Complete Finance Blog

The Missouri House started to put through one of the challenging parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by voting to begin setting up an exchange program that strives to make individual health insurance easier to access with cheaper rates. They also aim to make health insurance for small businesses more attainable as well.

The article “Missouri House Begins Work on Health Insurance Exchanges” by Robert Joiner from STLBeacon.org says that some groups are unhappy with the Show-Me Health Insurance Act but despite this, the bill received an unanimous vote in the Health Insurance Committee. The new bill would allow individuals to compare health insurance rates and benefits in hopes of getting cheaper and higher quality health insurance out there.

The Committee’s chairman, state Rep. Chris Molendorp stated that the legislation plans to create more affordable health insurance for as many as 1 million individuals in Missouri by 2014 once the system is fully in place. Legislators may be rushed to get this done and could end up missing the deadline if they don’t stay focused.

The ACA requires that states set up the health insurance exchanges by January of 2013, so they may be cutting it close to achieve this. They

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More about Market Analysis / Research

The significant fall in the monthly cost associated with buying compared to renting has been driven by the decline in the average mortgage rate since 2008. The mortgage rate3 for a new borrower has fallen to an average of 3.59% from 5.82% in March 2008, helping to reduce the average monthly mortgage payment by 39%.

Buying costs currently account for a smaller proportion of average UK disposable income4 (27%) than rental payments (31%). In 2008, buying costs accounted for a greater proportion of average disposable income than rent (56% against 39%).

Despite the improvement in the affordability of buying relative to renting, the tightening in lending criteria since 2007 has meant that many potential buyers have not attempted to enter the market. Nonetheless, market data⁵ shows that the average deposit paid as a percentage of the purchase price has been broadly stable since early in 2009 at around 27%, following a marked rise in 2008.

Transaction costs including stamp duty and the fees associated with home purchase also add to the overall costs of buying a property.

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Banks are getting away with offering rubbish accounts because they know we won’t move.

The current account market is beset with lazy, uncompetitive providers, poor accounts, and customers who are too confused to consider switching accounts, according to a new report.

The Independent Commission on Banking was charged with looking at how the banking sector could improve its financial stability and competition, and last week published its initial findings in its Interim Report. And one of the most interesting sections of the report covered current accounts, and the way that we are being fobbed off with shoddy accounts and service.

It all comes down to competition, or rather a lack of it – according to the report, there have been just six new entrants into the personal current account market in the past decade, and only four have stuck around. Just two of them have managed to secure a significant market share.

With the same old names providing the same old accounts, there isn’t too much in the way of innovation taking place.

The report also highlighted that competition within the sector is stunted because of the difficulties associated with switching accounts (both real and perceived), while poor choice only worsens matters. Less t

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Do you have a low credit score? If so, you’re not alone. Thousands of Americans, buffeted by the recession, are facing lower than average FICO scores. Since most Americans have, on average, a credit history of 14 years and 13 credit obligations, the capacity for error can be great. In fact, since the average American has approximately $19,000 in credit to manage, it helps to know how you can avoid getting lower credit scores, or how to improve your existing one.  In this article, we discuss how bad credit happens and what steps you can take to repair your low credit score.

How Bad Credit Happens

More than 25% of Americans have credit scores below 600, which is commonly referred to as the dividing line between good credit and bad credit. How do they get into this predicament?

There are four steps that most consumers take on the road to poor credit:

Overuse of credit – the higher your balance, especially relative to your credit limit, the lower your credit score will be.

Late payments – a single late payment , can dock your credit score by as much as 110 points.

Debt management tactics – short sales, deeds in lieu of foreclosure, settlements, and other debt reduction practices can decrease your credit score by as much as 85 to 160 points. Bankrupt

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