Regularly review your mortgage

It’s important to regularly review your mortgage. If necessary, you may want to transfer to a new deal or a different lender when you come to the end of a fixed rate. If you’re worried about your options when you come to the end of your deal, talk to us. We can help by looking at our range of lenders to see what's right for you and we'll also consider what your current lender offers.

Many lenders allow us to secure a new fixed rate for you months in advance of your current rate ending. It’s important to start...

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...

Home insurance – what you need to know

One wet and windy evening, Rachel and Nathan decided to take advantage of their newborn, Eli, falling asleep in his moses basket by getting an early night. Gently 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 Eli had been sleeping just minutes earlier.

Aware the incident could have been much worse, the ...

10 simple ways to cut your carbon footprint and reduce your energy bills

Reducing your energy consumption can be a great way to cut your carbon footprint, lessening your personal impact on the environment and potentially helping to limit the devastating effects of climate change.

As living costs and the price of energy are soaring, taking action to lessen your usage can also be an effective tool to save money on your bills.

1 in 8 UK consumers think they’re already doing enough
Interestingly, when compared globally, the UK has the highest...

Landlords Insurance

When Sue and Jim decided to move in with their daughter so they could be on hand to help with childcare, they were reluctant to sell their home in case their new living arrangement didn’t work out. They were a bit worried about leaving it empty though, so when they heard their niece Megan was looking for somewhere to rent, it seemed like the perfect solution.

Everything was going great until, after a busy night shift, Megan came home and decided to run a bath. While the tub was filling up, she went downstairs to wait on...

Home insurance - when your DIY dream turns into a nightmare

Harpreet is pretty good with his hands so he decided he’d save himself some money by carrying out his own loft conversion. It was all going quite well until he dropped his hammer. The hammer crashed through his bathroom ceiling and landed on the toilet, cracking the cistern. When Harpreet rang his home insurance company to report the incident, he discovered he wasn’t covered as he didn’t have accidental damage protection.

The cost of a DIY disaster

Harpreet’s mistake ended up pro...

Is opting out of a workplace pension a false economy?

Rachel is a 35-year-old charity administrator. When she started her current job nearly six years ago, she was automatically enrolled into her workplace pension. Auto-enrolment for workplace pensions was introduced in the UK to encourage more people to save for retirement. It means employers have to enrol into a pension any workers who are:

• Not already in a pension
• Between the ages of 22 and the state pension age
• Earning more than £10,000 a year
• Working in the UK

Rachel was happy...

Funeral Planning

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 ano...

Planning for a comfortable retirement

Tina is a fit and vibrant 59-year-old who expected retirement to offer a whole new lease of life. She was looking forward to using her increased leisure time to explore Europe while indulging her passion for climbing. However, after going through her finances, she’s now concerned she won’t be able to afford her monthly bills let alone pay for trips abroad.

Tina has always managed her day-to-day finances really well, but she never sat down and worked out how much she’d need for a comfortable retirement....