1. interest rate Yorkshire Building Society has cut mortgage rates for those with a 15% deposit, offering a three-year fixed rate deal at 4.59% with a £495 fee. Other highlights in the newly priced range include: - Two-year fixed rate at 3.99% with a £995 fee - Three-year tracker at 3.49% with a £495 fee (Bank [ Read More → ]
  2. Photo / Thinkstock The New Zealand economy feels a lot like a ‘Zombie Nation’ that wants to keep extending the loans and pretending that eventually everything will eventually go back to normal. Parts of our financial system and many property owners have been in a zombie-like state for much of the last two years, [ Read More → ]
  3. 08.19.10

    ‘Vultures’ Save Troubled Homeowners

    Anna and Charlie Reynolds of St. George, Utah, were worried about losing their home to foreclosure last year. Then they got a lucky break—from an unlikely savior. Some investment funds are emerging as the best hope for millions of U.S. households, like the Reynolds, above, who were behind on [ Read More → ]
  4. 08.16.10

    For job leads, face time beats high-tech tools

    A year ago, Stephen Udden was laid off, a victim of outsourcing when the telecommunications company where he worked as a software engineer project manager moved operations overseas, and his office in the United States was shuttered. The Foxborough resident has since been updating his skills. He has received business strategy [ Read More → ]
  5. 08.11.10

    Home owners have no equity to remortgage

    Selling houses: a couple looking in an estate agent The latest lending statistics suggested the number of people who remortgaged their homes in June was just 27,000, down 20 per cent on a year earlier. Ed Stansfield, chief property economist at Capital Economics, said: “There is a sense that people have too little equity in their homes to be able to switch [ Read More → ]
  6. 08.07.10

    One income must fit all

    In suburban Toronto, a couple we’ll call Wayne, 34, and Julia, 35, are raising their two children, ages four and six. Julia hasn’t worked for years and doesn’t want to return to a job. They want to save for the kids’ education, move up from their $600,000 house to one [ Read More → ]
  7. 08.07.10

    ALL BUSINESS: Risks abound if too many refinance

    NEW YORK - Lots of homeowners are frustrated these days that they can’t seem to get a mortgage refinance even though interest rates are at historic lows. It turns out they’re not alone. Plenty of people on Wall Street would also love to see a boom in refinancing activity, saying it [ Read More → ]
  8. 08.02.10

    AP IMPACT: New ID theft targets kids’ SS numbers

    KANSAS CITY, Mo.—The latest form of identity theft doesn’t depend on stealing your Social Security number. Now thieves are targeting your kid’s number long before the little one even has a bank account. Hundreds of online businesses are using computers to find dormant Social Security numbers — usually those assigned to [ Read More → ]
  9. 07.29.10

    How to improve your credit rating

    Cutting credit card (Pic:Getty) Millions of Brits have hit financial difficulties during the recession and struggled to make ends meet. It’s been a tough few years that will have left many people with a glitch or two on repayment records. Paying off some lenders one month and others the next could have left marks on credit [ Read More → ]
  10. 07.24.10

    Doubling Down on Housing

    CASHHOUSEThe housing crash has left at least 11 million people in the unenviable position of owing more on their homes than they are worth—and many more millions with properties worth far less than they paid for them. But some might not be as trapped as they think. Record-low mortgage rates and a [ Read More → ]