Sarah has more than 15 years’ experience as a journalist and copywriter and has written for multiple regulated UK financial service clients in that time.
She is particularly interested in money articles relating to the self-employed and fellow freelancers. Having set up her own business – a bookshop – in 2009, she has first-hand experience of the challenges and opportunities facing this demographic.
Sarah currently works as sub-editor of an English-language newspaper in France, where she now lives. Her role includes overseeing French tax, finance, investment and property advice for readers, as well as general news, politics and business articles.
Having lived on a canal boat for several years, Sarah’s other interest is the inland waterways. She has written two books on the subject and worked as deputy editor of a UK boating magazine for several years. She has also edited the quarterly publications of two inland waterways charities.
Sarah graduated from Durham University in 2005 with a first class degree in English Literature.
Yes, virtually all secured loan lenders will perform credit checks as part of their standard application process. Even though your property serves as security for the loan, lenders still need to assess your creditworthiness, payment history, and overall ability to repay the borrowed amount.
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Second mortgages typically offer smaller borrowing amounts than remortgaging your entire property, but they provide different advantages depending on your situation. While remortgaging might access larger sums by replacing your existing mortgage entirely, second mortgages allow you to keep your current mortgage deal intact, which is valuable if you have a particularly good rate.
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The summer holidays are in full swing. Across the country suitcases are being dragged out of the loft, travel-sized toiletries are filling up our shopping trolleys, and internet search histories are circling around all the sun, sea, sand and city breaks that Google can throw at us.
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With six weeks to fill, summer holidays can leave many families scrabbling around for cash and creative ideas. Throw in a cost of living crisis, sky-high airfares and threats of strike action at travel hubs and even a basic package holiday is looking increasingly difficult to pull off. Thankfully, a tight budget doesn’t have to limit your options.
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Whether you need a car loan, credit card, mortgage or a bit of extra money to cover home improvements, be warned that borrowing could be about to get a little bit trickier. With all of us feeling the pinch and demand for loans only likely to increase, you can improve your chances by getting to grips with your credit report. We explain how.
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Cryptocurrency is making the news on several fronts, with promises of quick money – and warnings of large losses as a result of fraud, scams and market volatility. Despite all the cautions, including from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), many people are still making significant investments and putting large amounts of capital on the line.
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With so much chatter in the media lately about rising interest rates, you might assume this is a great time to be saving. In November, the Bank of England delivered its biggest interest hike since 1989, setting a base rate of 3%. Since then it has jumped again to 3.5%, and there are predictions it will rise above 4% in early 2023.
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If there are any positives to be gleaned from the current cost of living crisis, it’s surely the fact that talking about financial health is no longer taboo. Rising prices, general economic confusion and Christmas just around the corner has removed any need to be coy about money.
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When money’s tight we tend to look at ways to earn more of it – selling unwanted clothes, getting a second job or asking for a rise at work. In fact, simply spending less could be a far more straightforward way to get our finances back on track.
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Few people enjoy the weekly food shop but rising prices are making it more painful than ever. The average annual grocery bill is set to balloon by £380 according to June 2022 forecasts from data firm Kantar, which monitors the shopping habits of 30,000 households across Britain. This figure is already more than £100 higher than the company’s previous projection, reported in April. Among products seeing the sharpest hike in prices are essentials like butter, milk and dog food.
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So you've got a great idea for a new business and, thanks to part one of starting a side hustle in 2022, a fair understanding of what it will take to get your venture off the ground. But what if you don’t have the money?
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As the cost of living crisis starts to bite, more and more people are looking for ways to beef up their income to cushion against rising prices. With the squeeze only set to get worse (the Bank of England has forecast that inflation may rise into double figures later this year), and UK wages failing to keep up, taking on freelance work or starting a business at home are well worth exploring.
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On Christmas and birthdays, chances are your child will receive a couple of crisp bank notes tucked inside the deluge of cards. Although the temptation to blow it all immediately might be considerable, presents like these are a great opportunity to teach them the value of holding onto their cash instead. Bank accounts for children offer some great interest rates to help grow their savings, while researching which options are best opens the door for a frank discussion on money management generally. By learning about budgeting and banking from a young age, they’ll be taking their first steps towards financial independence.
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Hitting your 16th birthday opens all sorts of doors. In the UK, this is the age you receive a National Insurance number, can ride a 50cc moped, have a beer or wine with your meal in a restaurant, and order your own passport. When it comes to your money, it’s also the threshold for finally being able to open a bank account without your parent or guardian’s permission. You’ll be able to pay for things with card, withdraw cash and even earn interest on your savings.
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Credit cards can be handy to fund big purchases, to take advantage of cashback and rewards offers, and to help consumers claw back their money if a purchase goes wrong. Used responsibly, they’re a great form of credit – but the technical jargon surrounding them can sometimes be off-putting. Our handy glossary should make sure you and your so-called ‘flexible friend’ are talking the same language…
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Work meetings and the weekly grocery shop aren’t the only areas of our life that moved online during the pandemic – banking did too. For some people the transition has been fairly intuitive, but many of us will take a little longer to get used to the idea of online current accounts, or figure out if they are best suited to our banking needs.
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Budgeting. Just the word is enough to make most people shudder. It feels too hard, too boring, too scary, too much like a strict diet or cheerless fitness regime for your finances. And so, inevitably, it becomes too easy to nod along with the person or article suggesting that it might actually be helpful (and, dare we say it, even a little bit fun?) and promptly bury your head back in the sand. That is, until the next stress over an unpaid bill or unaffordable treat raises the issue yet again…
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Taking out a loan or credit can be a big financial commitment, so it’s worth making sure you understand exactly what you’re signing up for. Our glossary of loans lingo should help you tell your ‘hire purchase’ from your ‘hard credit check’ to help get your head around different products and the details in the small print…
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As humans, it’s thought we make a mind-boggling 35,000 decisions every day, from whether to ignore our alarm clock in the morning to what to binge on Netflix before bed. So when it comes to choosing the best loan, no wonder it can sometimes feel all too much.
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There’s one thing to be said for a global pandemic – it’s prompted many people to explore business ideas that seemed little more than pipe dreams before. According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of new companies created in the UK soared in the second half of 2020, compared with the same period the year before. For some people, losing a job spurred a ‘nothing to lose’ mentality to make a go of it on their own; for others, being furloughed gave time to finally put pen to paper and get a solid business plan in place.
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Few things in life make palms sweat and minds go blank quite like the pressure of a job interview. No matter how many times you’ve endured one, even if you’ve had a 100% success rate to date, it never stops feeling daunting to be grilled by a panel of strangers.
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Lest you had any doubt how important it is for your CV to stand out, cast your mind back to last summer when news broke that an entry-level position as a paralegal had received a staggering 4,228 applications. With competition like that, there’s never been a better time to spruce up your resume – and we’ve got all the pointers you’ll need.
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Are you considering getting a part-time job to earn extra income over the coming months? With the festive season almost upon us and many family budgets already feeling the squeeze, getting back on payroll not only makes sound financial sense but, as we’ll see, it can have a positive impact on your long-term career plans too.
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While the first part of our series, ‘What to do if you’ve lost your job’, examined the aftermath of losing your job, especially making sure your family finances could cope with the loss of income, this time we’ll tackle the road to re-employment. At this stage, we’re not looking at creating a kick-ass CV, or even advising how you can ace an interview.
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The global pandemic hasn’t just curtailed our movements, disrupted school, crammed our hospitals and constrained socialising, but has had huge implications for the workplace too - in the worst case costing us our jobs. In Part 1 of the MustCompare series ‘Financial planning for an uncertain job market’, we look at how you can stay resilient financially, even when you’ve been made redundant.
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Often we have to go through confusing acronyms and abbreviations, largely fueled by industry jargon. But while most of us have a handle on interpreting words like LOL (Laugh Out Loud), there’s one three-letter term which, is still a mystery for many: APR.
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While personal bank accounts share many basic functionalities, the best fit for your needs may vary widely from other people’s preferences. A little research can go a long way towards filtering out the ones which won’t benefit, could end up costing you, or might be entirely unsuited to your current financial situation. So, how do you find the best bank account for your needs?
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Let’s face it short term loans, or more specifically, payday loans, have a bad reputation, plus their high-interest rates make them an expensive way to borrow money. But, with better regulation and caps on interest rates introduced in 2015, the industry has significantly improved.
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For most, second only to buying a house, getting a new car can be the biggest outlay in life. But while a new set of wheels may feel an exciting prospect, looking for the best car finance deals can be confusing because so many options are available.
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As a nation, our use of credit cards currently shows no sign of waning. As of January 2023, an estimated 58.7 million credit cards were in circulation, according to Finder.com. And £18.8 billion was spent in the same month, an increase from the £16 billion spent in January 2022.
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The advantages of bank accounts have been drilled into us since childhood, whether by well-meaning parents setting one up on our behalf, personal finance lessons at school, or even popular culture through tv shows and movies. And yet, with so many different types of bank accounts, it can be confusing deciding what will serve us best.
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As far as credit cards are concerned, a lot has changed since Macaulay Culkin memorably checked into New York’s Plaza Hotel on his dad’s plastic in Home Alone 2: “I’d like a hotel room please, with an extra large bed, a TV, and one of those little refrigerators you have to open with a key. Credit card? You got it.” However, the basic concept remains the same.
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Making sure your credit score is in the best shape is vital for anyone looking to borrow money. Whether applying for a credit card or looking to get a personal loan, a poor credit rating could mean you’re charged higher interest, given a smaller credit limit or, at worst, rejected outright.
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