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The global credit crunch – brought on by unwise lending by providers and unwise spending by customers – has changed the face of the economy, and has forced credit providers to drastically alter their approaches to all types of lending, from credit cards to the mortgage market. Go here for a free credit report

As well as tighter constraints on mortgage lending, with providers limiting the number of packages available and being more strict with whom they lend to, the same can be noted in the loan market. Despite a slight reduction in interest rates in January (an example of lenders and providers making the most of a limited profit window), 2008 has seen a steady increase in interest rates on both small and large loans. On average over the last year, interest rates on personal loans have risen by 1.7%, meaning a loan of £5,000 will now cost you £386 more than the same loan twelve months ago. Free credit report info.

With changes to the lending criteria of so many banks and building societies, it’s never been more important to stay in control of your borrowing and correctly manage your finances. One of the increasingly easy (and popular) ways of doing this is by regularly checking your credit file. Free credit report info.

Under the Data Protection Act, credit reference agencies (the people the credit providers use to assemble your credit report and assess your rating) must provide you with a “Statutory Credit Report” for £2. A cheaper and easier option is to allow an Internet site to do the hard work for you, and to provide you with a similar report detailing your credit worthiness for free.

Entry Keywords: Start Your Business, Make Money Blog

Something I think you will enjoy. Read.

If you are not a coder, you might want to consider a package that is ready to go out of the box. With the evolution of the Internet space over the last 10 years, these turnkey web site tools have become much stronger than they used to be. If you are looking for a home business opportunity, you should really consider these tools.

Which turnkey web site tool you select depends very heavily on what you purpose you are trying to accomplish. If you are like everyone else, you want a home based business opportunity. And these affiliate income streams can be significant if you know what you are doing. It’s amazing just how well you can do in this space and yet, off-line, people have never heard of the term internet marketer.

So, which home business opportunity is for you? There are many that I specifically trust for home business opportunity seekers. I see people make money from home using these tools. All serious software is beta tested publicly these days.

Regardless of what home business opportunity platform you go with, it will really save you time. There are many lessons and challenges ahead if you are just getting started. But the great thing is that the IT hassles won’t be yours. And this is good because if you really plan to make a home business opportunity work, you will need great focus and effort on the tasks. Home Based Business Opportunity

The Keywords: My Business Opportunity, Busienss Service

See: The Business Home

‘How has the credit crunch affected you?’ is going to be one of the biggest and most often asked questions of 2008, and only a lucky few will likely be able to answer ‘not at all’.

These changes are reflected in the results of recent studies into the mortgage market, in particular the facts showing the limiting of mortgage products available. March 2008 alone saw a drop of 2026 mortgage products (from 7726 to 5700) across the residential and buy-to-let markets, while home-loan deals have seen a fall from the 15,600 available in July 2007, to just 4,700 available today. Overall, then, mortgage lending has declined to an estimated £24 billion, a 6% decrease from February 2007, while February 2008 saw the lowest number of new mortgages approved since July 1995.

Homeowners looking at fixed rate mortgages will, however, be hit by a sudden rise in payments when they switch to a new mortgage; the average to fix a mortgage for 10 or more years now being 6.14%, compared to an average 5.89% a year ago. With the future of interest rates uncertain though, fixed-rate mortgages still provide a more stable and secure payment plan – which is why the Chancellor announced his support for lengthy fixed deals in his Budget.

What is important for all homeowners or first time buyers thinking of going down this avenue of payment is that they compare fixed-rate mortgages and judge for themselves whether fixed-rate is the correct choice for them. A recent study showed that three out of four people didn’t know the difference an extra 1% had on mortgage payments, so if you’re unsure, also make certain you calculate the amounts you’d need to pay on different packages using an online mortgage calculator and be sure to speak to a professional beforehand.

Main Points: Business Small, Make Money Blog, Business Small World

More likely is you’ll receive an answer from one of the unlucky many whose finances have been stretched and tested – especially those with mortgages. In just a couple of years, the face of the mortgage market has changed dramatically, with banks and lenders desperate to pull something back in the wake of some reckless credit lending in recent years.

These changes are reflected in the results of recent studies into the mortgage market, in particular the facts showing the limiting of mortgage products available. March 2008 alone saw a drop of 2026 mortgage products (from 7726 to 5700) across the residential and buy-to-let markets, while home-loan deals have seen a fall from the 15,600 available in July 2007, to just 4,700 available today. Overall, then, mortgage lending has declined to an estimated £24 billion, a 6% decrease from February 2007, while February 2008 saw the lowest number of new mortgages approved since July 1995.

Homeowners looking at fixed rate mortgages will, however, be hit by a sudden rise in payments when they switch to a new mortgage; the average to fix a mortgage for 10 or more years now being 6.14%, compared to an average 5.89% a year ago. With the future of interest rates uncertain though, fixed-rate mortgages still provide a more stable and secure payment plan – which is why the Chancellor announced his support for lengthy fixed deals in his Budget.

What is important for all homeowners or first time buyers thinking of going down this avenue of payment is that they compare fixed-rate mortgages and judge for themselves whether fixed-rate is the correct choice for them. A recent study showed that three out of four people didn’t know the difference an extra 1% had on mortgage payments, so if you’re unsure, also make certain you calculate the amounts you’d need to pay on different packages using an online mortgage calculator and be sure to speak to a professional beforehand.

Keywords in this article: Money Save, Money Save, Market Money

If the uncertainty over house prices is causing you to sit tight in your current property rather than move, you are not alone! Not only are house prices dropping but the costs of moving home have soared and many more people are considering it more economic to make home improvements than move.

Let’s take a closer look at the actual costs of moving itself.

Don’t forget the cut for the agents. They are hurting this year. Remember that they are completely commission driven.

Then you have taxes. Taxes will take a huge bite out of your earnings (or loss) from a sale.

Then there are solicitors and their legal fees which will account for £1,000 upwards depending upon the values of the properties you are buying and selling. Next come removal and possibly storage costs, and all the associated costs of transferring utilities, telephone lines and a myriad of other items. That will take care of at least another £1,000.

They all add up to a tidy sum, somewhere between £15,000 - £20,000 for a move between two modest properties, where the one being bought costs over £250,000, and that does not include any fees that may be applied to your new hard-to-get mortgage.

Look at it like that and it’s easy to see why many people are opting to think about shelling out on home improvements rather than go through the stress and incur the financial costs of moving.

Maybe find other ways to make your life better and keep the old house for a while until the economy and housing market are stronger.

Entry Keywords: From home work, Big Make Money, Big Make Money

If the uncertainty over house prices is causing you to sit tight in your current property rather than move, you are not alone! Not only are house prices dropping but the costs of moving home have soared and many more people are considering it more economic to make home improvements than move.

Let’s take a closer look at the actual costs of moving itself.

Don’t forget the cut for the agents. They are hurting this year. Remember that they are completely commission driven.

Then you have taxes. Taxes will take a huge bite out of your earnings (or loss) from a sale.

Then there are solicitors and their legal fees which will account for £1,000 upwards depending upon the values of the properties you are buying and selling. Next come removal and possibly storage costs, and all the associated costs of transferring utilities, telephone lines and a myriad of other items. That will take care of at least another £1,000.

Add all this up and you will be amazed at how much of the money you clear from the sale of your house doesn’t end up in your pocket.

Look at it like that and it’s easy to see why many people are opting to think about shelling out on home improvements rather than go through the stress and incur the financial costs of moving.

Maybe find other ways to make your life better and keep the old house for a while until the economy and housing market are stronger.

Tags in this post: Big Make Money, Business Sale, Business Home Now

The current credit global crisis could cost the UK’s financial services industry up to 11,000 jobs, as consumer and business confidence rapidly declines, warns the CBI.

Worryingly for financial sector workers the survey also highlighted the number of firms that had reduced their workforce over the first three months of the year outnumbered those who increased their compliment by 25 per cent - the highest numbers of jobs lost since March 2003. Worse news still is that over the first three months of the 2008/2009 financial year, companies anticipating reducing staff levels outnumber those expecting to increase them by 33 percent, representing a loss of almost 11,000 jobs in the sector.

Particularly highlighted in the survey were securities trading companies and UK life assurance firms, with both markets convinced that the global credit crisis would significantly affect their sale and revenue growth. But, even though life insurance companies were pessimistic, firms in the general insurance sector felt they would be least affected by impaired investments.

Seems, on the good side, that the credit crisis is not going to end the financial system entirely. Some had predicted some really bad things. It looks like it’s bad, but not that bad.

The Main Points: Free Money

You can’t be serious today without a web presence. Having a presence on the web is just a requirement for serious business people today. This is already clear to most business owners. But where many miss the boat is understanding just how to use keywords in their domain selection and on their site.

First, we look at a few rules of a good domain name. Most would agree that a good domain name should:

1) be able to describe your business when people first look it.

2) use human-readable words that are descriptive to the search engines.

3) use the right .com, .net or .org as appropriate to the business.

What I differ in opinion is that a long domain name “mysuperduperbrandflyingsite.com” can be as effective as a short domain name “superduper.com” depending on the context where the domain name is used. There is an entire SEO camp who think that short domain names are best. However, I struggle with this because many times a longer domain name is just more descriptive of what the business actually is. You are going to need to see your .

Having a catchy long domain name would definitely helps to draw attention to your business promotion rather than a mundane name. And once you have someone’s attention, you have a short period within which to deliver your sales message. Thus, depending on the context where the domain name is used, a domain name can actually help to make or break your overall marketing performance.

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