Product focus: Five year fixed rate mortgages

Category:
Mortgages
Date:
14/04/2011

The Bank of England base rate has remained at an all-time low for 25 months, although there has been growing speculation that it will increase in the very near future. Borrowers on a variable rate mortgage, who have been enjoying low rates lately, may want to review their options and consider a fixed rate deal to avoid their monthly repayments increasing each time base rate moves.

Here is a selection of some of the five year fixed rate mortgages offered by well-known high street lenders.

first direct

• This deal from first direct offers a rate of 4.35% for 5 years.
• The maximum loan-to-value is 65%.
• Customers can borrow between £10,000 and £1 million and an arrangement fee of £999 is payable.
• Free legal fees are offered to remortgage customers, while the option to make overpayments is available to all borrowers.

Nationwide Building Society

• Nationwide Building Societys five year fixed deal offers borrowers a rate of 4.59% for 5 years.
• The product has a maximum loan-to-value of 70% and has borrowing limits of between £25,000 and £10 million.
• A fee of £99 is payable.
• Incentives of a free valuation and free legal fees are offered to remortgage customers.
• Flexible features of overpayments and underpayments are also offered.

HSBC

• This account offers a rate of 4.59% to 31.7.16.
• Customers can borrow up to 60% of the property value and there is a maximum advance of £500,000.
• A fee of £199 is payable and free legal fees are available to remortgage customers.

Find the best mortgage for you – Compare fixed rate mortgages

*Product information and availability is correct as of the date of publication (shown at the top of the article). Products may be withdrawn by their provider or changed at anytime.

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95% LTV with no PMI for refinances also available

UPPER MARLBORO, Md., April 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — NASA Federal Credit Union (NASA FCU) has added two unique high loan-to-value (LTV) mortgages to its home loan portfolio of products and services. For a limited time, NASA Federal Credit Union is providing a 100 percent Loan-to-Value (LTV) mortgage with no private mortgage insurance (PMI) required for new home purchases up to $650,000. For current homeowners, 95 percent LTV refinances up to $650,000 with cash out is also available with no PMI. These unique high LTV mortgage products are available for a consumers primary residence in Maryland, DC and Virginia.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101130/DC09103LOGO)

The Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio is the amount of a first mortgage loan as a percentage of the total appraised value of the property being purchased or refinanced. High LTV mortgages arent readily available from most financial institutions and in most cases, if available, require borrowers to purchase mortgage insurance. Both mortgages will save consumers hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars a year because Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) is not required. Also, for new home purchases in the $650,000-$850,000 range, a 95 percent LTV mortgage with 5 percent down payment is available as is a 90 percent refinance option for current homeowners. These options are also available to new NASA Federal Credit Union members, including those not employed by NASA, who meet membership requirements.

Changing times call for innovative and flexible mortgage products, said Doug Allman, President and CEO of NASA Federal Credit Union. For a limited time, consumers can get additional flexibility and affordability with our two unique mortgages not readily available through other home lenders.

For more information on NASA Federals 100 percent Loan-to-Value mortgage, the 95 percent refinance mortgage, or other products and services, visit www.nasafcu.com or call 1-888-627-2328 extension 207. NASA employment is not a membership requirement for new NASA Federal Credit Union members. Contact the credit union for details.

NASA FCU is an Equal Housing Lender. Offer valid on approved credit and primary residences in Maryland, DC and Virginia only. Additional terms and conditions apply.

About NASA Federal Credit Union

NASA Federal Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial cooperative owned entirely by its members and operated for the benefit of all who belong. Chartered in 1949, NASA Federal Credit Union serves the diverse needs of 76,000 members with a full array of financial services and the strength of more than $1 billion in assets.

SOURCE NASA Federal Credit Union

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http://www.nasafcu.com

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Adjustable rate mortgages, which got a bad reputation following the collapse of the housing bubble, may be poised to make a comeback.

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Most Treasury prices edged lower Monday after the government saw demand for its debt slip in the first of three auctions this week.

The Treasury Department sold $35 billion in two-year notes at a yield of 0.79 percent.

Investors placed bids for 3.16 times the amount offered. That’s a weaker show of demand than the 3.48 average for the last four auctions. The previous four auctions also resulted in lower yields: an average of 0.66 percent.

The two-year yield ended the day at 0.76 percent, up from 0.74 percent late Friday. Bond yields rise when their prices fall. Prices for the five-year and seven-year notes also fell.

The 10-year Treasury note ended unchanged from late Friday. The yield was 3.44 percent.

The 30-year bond rose 9.37 cents for every $100 invested. The slight rise in price left the yield unchanged at 4.50 percent from late Friday.

The Treasury expects to raise a total of $99 billion this week through three auctions. The next one comes Tuesday with the sale of $35 billion in five-year notes.

In the market for short-term Treasury bills, the three-month T-bill paid a 0.09 percent yield. Its discount was also 0.09 percent.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Capital News Service

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RICHMOND — Gov. Bob McDonnell has proposed a series of amendments to legislation that would require large employers to provide insurance coverage for autistic children.

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Among other cost controls, the governor would require parents to get prior authorization from their insurer before an autistic child can receive services.

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“We have communicated with the patrons to ensure this legislation is in the proper form to guarantee the balance between meeting the needs of children with autism spectrum disorders, their parents who purchase insurance coverage, businesses who provide insurance to their employees, and the industry that provides the coverage,” McDonnell (R) said this week.

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The General Assembly will consider McDonnell’s changes Wednesday. Legislators will hold a one-day “reconvened session” to vote on the governor’s vetoes and legislative and budget amendments.

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For more than a decade, parents of autistic children in Virginia have pushed for a state law requiring insurers to cover autism services. In February, the General Assembly passed two identical measures — House Bill 2467 and Senate Bill 1062.

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The legislation would require health insurers to pay for a set of therapies, known as applied behavior analysis, for children aged 2 to 6 years old with autism spectrum disorders.

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The new law would apply to businesses with more than 50 employees; it also would cover public employees. The statute would not apply to individual or small group insurance policies.

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The bills would cap annual benefits for autism services at $35,000.

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Doug Gray, executive director of the Virginia Association of Health Plans, said his organization disagreed with the kind of services covered by the legislation.
“The services are not health care services. They are educational services — the same that are provided in public schools,” he said.

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Like Gray, many in the business community have opposed the new law, saying it puts a burden on employers in an uncertain economic climate.

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“This bill uses insurance companies to finance these therapies,” Gray said.
John Toscano, president of the Commonwealth Autism Service, said Gray’s position is “misleading.”

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He said there is no known medical treatment for autism and the most effective therapy is “the use of early and intensive intervention.”

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Toscano acknowledged some schools already provide treatments based on applied behavior analysis. But he said “by the time children with autism reach school [age], they may have missed the opportunity for treatment.”

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According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 35 states and the District of Columbia have laws concerning autism and insurance coverage.

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Virginia would join the 23 states that specifically require insurers to provide coverage for autism treatment.

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McDonnell issued a statement saying his amendments would make Virginia’s requirement less costly. His amendments include:

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• Creating a licensure requirement for autism therapists through the Virginia Board of Medicine to ensure that families seeking treatment receive standardized care

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• Requiring prior authorization of services from insurance companies “to promote access and quality control of services”

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• Allowing an independent evaluation of the child’s treatment plan “to ensure that the treatment is justified and effective”

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• Allowing a legal path to invalidate the law if a court or a federal law invalidates the $35,000 cap on benefits

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“I recognize and thank those business owners who often make great sacrifices to provide affordable health care coverage to their employees,” McDonnell said. “I urge my friends in the General Assembly to approve these common-sense amendments.”

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WASHINGTON — Wisconsin is at the forefront of an effort to build the information technology system for state health insurance marketplaces, despite Gov. Scott Walkers rejection of the federal health care law.

The Department of Health and Human Services last month awarded Wisconsin $37.7 million for the project. The Badger State was among seven grantees — the others were Kansas, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon and a consortium of New England states — selected to receive a chunk of $241 million in early innovator grants.

Officials from those states are in Washington for a briefing on the project. The states are required to develop models that can be used in other states.

Early innovator states will play a critical role in developing a consumer-friendly marketplace where insurers must compete to deliver the best deal, said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius when announcing the grants on Feb. 16. Sebelius said the grants will lay the groundwork to ensure consumers in every state will be able to easily navigate their way through health insurance options.

Under the health care law President Barack Obama signed last March, states must establish health insurance exchanges by 2014. The exchanges will allow consumers and small businesses to shop for and enroll in private health care plans that suit their needs.

While states must begin operating the exchanges in 2014, they have to declare their intent to form them by Jan. 1, 2013. The federal government will step in to run the exchanges in states that fail to comply. Wisconsin Department of Health Secretary Dennis Smith said the state is well on its way to fulfilling its commitment.

Wisconsin has a bit of a head start, Smith said, noting how the state began developing an automated eligibility system for its state-based health insurance programs. Thats one thing that makes this state a leader.

Still, one of the first steps Walker took on his first day in office was to authorize Attorney General JB Van Hollen to join 25 other states in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health care law. A federal judge has ruled in favor of the states, but the Obama administration has filed an appeal. The case is expected to ultimately be decided by the US Supreme Court, and that could take a while.

While Gov. Walker strongly opposes ObamaCare and firmly believes it is unconstitutional, Wisconsin still has an obligation to implement the law in a way that best fits our state, said Walkers spokesman, Cullen Werwie. If a health insurance purchasing exchange is created in Wisconsin, it is crucial that it be uniquely Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is carrying out its exchange responsibility with an emphasis on a free-market approach, Smith said. He said the new administrations focus will be heavy on information and light on regulation.

Part of what we believe is important with this exchange is to demonstrate that it should not be used in a regulatory manner that would disrupt our competitive market, Smith said.

Wisconsin applied for the innovator grant while former Gov. Jim Doyle was still in office. Awardees were selected based on their technical expertise, their readiness to develop information technology for exchanges, the adaptability of their systems to other states and a demonstration that planning already was under way.

Through the exchange, Wisconsin envisions improving the delivery of affordable care to as many as 160,000 people in the nongroup market, 770,000 BadgerCare Plus and Medicaid clients and 1 million small-business employees, according to a description of the project.

Wisconsins proposal envisions a single, intuitive portal through which residents can access subsidized and nonsubsidized health care and other state-based programs, HHS said in a statement announcing the grant awards. The exchange will integrate across health and human services programs to promote efficiency and lower overall administrative cost.

Smith said while state officials are ahead of schedule in creating its exchange, some major challenges remain. He said the state has yet to hear from federal officials about how to build in tax subsidies and credits and other income information necessary to determine eligibility.

The technical challenges are enormous, Smith said. But, he added, from our perspective we feel very confident about our ability to manage the project.

The exchange effort is being led by the Wisconsin Office of Health Care Reform, which Doyle created to administer the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In December, the office released a report outlining its vision for the states insurance marketplace. A prototype can be found at https://exchange.wisconsin.gov.

The nations major health insurance providers support the exchanges and believe the early-innovator effort is a wise endeavor, said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for Americas Health Insurance Plans, which represents nearly 1,300 insurers. But providers want to ensure that the exchanges are done right, Zirkelbach added, so that choice and competition are maximized.

We strongly support the concept to provide one-stop shopping so people can search for a plan thats right for them, Zirkelbach said. These early-innovator grants are a good way to see what models work best and prevent each state from having to reinvent the wheel.

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April 2, 2011 |(0) CommentsStone finance report accuracy questioned

State Rep. Jeff Stones latest campaign finance report in the Milwaukee County executive race has come under fire by the state Democratic Party, which alleges errors and inconsistencies.

Stone, a Greendale Republican, and his campaign manager, Vi Hammelman, said any errors in the report were inadvertent and would be corrected, if necessary. Stone is running for county executive in Tuesdays election against Milwaukee philanthropist Chris Abele.

A letter from state Democratic Party Chair Mike Tate to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm charged that Stones campaign report improperly listed $6,900 in donations previously reported, as well as nearly $29,000 in donations that were made after the seven-week period covered by reports due Monday.

Stones report also omitted required employer and occupation information for hundreds of donors, according to the Democrats complaint.

Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf declined to comment.

55,000 pounds of frozen turkey recalled

Jennie-O Turkey Store is recalling nearly 55,000 pounds of frozen raw turkey after Wisconsin officials reported a patient was diagnosed with salmonella bacteria after eating turkey linked to the company.

The US Food Safety and Inspection Service said Friday that salmonella was also found in people who had eaten the products in Colorado and Ohio. The service said its investigation of the illness included at least 12 people in Wisconsin and nine other states.

The product being recalled is a 4-pound box of All Natural Turkey Burgers with seasonings Lean White Meat. The lot codes are 32710 through 32780, and the expiration date is Dec. 23.

Documents behind DA sexting probe released

Madison – The state Justice Department released 150 pages of documents that shed new light on prosecutors findings that a former Calumet County district attorney repeatedly displayed sexually suggestive behavior at the office but that it wasnt illegal.

The Justice Department said Monday that it does not plan to charge Ken Kratz after investigating claims from more than two dozen women who alleged Kratz sent them sexually suggestive messages.

A Calumet County social worker said Kratz sent her creepy emails, including one that said: You can either flirt with me or not – you cant have it both ways.

Kratz, 50, resigned in October after he had sent 30 text messages trying to strike up an affair with a domestic abuse victim while he prosecuted her ex-boyfriend.

Journal Sentinel staff and The Associated Press

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Capping the rates in order to have low interest rate credit cards is currently being proposed by NDP. The recent development is to cap interest rates by 5% plus prime as confirmed by Jack Layton if he will be elected as the prime minister. It has been found out that Canadians are among the individuals who pay large amounts of interest rates compared to the whole world. Having this, Layton is currently lobbying for a break and a stop on this to provide low interest rate credit cards to the Canadians. It is inevitable that most families also maximize the use of the credit card because of its affordability and also to effectively manage the everyday expenses and purchases.

As per research, the interest rates vary from as low as 1.75% to as high as 9.75%. As such, having a reduction in these rates and having low interest rate credit cards would definitely give an advantage to the consumers without giving too much impact on the bank’s end. This he confirmed because he knows that these banks are already profitable and powerful gaining their reputation in the market. If this plan would push through, currently the average savings on low interest rate credit cards is seen at $60 a month or $740 a year for the average card holder.

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This year, on March 23, was the first anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. Experts of different stripes from conservative think tanks, conservative politicians, media pundits and editorial writers of conservative media outlets are on the bandwagon of criticizing the law. The column on ACA by Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in the Wall Street Journal on March 23 caught my attention. He heaped praise on the medical care his daughter got. He had insurance through his employer. His praise was sprinkled by highly critical remarks on ACA.

According to Senator Johnson, ACA will destroy the quality of care and innovations in medical care, and implement bureaucrats take over: I wonder where he got that information about ACA. He had nothing to say about the imperfections (concentration of economic power) in the insurance markets, lack of health insurance to almost 47 million people now and increasing rapidly over time, denial of insurance based on pre-existing conditions and other hardships people face in getting and continuing their health insurance coverage

Similarly, Sen. Orrin Hatch in columns, including one in the Standard-Examiner, on March 27, tried to make the case for repeal of the law. The ACA, according to him, will increase insurance premiums, increase unemployment, taxes and deficit. It was not clear where he got his data to make such unsubstantiated claims contrary to other analytical evidence. He praised Utahs health care system. However, if Utah has such a good system, why such a high growth in enrollment during 2009-2010 and in the expenditure, and why is Utah Health Exchange plagued with low enrollment and high premiums? Moreover, the claim that ACA is a government takeover overlooks the fact that UHE, as in some other states, is a government-organized market place, just like ACA requires.

The column by Doug Olson, a small business owner, in the March 24 Standard-Examiner, points out the problems he faced in getting insurance from varied insurance companies in covering his wifes surgery-related medical bills. His experience is indicative of the problems ordinary people face in getting insurance, especially those with preexisting conditions. Sometimes insurance companies refuse coverage on the pretense that the doctor-approved treatment is experimental. A former health insurance executive, Wendell Porter, describes such an incident in his book, Deadly Spin, which resulted in the death of a child.

Utah politicians do not have to worry about their lifetime taxpayer-paid coverage after only 10 years of service in the Legislature. I am sure federal government employees and politicians will not willingly reduce or do away with their generous taxpayer-provided coverage. Why do the politicians think that other people have to fend for themselves and be deprived of the opportunity to obtain lower priced group coverage if their employers do not provide insurance?

I understand that medical care in the US is among the best in the world for those who have access to it at an affordable price. But those who are priced out of the market for any reason do not even have the opportunity to access the second-best medical care. As Professor David Cutler at Kennedy School of Government at Harvard states in The Economists Voice, Substantial empirical evidence shows that the major issues influencing insurance take-up are price and accessibility. The subsidies to low- and middle-income persons under the ACA will go a long way for many Americans to afford insurance and hence adequate medical care.

The access to medical care and its cost not only depends upon insurance markets but also on the pharmaceutical drugs markets and medical care markets in various regions of the country. For example, if medical care industry increases prices, it tends to increase insurance premiums. The cost of drugs, profit motive, monopolistic practices and diversified insurance pools also affect premiums.

The study by Leemore S. Dafny in American Economic Reviews September 2010 issue finds that controlling for other effects, health insurers charge higher premiums to more profitable firms, and within an insurance company premiums escalate in the most concentrated (indicative of market power) markets. This study challenges the notion prevalent among many faithful but misinformed supporters of free competitive markets that health insurance markets are highly competitive. The Wall Street Journal, March 26-27, reports that the Justice Department has opened its antitrust probe into the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurance plans anti-competitive behavior in several states.

It is hoped that cool heads will prevail in the health care debate. The debate should be guided by factual information and solid objective analysis of the consequences of ACA, rather than ideology. If the ACA has certain deficiencies, then the responsible action will be to remove those deficiencies and substitute them with policies, which assure adequate health care for all Americans.

Mathur is former chair and now professor emeritus of economics, Department of Economics, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio. His articles also appear at vijaykmathur.blogspot.com. He writes original blogs for the Standard-Examiner http://blogs.standard.net/economics-etc/

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Banks and credit unions are pushing to delay new regulations that would cap fees charged to merchants whenever shoppers use debit cards. The change in the law, set to begin this summer, has financial institutions squaring off with the retail industry.

Interchange fees, also known as swipe fees, for using a debit card are now about 1 percent to 2 percent of each sales transaction. The Federal Reserve has proposed capping debit card fees at no more than 12 cents per transaction.

The National Retail Federation asserts that merchants are ready to pass along the savings from lower debit card fees to their customers — if only the banking lobby would get out of their way.

Financial institutions contend that the cap is set too low.

Banks and credit unions would offset their losses by providing fewer services, including issuing fewer debit cards, or by raising charges in other areas.

Were already seeing banks talking about eliminating free checking, said Linda Navarro, president of the Oregon Bankers Association. In her view, a cap on swipe fees amounts to price fixing that only benefits retailers.

It imposes a price control below the cost of providing our service, said Kevin Cole, chief financial officer of MaPS Credit Union in Salem. The credit union is reviewing its option about how to respond to a cap on debit card fees.

About 20,000 households in the Salem area use MaPS free checking product, Cole said, and the credit union is reluctant to begin charging for basic financial services.

Debit cards are responsible for 35 percent of all non-cash purchases in the United States, surpassing credit cards and checks as the preferred form of payment with consumers.

Last year, Congress approved legislation that cleared the way for the changes that are scheduled to go into effect July 21. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin sponsored an amendment to a financial overhaul bill that authorizes the cap on debit card fees.

Financial institutions with less than $10 billion in assets are supposed to be exempted, but theres controversy about whether the exemption will work in practice.

We would have to seriously consider who we give debit cards to, or whether we have debit card program at all, said Steve Pagenstecher, vice president of member relations with Valley Credit Union in Salem.

Banks and credit unions say the Durbin amendment was ramrodded through. Opponents of capping debit card fees have supported a bill — the Debit Interchange Fee Study Act of 2011 — that would delay the proposed changes for two years.

The bill, introduced in March, also calls for a study by the US Treasury to determine the consequences of capping debit card fees on consumers and small financial institutions.

The National Retail Federation accuses the banking lobby of trying to kill the debit card reforms.

We are extremely surprised to see a bill introduced that favors Wall Street banks and price-fixing card companies over Main Street merchants and their customers, said Mallory Duncan, National Retail Federation senior vice president and general counsel in a prepared statement.

mrose@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6657 or Follow on Twitter at mrose_SJ

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