Famed for their knee-quivering food adverts, Marks & Spencer have taken a dramatic step to boost sales: they have embraced the credit crunch.  After revealing their recent dramatic loss of market share, the Rolls Royce of UK supermarkets has abandoned their attitude of indulgence and is tapping into the changing mindset of UK consumers, who [...]

Consumer confidence in the current UK economy is at the lowest level since the end of the last recession in 1992.  And with families increasingly feeling the pressure of rising utility, food and mortgage costs, confidence in the future of the UK economy has plummeted to levels not recorded for 26 years, in 1982.*
With consumers [...]

It was around this time last year that the first rumblings began emerging from the international markets of serious problems with the US sub-prime mortgage market. Many of us have felt the resulting effects of tightened credit conditions, and it’s far from over – in fact, it appears that things are still getting worse.
The British [...]

I have a dark secret: I have thus far been reluctant to embrace a green lifestyle.  To me, words such as ‘green’ and ‘eco’ summon thoughts of middle-aged, unwashed types who give their children names like Star and River.  Not to mention the fact that I derive intense enjoyment from long, hot showers and long-haul [...]

No matter how tired you are of being endlessly broke, watching your mortgage repayments rise, and having to continuously put off getting the kitchen re-done because you just plain can’t afford it (not to mention those Gucci sling-backs that gave you the backside of a 16 year old), you’ve got to ask yourself: Is the credit [...]

British Gas customers should prepare for a rise in their electricity bills as the company reports that its profit margins have been squeezed to levels below ‘long run expectations’.
It would be the second price rise for British Gas customers in five months.  British Gas raised its prices in January this year in response to a hike [...]

Morgan Stanley recently delivered a grim warning that within the next 12 months UK house prices will fall by 15 per cent, and 1.2 million people will be pushed into negative equity as a result.
Many homeowners, particularly first time buyers, have borrowed 100% or more of their home’s value when taking out a mortgage over [...]

There are high hopes that the Chancellor’s intervention by way of a £50 billion mortgage bailout will help to re-stabilise financial markets and bring about the end of the beginning of the UK credit crunch.
Yesterday the Bank of England unveiled a £50 billion scheme designed to restore confidence into the ailing mortgage market.  The plan, [...]

Many households will be pushed over the edge into bankruptcy this year as borrowing channels dry up as a result of the international credit crunch.
A report from the TDX Group, which provides detailed debt-collection information to lenders, claims that about one millions consumers are struggling with ‘problem debt’, at an average of around £25,000 each.  [...]

Each month I put together a short summary of the best mortgage products currently available from UK mortgage lenders.  After reviewing this month’s best-buys, I am taken aback by how noticeably the trickle-down effect of international market turmoil is revealing itself.  The mortgage market is visibly shrinking.  Over the past two weeks three of the UK’s [...]