Schofield Speaks

Lee Schofield is the Introducer Manager for Ashley Park Debt Solutions who specialise in personal debt solutions for people who are in financial hardship... His blog will explore industry issues of the day with a personal touch..

To remortgage or not remortgage

Tuesday 6th December 2011
Five years ago I took out a Together Mortgage with Northern Rock and the two things I remember most from my conversation with my Mortgage Broker at the time were my cash-back on completion and the mention of a call in three years time to remortgage when my fixed rate had ended. The call never came. Working in the Finance Industry ensured that the next three years saw me saving for everything, and with the exception of a credit card-purchased TV, I struggled along and lived within my means. My friend of 20 years who took a similar mortgage out around the same time spent the first year of that period buying a new car, landscaping his gardens, booking his wedding, replacing his kitchen and bathroom and buying cots and toys as fatherhood loomed. The second year he got married, celebrated his son’s first birthday and took a pay-cut to keep his job.   In year three, he had a couple of late payments in the spring and used his credit cards to cover rising utility bills. As the summer came he missed a mortgage payment and switched to prepaid meters for his electricity. He also had no call from the same mortgage broker,...
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In need of advice?

Wednesday 9th November 2011
Why should I partner with a debt solutions provider?  Struggling for inspiration for my latest blog I started to think from the perspective of other people in the financial services industry and what they would like read about. I then began to think why I would want to work with a debt solutions provider if I was actually in that particular field.   So, in what I imagine will become an occasional series, I will attempt to show the benefits of working with a debt solutions provider to you the readers. I shall start with the I.F.A.   A bugbear of mine when making an appointment with my local doctors is that I never get to see the same doctor two times in row. I have used the same bank since I was 11 years old, a bank I chose at the time because they gave out free footballs when you opened an account with them.   I go to the same bakery for my lunch everyday in spite of the fact I could get my sandwich cheaper and quicker from a shop much closer to my office. The only time I considered shopping elsewhere was when the said baker moved their counter to the other side...
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Regulation and respect

Tuesday 11th October 2011
As news broke this week that the number of Debt Management companies surrendering their licences to the OFT increased to 61 I thought back to a quote I heard at the DRF Conference last week.  “It’s arguable that if it wasn’t for the fee charging commercial sector then the debt charities would have collapsed under the volume of enquiries several years ago.”   Back in 2009 the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) announced they were dealing with 9300 new debt problems a day. I think it’s a fair assumption to predict that this number will only have increased since 2009.   I travel past my local CAB every morning on the way to work and regularly see queues of people at 8 o’clock in the morning, if the fee-charging sector was to disappear overnight then these queues would get longer and longer and longer.   But what would happen if in fact it was the free sector that was to disappear? As a person in need of help with their finances what kind of service could they expect to receive?   When the OFT published its Debt Management Guidance, it announced that 129 companies needed to improve their practices; so far 61 have had their licence revoked or relinquished. This...
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Rent on the rise…

Tuesday 20th September 2011
Another day and another report, this time by LSL Property services who, based on an analysis of 18,000 UK properties, state that the average rent in England and Wales rose by 2.1 per cent in August, adding £27 a month to the rent tenants were paying in August last year. The average tenant now pays £713 a month. We are heading into the busiest time of the year for rental activity and with fewer properties available all the signs are that rents will continue to rise. One outcome of this is that a new demographic are introduced to a state of financial hardship. A familiar story for many homeowners already although with the added worry that a landlord who is aware that his property is becoming more and more sought after would be less inclined to be patient with a tenant in the same way many lenders have been through the Economic crisis. Recently at Ashley Park we have noticed an increase in the number of IFAs who are looking for help with clients who are tenants. These clients have historically used their Financial Advisor for help with their remortgage and the occasional protection or investment product. Now they are no longer on the...
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The summer of discontent

Friday 2nd September 2011
  London riots, stock market crashes and Middle East uprising – all that is missing is a failed attempt from the England Football team to bring home a trophy. This so-called ‘summer of discontent’ got me thinking. Are things as bad as they say or have 24 hour news channels and, to a greater extent with the recent riots, Twitter and other social media created a world where every single detail is picked and prodded and force-fed on a continuous loop until you are left in fear? One thing is for sure, families have less money to spend now than they did at the height of the recession. Latest figures from Markits Household Finance index show more families using savings to supplement their income to combat rising living costs. The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ latest figures show repossessions for the second quarter down by 100 compared to the first quarter and also the 18,100 so far this year is lower than the same time last year. At the same time, they are predicting 40,000 repossessions this year which could mean almost 22,000 repossessions in the coming six months. A saving grace at the...
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