Reclaiming Complete Refunds from a PPI Claim

PPI is a policy designed to repay your loans, mortgages and credit cards in case you get sick or become unemployed. You actually lose £3000-3500 on average from a mis sold PPI. The only way to get back that money is through making a PPI claim. Here are a few things to know that will help you reclaim all your PPI refunds.

1.    Billing Statements

If you’ve collected all your bank billing statements for your loan or mortgage repayments, you could use them to have a rough estimate of how much refunds you are due. Confirm that these bills exist with your bank before you begin an attempt to reclaim your refunds.

2.    Compound Interests

In some cases, loan and mortgage repayments are tied together with the PPI repayments, and if you could prove that your interest rates increased because of the PPI repayments, you could be owed more than £3500. Compound interests can guarantee you a higher repayment rate, but you might need expert help. Claims experts are only the ones who could handle some details of PPI claiming involving compound interests.

3.    Settling

Contact your bank either by calling them or by writing a letter to them. Expect a response in a few days. Your bank can reach a decision about your PPI claim in two to eight weeks. If you are not satisfied with the response or you haven’t received a response, it is advised you seek help from the Financial Ombudsman.

An Investor’s Guide to 2014

The following year is a new world of promise for investors. With many new niche businesses that have potential great profits and technology lowering the risks involved, previously inaccessible terrains can now be approached with ease. Any investor should watch out for the following this upcoming year.

1.    Internet-based Businesses

Imagine if you had a large capital that could be broken down to smaller businesses that actually have a large ROI than your initial capital. This is what the Internet and small businesses actually can do for investors. The best thing about Internet-based businesses is that you gain less risk as every one of your business can go in different directions.

2.    Technology

Speaking of the Internet, the communications technology that connected the world is still improving and new technologies for accessing it, saving information and making business data easier to manage and assess are still going. App developers are also earning windfalls with more and more smartphones being produced each year.

3.    Oil

Oil’s value is to increase by 2014 as the supply of oil is gradually winding down. Oil might be expensive this 2013, but it will be higher by 2014 and the further years to come.

4.    Renewable Energies

As oil’s value is increasing in demand and decreasing in supply, it would be wise to invest in renewable energy technologies. Once the oil runs out, re-invest your money in renewable energy development. You could reap the efforts in the next few decades.

Debt Consolidation and Why it Can or Cannot Work For You

Increasing debts are a problem for the western world today with most of the economy strapped on credit. With people’s financing reaching high amounts, many turn to debt consolidation for help. However, will it actually guarantee you a better debt-free future?

 Debt consolidation could work for you if you want to take all your repayments and summarize them into one payment amount you need to pay regularly. This helps you stay organised and constantly address your debt. You would not even have to organise the highest to lowest interest rate loan.

You also get a lower interest rate because the entire debt is lumped together. This helps you get more for your personal and utility budget. This ensures that you could have an easy way out of debt.

However, it might not work for you because to lower some of your interest rates, you might need to use a home equity loan or other collateral. You may end up losing your home or other properties if you consolidate your loan.

Debt consolidation also does not guarantee that you will end your debt with a good credit score. Some debt consolidation companies use your monthly repayments to help in their negotiations with your creditors regarding the lower settlement on your account.

Accounting: Financial Frauds to Avoid

If you are running a business, never forget to inspect your accounting activities. Accounting is crucial because it allows regulators to ensure the quality and consistency of your businesses. It is highly important that you identify the following activities from your accountants before it is too late.

1.    Sales Revenue

All sales revenue must be reported and none of them should fall short from your list. Regulators will need to see all your sales revenue to ensure your tax deductibles are fairly distributed.

2.    Personal Expenses

Any undeclared personal expense that is not part of a business is considered illegal accounting. Even if you do not intend to, regulators will fine your company or bring a lawsuit if you include you or your employee’s personal expenses off the record and agreement with authorities.

3.    Kickbacks

Similar to the case of GlaxoSmithKline in China, getting kickbacks by having professionals endorse your products in exchange for favors or profit is illegal accounting. Businesses must also avoid accepting endorsements from sub-standard suppliers to get a cut in sales.

4.    Mysterious Fees

As much as possible, identify that all your financing and companies you are buying and selling from are properly named and identified on your balance sheets. Adding mysterious fees and illegal products in your roster could mean trouble for you, your accountant and your business.

Profiting from Tax-Free Investing

Investors face high Capital Gains Tax on profits they make selling stocks or assets. Tax-free investing ensures lower returns with lower taxes, but there are ways to profit highly from it.

1.    Cash ISA

Individual savings accounts are free of CGTs in the United Kingdom along with below £6000 worth of properties. You accumulate interest rates that are free from tax, allowing you to save up £5000 or more from your profits. Its high liquidity ensures that you have access to your money any time you need it.

2.    Stock and Shares ISA

Another form of ISA is an investment ISA account that allow you to hold stock shares and funds. Like Cash ISAs, you are free from tax. These include corporate and government bonds. The interest you get from the bonds will be free of income tax if an ISA holds them.

3.    Self-Select ISA

Self-select ISAs allow you to mix shares, funds and bonds using an ISA wrapper. However, you might have stockbrokers charge you a fee for fund trading and share dealing costs. However, be sure that you are a seasoned investor who knows the trade effectively before proceeding.

4.    Venture Capital Trusts

BCTs allow you to invest in unquoted firms who are only beginning. Most of these are listed in the Alternative Investment Market. Being high-risk investments, VCTs could provide income tax relief of 30%on their investments.

Protecting Your Investment Portfolio

No investor wants to get so much upset in their portfolio during a market crash. The worst of the stock market crashes to happen was in 2008-2009 when most people’s stock values lowered to half. However, the stock market still remains one of the best ways to grow your wealth and with good strategy, you could protect your investment portfolio effectively. Here are a few things to remember.

1.    Backup

The stock market has its own grey areas and an investor does not need to be too black or white about their investment decisions. You could always keep some of your money for backup just in case some of your investments fail. Ensuring a part of your investments remain liquidated helps reduce the impact of market downturns. As damages are easier assessed, the investor can then focus on using the downturn as an opportunity for profit growth.

2.    Limitations

Investors are free to hold on to their stock as long as they want, but they need to put a limitation on their stock ownership. A wise investor will sell the stock once it becomes devalued to a certain level. For example, if you put 25% of your purchase value as your limitation, a £100 stock’s limit would become £25. You would sell that stock once it reaches that value. When you limit your losses at 15-30%, you have a chance to recover from your losses. However, when you sell your stock during a sudden upturn, you can’t take advantage of the increase.

3.    Put Options

Put options are similar to stock futures except it allows an investor to sell the stock at a certain price to any other investor. For example, you could have purchased stocks with a price of £20, then you’ve decided to sell the stock if its value lowers to £25. The put option allows you to sell the stocks at such fixed amount regardless of market changes. This is beneficial because an investor could predict the profits they could get precisely.

Lump-Sum PPI Refunds and Compound Interests

If you’re a payment protection insurance claimant intending to get all your refunds, you’ll need to be prepared. Banks and lenders will try anything to discourage you from making your claim and one of these is offering you a lump-sum repayment. By offering you a lump-sum, you get at least 60% of the actual compensation you should receive, or even less, but you avoid the hassle of making a PPI claim.

Most customers will not settle for this amount. However, it is very practical to consider weighing your options before you proceed to make your own PPI claim. A lump-sum offering from a bank may be because a situation is so complex that you’ll need legal and expert support to resolve the issue. Surely, you could get a higher refund, but claims experts usually charge you 25-30% of the amount you get from the refund, which might be the same amount as the lump-sum offering, maybe even more.

But you will want to avoid a lump-sum repayment if you know that the PPI caused your loan interests to increase. These compound interests may be complex and you might need expert help to calculate the total costs of your refunds. This is when it is advisable to call in legal help when needed and much better if you can do it on your own.

However, it is not always a bad deal when you get a lump-sum offering. If you really see that your repayment amounts should be higher, then calculate your actual refund before you ask for expert help.

How Could You Rebuild Good Credit Scores?

Being at the low end of the credit scoreboard is difficult as it is disappointing because you get higher interest rates and unfair deals with creditors. Getting off this mess means rebuilding your credit score with the following tips.

1.     Review Your Credit Scores Monthly

A regular monitoring of your credit scores helps you know your progress and formulate objectives to increase your credit scores. As soon as positive reports come into your mail, you could expect that your scores can change.

2.     The Small Things

When fixing your credit scores, it is important that you don’t only tackle the big issues of your finances, such as your decisions or other negative information. Make sure to pay attention to all details, including your personal information, address and phone number. Remember, there is a chance that somebody is named similar to you and you might be using their credit instead of what is yours.

3.     Double Jeopardy

Collection accounts could be sold from one collection agency to another, and sometimes, these accounts could go unpaid, which inflates the amount of debt you owe. Surely, this will take intense investigation to ascertain the error, however, this could save you so much money in the process.

The Things You Need For Getting Successful Mortgages This Year

Today in 2013, property values are continuing to gain rising prices with a shaky momentum, leading some homesellers to gain more than their expected value. Lenders are still as strict as they were in 2012 when it comes to providing homebuyers mortgages. It is important that you take note of the following if you’re taking out mortgage this year.

1.     Complete Credentials and Extra Copies

The number one reason why some mortgage deals don’t push through for some homebuyers is that customers could not immediately follow up a lost personal document to a lender. However, if you have at least two to three hard and soft copies of your credentials, you could immediately replace anything your mortgage lender loses.

2.     High Credit Scores

A high credit score is important for taking out mortgages today. A score of 630 (which is my score by the way) is already enough to guarantee you an additional Mortgage Protection Insurance. A high credit score can ensure you a low interest mortgage deal, but it is also important to consider maintaining this high score for refinancing opportunities after your mortgage term.

3.     Haggle

Haggling is a good way to shake down your lender and give you a more reasonable price for the mortgage. The secret to haggling is research and meeting other lenders willing to provide you a mortgage deal. Compare all three deals and use the information they provide against each lender. Once you’ve shaken down the three deals, choose one that actually works for you.

Finance Tips: Common Credit Card Problems

In my own experience, owning a credit card was a way to develop my financial capabilities and access to better bank and finance products and services. Most people view credit cards as a personal bank account that you could pay later with interest, but this viewpoint is a formula sure to make it difficult to get out of debt. Here are some common credit card problems owners have.

1.     Paying on Time

One time, I had problems paying my credit card on time simply because I maxed out my credit card. I could only pay for at least 40% of the total debt I have. Note that my credit card’s limit is 3% every month of unpaid bills. Paying on time is a problem if you don’t take note of the things you purchase with your card, or if you let it go out of hand.

2.     Paying in Full

Today, when I purchase items with my credit card, I make sure that I could repay it in full. Repaying your card on time and in full helps you avoid trouble with big interest rates, keeps your card free and helps you increase your credit score as well.

3.     List Them Down

Regardless of how big or small your credit card purchases are, list them down. I developed the habit of carrying a small notebook or opening a listing application on my smartphone to list down the product and the price of the items I buy with my credit card. This is helpful because it helps me avoid maxing out my credit cards.

4.     Use Actual Money

 Your credit card and all its financing services are helpful if you’re only buying the things you need. Today, when I buy something I want that will not generate income, I would save up for it. Using actual money instead helps you develop monetary discipline and patience.

Knowing If You’re Mis Sold an Insurance Product

Banks can deceive you into buying certain products or services that would eat right into your budget and lining their pockets with silver. By selling you insurance, they could actually achieve this. In the United Kingdom, the biggest financial scandal involved an insurance policy that amounted to about £16 billion in compensation for the entire United Kingdom. Here are a few ways to know how your bank mis sells insurance policies to customers.

1.     Without Explaining Anything

Bank representatives and financial experts may present to you the insurance product without even explaining anything about the terms and conditions of the product. The terms an insurance product has dictates which circumstances can the customer get the support provided by the insurance product. Financial advisers have the responsibility to explain this thoroughly.

2.     Concealed

Some banks just insert the insurance policy as “part of the package” included with the clearance of the insurance. Also, banks can claim that the insurance policy is a bonus for customers with a high credit score. All insurance policies will need the consent of the customer upon purchase and anything sold without the customer’s consent is invalid automatically.

3.     Inaccuracies with Credit Cards

Most people with credit cards make use of their financial service on a monthly basis with high and low amount purchases. With the dynamic changes in the monthly costs, it is easy for banks to conceal the mis sold insurance product repayments by labelling the items in most receipts as miscellaneous fees. Find these and sort them out with your bank.

The Inaccuracies You May Find In Your Credit Card

Let's face it. We can't help use the credit card at times - whether it's for an emergency or impulse buying. However, once the bill arrives, we often wonder about the possible inaccuracies printed on your bill. This could hurt your credit history. Do not fret. These things happen and while you're quick to notice about it, there are ways to solve this also.

Data errors

You may notice that your billing statement may include accounts that aren't yours. It may also say that you lived somewhere you didn't. It may also indicate there that you have a different spelling of your name. While this may seem suspicious, it does not mean that someone has possibly stolen your identity. We can credit this to human error. Sometimes, it takes time for credit reports to include out-of-date details (ex. Old address or employer). If this is your problem, then you should clear your report of errors to the agency.

Identity theft
It is easy to start a new account whether it may be credit, utility or health care, under your name. Purchases and services are unpaid thereafter. Because of this, your credit score sinks lower. These forces collection agencies to take over. Usually, identity theft using credit card happens online. They will use your SSN, last name or birthday to create a fake identity. Everyone should be proactive in checking your credit reports.

Incorrect account balances
You may possibly notice that your credit report is higher than it should be. While you may think that there is a problem or someone has possibly used your card, that may not be the case. It could also be a time lag. If you wish to change the balance listed on your credit report, you can get an updated balance through the credit bureau. But you may be charged for that service.