Mortgage lenders have warned that there may be a shortage of credit in the coming months, leading to many first time buyers unable to secure mortgages.

The Council of Mortgage lenders has said that government schemes to keep mortgage lending afloat end in 2014, leaving a funding gap of £300 billion.

Before all the economic problems of the last few months, the gap between what the banks took in savings versus what they lent out was covered my the wholesale market in mortgage debt. However when the world financial markets were hit in 2007, the UK government was forced to plug this gap with the special liquidity scheme and credit guaranteed scheme.  Read more... (173 words, 1 image, estimated 42 secs reading time)

No-win no-fee lawyers are said to be the main cause of increasing car insurance premiums this year. Research shows that the average car insurance premium is set to rise 15 percent this year.

According to Consumer Intelligence, the average annual premium is £564.19, almost 20 percent higher than the same time last year – and is predicted to rise by 15 percent to £648.82 by January 2011.

There are two main factors contributing to the rise – the first are no-win no-fee solicitors whose ads on TV have seen many more people deciding to pursue personal injury claims after crashes, pushing up the amounts insurance companies have to pay out and therefore increasing premiums.  Read more... (143 words, 1 image, estimated 34 secs reading time)

The Office for National Statistics has released figures showing how bloated the UK’s public sector is. According to the ONS, 23,000 extra workers joined the public sector in the three months to September; over the same period of time, employment rose in the private sector by 29,000 although many of these were part-time jobs.

The biggest public sector recruiter is the NHS which employs 1.6 million people.

6.09 million people are now said to be working for the State – the equivalent of 1 in 5 people of working age.  Read more... (166 words, estimated 40 secs reading time)

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has stepped in to look at the heavy-handed sales tactics employed by many sale and rent back companies.

Sale and rent back companies have seen a massive increase in growth over the past year thanks to the current recession. Many companies have cashed in on the fact that many people are struggling to keep up the repayments on their mortgage and coupled with other debts, they are looking for a quick way to get their hands on a large amount of cash whilst being able to stay in their homes.  Read more... (276 words, estimated 1:06 mins reading time)

A rare Royal Mint error has let hundreds of 20 pence coins be released into circulation without dates on them.

The 20p has recently been redesigned thanks to the unwritten rule that coin designs should change at least every 40 years to keep the coinage fresh. The new design sees the year date being moved from the tails side of the coin to the side with the Queen’s head.

However somewhere quality control slipped up and a ‘mule’ design was let into circulation. Accidentally, thousands of 20p coins were minted using the old version of the ‘heads’ side, leaving coins without dates printed on them.  Read more... (164 words, estimated 39 secs reading time)

The Universal Product Code aka the barcode celebrates it’s 35th birthday this month. The first ever official ‘swipe’ took place on 26 June 1974 at a supermarket in Ohio and with barcodes being swiped around 10 billion times a day, their use is now synonymous with 21st century life.

Not everyone liked the barcode when it first came out and there were plenty of people bandying conspiracy theories about how government’s could track people using barcode. However barcodes have helped millions of businesses over the last three decades with a Price Waterhouse study showing that retailers had saved around $17 billion on grocery products alone thanks to the humble barcode.  Read more... (363 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

For individuals who will be stung by the latest announcements in the Budget, many will be looking to move abroad into a tax haven – somewhere with lower taxes and often sunnier weather too. Here at MoneyTowers.com we have picked our top five tax haven countries.

Switzerland
Switzerland is probably one of the first countries that spring to mind when people think of tax havens. In fact, the French-speaking cantons in Switzerland are said to be seeing unprecedented numbers of Brits looking to buy property in the country.  Read more... (509 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)