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Now that house buyers in the UK are starting to breath a sigh of relief after the recent short and swift boom the market is now becoming one in favour of the buyers again. That kind of leaves us property owners a little bewildered right now but that’s real estate for you…I think we can just thank our lucky stars that we who own homes, and are not strangled by our mortgages, have a pretty safe fence to sit on for now.

It was especially crazy in Northern Ireland where in many cases property values went up one hundred percent in a period of just six months; our own Belfast property was valued last July at three times the purchase price we paid back in 2002. Auctions were doing a roaring trade and I am starting to wonder what those folk, who paid those hugely inflated prices during that period, are going to do when they wish to sell up or they cannot manage the large mortgage they obtained to buy in the first place.

Now getting down to the point of the post; there’s a great website for prospective property buyers which allows them to not only price what’s around but also check what price the past owners paid for the same property, or those in the vicinity.

The website is Your Property Finder and if you click on Compare previous sales at this address the link will take you to the Land Registry data for that particular street.

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We are all concerned these days about credit card fraud and how relatively easy it is to steal someone’s details and run up thousands in debt under their name. It has happened to my partner and he happens to be one of the most fraud-aware people alive; so if it can happen to him it can happen to anybody.

This is going to be nice and quick; if you wish to take advantage of a 30 day free trial offer then visit CreditExpert and sign up - only takes about a minute and won’t cost you a thing. Leaving yourself open to credit card fraud will though.

Oh, when you sign up you can get a free credit report too - when was the last time you checked your status?

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A massive victory for all us bank customers who have been charged hefty fees for unauthorised overdrafts is becoming a reality! yesterday a landmark court ruling saw these charges being recognised as unfair which could very well soon see the banks paying out over a staggering ten billion pounds to account holders.

The next stage is for the decision to be taken to the Office of Fair Trading on May 23rd where, if in agreeance with the court ruling, customers who have been charged fees in the past will be in line for a share of the payout. Their fees will be refunded by the banks. If the OFT decide the fees were not unfair the ruling will go back to the high court for a further hearing.

I think we are finally on a winner with this. But in order to be in the queue, which is already quite long, you must get your letters in today or asap in order to get your money refunded. The best way to do this is you are not too clued up is to refer back to my previous post and follwo the links for advice; you will also need to draft a letter for your reclaim and the easiest way to find out how to do this  is to visit here where there are two template letter guides (and plenty of relevant advice) - one for if you are not claiming with interest and one for if you are claiming with interest. Simply open the file of the template letter you wish to use, enter your details in the relevant space, print it out and send it off.

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