Shave £100,000 off your mortgage by doing... NOTHING!Written by Peter Parsons
Surely it can't be possible? To chop 100 big ones off your mortgage without even trying? How about chopping a few years off term of mortgage too, all absolutely free? Sound too good to be true? Well, dear home buyer, get a load of this! We will consider UK for purposes of this article (although principle is valid anywhere). First of all, let's remember that UK property boom is now well and truly over, and prices are sliding (according to UK's 'Land Registry', official source for property transaction figures), and have done so for 11 months straight.Like all booms, this one went bust, and as it is a property boom, resultant crash appears to be in slow motion, with a 'water torture' of continuous falls, probably (if history is any lesson!) for between 5 to 7 years. Sounds nasty? Not at all. It in fact provides an opportunity for you to save yourself hundreds of thousands, and literally years off your mortgage. The average house in UK has now dropped back down to just below £170,000 and is heading south. So what, I hear you cry. Consider cost of servicing a £170,000 mortgage at close to long term UK average interest rate (we'll use 7% as an example - actually 1% comfortably BELOW long term UK interest rates!). Over 25 years, that property will cost you £1,201.52 a month, each and every month for 25 years making a total cost of £190,456 in interest. This means that after 25 years, you will own house, and it will have cost you £360,456. Surprisingly large amount, isn't it? And here's where REALLY interesting bit comes in. General inflation in UK is running at just below 3%. Assuming by some miracle that realtor's preferred 'soft landing' (stagnation) scenario happens, that still means that over 3 years, prices will have effectively dropped by 10% or so. And what if we get 'gentle falls' - say 5% a year? That adds up to 15%. Add on general inflation, and houses in 3 years time are likely to be, under this scenario, 25% cheaper than now. If prices actually 'crash' as they usually do, in 3 years average UK house could be a measly £110,500.
| | Debt Consolidation – How to Protect Your Credit Accounts from TheftWritten by Charles Essmeier
Last week, a security exploit at CardSystems Solutions, Inc, a credit card processor, may have allowed thieves to obtain as many as 40 million credit card numbers from unsuspecting victims. The theft was brought about though a virus introduced into CardSystems that allowed external hackers to obtain access to account information. Adding to problem was fact that CardSystems wasn’t supposed to have account information at all. It appears that CardSystems “inappropriately” held onto information after clearing credit card transactions. At that point, account information should have been deleted. CardSystems held onto account information for supposed “research purposes.” Fortunately for those involved, compromised information only included account numbers and not Social Security numbers, which would have assisted thieves in identity theft scams. This latest security breach at a credit card processor outlines how anyone can be vulnerable to account or even identity theft. Is there anything that can be done about it?
The credit card companies largely dictate relationships between credit card companies and credit card processors. They are supposed to keep tabs on processors and make sure that processors use secure measures to protect data of customers. These issues are not governed by law, but processors
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