Pete95

I moved into a shared house with 3 existing tenants in September on a 6month contract. Landlords basically decided they were going to renovate the house - so evicted 2 of the tenants in December, claiming they had damaged a radiator which clearly wasnt the case at all. One of the other tenants then moved out, leaving me with a contract until the end of Feb. The house basically turned into a building site from mid-Jan with dust everywhere - plaster removed from walls in 3 rooms. I agreed to move out a month early, and the landlords (who obviously wanted this) agreed to refund the month of rent I had paid in advance, and my deposit. After receiving no refund I emailed the landlord asking where the money was, however they disputed I had even paid the final months rent despite me having proof (standing order) I've since emailed again, and its gone quiet. I'm currently almost £500 down as a result :angry: Any advice on what I should do next?

You cant transfer into the NSI ISA unfortunately. I've also been looking and as with Spoony the best ISA I can find is Kent BS which allows transfers in and pays 5.71% variable. I'm simply going to transfer my current A&L ISA into that, and open a new one with NSI at 5.8% with £3k in April.

I agree to an extent, but throw ever-tightening credit into the mix and prices have to fall to a level where people can actually obtain the funds to buy, no matter what the level of demand.

Not really so great IMO - I still have an open ING account from when they used to offer a competitive rate (cant believe they only pay 4.75% AER on instant access - shocking!) but remember ICESAVE (who I have an account with) are paying 5.7% AER and are very quick to up rates when interest rates rise. Next rate rise could be Feb or March, and I wouldnt be surprised if they rose to 6% instead of 5.95% as its more of a headline grabber. Obviously instant access as well unlike the ING 6month fix.

Whats the significance of $64? The long term trend for oil prices is obviously going to be up due to continuing increasing demand and easy-to-access supplies running out. Inflation is well and truely back on the menu!

Another interesting quote from the article. Seems inflation really is setting in. If interest rate futures are now banking on 5.75% by the end of the 2nd quarter, then rates of 6.5% or even higher by the end of the year look increasingly realistic. I'll be trying my best to get at least a 5% rise in April - working on the basis that anything less is basically a pay cut!

Ah thanks that sounds about right, so that means it must be looked at on a yearly basis too (ie total earning per tax year) which is another bonus

Ok how do banks know if you are a higher rate (40%) tax payer or not? All accounts I have opened dont ask, and obviously it could change once you have the account open anyway? Do they get the info off IR? My monthly earnings are now sometimes above the threshold, but is it just looked at on a yearly basis? Ie if you are seen to have paid higher rate tax over the previous tax year, will you then pay 40% tax on savings over the next or what? Anyone know how this works?

I had about 1300quid in Affinity Internet a few years ago but it turned out they'd been fiddling their accounts, and went under! I still hold the shares now, but theyre worth 0!!!

Yeah its a real pity that I'm going to open a new account with them in April, and move my existing ISA (with A&L) to whoever is offering the best rate in Feb (A&L is 5.2% fixed, then falls in 3.8% in Feb ) I think Kent BS should be upping their ISA to 5.71% next week so looks like a good bet..

IMO once the bubble is seen to be bursting Labour may well introduce a tax on 2nd homes or BTL. They wont do it while home owners are enjoying price rises and fueling consumer spending, but Labour's taxed everything else and badly needs more tax income - and if the markets falling anyway they'll be able to slip in a tax without feeling such a backlash...

http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnew..._10007747.shtml "Global Survey: Cost of typical management level house in Dublin, Ireland, could buy 9 similar houses in Houston, Texas, 3 in Amsterdam, 2 in Sydney and almost two in Tokyo" Earlier this month US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the US housing market is undergoing a "substantial correction." - Surely cant be long until theres a "very substantial correction" in the Irish housing market can it? Things there have gone totally out of control!

Interesting, have you got a link to the source?

http://www.angloirishbank.co.uk/personal/f...nd-accounts.asp 1 year fixed - 5.85% AER. Looks pretty tempting.

Its not http://nsandi.com/products/isas/from_disa.jsp But you can have ISA's with more than one bank I believe, obviously you can only pay in 3k total per tax year over all accounts.

It's always difficult to predict rates. A rise of 0.25% for Feb seems pretty much factored in - but after that they could continue to rise due to inflation, but maybe the inflation figure will fall due to falling energy prices so rates could even be cut. BOE do seem to be acting like GB's puppet, so I would expect rates to hit 5.75% top's by end of 2007, or a min of 4.75%. Euro rates are a different story. I wouldnt be surprised if they were nearing 5% by the end of the year, and that could cause a collapse in the crazy Irish market which seems to have run out of momentum recently.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/12/28/real_estat...sion=2006122814 "They got some lookers and even a couple of offers, but those deals fell through. Now the home is priced at $32,000, just $1,000 more than Mary paid for it nearly six years ago." "The market is pretty slow," says Mike, "and getting slower every day." How long until we are hearing quotes like this about the UK housing market I wonder?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6213549.stm "Nevertheless, Ms Earley predicted that UK interest rates had "peaked" at 5%, while house prices would jump by between 5% and 8% during 2007." The usual stuff from the BBC - prices rocketing and set to continue to rocket, and dont worry about this talk of interest rate rises - they've peaked at 5% so can only go down!.... BBC really do take the biscuit! I'm glad my house mate has decided to stop paying the licence fee

Well if even the government are worried about weakening economic conditions causing a rise in crime levels [recent leaked report], then you know the outlook isnt good. Once things start to turn and the numbers going bankrupt increase even more significantly then the banks will batten down the hatches. They wont be lending £300k on a 100% mortgage if house prices are falling, as if the house is only worth £200k when they repossess then of course they've lost £100k. And once people become unable to borrow these huge sums required to buy property at current levels, prices will fall to levels when people are able to obtain the funds to buy. With so much debt, both government and consumer, any downturn could snowball into something major, but on the other hand GB might have another trick up his sleeve to keep the illusion alive - probably up inheritance tax to 60% or something - :angry:

Alliance & Leicesters Direct Saver pays 5.64% AER which is excellent but in the T&C I see its one of those where you lose the interest on the month you make a withdrawal Im currently using B&B which is paying 5.35%, but no strings. Seeing as I never bother keeping much over £15k in instant access it doesnt make much sense shopping around for very-slightly higher rates. Anglo Irish have got a 1year fixed rate bond at 5.85% which is pretty good - however I think theres a realistic chance the base-rate will be 6% in a years time, so IceSave etc should be returning about 6.5%

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/for...96764/index.htm "Last year the question was whether the housing boom would slow down. Now it's how bad it will get." "in October even as the median home price fell by 3.5 percent, the largest year-over-year drop on record. And that comes after price declines in August and September." Not sounding too rosy for things in the US. Some area's are still expected to increase invalue, however overall its "a housing decline that's unfolding faster than expected. " And the UK market has historically followed US downturns by 12-18months.. I must admit I've had my doubts about the housing crash recently, but now Im starting to think it's possibly on the horizon now. My landlord is selling up their BTL due to suspected downturn (and shes senior in a big bank in Docklands) - I get kicked out end of Feb, but seeing as Im moving job location anyway its not so bad! Wouldnt be surprised to see some prices rises in the 1st half of next year, but end of 2007, 2008 could be when the inevitible happens...

The BOE seem extremely slow in taking action when inflation is rising - its a case of "oh we'll wait 6 months, and if its not gone up significantly we wont up rates" - but then if inflation falls interest rates are cut without hesitation I wouldnt be surprised if rates hit 5.75 or 6% by end of 2007, but I have a horrible feeling house prices will be up by at least the same percentages despite that....

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6174835.stm Average of £32k maybe, but surely not £320k?!!

http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/28/news/econo...dex.htm?cnn=yes More here on CNN. Combined with the collapsing dollar things are looking pretty nasty state-side...

26, working in Buckinghamshire earning ~38k (including overtime) Im expecting about a 4% rise on that come April, however in my line of work (IT) I dont see the outlook being that rosy, so I'd be reluctant to take out a mortgage based on those earnings as IMO it could fall to sub-30k should IT work continue to get out-sourced to the 3rd world! I think uncertainty in todays jobs market is a big worry for many. The days of a job-for-life and earnings that will almost certainly rise year-on-year until you retire are long gone!