Browse content similar to 01/03/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Before that, we have this week's Your Money. | :00:00. | :00:15. | |
This is Your Money, your weekly guide to making the most of your | :00:16. | :00:21. | |
cash here every weekend on BBC News television available all week on the | :00:22. | :00:24. | |
BBC iPlayer. More and more people are seeking | :00:25. | :00:28. | |
help for problems with payday loans. What alternatives are out there? | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
Peter tut ton from the debt charity StepChange has the answer for us in | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
a moment. In recent weeks and months, the talk in most of the | :00:38. | :00:42. | |
media's been about the return of a bouyant housing market. For some | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
parts of the country, the property picture looks bleak with nearly half | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
a million homes stuck in negative equity. As we approach the end of | :00:51. | :00:56. | |
the tax year, we look at common mistakes people make with savings | :00:57. | :00:59. | |
and investments. We have tips for how to avoid them. | :01:00. | :01:09. | |
There's been a big rise in the number of the people struggling with | :01:10. | :01:15. | |
payday loans. The step change debt charity says nearly 67,000 people | :01:16. | :01:19. | |
asked for its advice last year. Up over 80% on the year before. The | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
average client who asked for help had an overall debt of over ?1700 | :01:25. | :01:31. | |
spread across three payday loans. But what are the alternatives? Peter | :01:32. | :01:36. | |
from StepChange debt charity joins me now. Peter, there's been a rise | :01:37. | :01:42. | |
of people getting into duct. Why are we seeing this rise? Why are there | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
more people finding themselves in this sort of trouble? A third more | :01:48. | :01:52. | |
people contacted our helpline service, in particular a rise in | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
payday loans. It is because times are still very hard. Household | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
incomes have been hit hard over a long peered. People are struggling | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
to make ends meet. People are struggling with basic things, paying | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
the rent and fuel bills. People are using credit to fill that gap. | :02:12. | :02:17. | |
Problem is, if you're using a payday loan, a short repayment peered, you | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
create a bigger gap next month. You get into the cycle of having to use | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
more and more credit to make ends meet and you fall over badly. I | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
imagine people going to payday lenders have exhausted what they can | :02:33. | :02:36. | |
with banks. What other credible alternatives are out there? A lot of | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
the people we see will have a lot of outstanding credit with mainstream | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
lenders like banks. The first thing they are exhausting with the banks | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
is if you are using a payday loan because you can't get credit from | :02:51. | :02:55. | |
the banks but are making payments to other credit, first thing to do is | :02:56. | :02:59. | |
ask for help. Rather than think, get more credit, ask for help from your | :03:00. | :03:05. | |
lenders, get some advice. We would expect lenders to be showing people | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
in hardship may need to pay less for a period of time until they get back | :03:10. | :03:15. | |
on their feet. It may be credit but utility providers and landlords. | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
Credit is not the answer to financial difficulties. If credit | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
can help you. Before taking it, you think, can I afford to make it pay | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
it back? If you can pay it back there are other things like credit | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
unions. They are still patchy but there's a lot of work going on. | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
Local authorities are working to try to get more provision. Do shopping | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
around. You may be able to get a cheaper loan. Look at a loan that | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
takes longer to pay back. Less pressure on your next month's | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
finances. When people call your charity, what do you offer them? The | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
first thing is we reassure people there is a way out of debt. It looks | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
like a nightmare but people can get out. We help people budge he and | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
prioritise what's important. We find people are not able to pay for food | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
because she are paying credit agreements. Firstly, make sure you | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
can pay for your essentials. We help negotiate with creditors, | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
affordable, sustainable solutions. Other solutions. We can help with | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
things like bankruptcy and things like that. There are a range of | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
options out there rather than using credit you cannot afford. Get some | :04:32. | :04:37. | |
advice if you're struggling. Peter, thank you. | :04:38. | :04:40. | |
It will cost you more to post a letter from the end of the month. | :04:41. | :04:45. | |
Royal Mail's announced price inceases. The price of a first`class | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
stamp will increase by 2p. A second class stamp goes up 3p. If you want | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
to send a large letter, that anything up to 100 g, you'll have to | :04:56. | :05:05. | |
pay 3p more. Or second class is a rise of 4p. These prices kick in on | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
31st March of the In spite of what you're told, many | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
parts of the UK are not experiencing record house prices. Nearly half a | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
million households in the UK are still in negative equity meaning | :05:21. | :05:23. | |
their homes are worth less than their mortgages. That can make it | :05:24. | :05:27. | |
impossible for such people to sell up and move on. Overall, 8% of | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
borrowers are in that situation. In are parts of the country where house | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
prices are falling, the problem appears to have got a lot worse. | :05:38. | :05:43. | |
Brian Milligan's been finding out. In many parts of the UK, whole | :05:44. | :05:46. | |
communities have been left behind by the house price recovery elsewhere. | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
Take this street in West Yorkshire where many houses are still worth | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
less than their owners' borrowed to buy them. This one is worth 75,000 | :05:56. | :06:04. | |
but the mortgage is for ?95,000 to sell it, the owner would have to pay | :06:05. | :06:10. | |
the ?20,000 different back to the Bank. I'm paying ?250 per month | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
extra on top which is barely affordable. They new that full well | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
when I was negotiating with the bank at the time. But it is the stress | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
involved, really. A negative equity map of the UK shows a country of | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
huge housing contrasts. While London has just 1% of borrowers in negative | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
equity. In Northern Ireland, 41% of mortgages are affected. In the north | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
of England 16% of borrowers owe more than their homes are worth. A | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
situation that's got worse in the last six in months. You are finding | :06:48. | :06:53. | |
there's still a lot of people with negative equity? Like others, this | :06:54. | :06:58. | |
Tyneside lettings agent has seen a boom in business from those in | :06:59. | :07:02. | |
negative equity. Those who cannot sell try to rent their homes | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
instead. Some find banks and building societies unsympathetic. If | :07:07. | :07:11. | |
you're in negative equity, I do feel sorry. It may be a decision that's | :07:12. | :07:15. | |
out of your control. You're not able to sell your properties because | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
you're left with that deficit of ?20,000 which I'm sure the bangs and | :07:20. | :07:25. | |
mortgage lenders will want repaying. Negative equity is only really a | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
problem if you have to sell. Some lenders say they will transfer a | :07:30. | :07:34. | |
mortgage in negative equity to a new home if you have a per ninety job | :07:35. | :07:39. | |
and can pay extra. The advice is ask. They may allow you to take the | :07:40. | :07:43. | |
mortgage with you and take that loan that you owe to the next property. | :07:44. | :07:50. | |
It is not disastrous if that happens. Talk to your lender as | :07:51. | :07:57. | |
early as possible. Most of the 463,000 borrowers in negative equity | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
remain stuck until their houses go up in value. Some with blighted | :08:02. | :08:04. | |
homes across the north are being told that could take another five | :08:05. | :08:12. | |
years. The big six energy firms have been | :08:13. | :08:20. | |
told to hand back over ?400 million back to customers. Credit left in | :08:21. | :08:25. | |
customer accounts when people move or switch suppliers has accumulated | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
over the past six years. It is estimated 300 million people are | :08:32. | :08:37. | |
affected. It is investigating whether the return of money to | :08:38. | :08:43. | |
customers complies with existing rooms. | :08:44. | :08:49. | |
Enable married couples and civil partners to determine how their | :08:50. | :08:52. | |
property is shared if their relationships breakdown. Couples can | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
make pre`nup actuals but courts don't always uphold them. | :08:59. | :09:03. | |
Some tenants are being ripped off by rogue let he is agents who take | :09:04. | :09:09. | |
thousands of pounds as holding depot its, refuse to let them move in and | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
pocket the cash. Around 500 cases have been reported to Trading | :09:15. | :09:20. | |
Standards authorities in the last couple of years but Shelter say this | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
is just the tip of the iceberg. Fed up with high mobile phone bills? | :09:25. | :09:28. | |
They could become a thing of the past. WhatsApp, being bought by | :09:29. | :09:36. | |
Facebook for ?12 million say it will add a voice calling function. It | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
wants its app to be on every phone in the world. | :09:42. | :09:44. | |
The end of the tax year is almost here. But have you made the most of | :09:45. | :09:50. | |
this year's allowance? In the rush to allocate your cash it is always | :09:51. | :09:55. | |
East why I to fall foul of mistakes which could cost you dearly. | :09:56. | :10:03. | |
Tomorrow Stevens joins us now. Tom, why do people leave it to the last | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
minute? That is one of the key mistakes people make at this time of | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
year. They leave their ISA allowance to the last minute. It is great we | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
are talking about savings now but people should be thinking about | :10:17. | :10:20. | |
savings all the way through the tax year and not just right at the end | :10:21. | :10:23. | |
which is when they are more likely to make a mistakes. Do you think | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
this is the biggest mistake people make every year? It is a key | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
mistake. Others are people tend to hide in the perceived safety of | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
cash. That's a mistake at the moment because cash rates on ISAs are | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
extremely low and in fact, below the rate of inflation. You're losing | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
money over time by doing that. The third mistake is people put all | :10:47. | :10:52. | |
their eggs in one basket. A lot of our viewers are quite risk averse. | :10:53. | :10:58. | |
They are happiest in cash. What would you say to them? There things | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
you can do which are not as safe as cash. So you do need to take a | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
slightly higher risk by going into the stock market. But you can spread | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
your money around in what's called a multi`as set fund. It spreads your | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
money between shares, bonds, property and cash. By doing that, | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
you reduce your risk but open yourself up to the better returns | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
you can get from these assets than pureeing cash. `` pure cash of the | :11:26. | :11:32. | |
Many of our viewers will not have taken up their whole allowance. What | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
can they do at this late stage? Investigate the idea of starting a | :11:38. | :11:40. | |
monthly savings plan. If you put your money all in at one go you risk | :11:41. | :11:46. | |
getting in at a bad time in the marketment if you drip your money in | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
across the year, once a month put the same amount in. You will smooth | :11:52. | :11:56. | |
your returns. You will ensure you invest at the bottom of the market | :11:57. | :12:01. | |
as well as at the top. You put yourself in good regular savings | :12:02. | :12:07. | |
habits. Your advice, get a plan basically, and have it lined up in | :12:08. | :12:13. | |
advance? Yes. Easier said than done? It is extremely easy to do. You can | :12:14. | :12:20. | |
save from as little as ?50 per month and once you've done it, set it up, | :12:21. | :12:27. | |
you can forget about it. Tom Stevenson from Fidelity, thank you. | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
The message is have a plan. And get started. Thank you. That's all from | :12:33. | :12:37. | |
Your Money for this week. News, tips, information on savings, | :12:38. | :12:42. | |
borrowing, pensions, any time you like online. | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
You can get updates by following our feed on Twitter. | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
We are back next week. Goodbye for now. | :12:52. | :13:04. | |
This is BBC News, the headlines: Armed men patrolled Ukraine's | :13:05. | :13:12. | |
regional parliament as Crimea's new | :13:13. | :13:13. |