, Tunes Checker, which allows you to compare the price of downloads from a number of e-stores before buying. iTunes tends not to fare too well!

15. Pay as you go mobiles really can save you money. Perhaps your contact is drawing to an end? Well the good news is that with most contracts, once they expire, the handset is yours. So why not get a Pay as you Go sim and just put it into your existing phone? You could save a small fortune! Look into it. Or, if you do wish to continue on contract, ask your service provider before you renew, whether they’ll negotiate the rates. If they think you are considering a move to pay as you go, you might just be surprised at the deals they offer you to stick with the contract!

16. If you’re not satisfied, complain. Now, there’s a certain group of people who complain about everything just to get something for nothing. They complain if they’re happy!! I don’t condone that. I think that if you pay a price for something and you are happy with it, then great! The only correspondence you need to be sending anywhere is praise. But if you do pay for a product or service and you are not satisfied with it, do raise a complaint. Why spend lots of money on products and services you’re just not happy with and that don’t meet the expected standard?

17. Budget carefully. This might seem like the most obvious of these money saving tips but one that few of us actually do, believe it or not. Do you write down each month what you earn and what you have to spend? If not, it’s worth doing. This is one really simply way to save money just by enabling you to get a clear idea of what you should be spending. It makes you consider your expenses and think about your finances a bit more.

18. Use cash. Now of course this is not always practical, but where it is, cash is great. I’ve found that if I physically have to hand money over, I am slightly more conscious of it. So I take out my maximum budget at the start of each week in cash and I keep it in a safe place at home. I can then clearly see when I am going over budget or heading that way. Anything left at the end of the week, I pop into my savings. Added bonus!

19. Cheaper train travel. If you travel around a lot between cities in the UK, you may find that the train is cheaper than the car! However, possibly not if you buy on the day! Train travel is notorious for being far, far more expensive if left late than if booked early. Visit The Train Line to check our prices for trips in advance and work your journey so that you can take some of the cheaper priced journeys.

20. Discount vouchers. If you are buying anything, whether online or off, it might just be worth doing a quick online search for related vouchers. There are promotional discount codes and printable vouchers online for everything from restaurants and cinema trips to electrical items. Have a look before you buy and you might find yourself saving a fair few pennies!

These are just 20 money saving tips that might make a small difference. Of course, there are limitless other ways to save money and finding the right combination of little tricks that add up for you is the key to keeping the bank balance in check!

PPI Claims continue to be a big deal in world of financial claims. But on what grounds are people making the claims? Essentially, PPI claims are being made where someone was mis-sold the policy. If you’re not sure whether or not you were mis-sold a PPI policy, here are just ten circumstances that would count for misselling.

1. You were not told at the time you took out the policy that the same policy could be available at a better price elsewhere.

2. You were employed on a temporary or contract basis at the time you took out the PPI policy.

3. You were working fewer than 16 hours per week at the time you took out the policy.

4. The lender failed to ask you about any other insurance you already had.

5. You had existing problems with stress or suffered from back ache.

6. You were told that you had to have PPI in order to take out the loan or card.

7. You were not even told about the insurance and it was just added!

8. You had some form of existing illness.

9. You were under 18 or over 65 at the time the loan was taken out.

10. You were self employed at the time the PPI policy was taken out.

These are just ten situations in which you would be considered certainly to have been mis-sold your PPI policy and should enquire about making a PPI claim.

PPI claims amount to money that you should never have been paying in the first place. If you have been mis sold a policy, PPI claims are a means of getting back money you are owed!

If nothing else, the excessive amounts of debt in British football can at least serve to make you feel better about a credit card bill! I mean, a couple of hundred quid is thrown into real perspective when you consider the £700 million owed by Manchester United.

And it seems that even the British Prime Minister has a view on the footballing world’s excessive debts. While acknowledging that it’s far from his place to do a great deal about it, Gordon Brown has commented that, “…this is an issue and it’s an issue football clubs are facing and it’s a worry to supporters and I think the management of football clubs have got to look very seriously at their responsibilities to their supporters, that they have high levels of income from the supporters but the debt levels have been at a leverage level that is too high.”

While Gordon Brown might be distancing himself from the ability to do anything, Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe certainly isn’t. He has already called for the FA to intervene and set regulation around debt levels. He will be meeting with football authorities in the coming weeks to discuss the matter further.

But really, what can be done? For some of the smaller clubs, the debt cannot be controlled, given low income for those clubs in the first place. But for the bigger clubs like Liverpool and Manchester United, who do generate huge incomes each year, these excessive numbers seem like nothing more than poor debt management.

Perhaps these billionaire club owners should attend some of the same  debt management lessons that schools will be giving to the 5 year olds!

Figures released this morning indicate that the UK economy grew in the 4th quarter of 2009 by 0.1%. This means that the UK is formally out of recession.

We’re somewhat ehind some of European counterparts but the news is good nonetheless.

However, experts warn that these figures do not mean that all is well in the world. Retail figures are still disappointing, unemployment continues to grow and we are likely to feel the effects of the 18 month long recession for some time to come yet.

This aside though and the news of the growth could have a positive impact on consumer confidence and investor confidence as well, which in turn can go a long way to further repairing in economy during the first quarter of 2010.

The overall message from the experts is that it’s good news, but we have a lot of work to do yet.

What is to be hoped, however, is that the valuable lessons of this recession have been learnt and will be maintained. It would be disastrous for such lessons to be forgotten and for the UK to find itself facing a similar situation in years to come. The recession’s lessons were far reaching as a Post Office survey recently also found that we’re more financially aware, happier to talk about shopping thrifty and more conscious of our savings. Again, these lessons are some that will hopefully stick long, long, long after the official announcement of the UK’s exit from recession.

The Government’s proposed plans to end credit card rips offs have been rejected by credit cards providers. This probably comes as little surprise when you consider how the providers are able to profit from such policies, which generally he UK Cards Association, which represents British credit card providers was presented with a set of proposals from the Government at the end of 2009. They included:

• Setting a regulation that card companies must contact customers who repeatedly only make the minimum payment on their cards.
• Banning unsolicited credit limit increases for customers suffering repayment difficulties.
• A notice period of 30 days in which any other customer can opt out of a proposed credit limit increase.

According to USwitch.com, 5.7 million consumers had their credit limits increased in 2009 without their consent. While 43% of British consumers confess that they would be happy with a sudden increase, 50% would not.

Surely, however, random credit limit increases like this only serve to encourage excessive lending and spending? And surely that, in the wake of the toughest recession in a generation, cannot possibly be a good thing.

Either way, these were Government ‘proposals,’ without any element of force behind them. And as the credit card industry has rejected them, it seems unlikely they will go ahead.

There have been a number of  ‘mixed signals’ of late in terms of unenforceable credit agreement. On the one hand we have emerging success stories of people having their debt wiped out because the lender made an error in the original agreement and on the other hand we have events like last week’s at the Manchester High Court. The ruling last week stated that creditors do not have to still possess the original credit agreement, but that a ‘true copy’ is acceptable. This ontradicts a number of the claims by the companies at the forefront of the unenforceable credit agreement claims and throws even more confusion into whether or not unenforceable credit agreement claims really can wipe out certain debts.

In order to clarify the situation somewhat, the Office of Fair Trading is set to release clear guidelines on the matter, due out by the end of January 2010.

Essentially, the way that most Claims Management companies handling these cases are advertising them, is as being able to eradicate debts owing to a loophole in Section 78 of the Consumer Credit Act. This states that unless a true copy of the original credit agreement can be supplied within 12 days of such a request by the debtor, that the debt is unenforceable. But the debt is only deemed unenforceable until such an agreement can be produced. This means that some people have successfully had their debts written off owing to creditors being unable to produce such a copy.

Some other unenforceable credit agreements have been the result of omissions or mistakes in the original agreement.

While unenforceable credit agreements are certainly something I believe should be pursued if there is a genuine error on the part of the lender, the guidance is limited and there is significant confusion surrounding the issue at present. The guidelines will be welcomed by consumers and the creditindustry alike.

We’re not all as organised as we should be when it comes to keeping our papers organised. I’m guilty of leaving bank statements stuffed in drawers and receipts lying around the house. I know, I know… bad habits!

But disorganisation doesn’t make you any less entitled to make a PPI reclaim if you believe you were missold your policy. PPI claims came about as a result of the policies being missold by lending institutions and as this is a fault of the lenders (not yours) you are perfectly entitled to find out whether or not you could make a claim, irrespective of whether you still have the paperwork associated.

If you are considering a PPI reclaim and don’t have the papers, write to your lender specifically requesting a breakdown of the associated account. Make specific mention to the fact that you are particularly interested in the PPI element of the account. It’s worth noting, however, that your lender is only obliged to keep paperwork on file for 6 years after the end of the agreement. So if you finished paying back on that account more than 6 years ago, your lender may not have the records and pursuiing a PPI reclaim is unlikely to yield results for you.

If, however, it has been less than 6 years since you completed your repayments, your lender is obliged to still have the paper work andunder data protection laws has 40 days from the date of receiving your letter to respond to your request with the appropriate information you require.

Getting hold of your paperwork should be a priority matter if you are considering a PPI reclaim.