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The latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) have shown that although the number of repossession cases on home owner loans in arrears and default are up for the whole of last year, the last three months of the year saw a significant decrease in the number of people losing their homes.

Despite this encouraging news, many banks and building societies, along with other specialist loan companies, are concerned about an increase in repossessions on buy to let loans over the course of the next twelve months.

A large number of landlords are on a particularly fine line when it comes to balancing the cost of their monthly buy to let loan repayments with the income they receive in rental payments from tenants.

Although there has been an increase in the number of buy to let loans offered in recent months, many lenders are concerned that only a slight change in economic factors could tip many landlords over the edge and lead to a substantial increase in repossessions.

According to the research from the Moore Blanch 2010 repossessions report, 65 per cent of lenders are concerned about the effects of a drop in rental yield, 61 per cent are concerned about the possibility of a further fall in house prices and 56 per cent are concerned about a possible increase in the Bank of England base rate of interest.

Any one of these factors could tip the scales for many landlords and place them in a serious arrears situation with their buy to let loan.

The other concern facing landlords is that although their loans are relatively cheap at the moment, there are also many cheap loans deals available on the market and many of their tenant could be tempted to buy a property rather than continuing to rent, leading to the possibility of empty properties and no rental income at all.

Many people use a credit card for purchases on a regular basis and they can be incredibly useful things, offering increased levels of protection and insurance for people buying large or expensive goods, as well as a convenient method of paying.

But a large number of credit card users also have an outstanding balance on their card, which in many cases never seems to get cleared and it is likely that only very few of these people actually know what rate on interest they are paying on their credit card each month.

A new survey conducted by Moneyfacts.co.uk has found that the average cost of a credit card has now reached its highest level in around 12 years and a large number of card providers have just increased their rates in the past few months, due to increased risk from high levels of personal debt on personal loans and credit cards and rising unemployment.

The average interest rate on a credit card now stands at 18.8 per cent, which is the highest level since 1998.

People who have an outstanding balance on their credit card (or cards) have been urged to check to see what rate they are actually paying and also to look into the savings to be made by either switching to a balance transfer card, or taking out a debt consolidation loan, either of which is likely to be cheaper.

Michelle Slade of Moneyfacts.co.uk commented on the rate rises, she said “If customers receive notice of a rate increase, they should challenge their provider for a reason why the increase is necessary, especially if their credit status hasn’t changed.”

“Competitive deals for balance transfers and introductory purchases remain on offer, so it is definitely worth taking the time to see if you can transfer to a better credit card with another provider.”

Anyone who has, or has had, children will be only too well aware of just how much money they cost to bring up. The majority of parents live in the hope that one day their kids will grow up and leave home, relieving them of the financial burden they have suffered for the past 18 years or so.

But a recent survey amongst parents, conducted by the Children’s Mutual, has found that children are still a financial burden for their parents, even when they become adults and allegedly become independent.

The survey found that around 93 per cent of parents have provided financial support to their children aged between 18 and 30 and on average this has cost them £30,000 each!

Many parents have taken out personal loans in order to fund their children and 28 per cent of parents even say that they have taken out a new home owner loan and remortgaged their house to help their kids.

In a large number of these cases, this has been to help their children to raise a suitable deposit when they are applying for their first home owner loan or mortgage, but often the funding is simply to help their children meet their monthly bills and help them to repay their own personal loans and other debts.

This is clearly a big problem for many parents, who are cutting back on their own lifestyle in order to support their adult children, in some cases, this is even stopping them from funding their own retirement plans.

David White of the Children’s Mutual said “These figures unveil the stark reality of the cost of being a parent. No longer does turning 18 mean financial independence, in fact 16 per cent of parents questioned expected their child to remain financially dependant on them in to their thirties and beyond.”

Earlier this week, Barclays bank announced that it had made huge profits for the year, which in turn will lead to large bonuses being paid out to several highly placed bankers.

With the past track record of banks in general over the course of the past two years, it is not really surprising that this announcement has infuriated many individuals in the UK, particularly those who have tried to be accepted for a loan, or businesses who have required a business loan to help fund their plans.

Despite the fact that banks are telling us that they are increasing the amount of lending through the number of new personal loans and business loans they are offering to customers, the evidence from people living in the real world does not appear to support their claims.

The shadow chancellor for the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable, has called on banks to increase the number and amount of loans they offer, particularly to businesses who are struggling to survive due to the recession.

The call comes after it was revealed that somewhere in the region of 60 per cent of businesses who applied for a bank loan over the course of the last twelve months were rejected and that 20 per cent were funding their business with a credit card.

Mr Cable said “There is a huge gap between what the banks tell us and the experience of companies on the ground. This evidence confirms that large numbers of small and medium sized businesses are still having difficulty in getting credit on reasonable terms.”

“The nationalised and semi nationalised banks owe their existence to us, the tax payer and they must make good on their commitments to increase lending at reasonable rates.”

“instead of paying themselves large bonuses, the money should instead be used to strengthen balance sheets and to provide commercial lending to sound and solvent British companies who have a vital role to play in our economic recovery.”

The equity release loan market has had a fairly bad run over the course of the past twelve months or so, as many individuals have been reluctant to take out this type of loan due to falling property prices and several large banks and building societies have withdrawn from the market altogether due to lack of funding for the loans.

But as retired people are starting to return to equity release, there is a growing demand for independent financial advice to help them through the minefield of choosing whether such a loan is the right option for them and then in selecting the most appropriate lender to meet their particular needs.

New research from Hodge Equity Release has shown that there is a growing number of Independent Financial Advisers (IFA’s) entering the equity release loan market and they accounted for around 40 per cent of all equity release loans completed over the last quarter of last year, showing an increase of 8 per cent on the same period the previous year.

Equity release loans have got themselves a bad name in the past and in some case have been confused with sale and rent back schemes, but since the introduction of SHIP (Safe Home Income Plans) their image is improving, with people having a better understanding of how equity release loans work and exactly what they are getting involved in.

Jon King of Hodge said “There is no denying that the equity release market has taken its fair share of blows during 2009 and the withdrawal of large product providers has altered choice for customers. however, the importance of advice will never be removed and must remain the keystone for the industry going forward.”

We reported last week on how the number of properties repossessed due to arrears and defaults on the main mortgage or home owner loan had fallen in the last three months of last year and, although there were more people lost their homes than the previous year, the total number was below the amount predicted.

A new survey conducted by the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA)has revealed that the total number of properties repossessed through arrears and defaults on secured loans, or second charge loans, has actually fallen year on year by almost 10 per cent.

There were 233 properties repossessed during the last three months of last year through arrears on a secured loan, rather than the main mortgage, which showed a reduction of 37 per cent on the same period in the previous year.

Over the course of the whole of 2009, there were 1,458 secured loan repossessions, which was lower than the FLA’s prediction of 1,522 and 9.2 per cent lower than the figure for the previous year.

Although these figures show an improvement in repossessions on secured loans and second charge lending, the FLA has warned that due to a fragile economy and rising unemployment in the UK, this figure could easily increase once again over the course of the coming year.

Fiona Hoyle of the FLA said “Second charge lenders are doing all they can to help customers in financial difficulties and this is reflected in the low number of repossessions. But many people are still struggling with repayments and this looks set to continue during 2010. Repossessions will remain a last resort.”

“The small number of properties repossessed shows that the current regulation is working well, lenders are able to lend responsibly and keep repossessions low. We still remain to be convinced that government proposals for transferring  regulatory responsibility from the Office of Fair Trading to the Financial Services Authority are needed.”

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has just released its figures for the total number of homeowners who have either had their home repossessed or had a high level of arrears on their loan, for the last three months of last year.

Between October and the end of the year, there were 10,200 properties which were repossessed by the lender due to arrears and defaults on the home owner loan and although this may sound like a high number, it is 13 per cent lower than the previous three months and 2 per cent lower than the same period twelve months ago.

The figures are based on both residential home owner loans and also buy to let loans, but do not include second charge mortgages, or secured loans.

Over the course of the whole year, there were 46,000 repossessions, 2,000 fewer than the CML’s most recent prediction and significantly less than their prediction at the beginning of 2009, when they estimated that there would be around 75,000 repossessions through bad loan management.

Despite the figures being lower than originally predicted, the number of loan repossessions has still seen an increase of 15 per cent above the number for 2008, when 40,000 individuals lost their homes.

It was a similar position when it came to loan arrears, with 188,300 home owner loans having arrears of at least 2.5 per cent of the outstanding loan balance, which was a reduction on the previous three months, but an increase on 2008 figures.

Michael Coogan of the CML said “The fact that mortgage arrears and repossessions did not rise as much as we feared in 2009 is testament to the effect of low interest rates and a great deal of concerted effort by lenders, government and the advice sector to help borrowers to address financial difficulties when they occur.”