Welcome

Hello again

Well we have had a busy week on the web site www.survivingthecreditcrunch.org.uk we have added some new pages for you which include:

Credit Crunch Wedding

Credit Crunch Holiday

Furniture recycling Ideas from David Harper

Credit Crunch Market Place

As you will no doubt be aware we are always looking to add content which you the user will find helpful and informative, so if you have any suggestions please let us know.

Also we would like your help with another project we are doing for TV, we would like to know about any Credit Crunch scams you have heard of or been the victim of, or if you have encountered any unusual effects of the Crunch such as something positive for example? If you have a story which you think would be of interest please do get in touch, we may even be able to use you on the show and make you a star.

Bye for now

Rich

It’s almost inconceivable to think that this time last year anyone would have suggested that today we would see interest rates sitting at 1.5%, but on January the 8^th 2009 the Bank of England decided that more cuts were needed to stimulate the now stagnant economy.

To be in the position of Mr Mervyn King is surely not an enviable one, faced with only two choices, one to make a run and place it all on red and go to 0% or hold some back in case one more trip to the table is needed. In any event we saw the cut of 0.5% being announced yesterday and although there were no surprised or startled faces it is fair to say that many people are now beginning to ask what we do next if this fails to work. Well I for one don’t think we will have to wait too long before we have our answer as it is now clear that cutting interest rates in this way is doing very little to free up the blocked credit lines within our banking and finance sector. Reports from the within the Treasury would suggest that more radical plans are now being formulated in an effort to stave off a further decline in the economy, one suggestion is they are working on plans for much more serious measures, known as “quantitative easing”. Alistair Darling yesterday denied reports that he was planning to “print money”, and that is the wrong definition of the kinds of measures under consideration; but there is no doubt that using taxpayers’ money to buy government debts , one of the steps under consideration , would be a radical, and a very risky step, requiring Darling’s approval. The Treasury is already drawing up a protocol for how quantitative easing might work, and King and his colleagues may be keen to postpone the day when they effectively hand over the reins to Westminster. They are also waiting on a package of government support measures for the credit markets, which are aimed at helping to unblock lending.

The reality of yesterdays move as far as the man in the street is concerned hits home in two ways, you may be forgiven for think that if you have a mortgage you will see a reduction in your monthly expenditure, but for the vast majority of us that won’t be the case as we are either on a fixed rate or a tracker which in most cases will have already of hit the maximum reduction available under your agreement. And for those of you who have been prudent over the years and have managed to accumulate savings, you will be the biggest victims with many savers who rely on interest payments to live on, seeing their income drop by as much as two thirds. It has even been suggested that a further cut could see banks charging us to look after or deposits. We will be keeping a close eye on events as they unfold but expect to see more and more unusual methods employed in this epic fight against recession as we are now very much in unchartered territory.

Take Care

Rich

Hello all and Happy New Year!

I wanted to let you all know about a new tool on the website which will calculate your finances for you and help you manage your creditors and show you how much money you have each month to spend, or not! It the Financial Calculator and you can use it by following this link:

 http://survivingthecreditcrunch.org.uk/finance.html

The calculator is designed to help you understand how much you have to relative to your income and expenditure. Simply follow the instructions on the calculator and then print of the results, it will be a very useful application for anyone, especially if you are negotiating with your creditors, but it will be just as useful if you are not in any difficulties too as it will help you monitor your situation.

We will be looking to develop the calculator further over the coming weeks and months, in the very near future we will have an application which will automatically print of offer letters to your creditors as well as letting you know what to do if you are in a negative position with your creditors. This tool is for you so if you have any suggestions, additions etc you would like to see added just let us know and we will see what we can do.

Have fun and let me know if you have any feedback.

Rich