The Conservative Party has said that it will abolish Home Information Packs at the start of a Conservative Government but sellers will still have to produce an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) – that’s presumably because EPC’s are mandatory under an EU Directive.

We are yet to find out whether the EPC would have to be renewed every time a property is put on the market or whether it will be valid for a fixed period of time. What is clear is that the cost aspect of a EPC will be only a little less than the current cost of a HIP.

That’s because it’s the energy saving element of the HIPs that costs the most money to provide. But does the public have any confidence in the energy ratings? It seems that EPC assessments can come out with very different ratings depending on who surveys the property so it clearly is not a reliable assessment.

And in any case, when we’re off shopping for a new home do we really bring energy assessments into our selection criteria? Certainly not me!

But could there be another reason for EPC’s? I can just forsee some green politician suggesting that properties be subject to a new energy tax based on their EPC rating!

Have you noticed that many banks are encouraging their credit card holders to pay low monthly repayments?

Unsuspecting credit card holders pay up to three times extra in interest on some cards and it can take sixteen years more to repay a debt just by using one of the more expensive cards.

All cards require you to pay a minimum monthly payment that is supposed to pay that month’s interest and a little more besides. However, some card operators have such high interest rates and such low minimum repayments, that clients can be left chasing their credit tales for decades.

For example, clients paying the minimum with Egg or Lloyds TSB would take twenty one years to fully repay their debt whereas with MBNA it takes four years and eight months. Some difference!

Some borrowers are finding it impossible to gain access to the best mortgage deals, loans and credit cards despite having paid all their bills on time. Why? Because the credit reference agencies have made errors on the credit file they hold on that person.

Nobody gets everything right one hundred per cent of the time and this applies to the credit agencies as well. They make mistakes – but you pay dear for their mistakes!

Confusing you with someone else, recording other peoples’ credit problems on your file and general inaccuracies can wreck your credit rating and cause you untold headaches.

Our advice is check your files held by the three main credit reference agencies – Equifax, Experian and Callcredit. You are entitled to receive a copy of your file for an administration fee of £2 - and go through it with a fine tooth comb. If anything is wrongly recorded, the agencies have procedures you can follow to have your file corrected. The problem is that it all takes time and is a pain in the neck!

But until your record is corrected credit will either cost you more or even be refused. So once you have your record spot on, it’s a good idea to make the same check every year.

The FSA wants to reform the way mortgage lenders agree new mortgages. It’s proposals include a ban on self-certification mortgages and more detailed verification of the borrowers income.

The FSA’s 7 points are as follows:
1. A ban on self-certification mortgages which some have labelled “liar loans”.
2. Borrowers to provide far more detils about their income.
3. Abolish fast-track applications where mortgages are approved without detailed checks.
4. More stringent affordability checks to ensure borrowers can cope if interest rates rise.
5. Buy-to-let mortgages to be regulated.
6. All second charged loans to be regulated
7. All non-bank mortgage lenders to be subject to new and more rigorous, capital requirements.

Jon Pain, the FSA’s Managing Director is reported as saying, “We have to, learn from the lessons of the past. Affordability tests are important as we want to be sure that a borrowers net income is enough to cover the prepayments.”

Next Wednesday, judges at the Supreme Court will rule on the legal battle about unfair bank charges.

This is the case between the Office of Fair Trading and the main high street banks and will decide whether the OFT can assess the fairness of overdraft charges – which have been as much as £39 a time for exceeding your account limit. The Court of Appeal has already ruled that charges can be assessed but the banks appealed to the Supreme Court which is the highest court in the land.

It is estimated that 1.1 million people have £1.7 billion worth of charges awaiting this decision because a freeze was placed on complaints back in July 2007 when the banks appealed against the Court of Appeal’s decision in favour of the OFT.

Banking experts believe that the banks could face a £20 billion payout if they were forced to repay all the charges under dispute.

Millions of Spanish holidaymakers could fall victim to a credit card scam. It’s all because hackers have broken into the computer systems of a Spanish based credit card service company and stolen details of credit cards used in Spain.

At the moment the advice is, if you’ve been to Spain and used your credit card within the last 12 months check your card statements VERY carefully and question any transaction you do not recognise with your credit card provider.

In the meantime, card providers all over Europe are trying to identify which cardholders are at risk and rushing new cards to them.

A spokesperson for Visa said, “Cardholders who are affected by this fraud will get back any money stolen through their cards, subject to the terms and conditions.”

According to a recent report from the housing charity Shelter, banks are still prepared to offer a mortgage of up to 5.5 times your annual salary if your credit history and your job are both good enough.

Having said that anyone taking such a weighty mortgage would have great difficulty getting their family budget to balance and places them in serious danger of becoming financially overwhelmed.

Back in more conservative banking days, a big mortgage was judged at around 3.5 times annual salary which left the homeowner to comfortably afford the other family bills.

There are concerns that bank staff are being increasingly pressurised to drive sales and both Barclays and Santander were prepared to offer a 5.5 multiple. The Royal bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest both offered 4.75 multiples and Direct Line, a subsidiary of RBS offered 4.8. (Info from Shelter)

Recent information published by Lloyds shows that the average claim for theft from gardens is £730. When you think about it it’s not surprising. Think about the luxury garden furniture, barbecues, the patio heaters, lawn mowers and hand and power tools etc you keep outside or in your shed.

Mainstream home and contents policies usually include garden contents but with limitations. These vary widely from a few hundred pounds to several thousand depending on the insurance company. And usually there is also a limit on the maximum value of any one item.

So now’s a good time to tot up what your “garden contents” are worth. Then read the small print on your policy. If you have something which is especially valuable like a sit on mower, then it’s as well to speak to your insurer. They may want it to be specified and they will certainly want it to be locked up.

Some insurers will increase their cover for “garden contents” for a modest premium so it’s well worth speaking to them before you switch to another insurer.

Good news for mortgage hunters! Last week a number of mortgage lenders cut their rates as the Bank of England kept its bases rate steady at 0.5%.

Northern rock cut up to half a percent off its trackers and 0.3% off its fixed rates.

Then Nationwide cut 0.31% off its fixed rates and 0.2% off its trackers.

Then Alliance & Leicester cut trackers by 0.4%.

To us this looks like the lending market sharpening up its act following criticisms that their rates were far too out of line with the BoE’s base rate. If we are right more is to come!

However, we anticipate that the brake will only be released on people who have substantial deposits and perfect credit records. It’s going to remain tough for the rest.

If your mortgage lender is part of one of the nationalised banks such as Intelligent Finance (which is part of Halifax a rescued bank) or Northern Rock, the odds are you’ll b told to get a new mortgage elsewhere if you want to move home.

Mortgage clients at Northern Rock who took out their mortgage after 12th may 2008 are only being offered refinancing if the remortgage is of the same value as the clients existing mortgage.

Whereas Intelligent Finance has informed its clients that if they want to remortgage, they have to go to other lenders owned by Lloyds Bank (such as Scottish Widows or the Halifax). If they go elsewhere they could face exit penalties. And as from April 2010, no one with a mortgage with Intelligent Finance will be able to refinance their deal wit IF.

Over 100,000 people have attempted to get credit card debts and loans cleared off by using legal loopholes – but now a Judge’s decision seems to have closed the door for them.

The people owing the money have been trying to get their debts declared “unenforceable” because, for example, a credit agreement was worded incorrectly or could not be produced. But now a judge in the Commercial Court has ruled that even when an agreement is found to be “unenforceable”, this does not mean that a borrower was no longer liable for the debt.

Consequently, the borrower is not entitled to have their credit record wiped clean and the lenders still have the right to appoint debt collectors to recover payment.

A spokesperson for the lending industry said, “Some borrowers took out loans fully understanding what they were doing and properly borrowed the money. They have been trying to get the loans written off by using a technicality and that’s a cynical practice”.

We agree.

A survey has revealed that specialist car insurance policies for the over 65’s can be as much as 805 more expensive than the equivalent policy from a general insurer. This will come as an unwelcome surprise to many retired drivers.

A spokesperson for the British Insurance Brokers association said that “these specialist insurers are not the only organisations that will provide cover for the over 65 market and many of them are more expensive than general insurers.”

Our advice is to use a comparison service but be sure to remember that price is not everything. Make sure you make a list of all the “extras” you want (such as a courtesy car if your is being repaired) and decide how much excess you are prepared to stand. Then get quotes for exactly the features you want.