The Colour of Money

We have all seen the papers and watched the news and they are all saying doom and gloom, but only 19% of construction companies are fearing the worst. Overall the construction industry seems optimistic about the future. Construction order books are full for 2008 and with the shortage of housing still a major concern within the UK it looks to still give good returns for companies working in this sector.

For those companies working in the commercial and private housing sectors its looks slightly bleaker with a sharp drop in people buying properties and with banks offering less attractive mortgage products they will do well to escape the current conditions unscathed.

On the other hand a plus side for property maintenance companies as more and more people opt for rented accommodation. With landlords having to keep up maintenance on all their properties we could see a sharp rise in this sector.

Most at risk are Subcontractors that have paid for materials and labour up front and are awaiting payments from companies. Banks are not lending money as freely as they have been, so will be reluctant to lend money to bridge this gap.

Subcontractors who are keen to ensure they don’t end up short of work can sign up to Subdirect and gain themselves maximum exposure on the web for just £10 a year.

As far as I can see, the Post Office credit card really is one of the best all-round credit cards available at the moment.

For a start it offers an interest free credit card balance transfer facility for 10 months. So, if you have got debts on your existing credit cards, you can transfer the balance to the Post Office card and not pay any interest on the transferred balance for 10 months.

Usually a credit card is either good news for purchasers or good news for people doing balance transfers - but seldom good for both types of credit card user.

But the Post Office credit card scores well on both counts. Because as well as the 0% balance transfer feature, it also offers an interest-free deal for new purchases for the first three months. After the three month introductory period, the interest rate is 1.385% per month (unless of course you clear the balance each month in which case there is no interest to pay). Read the rest…

Whatever the official definition or spin may say, business owners that I speak to seem to pretty convinced that the UK is in the grips of a recession and that these are difficult times for businesses.

The credit crunch has far reaching consequences and affects all sorts of different businesses to a greater or lesser extent.

One sector that is suffering badly is the mortgage market. Of course we have all heard the high profile stories on the news about the effects of the credit crunch on this country’s banks and building societies. After all, it was the Northern Rock story which first brought the problems in the financial services industry to the public’s attention.

But what about the smaller companies involved in the mortgage business - the one or two man band financial advisers and mortgage brokers who help arrange mortgages for large numbers of the UK’s homeowners? Read the rest…