Credit Cards The OFT prepares to cap charges. Page 2

In a parallel action The Bank

Secured Homeowner Loans to Reiterate that a Home Provides More than a Roof Over Your Head: Use the equity in your home to provide financial assistance
Debt Consolidation Loan helps you to manage your Debt: Debt consolidation is designed to reduce your monthly outgoings. This article introduces some of the options.
How Your Credit Rating is Determined: Your credit rating is important. This article explains how credit ratings work, their effects and what to do if the score is based on incorrect information.
Adverse Credit. When is a credit history described as adverse ?: When do have an adverse credit rating? The situation is far from clear but this article sheds light.
What do the terms APR, AER and EAR mean: Most of us have seen the term APR in financial advertising and possibly its lesser-used cousins AER and EAR. But what do they mean? This article explains.
Personal Loans – do your research before signing up: This article discusses the importance of doing your research before signing up for a personal loan.

Action Group is taking legal action on charges levied on current accounts and overdrafts. { insurance } During the last 2 years bank charges on these { cheap home insurance } accounts have run up by as much as 31%, taking the average to around £30. The Bank Action Groups case is being led by Stephen Hone who is using the same reasoning as the OFT, as he asks the High Court to agree that charges are too high and as such represent an illegal penalty.

These actions are made at a time when the UK's Banks { life insurance advisers } are booming. The top five clearing banks, HSBC, Barclays, RBS-Nat West, Lloyds-TSB, and Halifax-Bank of Scotland, have recently announced { personal secured loans } profits up 17% at a staggering £35,000,000,000 - yes, £35 billion!

We think the Banks can afford to trim their charges - don't you?

THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE SECURING OTHER DEBTS AGAINST YOUR HOME. YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON A MORTGAGE OR ANY OTHER DEBT SECURED ON IT. LOANS MAY BE SECURED ON YOUR HOME OR OTHER PROPERTY.