Mortgage Rates are Now Increasing

For a 30-year fixed mortgage, the average U.S. rate increased this week following the decreasing to its record lows in the last four weeks.

According to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac last Thursday, the rate on the 30-year loan increased to 3.55 percent from 3.49 in the previous week.

For a 15-year fixed mortgage, which a common refinancing option, the average rate increased to 2.83 percent from 2.80 percent in the previous week.

Less expensive mortgage rates has aided in a moderate but irregular housing recovery this 2012. Sales of new and occupied homes in the past declined in the month of June from May but it was higher than the same period in the previous year. Moreover, home prices have begun to increase in most of the cities.

Meanwhile, low mortgage rates can aid the economy if the number of people who refinance increase. This is because people pay less interest and this increases their money for spending. An increase in spending helps in the growth of the economy.

Unfortunately, the speed of home sales is still under healthy levels due to the fact that a lot of people are having problems in becoming eligible for home loans or do not have a large amount of money for down payments asked by banks.

Also, the slow job market could hinder some people from purchasing homes this year. Based on the data from Labor Department, the unemployment rate increased for the month of July to 8.3 percent, despite the increase in jobs offered by employers, from 151,000 to 163,000 jobs.

Last Wednesday, the Federal Reserve said that the economy is becoming weak and promised again to take actions if the job market continues to weaken. The Fed also recognized the fact that economic activity weakened during the first six months of the year, unemployment increased, and consumer spending declined.

Allstate’s Your Choice Auto Program No Longer Sold

Based on a press release from Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit group, the Allstate Insurance decided to stop selling its “Your Choice Auto” (YCA) insurance program in California.

In the YCA program, drivers are charged more than 15 percent in premiums although they are promised the policy premium will not increase due to future tickets or accidents.

However, Consumer Watchdog believes that the benefits are not worth the extra fee. Moreover, the consumer group discovered that Allstate took a total of $20 million annually in additional premiums.

In addition, it was also found out that Allstate was violating the good driver discount law of California, unjustly discriminating drivers in spite their excellent driving record, marketing a misleading product and encouraging reckless driving.

According to Todd M. Foreman, in-house counsel for Consumer Watchdog, the YCA program became a cash cow for Allstate through asking customers to pay for more than they should be paying as stated in California’s good driver law. When Allstate knew that their executives might be cross-examined regarding the costs and benefits of YCA, they ultimately decided to take the product off the market.

However, other states with similar YCA programs still sell the product. In other words, if you are looking around for car insurance and you come across an Allstate YCA policy, think twice before making your final decision. If you have one at present, it might be better to shop around for less expensive alternatives.

Even though insurance companies in several states price their auto insurance policies using credit scores, it does not imply you cannot look around for other car insurances even if you have poor credit.

Don’t be discouraged if you have been repeatedly rejected for a conventional auto loan. Auto Credit Express specializes on searching the most appropriate dealer for the applicant with car credit problems. They make sure that they will have a chance to get approved for an auto loan.

Does Bad Credit Get in the Way of Your Love?

Settling bad credit will help a customer in saving a lot of money and also this will help in reducing the amount of interest rates for loans.Not only that it will also be your ticket to better car insurance premiums, better chances in being accepted for loans and being the most qualified man for a job opening.

Being financially troubled can be bad for your relationship. Your credit score could be inflicting a huge blow on your love life, so before you start planning for the future, it is best to first know each other’s financial status right now.

First things first, you have to have the idea of what your credit report contains. The criteria that your credit report shows are 35% is your payment history, 30% contains the amount you owed, 15% is the length of your credit history, 10% contains your new credit and the final 10% are the types of credit you have applied and qualified for.

So how do you help each other in rebuilding your credit status? You and your partner are not only partners in love but partners in financial matters as well. If you want your relationship to last then you have to take your credit scores seriously so that it will not interfere with your love life.

Credit scores are just numbers and do not clearly define everything about a person, however you should ask yourself these following questions: what does bad credit say to your employers about you? Why do you have so many outstanding bills or why was your car repossessed? Are you and your partner taking the necessary steps to rebuild your credit? If you do not start now then, when and if you will not help each other then who do you expect to look after one another?

Lower Cost for Cars

Not every buyer knows the total advantage and benefits of the programs that Mazda offers consumers, especially those with less than perfect credit.

This does cannot benefit to many customers with credit issues however because first, the applicant must be qualified to have a new or a used car and the cars that you must apply for is a Mazda model and only those cars that are franchised by the new car dealers of the company are the ones who can approve this loan.

However if you are able and qualified you can have a new car with full certified counterparts that would be budget friendly. The Mazda 2 and Mazda 3 are among the cars you can get a deal for. Mazda 3 is endorsed by the Consumer Reports while the Mazda 2 also has received a positive response and high marks from the CR even if it is still too early to tell if it is as recommendable as the Mazda 3.

Another area that a car buyer should consider is the cost of maintenance for the vehicle he is purchasing, because according to the latest trend, most of the repossessed cars are due to car damages and breakdowns. Customers who tend to get lemon cars or used cars that are costly to repair stop paying for the loan and end up having the car repossessed. Just think about it, why would you want to pay for a car that will not even work properly?

Mazda announced the launching of its new program entitled Mazda Total Advantage Program which would pay for a scheduled maintenance of the cars that a customer buys from them. This will be very helpful and cheap compared to buying vehicles without the services of maintenance for the car.

Here are some of the benefits that customers will have with this program. First, they will be protected from fake Mazda car parts and trained car repairing professionals will personally attend to their needs. You will not be forced to pay expensive service costs because you have the vehicle maintenance agreement. You will even have the option to pay how much you can for the monthly repayments.

Rate Cut Expected by Borrowers

According to national loan approval data from Mortgage Choice, which is the largest mortgage broker in Australia, demand for variable rate home loans achieved an eleventh month high in July due to the rumors of another rate cut in the upcoming months.

Variable rate demand increased to 85 percent of all new home loan approvals for the month of July. This was the highest ever since August of the previous year, when it was 86 percent of all new home loan approvals.

The only state that reported a decrease in the variable rate demand was Western Australia, from 86 percent in June to 81 percent in July. In the meantime, the average increase of variable rate across the rest of the states was 3.75 percentage points.

According to company spokesperson Belinda Williamson, most of the borrowers feel positive about variable interest rate like they did in August 2011, when borrowers had encountered nine successive months of constant interest rates, which was followed by decrease in the rates.

In addition, Williamson said that the borrowers’ expectations of another rate cut in the approaching months may be strengthened by the low inflation figures in the previous month. Apparently, borrowers are focused on obtaining the lowest interest rate possible. In fact, the top two variable rate loan options in July are common for having low interest rates.

Demand for discount rate loans increased to 44 percent, while demand for basic variable rate loans increased to 20 percent. Moreover, demand for standard variable rate loans decreased in the previous month, from 19 percent to 18 percent. Similarly, demand for fixed rate loans significantly decreased from 18 percent to 15 percent.

In contrast, the only state that reported an increase in the fixed rate loan demand was Western Australia. This may be due to the effect of the mining boom on living costs and borrowers searching for ways to limit their expenses.