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A recently conducted poll by a leading consumer trends firm has discovered that today’s British shopper will go to great lengths in order to get the best deals on day to day items such as clothing, food and cosmetics. However, only 20% of people are willing to shop around for the best deal when buying financial products such as personal loans or credit cards.

Peculiarly, the poll discovered that almost 40% of Brits vary where they buy petrol from, based on best market value at the time of purchase. Whilst an additional 50% of people allow value for money to dictate where they choose to eat out.

Unfortunately, these seemingly sensible ideals are quashed when it comes to matters of personal finance. The survey revealed that less than 10% of people will change their mortgage provider, even if they are aware of a better deal, and more than 70% of people refuse to hunt for the best deal on all other forms of finance, usually accepting their first offer at face value.

One expert concluded that British consumers appear to take a very sensible approach with regards to shopping for daily items and services, but are less savvy when it comes to their personal finances. Unfortunately, this common trend is causing many people to seriously loose out with regards to potential savings, and to ultimately cancel out any good achieved through best value shopping in other aspects of their lives.

The vast majority of UK based lending institutions are said to be taking a far tougher stance towards new applications for Individual Voluntary Arrangements or IVA’s, suggests one expert.

For those not in the know, the Individual Voluntary Arrangement or IVA is a tool used by the seriously indebted, which allows said person to offer a payment alternative to their creditors, which usually involves a sizeable chunk of the original debt being written off.

However, the IVA industry has been heavily scrutinised by both the media and large financial institutions, primarily for the way in which said firms are supposedly overselling the specific benefits associated to the procedure and also the way in which the procedure is publicly promoted. As a result, creditors are becoming reluctant to cohere to the terms of an IVA, with many just rejecting any alternative payment proposal outright.

An industry spokesperson suggested that due to the sharp rise in the number of new IVA cases, many financial institutions are attempting to resolve discrepancies with the customer direct, before the IVA route is even considered. However, critics have panned certain lenders for trying to re-sell larger consolidation loans to indebted consumers, as a means to avoid facing the terms of an IVA agreement.

New research has discovered that buy to let investors are one of the main contributors to the housing markets current stability.

A recent study conducted by one of the UK’s largest secured loan providers has found that rising house prices are forcing more and more first time buyers to rent their homes. This trend is then allowing landlords to increase rental prices due to increased demand for the their properties, which in turn is better allowing BTL investors to cope with rising mortgage costs and thus continue to expand their portfolios.

Statistics show that the rental market is increasing in value by around 13% each year, whereas housing market growth had increased by only 9% in the last year. One expert suggested that unless their was a dramatic change in the housing market (with regards to value), the rental market would only continue to grow with BTL investors making even bigger returns over the coming months.

A separate survey discovered that more than 30% of owner-occupiers are struggling to cope with their mortgage commitments, and feared a personal financial collapse was an inevitability should interest rates continue to rise. Analysts predict that the 5th rate rise for the year is just around the corner.

According to a new report, the recently introduced pilot for home information packs or HIPS (as they are commonly known) has been hailed as a resounding success by industry experts and is unlikely to be pulled any time soon.

A spokesperson for the society representing UK property agents has recently stated that enquiries for the information packs, since launch, had been outstanding and believed the packs have single-handedly spurred business at a traditionally quiet time of year. He further assured prospective house buyers and secured loan customers, that the scheme was unlikely to be a flash in the pan initiative, and urged consumers to embrace the tool.

It is also believed that a number of property agents, who were initially sceptical of the packs, are now showing a little more support towards the scheme, thus strengthening their position to become the premier tool for home sellers in future years.

Additionally, it has also been revealed that the HIPS packs will soon become mandatory for those people selling homes with 3 or less bedrooms (opposed to 4 as it currently stands).

Newly released figures drawn from an independent study into the nations current debt problem have discovered that consumer debt has historically topped the 1.4 Trillion pound mark.

One of the countries leading secured loan lenders has suggested that the figures may not be as detrimental to society, as they would first appear to be. The advent of the consolidation loan has seen a great many people procure larger loans in order to better manage smaller credit agreements; this trend in itself would massively increase consumer-borrowing levels.

On the other side of the coin, rising house prices have forced many first time buyers to procure mortgage products, which are considerably larger than they would have been a decade ago. Again, market conditions are also largely responsible for rising consumer debt.

However, although there are perfectly logical reasons to explain certain aspects of the rise, they do not hold the answer to everything. There are also still huge numbers of people who have become indebted for less than justifiable reasons. For example, it is believed that almost 70% of people in financial difficulties have got that way, for simply living beyond their means. It would appear that people become accustom to a certain way of life, and are unable to make adjustments to their routines, due to budgetary constraints.