Transferring your Cash ISA

Each year Banks and Building Societies spend millions advertising trying to get you to put your ISA allowance with them.

What about your old ISA money?

They rarely mention your ISAs from previous years and mysteriously fail to mention you can transfer your ISA from your current bankto a new one.

It is worth reviewing rates on your old ISA and comparing them with the current best buys.  A final note: check that the new ISA can receive old ISA money.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisors (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Your ISA Allowances

From 6th April 2010, everybody's ISA allowances rose to £10 200 a year.

That's £5100 in a Cash ISA....plus £5100 in a Stocks & Shares ISA.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisors (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Beware...Banks...bad mortgage advice offered?

Banks, are they acting in mortgage customers' best interests?

When you come a off fixed rate mortgage you go onto a lenders' Standard variable Rate (SVR). This should be substantially lower than what you are paying now.
However some banks are trying to get clients to take out a new deal which is much higher than the SVR.

Depending on when your mortgage lapsed, the rate could be as low as 2% with Nationwide

Many banks have the SVR very well hidden on their websites. I had to call Nationwide to get details.

If you are not sure what to do call an Independent Financial or Mortgage Adviser and they can investigate.

What is the Pre Budget Report?

On Wednesday 9 Decemeber 2009, Alistair Darling delivers his Pre Budget report.
But what exactly is it?

It's a half time report on how the government is doing meeting its financial commitments.
It should be interesting in a time of decreasing tax revenue, government debt, unemployment and an election within 6 months.

To be continued....!

****************************************************************************
As it turned out, there were few changes.
A few extra taxes on City fat cats' bonuses & pensions, a bit on national insurance and VAT & stamp duty on house purchases.
For further details see my article for the Swindon Advertiser.
http://www.wiltshirebusinessonline.co.uk/news/latest/4785410.print/

Bigger ISAs for over 50s

Over 50s now have bigger ISA allowances.

It's £10 200 in total, with a maximum of £5 100 in a Cash ISA. You can also invest in an Investment ISA..£5100 if you have used your Cash ISA allowance or the full £10 200 if you have not.

The returns from a cash ISA are not that great at the moment, so it may bve worth looking at the Investment ISA option depending on your attitude to risk & investment period.

The limits for under 50s will be increased to the same for over 50s on 6th April 2010.

As always, seek proper independent advice.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisers (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Northern Rock...the mess continues

Nationalised bank Northern Rock announced losses of half year losses of £725 000 000. 22 000 of its mortgage customers are in arrears and 40% of their customers suffer form negative equity.

This is the consequence of Northern Rock's expnasion programme which involved lending to high risk groups of borrowers with 100%+ mortgages.

Not surprsingly Alistair Darling said he was in "no hurry" to try & find a buyer for the ailing bank.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisers (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Dead Cat Bounce

What is dead cat bounce? A term much used in financial circles these days.

It means that after a large fall in a share price or stock market it can be expected to recover.

It comes from the idea that "even a dead cat will bounce if it falls from a great height".


Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisers (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Disappearing Banks

In the aftermath of banking collapses & mergers, there will quite a few bank closures on high streets of Swindon & beyond.

Cheltenham & Gloucester will disappear as a high street presence with the closure of 164 branches with the loss of 833 jobs.

The new Lloyds Banking group now owns the former Halifax Bank of Scotland branches too.

Santander, the Spanish bank now owns Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley. It is likely that the branches in each town will be merged into one.

In Swindon, we have already seen the closure of Portman and Woolwich branches due to mergers in recent years.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisers (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

"An End to Boom & Bust"....

It was Gordon Brown's famous pronouncement in 1997 & over 100 times since. It worked until 2002, the economy was doing well and he kept spending under control as chancellor. 25% of the tax the Treasury received in Corporation Tax (the tax companies pay on profits) was from the City of London

After that things started to unravel, public spending increased dramatically partly because of the cost of wars in Iraq & Afghanistan.

In 2007, the economy started to falter and the model started to falter....


Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisers (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

£1 388 000 000 000 Bank Bail Out

£1 388 000 000 000 is the amount of money the Bank of England & Treasury have spent on bailing out various banks.

This includes:

£319 000 000 000 on Royal Bank of Scotland
£266 000 000 000 on Halifax Bank of Scotland & Lloyds TSB
£113 000 000 000 on Northern Rock.

Figures come form Fathom Consulting.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisers (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Tax Relief on Pensions: Budget 2009

One of the big areas you can save money on income tax is by putting the money into a pension rather than taking it as salary. Currently you could save up to 40p tax for every £1 in salary.

For people earning over £150 000. This will be reduced over the next few years from 40% to 20% tax relief.

Pensions experts are already devising ways round this....

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisers (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

50% Tax Band : Budget 2009

One of the controversial aspects of the Budget was the introduction of a new 50% tax band for people earning more than £150 000 a year.

It creates a political dilemma for David Cameron & the Conservative Party. Do they go along with it in the "interests of the country" or criticise it and be denounced as fat cats.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisers (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

ISA Changes; Budget 2009

One of the welcome parts of an interesting & scary budget was the change in ISA allowances.

For over 50s there is an immediate increase to £10 200 (£5 100 in Cash ISA)
For everybody else the change happens in April 2010.

Posted by Sean Wilson, Independent Financial Adviser (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Budget Special BBC Radio Swindon

I will be appearing with Matthew Smith on BBC Radio Swindon 5-6pm discussing the Budget on Wednesday (22 April).

Listen on 103.6FM or online

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_swindon/

You may need to download Real Player
http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/categories/plug/real/newreal.shtml?intro2

Posted by Sean Wilson, Independent Financial Adviser (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

What are Corporate Bonds?

With interest rates approaching zero investors are looking around for alternative investments including Corporate Bonds....which begs the question, what are they?

Corporate Bonds are issued by companies to raise money. They are an IOU, with a promise to pay back the money at a set date plus regular interest payments.

They are tradeable, which means the price will vary...normally rising as interest rates fall and fall when interest rates rise.

Note: seek professional advice before making any investment decision

Posted by Sean Wilson, Independent Financial Adviser, Swindon, Wiltshire.

Interest Rates Cut to 1%

The Bank of England has once again made history by dropping its Base rate to 1%.

Will it make any difference to an economy in free fall? Probably not. Again the decreases are unlikely to be passed on to borrowers or businesses

The government and the Bank of England now have stakes in most of the High Street Banks and Building Societies such as Swindon based Nationwide with a massive 60% in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

Ideally this would mean forcing institutions to start lending however the government does not appear to want to use this option.


Posted by Sean Wilson, Independent Financial Adviser, Swindon, Wiltshire.

Financial & Economic prospects for 2009?

What does 2009 offer for the economy, your finances & your job?

America should pick up after Obama takes power, not so much that he will do dramatic things but confidence should start coming back.

Britain? Hmmm, Gordon Brown needs a few early nights....People working in "cyclical" industries, those which expand which expand & contact quickly eg housing & shops, will continue to face tough times.

The low value of the pound is also worrying, it makes imports more expensive. (Does Britain make much to export these days?)

The key thing is whether political leaders and their economic advisers show some courage & leadership which George W Bush unfortunately lacked.

A to Z of 2008...Credit Crunch, recession, Iceland

2008 was a busy year for everybody in financial Services & a new star was born in Robert Peston, the BBC's Mr Credit Crunch.

Money marketing have a useful A to Z of the year's events. (not online so far)

eg Z is for Zero : the number of banking jobs left in Iceland

10 Reasons to use an Independent Financial Adviser : 1

1 We are independent. We are not tied to any particular group. This means our recommendations are unbiased & impartial.

Many advisers only have ties to certain product providers. This can generate higher commissions for the advisers involved. Always check for independence.

The question to ask, "are you independent & whole of market?"

To be continued

VAT Reduction of 2.5%

Will Alistair Darling's 13 month reduction of VAT by 2.5% have any effect on an ailing economy?

A client remarked to me last week that they would not rush into a shop advertising a 2.5% reduction..

One problem for businesses is re-calculating their VAT bills.