One wet and windy evening, Alex and Megan decided to take advantage of their newborn, Ellie, falling asleep in her moses basket by getting an early night. Picking up the basket from its regular spot in front of the fireplace, they crept upstairs. No sooner had they settled in bed when they heard a massive crash from the living room. They ran back downstairs to find a pile of rubble in the exact spot Ellie had been sleeping just minutes earlier.

Aware the incident could have been much worse, the couple were still left with an enormous mess t...

Taking out an offset mortgage enables you to use your savings to reduce your mortgage balance and the interest you pay on it.

Offset mortgages can help you save money over the course of your deal as there’s less interest to pay over the longer term. Interest rates on offset products can be higher than on an equivalent standard repayment deal, but thanks to the savings placed aside, these are charged on a smaller loan amount. This means you will pay less mortgage interest while the savings are offset.

An offset mortgage can help to lowe...

Hardly a day goes by without the cost of living hitting the headlines. For many homeowners, the increasing costs of owning and running a home are having a huge impact on household budgets. For those borrowers with a fixed rate mortgage, the recent increase in mortgage interest rates may not have an immediate impact. However, as mortgages are more expensive now than they were two years ago, you may see your mortgage payments rise when you next come to remortgage.

Overpaying on your mortgage now could save you more on interest down the line...

It's not all fixed rates

With over 10 years of record low interest rates, fixed rate mortgages offer borrowers the stability of knowing what the mortgage payment will be for a set period, which helps with budgeting.

Because of the way many lenders decide what rates to offer, we’re currently seeing tracker products priced a lot more competitively than fixed rate products.

Unlike a fixed rate, the monthly payment of a tracker mortgage fluctuates and the rate charged on the mortgage ‘tracks’ the Bank Rate usually for a set period. Whilst you...

Can you afford to die?
Although not traditionally associated with jollity, for those who like to have the last laugh, a funeral may offer the perfect opportunity.

It’s becoming increasingly popular to use humour during services to reflect the personality of the individual being celebrated. A survey by Co-op Funeralcare on the music people would like at their final goodbye found Another One Bites the Dust by Queen, Going Underground by the Jam and Highway to Hell by ACDC were among the chosen tunes.

After the music’s faded, gravestones offer...

Pension lifetime allowance – how it affects you
In his 2021 Budget, the Chancellor announced a five-year freeze on the lifetime pension allowance. What does this mean for you and your retirement fund?

What is the lifetime pension allowance?
The lifetime pension allowance sets a limit on how much you can save in your pension before you start paying tax on anything over the limit. For a few years before the 2021 announcement, the limit had been tied to inflation, meaning that it rose in line with the cost of living.

With the global pandemic ...

Could remortgaging help you beat the cost-of-living crisis?
Practically every penny of Mike’s monthly salary is accounted for so, as the cost-of-living crisis starts to bite, he’s worried about making ends meet. He’s started shopping around for cheaper deals on his broadband, mobile-phone contract, and car insurance, and he’s also cancelled his gym membership and a couple of his TV subscriptions. But he’s overlooked the bill offering the largest potential saving – his mortgage.

What is remortgaging?

Remortgaging involves taking out a new mo...

What the recent Growth Plan and Government U-turns mean for you and your finances

Now that the dust has started to settle, what do the recent announcements, and U-turns, mean for you and your finances?

What is still happening

The National Insurance contribution rate will fall from 6 November 2022.

In April 2022, the National Insurance contribution (NIC) rate increased by 1.25 percentage points to pay for additional health and social care services. In April 2023, a new Health and Social Care Levy was set to replace this rise.

In the Grow...

After seeing their six-year-old son’s birthday list, Liz and Dan have realised it’s high time they started teaching Archie about the value of money. It’s true they both have reasonably well-paid jobs and only the one child but, even so, a Saint Bernard puppy, a quad bike, a horse and a life-size dalek don’t come cheap. So, what can Liz and Dan do to ensure Archie doesn’t end up bankrupting them before he goes to high school?

Pocket money

Archie is nearly seven - the age when most parents start giving their children pocket money, according ...