Money Swindon: March 2006

Thursday, March 30, 2006

The Best Equity ISAs?

The Independent asked some leading IFAs (Independent Financial Advisers) about their fund selection earlier in the year
Here are their results.

The Investco Perpetual Fund had very impressive growth of 156.5% over the last three years.

UK Funds

Invesco Perpetual U.K. Aggressive
Liontrust First Growth
Artemis Alpha
M&G U.K. Select
Rensburgh U.K. Select Growth

Overseas Funds

Legg Mason Japan Equity
Legg Mason U.S. Equity
Morrant Wright Japan Income
Baillie Gifford Japan
Artemis European Growth

Thanks to Rob Lewis

ISA Deadline 5 April.
Use your Allowance or Lose It!

Maximising ISA Potential

You can invest up to £7 000 in a Maxi ISA.

Additionally you have the potential for much higher returns than a Cash ISA.

Normally the money is invested in a number of funds. Typically it will be a mixture of Corporate Bonds & FTSE 100 Shares.

It is something you will need advice on, an IFA should be able to help

ISA Deadline 5 April. Use your Allowance or Lose It!

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

The Best Cash ISA...?

Every bank/building society is after your money with all kinds of claims for their cash ISA s.

What is the best ISA?

Let’s lay down some basic criteria

1 Guaranteed rates, not just for the weeks leading up to the Isa deadline
2 Easy access, you can get at you money if necessary

Currently it’s Alliance & Leicester @ 5.2%

Minimum opening amount £1
Rate guarenteed 0.7% above the Bank of England Base Rate

A&L Website

Also: there is a special promotion for their Award Winning Current Account
Do it though an IFA and get a £25 cash bonus!

ISA Deadline 5 April. Use your Allowance or Lose It!

Friday, March 24, 2006

ISA Deadline: 5th April 2006

Don't forget the ISA deadline of 5th April.
You can invest up to £3 000 in a cash ISA or £7 000 in a share ISA.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Beer Bargain

Tesco are offering 4 cans of Extra Value Bitter for 99p.

It is nice, better than Tetley's & their “Best Bitter”. (It is not Royal Duch Post in disguise)

Drink responsibly!

Cheaper Broadband

Want to get Cheaper Broadband?

There are a few price comparison sitesThe most useful one I found was Simply Switch. You insert your postcode and your requirements.

For technical information on the different providers/ISPs go to adslguide.org.uk.

I won’t recommend any company as prices & specifications change all the time. (This site does not have sponsored click throughs & blanket recommendations!)

Although if you’ve got 2 PCs, Wanadoo’s £17.99 Wirless & Talk offer is currently good value. If readers have any suggestions or comments please click on the comments icon.

Tags: cheaper broadband, ifa, financial advisers, swindon, uk
Related: Save £2 500 pa on your Mortgage, Slash your Fuel Bills, Lower your Credit Card Bill

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Money Saving March

Rob Lewis has a great set of ideas in his Money Saving March feature.

So far he’s looked at tax, mortgages & insurance.

Monday, March 06, 2006

What are Self Certified Mortgages?

A self certified mortgage is where you declare your income for mortgages purposes without the usual employer references.

It’s useful for self employed people or those who can not provide all the paper work initially. (they can not confirm their income until the year’s accounts are done).

Rates can be higher than standard mortgages, except for remortgages where the person has a track record of repayments

Friday, March 03, 2006

Free Mortgage Factsheets

Here are some Free Mortgage Factsheets from the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

To download:

1 Right click on the one you want......
2 Choose "Save Target as....." (Firefox users: "Save Link as..."
3 Save it on a convenient place on your PC

	Introduction - Helping you choose your mortgage
	Step 1 How much should you borrow?
	Step 2 Shop around
	Step 3 Information or advice?
	Step 4 Which interest rate deal?
	Step 5 Mortgage features
	Step 6 Get the keyfacts about the mortgage
	Step 7 How to repay your mortgage
	Step 8 How to repay your mortgage - interest only
	Step 9 What are the fees and costs?
	Step 10 Insurance checklist
	Step 11 You can afford your mortgage now - but what if?
	Step 12 Review your mortgage

Thursday, March 02, 2006

If you are unemployed, have debts or County Court Judgements (CCJs) saving & borrowing money are fraught with problems.

Often the only people willing to loan money are unscrupulous & charge exstortionate rates of interest.

In most towns, there are now credit unions who can help & advise.

In Swindon there are 2, details can be found at Credit Unions in Swindon.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

4.2m Mortgages with No Life Cover

An estimated 4.2 million people with mortgages do not have life insurance to cover an estimated £217 billion of debt according to Sainsbury's Bank.

They also found those with 42% of those with mortgages have not reviewed their life assurance to look for savings and could be wasting money

Both figures are quite scary

February in Numbers

3 Remortgages in the same family arranged
1 Bank Heist in Kent & Money Laundering Attempt (not involved)
1 Mortgage Scandal involving Government Minister Tessa Jowel (not involved)
0 Interest Rate Changes by the Bank of

England

4 Networking Events attended
100s of business cards collected
1 Massive Google Page Ranking (Thanks!)

Money Swindon

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