Greetings, one and all, and welcome to the height of Summer snapshot of the financial world. By the time this illustrious periodical hits the doormat, we may have endured a prolonged spell of thunder storms (this is England, when all is said and done), but hopefully, we have all been enjoying the best of the season, so far!

In my last article, I mentioned the changes that had been introduced, concerning the treatment of mortgage applications. Now that a couple of months have passed, we have seen a number of illustrations of how much they have affected real people, in their quest to purchase a new home, or re-finance their existing one. Today, I saw a lady, who was in the process of re-mortgaging with her (High Street) bank, in order to raise some capital to pay off her current unsecured credit. Not an uncommon scenario, and given that she understood the concept of swapping to a longer-term low interest rate debt, from one with a potentially shorter term, but considerably higher interest rate, and monthly payment, a sensible move. Due to a minor hitch in the legal paperwork, the bank decided that the application would have to be reviewed, and in the light of the new rules, she no longer qualified for the mortgage that she had previously been offered. It fell outside their revised criteria, and therefore the computer said “no”. Continue reading Rules is Rules →