All mortgages are not created equal and getting a great deal with a favourable interest rate can save you a lot of money over the life of the loan.

There are many different mortgages to choose from, so how can you be certain that you are getting the best rate available?

by Flickr's '401k'

Here are some tips for getting a better deal on your mortgage:

Improve Your Credit Score

Did you know that the higher your credit score the better deal you will likely be offered on your mortgage? If you have a bad credit score, improving it will help you snag a mortgage with a great interest rate. To make your credit score excellent, pay all of your bills on time and don’t use more than 30% of your credit card limit on a regular basis. Also, avoid numerous credit inquiries such as applying for too many credit cards which can also affect your score. If you are making large purchases in the months before you apply the lender might question whether you will be able to make all of your payments.

Make a Bigger Down Payment

Save up as much money as possible to make a down payment on the home. One of the factors that determine the interest rate on the loan will be the ratio of the loan to the overall value of the house. The more you pay up front, the more equity you will have in your home. Since the loan is a lower risk for the lender they will reward you with a lower interest rate.

Use a Mortgage Broker

Sometimes it can be advantageous to seek the advice of a mortgage broker, who will help you compare the different products from a variety of lenders. However, make sure that you come to an agreement about their “fees” before you begin, as some will charge you for their services and depending on what they charge you may not actually make a saving.

Just Ask for What You Want

When you are comparing the different mortgages available, ask the bank to put their best offers in writing. Then you can go to the next bank and show them the offer from their competitor. Ask them if they can beat that offer and win your business. You can also ask them if they have any special offers available. Don’t be afraid to haggle with your bank, as sometimes this technique will work and it never hurts to ask.

Do you have any tips for choosing the right mortgage? Tell us in the comments below.

It’s spring and the dusting has commenced so why not spring clean your finances too? There are lots of ways to do this so get out your notebook and make a few notes, we have some great tips for you right here on Cashzilla…

Tidy work environment by Simon Zirkunow via Flickr

Visit your bank

Call your bank and arrange an appointment with an advisor. It should be free if you are an existing customer. Ask them the following questions about your banking and you could really clear up some things that may have been troubling you or see areas where you could be saving money:

• What are the perks of my current bank account and what haven’t I been using that could help me?
• Since the last time I came here to set up an account, my financial situation may have changed, should I consider changing accounts to something better suited to my present financial situation?
• How could I be saving more?
• What goals can I set for myself by this time next year that the bank will reward me with i.e. depositing my savings before the end of the financial year for tax free savings?
• What are you offering me that another bank can’t?

These questions will really help you understand the full range of benefits of your bank and what you could be doing to improve your current financial situation.

Using the Internet

You can make sure that you are always well ahead of the curve by making the most of your broadband and digital tools like online banking and online data storage with all your accounts and bills kept on file to access anytime, anywhere. Price comparison sites are one of the most valuable online resources that you use to get the best deal for your money and spring clean your expenditure this year.

The Plusnet community blog recently blogged about saving money and organising your finances online. They spoke to Jamie Gibbs of Confused.com who gave them tips to help you find cheaper insurance premiums using price comparison websites. He told them:

1. Pick up the phone

Jamie said:

“Many insurers have an Internet-quote matching policy, or at least allow for some sort of discount to be given. Exploit your brand loyalty and see if anything can be knocked off the price without the hassle of having to switch insurers.

“The best time to do this is a few weeks before your renewal date. This means you can usually dodge any cancellation fees and it puts the most pressure on them to offer you a good deal and keep you sweet. Make sure you have your quote reference number to hand, as well as the prices of the best deals and with which companies. Having hard numbers to hand will help you negotiate a better deal than just saying ‘give me a discount!”

2. Be Honest

Jamie told us:

“Different companies use the information you enter in different ways, and this can affect the price that you pay for insurance. One of the most common examples is your job title: Saying that you’re an ‘Office Manager’ may result in company X giving you the best price, but change it to ‘Manager – Office’ and company Y gives you an even better deal. Making slight alterations to your quote to find the best price is called ‘quote massaging’ and, although it gives you breathing space to find yourself the best deal, you could end up in hot water should you abuse the system and accept a quote based on false information. Being accurate and honest is always your best bet, as it’ll make sure you get a decent and fair price to pay.”

3. Look Before You Leap

Last but not least, Jamie gave us this tip:

“So you’ve entered all of your details and you get to the results page. Hitting the top spot by quite a long way is a deal that looks too good to be true. Hold on before clicking ‘Buy Now’ and take a look at it; a really good look. Some companies may offer stripped-down, no-frills products in order to snag the coveted top spot of the comparison results, so you will likely be getting what you pay for, which might not be much at all. Look at a few different offers and compare the benefits e.g. courtesy car, breakdown cover, as well as the price. Go with what suits your needs as well as your budget.”

Get your financial house in order

Check out the video below to see how you can get up to scratch on all your finances.

That’s all. Tell us how you are spring cleaning your finances by commenting below. You can also talk to us by tweeting us or writing on our Facebook wall!

We have been hearing a lot recently about Chief Executives and their bonuses but what has been happening?

£50s via Images_of_Money

Today Stephen Hester, RBS boss, has spoken out after rejecting his near £1m bonus. When asked why he turned down the bonus, he said:

“I took the judgement that it was going to be damaging for RBS to stay in the intensity of that spotlight that we had got into.” (via The Guardian)

The pressure was mounting on him from the public and politicians, arguing that it would be wrong for the boss of the 82% publically owned bank, to take a bonus of nearly £1m. So he turned it down.

Network Rail and their bonuses

On Tuesday Sir David Higgins stated that the company directors of Network Rail would not be claiming their payouts this year. Instead they are going to contribute to the safety improvement funds for level crossings. This is likely in response to the court hearing over the death of two girls at an Essex level crossing in 2005.

Politician’s view

In response to this ongoing row, chancellor George Osborne has said that rewards of successes should be allowed and that he would fight an “anti-business culture”. The political debate is continuing in the House of Commons with Labour dismissing comments they are “anti-business”. The shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said:

“Very large bonuses should only be paid to reflect genuine exceptional performance if trust in the system is to be maintained.” (Via BBC News)

Our view

Most of us are of the same view that we are ‘happy’ for people to get bonuses if:

1. They actually deserve becuase of good work they have done
2. The company has actually profited. None of us can understand how a company can afford to give bonuses to staff members when the company isn’t actually making any money!

The argument is that if they are doing a good job, why shouldn’t they be rewarded? Steven Hester is doing his job well and RBS are now performing better than before. Plus the company actually made a profit of £33bn, so there is an arguement there that he should have taken his bonus. However I truly respect him for turning it down for the sake of the company and it’s reputation.

This is an argument that is yet to be settled, even though most of us know what should be happening – bonuses for those who deserve it, in a company which is actually making money, as shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna says:

“Bank executives’ remunerations – stated to be ‘performance-related’ – should be just that, related to performance.” (via BBC NEWS)

The bonus argument is ages old and will no doubt continue for a while to come.

What is your opinion on the bonus argument? Do you get a bonus at work? If so how does it work? Let us know…

Kweku Adoboli was arrested and charged with fraud and false accounting on Friday. He will remain in custody until his hearing on Thursday.

The incident has shaken confidence in the bank, as all three major credit rating agencies – Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch – are considering downgrading UBS’s credit rating because recent events suggest weaknesses in the bank’s risk control systems.

However, UBS boss Oswald Gruebel is refusing to resign over the incident. “I’m responsible for everything that happens at the bank,” he told Swiss Sunday newspaper, der Sonntag “if you ask me whether I feel guilty, then I would say no.”

UBS stated that Mr Adoboli admitted his fraudulent activities in response to an in-house investigation: “Following inquiries directed to him by UBS control functions that were reviewing his positions, the trader revealed his unauthorized activity on September 14, 2011,” the UBS statement said.

The 31 year old committed fraud and filed false accounts between January and September this year. He entered hedges into UBS’s risk management system when he in fact had no hedges in place and breached the risk limits set by UBS. As the stock market plummeted in response to the situation in Greece, UBS lost a lot of money.

However, UBS is now operating within its normal risk limits again, suggesting that his dodgy dealings have been unwound.

Have you lost trust in UBS in light of recent events? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Image ell brown

The RBS bank has reported a statutory loss before tax of £794million after suffering losses from its exposure to the Greek Financial Crisis and from the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) Scandal.

The news follows an announcement from the Lloyds Banking Group who also reported pre-tax losses of £3.3bn over the past 6 months.

RBS’s loss comes after a £1.2bn profit in 2010, signalling the tough times ahead for the banking industry.

The massive loss is being blamed on the Greek financial crisis. The bank has written off its exposure to Greek Debt (mainly to Greek Government bonds) which is £733m. RBS also suffered from the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) scandal. The bank allocated £850 million to cover claims for mis-selling PPI to its customers. Although Lloyds banking group came off much worse in the scandal with a £3.2bn compensation bill.

Since RBS is 84% owned by UK taxpayers the losses give the government and public more worry for the future. With news of sluggish UK economic growth, the Euro crisis, and the chaos in the US markets, there is little hope for financial stability in the near future.

RBS chief executive Stephen Hester has said that he believed the turmoil on the markets over the last few days, which saw RBS shares plummet on Thursday, showed the 2008 financial disaster was “not a banking crisis” but “one of global economic imbalances”.

Despite all the economic worries and RBS’s losses, Hester said the bank’s restructuring was “going well”, and added “We are getting risk down, the bad assets that have been dogging us from past years are coming down, and I feel comfortable with the way that part of the RBS plan is unfolding.”

How do you view the latest announcement from RBS? Do you think there is worse to come?

Wednesday week (25th November) will be D-Day for the banks in the long-running bank charges saga after it was announced earlier today that the Supreme Court will deliver their ruling on the legal battle according to MoneySavingExpert.

Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal have ruled that charges can be assessed for fairness by the OFT, and if the Supreme Court upholds that view then it could reopen the floodgates for consumer claims for compensation against their banks.

The hearing is scheduled to be handed down at 9.45am where the law lords will deliver their verdict into whether or not charges of around £39 each for exceeding overdraft limits or returning a direct debit are fair. The Supreme Court has already hinted that it thinks they are unjust and are widely expected to throw out the banks’ appeal.

Over one million claims are currently stuck in limbo and clogging up the legal system, thanks to a FSA waiver and prior to the litigation banks had already reimbursed consumers with more than £1 billion before claiming was suspended.

However, even if the Supreme Court does find in favour of the OFT there is little to prevent the banks challenging their findings and so continuing to drag the whole affair on for much longer. According to MSE, it would be hoped that political intervention after the verdict would prevent any further appeals, especially given the fact that some of the banks in question, including Lloyds TSB and HBoS are taxpayer-owned.

“I’ve had letters from Messrs Brown, Cameron and Clegg all effectively committing to that and MoneySavingExpert.com, with its 8 million users a month, will try and ensure they stick to their promise.” Martin Lewis, consumer champion and founder of MoneySavingExpert.com commented.

Could this be the clearest indication yet that banks have admitted defeat in the long running bank charges saga? In a surprise move, the taxpayer-owned RBS-Natwest group has announced it will be slashing charges related to overdrafts – breaking ranks with the rest of the banking industry.

With a decision on whether the Office of Fair Trading can regulate charges levied by banks on overdrafts and direct debits due to be delivered anytime, the move could be seen as the bank’s attempt to pre-empt any judgement and from 1st October, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest customers will be charged only £5 for having a cheque bounced or direct debit returned unpaid; this is down from the current charge of £38. Meanwhile, the charge for paying an item on an overdrawn account falls from its current £30 to £15.

“This is obviously very welcome news and about time,” said Marc Gander of the Consumer Action Group. “Hopefully this is a recognition of how unfair their pricing system has been.”

If the Office of Fair Trading is successful in its ongoing legal battle with eight High Street banks – including RBS-NatWest – then banks and building societies would have to pay out billions of pounds in bank charge repayments to settle the 1.2 million cases currently being held in the legal system.

However, the decision by RBS-Natwest could be a clear signal that the banks are preparing for the worst and the move is sure to be welcomed by customers of both banks.

What’s more, such a move could well see other banks follow suit and cut their own charges in order to retain their customer base.