Interest Rates | 24/7 Moneybox Blog

Hey ho, hey ho, it’s web 2.0 we go!

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

Having been spread out across all social media bells and whistles for the last 2 years, we just can’t believe the response from all you lovely people out there.

So, first off, massive thanks - mainly for letting us be on Twitter et al all day long (!), and second for your feedback on how we can improve our service, which is incredibly valuable.

For instance you told us that you resented paying for a loan any longer than you had to - makes sense to us - so we changed our interest rate to a daily interest rate last year. Upshot is if you repay early, you pay less … magic!

Another example is that you told us it’s not always convenient to speak on the phone - very true - so we have an interactive SMS platform allowing you to chat with our operators as well as our popular Live Chat service (just hide us behind that important spreadsheet!).

So if you’re bored at work (which we never are, ha ha!) log in and join in - be that laughing at our office chair curling competition on Flickr or banter on our Twitter feed or indeed using our Q&A app on our Facebook site - we can’t wait to see you.

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Tags: Facebook, Interest rates, Loan
Posted in Apps, Social networking | No Comments »

Interest rates due to soar

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

The Bank of England warned today that interest rates could rise to as much as 5% next year. Mr Fisher, the executive director of markets and a member of the MPC (Monetary Policy Committee), said the bank is looking to make the increase as soon as possible.

Families could see their monthly mortgages soar ten-fold if the bank makes the decision next year.

There were more concerns today about the strength of the UK economy during the recovery from the recession. The economy grew by 0.7% in July, August and September, rather than the 0.8% initially reported, the Office for National Statistics said. Growth in the first six months of the year was also slightly lower than expected.

Here at 247Moneybox.com we are worried that raising the interest rate too quickly could bring the economy to a grinding halt. With imminent deep cuts to public spending and the inevitable VAT rise, it’s going to be a tough year.

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Tags: Bank, Bank of England, Emergency Expenses, Families, Faxing, Interest rates, Monetary Policy Committee, Paperwork
Posted in Credit Crunch, Economy | No Comments »

Capping loan interest rates will hurt consumers

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) decided against capping interest rates in the payday loan industry back in June, as stated in The Guardian. This met with a lot of criticism; in particular, people have argued that the high levels of interest are exploitative and that they prey on people who are susceptible to accumulating debt. However, we at 247Moneybox.com feel that this criticism is unfounded and argue that this industry offers a very popular and above board service regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

An unreasonable market, on the other hand, may assume that the prices are unfairly inflated above what they cost and that a few companies receive a disproportionate amount of profit. An unreasonable market may have an oligopoly or monopolistic structure (where only a few companies dominate the market), and there would be obstacles to new companies joining the market and sharing the profit. However, if you read these articles from The Guardian or BBC News, you’ll see that the payday loan market has swelled with new competitors and new customers.

If the price mechanism that companies compete on gets frozen, then they will have to find another way to generate revenue to break even; this will come in the form of excessive late charges, administrative fees and other hidden costs. Who will be the people who lose out? The people who apparently are more susceptible to becoming indebted.

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Tags: APR, Interest rates, Payday Loans, Recession
Posted in APR, Credit Crunch, Inflation, Payday Loans, Recession, Small Print | No Comments »

Today’s interest rate cut and what that can mean for you

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

Sometimes we here at www.247Moneybox.com go all a bit highbrow and the topic of discussion in the office today has been the latest, albeit expected, cut in the Bank of England (BOE) base rate. The members of the monetary policy committee agreed to cut interest rates another 0.5% in the latest round of slashing rates since last autumn. The base rate is now just 0.5% so is that good news all round?

Well, yes and no. Yes if you are on tracker mortgage that follows the BoE base rate, however even this has a caveat as this article in the Guardian points out. If your mortgage is linked to your lender’s standard variable rate (SVR) you will find they are not contractually obliged to pass on the cut, but some have already announced they will do so. A handful of banks have to cut rates because their terms and conditions state that the difference between their SVR and the base rate cannot exceed a certain level. Lloyds TSB and Halifax, Nationwide and Skipton building societies are in this position. So good news if your mortgage is with them.

It’s certainly not a good thing if you are a saver. Moneyfacts.co.uk estimates that after last month’s cut, 86% of savings providers cut their rates by the full 0.5% or more. The latest reduction will mean already downtrodden savers will receive even less interest.

Probably the most interesting thing to note is that rates on loans and credit cards are not really related to interest rate cuts. In fact, rates on these products have been slowly increasing over last year as institutions tighten their lending criteria. A year ago the average credit card rate was 16.8%, compared to 17.7% now.

We here at 247Moneybox.com haven’t changed our rates at all and clearly set out what your charges will be over the life of your cash advance. That’s important for everyone as we want everything to be clearly out in the open and for you to not have to worry about the Bank of England and the MPC with relation to your 247Moneybox loan.

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