Asda Money says that going on holiday as a family will cost £782 in accommodation and transport and £529 in spending money.
Meanwhile, Gocompare.com Travel Insurance is urging Brits holidaying abroad this summer to plan ahead and check the passport requirements for their holiday destination – otherwise they could be seriously out of pocket if they have to delay or cancel their travel plans.
New rules require holidaymakers travelling to the United States to hold a new style biometric e-passport. And passports need to be valid from three to six months from the date of return to the UK – depending on the holiday destination.
Finances in jeopardy
Despite one in five people admitting their household would not be financially secure for any length of time if it lost its main income through unexpected circumstances, many Brits continue to bury their head in the sand when it comes to having a financial backup plan. Scottish Widows’ latest protection research reveals a quarter of Brits could only afford to pay household bills for a maximum of three months if they or their partner were unable to work due to long-term illness, and just over a quarter could only make a maximum of three monthly mortgage payments. A further fifth admit they aren’t sure how long they would be able to cope with their mortgage payments. Good news for the UK’s biggest building society Nationwide Building Society added 525,000 new current account customers in the year to April 4, a rise of 12 per cent while the number of current account customers switching their accounts from other banks and building societies to Nationwide rose 38 per cent. Nationwide reported a 23 per cent rise in annual pre-tax profits to £1.28 billion compared with £1 billion a year earlier. It says net mortgage lending – that’s new mortgage lending minus those loans that have been repaid – increased by 28 per cent to £9.1 billion in the year, up from £7.1 billion a year ago. In other lending news, heightened competition in the mortgage market has given those with smaller deposits a boost, as not only are there more deals for borrowers to choose from but there are also lower rates. Moneyfacts.co.uk says that the difference in rates between the average two-year fixed mortgage at 60 per cent and 90 per cent loan-to-value (LTV) has reduced by 0.93 per cent to 1.03 per cent in just two years. Charlotte Nelson, finance expert at Moneyfacts, said: ‘Although a rise in base rate seems to have faded into the background for the time being, it seems providers are still choosing to lower rates now in preparation, so that when base rate does rise and borrowers are incentivised to remortgage, they will see their current lender as a competitive option.’Professional landlords are tipping one-bedroom flats to produce the most attractive capital returns and two-bedroom flats to generate the biggest yield, according to a new survey by Amicus Property Finance, the specialist short-term property lender.
A quarter of UK landlords said that one-bedroom flats will offer the most attractive capital gains over the next year, closely followed by student accommodation in university towns and cities. One in five landlords believe two-bedroom flats will offer the best opportunities for capital gains.
Warning over sell-off
The Guardian reports that the competition watchdog has objected to government plans to privatise the Land Registry, warning that allowing a private firm to take possession of property ownership information could cause problems for other businesses.
The Competition & Markets Authority said selling off the organisation that keeps the official record of commercial and residential land ownership in England and Wales would give the new owner a monopoly on commercially valuable data with no incentive to improve access to it. The government attracted criticism for announcing its plans for the £1 billion-plus sell-off just before the Easter break, opening a consultation that closes on Thursday.
Comments