Try Financial Merry Christmas Offer
It’s that time of year again where Christmas has come around, we are all spending on presents for our loved ones and friends and can find it quite hard to find additional spending money.
Worry not! Try Financial is here to help you with our wonderful Christmas offer and are giving you the chance to save £150 off all completion fees this Christmas.
Simply get in contact via phone, email or the website and see how we can help today, quoting the following code below when using us for all your financial services this Christmas.
Code: XTRYF150
Bonus Offer: Refer a friend to Try Financial by 20th December 2019 using the above code and you will receive a £75 gift voucher of your choice upon completion of your friends application.
Disclaimer: This offer is available until 17:00 on 20th December 2019 and friend referrals can be done an unlimited amount of times. As long as the application is completed, you will receive your gift vouchers.
An In-Depth Look at Adverse Credit
‘Adverse Credit’ is a term used to describe a less-than-perfect record of repaying credit commitments. Those with ‘Adverse Credit’ will have negative payment information on their Credit Report, such as a Default, Arrangement to Pay, an insolvency, or a mortgage repossession. The term can also refer to a series of late payments on a Credit Report.
Adverse Credit will affect your Credit Rating and as such your ability to take out finance. This information will remain on your Credit Report for six years from the date of account closure, after which time it will automatically be removed. This will continue to have a negative impact while it remains on your Credit Report, but it may become less significant the older it gets provided the rest of your Credit Report is clear of such negative information
Lenders often mention their policies if they will not lend to people with Adverse Credit. This is because it has been statistically proven that those customers are statistically much more likely to default on credit agreements than others without a slim or negative credit history.
As such, some lenders specialise in lending to those with Adverse Credit that operate in the sub-prime lending market. These lenders usually charge considerably more for credit to cover the additional costs of default, and of managing the accounts of those statistically more likely to miss payments.
Our friends over at Pepper Money have put together a document giving an in-depth look at adverse credit and its impact. For more information please find the PDF below.
What you need to know about CCJs
A County Court Judgement (CCJ) is a type of court order in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland that may be registered against you if you fail to repay money you owe.
If you find yourself with a CCJ the claim won’t come out of the blue. Before this stage, the creditor must send you a warning letter or default notice, letting you know that you need to repay what you owe, otherwise legal action will start.
For credit agreements regulated under the Consumer Credit Act, you must be sent a default notice, at least 14 days before any action is taken.
You’ll know when you have a County Court Judgment against you when you receive this letter or notice.
The letter or notice should tell you how you can respond and what action might be taken if you don’t.
It must also include a copy of the Financial Conduct Authority’s default information sheet.
For more information on what a CCJ is, what they can be issued for and how it can effect you, please read our detailed guide from our friends at Pepper Money – here.
Property markets showing signs of picking up
There are signs of the property market picking up in England and Wales, and in parts of London, according to the latest real estate market analysis.
Average prices for July in England and Wales, excluding new build, reached £263,145, up 2.2% month on month, according to the report from London Central Portfolio (LCP), but annual growth was almost static at 0.8%, the weakest since 2011.
However, sales increased year on year by 2.2% to reach 807,478 due to a surge in quarterly sales, reversing the fall in 2018.
New build annual average prices rise 4.9% to £308,411, a 15.8% premium over existing stock and annual sales were up 12.6% to 98,922, rising to 12.6% of all sales.
In Greater London average prices in July, excluding new build, rose by 3.1% month on month to £644,746, the strongest monthly performance since 2014 while annual prices increased by 1.9%, outperforming 2018. The fall in annual transactions slowed to just 1.7%, to 85,701 and quarterly sales increased by 33.4%.
New build prices rose by 2.9% year on year to £720,448, a 17.4% premium
over older stock.
However, new build transactions continue to plummet with an annual fall of
20.1% to 11,591.
‘Whilst these signs of recovery are good news for a market which has been languishing, greater political and economic certainty will, without doubt, reinforce this. At the moment, this appears to be in the balance. Developers will certainly be watching carefully, having faced a difficult year, with annual sales down over 20%,’ said Naomi Heaton, LCP chief executive officer.
Meanwhile, in the prime central London market average annual prices recorded a more modest growth of 1.5% to £1,909,015, but monthly and quarterly prices fell while sales also fell, down by 5% to 3,242, although this was the smallest decline since 2014.
New build average prices increased annually by 9.3% to £3,425,886 while sales fell by 52% from two years ago to just 417.
Heaton said that there are indications that the fall in transactions is bottoming out. ‘With a drop of just 5% over the year, this is the lowest fall since 2014. This has been buoyed by a surge in sales over the last quarter, reflecting the flurry of activity prior to the original Brexit deadline of March 29th,’ she pointed out.
‘An increase in activity normally presages price growth, although investors may hold back again to see if sterling weakens further, with the prospect of a no-deal Brexit,’ she added
Source Propertywire 04/09/2019
Try Financial supports Headway Suffolk
Try Financial are pleased to announce their support for the Ipswich charity, Headway Suffolk. We will be donating a percentage of income we receive to the charity and look forward to seeing more ways we can work with them going forward.
Headway Suffolk is a registered charity in England (no.1075338) that offers advice, support, rehabilitation and support services to anyone (over the age of 16) who has, during their lifetime, sustained a brain injury through traumatic accident, stroke, virus, tumor, neurological conditions or other similar event.
Read more about them at their website: Headway Suffolk
Try Financial Marketing Strategy
Try Financial have been helping local people and Businesses with their financial requirements from Personal Mortgages, Business Loans and many other financial areas for many years. As one of the many challenges that face many businesses is being known in your area for the great service you provide and when looking to expand your excellent customer service relying on recommendations alone can become difficult so advertising and reaching out is very important.
Through marketing partners Clear Mud Media, Try Financial were able to sit down, strategize and engage with a few new ways to attract new business and brand awareness in the local area of Ipswich. Personalising social media and putting pictures and fun facts to the names of Try Financials team was an important part to the strategy. Making the company seem friendly, approachable and not a faceless company (People want to deal with people) that has become a very strong point of Try Financials social media strategy – open, honest, approachable and informative whilst being independent.
Through Clear Mud Media Collaborations with the ever-growing audience of the Ipswich Fan Zone we’ve partnered Try Financial with this channel that broadcasts at least twice a week on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1whuMZ2Xon88oPtu6QPjuw/search?query=try+financial
This channel is made by the fans for the fans and there is a lot of opinions and much more engagement that you may not find on the club’s own channel. Try Financials support for the season was welcomed by Clear Mud and Ashley and communicating how fans can access financial advice from the Try Financial team is a weekly promotion. Barry Scott from Try Financial came up with a raffle idea where one lucky fan won a season ticket, have a look here. https://www.facebook.com/ashley.symonds.39/videos/10156634782808732/
Try Financial also wanted to give back to the local community and were looking for a local team to support and approached Achilles FC, one of the best non-league football teams in the Area. Luckily there was an opportunity be get involved. Try financial with the help of their Marketing Partners Clear Mud Media arranged the main sponsorship and helping the club in other ways moving forward. Just being the name on the shirt is not enough, Try Financial and Clear Mud Media want to help the team and members where they can in marketing and financial services where they are needed. Try Financial are keen to be involved in other ways with the club from their social events to end of season awards. On the first home game Barry got the first round in for all the players and coaching staff, it was a great first home win, 4-1 to Achilles FC.
Consumer County Court Judgements Hold Steady
The number of County Court judgments (CCJs) issued against consumers in England and Wales in the first half of 2019 rose just three percent, to 586,765, compared to the same period of 2018, according to figures released today (July 24) by Registry Trust.
Click here for more information on the statistics.
Borrowers earning over £70k are still having problems securing a mortgage
If you are fortunate enough to earn an above-average income, the conventional wisdom suggests that lenders are keen to provide a mortgage for your new home.
However, one of the greatest paradoxes in the mortgage industry is that many successful people find it just as hard to secure a mortgage as those on modest or average incomes.
Why is it that those earning above £70,000 are finding it difficult, and what can the industry do about it?
Zero hours contracts
According to the Office for National Statistics, shortly after the coalition government took office in 2010, the number of people on zero hours contracts rose significantly. It reached a peak of around 900,000 at the end of 2016, and fell back slightly to around 850,000 at the end of 2018.
The proportion of the workforce on zero hours contracts also increased, varying between 0.4 per cent and 0.8 per cent from 2000 to 2012, before rising to a peak of 2.8 per cent in 2016.
Many people don’t associate a zero hours contract with high earners. However, if someone is on a very healthy income and is self-employed, many lenders assess their income in precisely the same way.
If income is not guaranteed and there is no fixed-term employment contract, they could be classified by many lenders as being on a zero hours contract. A classic example of this very scenario is a barrister.
Qualified barristers in private practice with around five years’ experience can earn anything from around £50,000 to £200,000 per year. For those with over ten years’ experience, earnings can range from £65,000 to £1,000,000. Yet barristers in private practices can struggle to find a lender willing to help.
Technology is a barrier
Technology will have an important role to play in the future of the industry, however, unless it works hand-in-hand with common sense and experience, it becomes a barrier.
We have seen an increase in the number of higher earners coming to us after experiencing major difficulties in trying to secure a mortgage elsewhere.
The most recent example was one of our customers who is one of the world’s leading performance psychologists and an expert in high performance. His skills have helped six sports people get to the top spot and he delivers leadership programmes at board level for organisations all around the globe.
He was looking to remortgage his house to buy a new property, had accounts which showed year on year growth for many years and he had never missed a mortgage payment in twelve years. He explained that none of the lenders he had talked to would look at his situation because he ‘did not fit their computer algorithms’.
We worked with the broker and the customer to get a full perspective on his application and history. One of the main questions our underwriters asked was: “Is this individual going to struggle to find work in the future?”
This made it an
easy lending decision for us. While there was no evidence of an employment
contract in place, after talking to the customer it was clear that his
experience, reputation and personality would make future employment problems
unlikely.
The importance of analysis
As the political and financial outlook remains volatile, we believe that brokers will play an increasing role in the mortgage industry. We think complex applications will increase and the experience of brokers will be invaluable in offering the right advice.
What they need from lenders, particularly when dealing with wealthier customers with complicated income sources, is the freedom to apply common sense and experience. Currently, most of the industry relies mainly on the inflexible rules set by computers rather than taking the time to understand applications from a holistically affordability perspective.
Higher earners need specialist support.
Research reveals fewer two-up, two-down homes are being built
The two-up, two-down house, which used to be a staple of the British housing market, is no longer popular with the number being built halved in the last 20 years, new research shows.
Indeed, two bedroom houses now make up just 2% of new build houses for sale in some areas and 9% overall, according to a study by modular homes developer ProjectEtopia. It suggests this is making it harder for people to get on the housing ladder.
Its analysis of latest official figures shows that 9% of all new properties for sale completed in 2017/2018 were two-bedroom houses and this is down from 17% two decades ago.
Since the data was first collected, two bedroom houses peaked at 23% of all new build homes in 1992/1993 and 1993/1994 and they have not risen above 10% since 2012/2013.
Further analysis of new build houses currently on the market with online property portal Zoopla shows that two bedroom houses make up as little as 2% to 3% of the houses on the market in some areas.
In Durham, Cambridge, Stafford, Nottingham, Crawley and Birmingham, more than 97% of new build houses for sale have three or more bedrooms while in Blackburn, Bolton, Darlington, Gateshead and Gosport, there are no new build two bedroom houses for sale at all.
Other places suffering the two-up, two-down drought with no new build two bedroom houses on the market are Hastings, Rochdale, Slough, Stevenage, Wigan and Worcester.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s completion data shows houses made up 80% of new build properties in 2017/2018, with flats making up the rest.
‘The two-up, two-down was once thought of as the typical first house for aspiring home owners, giving people a step onto the ladder where they have space to start building a family,’ said Joseph Daniels, chief executive officer of ProjectEtopia.
‘But couples are inevitably finding it increasingly difficult to buy smaller two bedroom homes because developers have simply stopped building enough of them. Decades of inadequate home building has already left hundreds of thousands of people unable to afford to buy a place of their own. Developers need to remember they’re building for people, not just profit,’ he added.
More than half of landlords increased rents in June, says latest lettings report
The number of tenants in the UK’s private rented sector experiencing rent rises increased to the highest figure on record in June, the latest report from letting agents show.
More than half, some 55%, of agents reported landlords increasing rents, up 22% compared with May which was a previous record high, the report from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) reveals.
Year on year, the number of tenants facing rent increases also increased, up from 31% in June 2017, and higher than the 35% recorded in June 2018, the data also shows.
Letting agents had an average of 199 properties under management per member branch in June, a decrease from 201 in May.
Demand from prospective tenants also increased marginally in June, with the number of house hunters registered per branch rising to 70 on average, compared to 69 in May. Year on year, demand has fallen, from 71 house hunters registered per branch in June 2018.
The data also shows that in June, the number of landlords exiting the market remained at four per branch, unchanged from June 2018.
‘Unsurprisingly, rent costs hit a record high in June as tenants suffered the impact of the tenant fee ban. Ever since the Government proposed the ban, we warned that tenants would continue to pay the same amount, but the cost would be passed onto tenants through increased rents, rather than upfront costs,’ said David Cox, ARLA chief executive.
‘In addition to the repercussions of the Tenant Fees Act, the proposed abolition of Section 21, coupled with the Mayor of London’s recent call for rent controls, will only cause the sector to shrink further. In turn this will increase pressure on the sector because it will discourage new landlords from investing in the market, causing rents to rise for tenants as less rental accommodation is available,’ he added.
