Getting Your Finances In Order

Before you purchase a property its a good idea to get your finances in order, before commiting yourself to a hefty monthly mortgage repayment.

In order for you to be able to budget correctly its important that you can keep track of all of your income and expenditure. Although it is entirely possible to get a mortgage for 100% of the property value, meaning that in theory home buyers need not have any deposit, having a deposit of around 5% can increase the number of mortgage offers available to you, get you a better deal and save you money.

This is because you are demonstating to the mortgage lender that you are in a healthy financial situation and as such you become a much more attractive proposition to many mortgage lenders.

Its often a sensible idea to attempt to clear any outstanding loans or credit card repayments, or at the very least consolidate these into one monthly repayment, which will no doubt save you money and make budgetting so much easier.

Another way of maximising your savings is to keep an eye out for banks offering good interest rates, recently Alliance and Leicester have been offering a savings account offering an interest rate of 12%, although there are some terms and conditions attached to this deal, it offers a fantastic opportunity to maximise your savings.

As Tesco would say, every little helps!