
Consumers feel confused and daunted by the prospect of comparing products, when shopping around for mortgages and personal pensions, according to a new survey published this week by the retail industry watchdog Consumer Choice.

Consumers feel confused and daunted by the prospect of comparing products, when shopping around for mortgages and personal pensions, according to a new survey published this week by the retail industry watchdog Consumer Choice.
For first time buyers, the light at the end of the tunnel has been switched back on, as lenders appear more open to smaller deposits for first time buyer mortgages. The number of 10%-deposit mortgage deals has risen from 89 to 105 since March, while the number of products available with a 15% mortgage deposit [...]
House prices will rise slightly in 2009, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has said, reversing an earlier forecast that prices this year could have fallen by up to 15%.
A new report by the Insurance Industry Working Group (IIWG), led by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, encourages the consumer to act on his own initiative to arrange life insurance, critical illness insurance and private pensions provisions in the future.
















