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With mortgage interest rates at historic lows, even those who recently took out a mortgage to purchase a property or remortgaged may find advantage in refinancing their current loan. Before contacting refinancing organisations in your area, it is wise to get an understanding of the main options in the market.

Standard Variable Rate (SVR): This is the standard mortgage type by which most other loan options are compared. Each mortgage lender has an SVR of interest on which it bases it mortgage rates. The rates are based on the Bank of England’s base lending rate, which is set monthly in response to economic conditions.

Discount Rate: As the name implies, a discount rate mortgage features a reduction in interest rate relative to the SVR. Full Post…

13.30: Insurers are topping the fallers’ board today after record catastrophe claims pushed Lloyd’s of London to a 516million loss in 2011.   

The Japanese tsunami, New Zealand earthquakes and Thailand floods were among tragedies that led to 4.6billion of claims in what Lloyds called a ‘year of unprecedented catastrophe’.

Read more here on results from the 324-year-old insurance market, which is made up of 87 underwriting syndicates.

Euro crisis: Traders are worried that Spain is back in recession

RSA fell 6 per cent or 7.3p to 108.6p, while other insurers on the back foot were Prudential, down 25.8p at 771.8p, and Aviva, down 4.9p at 341p.

The FTSE 100 was off 3.1 points at 5,866.5 in lunchtime trading.

The latest bout of anxiety on markets has been caused by downbeat comments from the head of America’s central bank Ben Bernanke following yesterday’s weak U.S. con

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Next, travelers should focus on premium class, international awards as they return far more value per mile than domestic awards or international flights in economy class. For example, choosing business class for most international itineraries will often cost as little as 30-50% more miles than coach. In contrast, business class tickets usually cost 3-5 times more when paid for in cash. This makes business class, international awards a relative bargain.

Finally, travelers should strongly consider the use of airline partners when choosing an award destination. Each of the major domestic carriers, with the exception of Southwest, is part of a global airline alliance that includes many partners.

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Over the past few months, my wife and I have been in the market for a new car to replace our 2004 Honda Odyssey which now has a little over 140k miles. To make a long story short, we ended up with a shiny, new 2012 Odyssey and are now looking to sell our old one.

I’ve detailed in the past our strategy for buying a new car, so I won’t go into that in too much detail here. But I do want to make a few observations about the process.

In general terms, we solicited bids from afar (this time around, we used the Costco price as a starting point) and then wound up making a deal with our local dealer. Thr

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– On the street , public transport and bed are amongst the most common places that mobile phones are used.
– A third of mobile phone owners admit to using their phone in the bathroom and one in 10 have done so at a wedding or christening

It seems commonplace now for mobile phones to be used in situations previously thought unacceptable, including at work, home and during variety of social occasions. As a sign that the old rules of social etiquette are breaking down, the majority of consumers no longer think using a phone in bed or a public toilet is unacceptable.

The research reveals that, more than one in three mobile owners admit to using their phone whilst in their own bathroom, and almost a quarter has used their phone in a public toilet. Full Post…

High Street lenders are starving Britains small businesses of cash, the Bank of England has warned.

The Banks regional agents, which have grassroots contact with the business community, have reported that high street banks are increasingly reluctant to lend to the very small and medium-sized businesses the Government is relying on to drive economic growth.

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