Researchers at MoneySupermarket.com have unearthed 110 charges and fees on basic financial transactions that customers may be liable for.

In the UK, penalties hidden in the small print can add up to more than £8 billion ($16 bn) in revenues for finance companies, credit cards and banks. And a similar situation may also exist in the USA.

The website looked at five common financial products : current accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards and savings.

Mortgages, with arrangement, booking and valuation fees accounted for 46 of the total. These have risen to around £1000 ($2000) in the past year.

Normal bank accounts can levy 32 penalty charges, while credit cards account for 16 fees. Loans attract up to 11 charges.

Stuart Glendinning, Managing Director of the website, said : “It is unbelievable that five financial products can be the root of so much penalty pain.”

Nick Gardner, a director at Chase de Vere, the mortgage advisers, said the range of fees embedded in home loans is “cunning and completely unacceptable. The headline rates may be coming down, but the number and scale of fees have risen enormously.”

Maybe it’s time to get that old magnifying glass down from the attic.

If you have a poor credit record, low earnings or have recently moved to another country, you may be classed as “sub-prime” by lenders if you apply for a loan or a mortgage.

There’s no escaping this Mark of Cain even if the only flaw in your situation is that you have recently taken a new job or become self-employed.

Banks and mutual lenders treat sub-primes in a straightforward fashion — with high interest rates. Indeed, the unfortunate sub-prime will often have to approach a specialist lender to negotiate their loan.

The recent falls in stock markets around the world were partly caused by a rise in sub-prime defaults in the U.S. following 17 rate hikes in two years. Many had taken out second mortgages to pay off other debts and were unable to meet repayments.

However, these cases should be set in perspective against a background of very low levels of mortage default in both the U.S and the UK.

If you think you may be assessed as sub-prime, try going to standard lenders first and explaining any mitigating factors. For example, that new job may represent a substantial increase in salary.

Should you be knocked back by the big boys despite the good news, the bad news is that you may have to bite the bullet and pay more than the average to get a mortgage.

Once the conditions that make you sub-prime have been relieved, however, you should remortgage at normal rates as quickly as you can.

We hear many horror stories about personal loans. As it’s Halloween here’s a bit of advice for beginners.

If you’re looking to borrow a sum of money then the chances are that you’ll look to take out a personal loan rather than any other type. The term personal loan is simply used to describe standard types of borrowing – i.e. a loan taken out by a consumer rather than a business for general purposes (but not for a mortgage which is obviously dealt with by a mortgage loan).

The majority of personal loans can be used for any purpose and the chances are that your lender won’t even be hugely interested in what you want the money for. Their primary concern is checking that you’ll be able to repay your loan! This situation can be different with specialist loans (which also fall under the banner of personal loans) such as home improvement loans and car loans, for example. These loans are expected to be used for their specified purpose – i.e. a major DIY project or a car purchase.

Apart from this fact the majority of personal loans work in much the same way. You apply for your loan, get your money and then spend it as you intended. You will then make a regular payment (usually on a monthly basis) to your lender to repay the money you borrowed for the period of time in your loans agreement. This payment will be made up of a sum of money that goes to pay off the original sum you borrowed plus a sum that goes towards paying off the interest you’ll be charged. So, at the end of your loan term you’ll have repaid your original borrowings and the interest attached to your particular loan.

One difference worth noting here is that between unsecured and secured personal loans. Unsecured loans are given to consumers without security (or to those that choose not to use available security to get a loan). These loans will generally have higher interest rates attached to them than secured loan options and you may be restricted in how much you can actually borrow here. Secured loans, on the other hand, will have lower interest rates and can be taken out for higher sums. The reason behind this is the fact that this kind of loan will use your property (usually your home) as a guarantee against your loan. So, if you default on your repayments your lender has a cast-iron guarantee that they will get their money back via the property you used as security.

If you aren’t a home owner then you will generally be restricted to taking out unsecured loans here but, if you do own your own property, then you’ll have to make a choice between a secured or unsecured loan. This really boils down to personal preference and how comfortable you are using your home as security in order to get a better deal. In the majority of cases this isn’t an issue and most people will opt for secured loans to get the right kinds of rates and loan amounts for their purposes.

Do be careful to make sure that you understand both how personal loans work and how to get the best rates for the loans you take out before you sign up to anything. There are hundreds of sites on the Internet that can give you more detailed information or that can even help you apply for a loan – take a look online for personal loans in a UK search engine (such as msn.co.uk for example) before you start for some useful information.

Our guest writer, Gary Tallon, is a UK finance author with over 10 years of journalistic experience behind him. To read some more of his wisdom visit his http://cheap-personal-loans.blogspot.com & http://life-insurance-cover.blogspot.com blogs.

The Money Blog has no connection with the author or the websites.

What are the facts behind all those offers of instant payday loans? Are they genuine? Are they a good deal. We find out the truth :

You see the offers everywhere. They are instant payday loans, which can give you from as little as $1000 to over $1500 overnight with no credit checks, and you can get it for a small fee. They guarantee instant loan approval within minutes, and you can do it entirely online. For someone who is short of cash, has an unexpected expense, or is simply looking for some extra money until his or her next payday, which seems to be too far away, this sounds like a very good deal. The truth is that anything that sounds too good to be true usually is and there are always strings attached. No one gives you something for nothing in the financial world.

The requirements for these types of short-term money lending operations are very loose. It is almost too easy to qualify for this type of loan. For most of these kinds of payday cash loans, you must only be at least 18 years of age, have a checking account that has been in operation for at least 90 days, and make at least $1000 a month from your current job or receive $800 a month in social security benefits.

If this sounds like something you should be suspicious of, you are correct in thinking that. While they say they only charge you a small fee for this fantastic short–term loan service, in actuality, it is an astronomical annual percentage rate (APR). The fees vary from site to site and depend on how long you need the loan for. For more than two weeks, the price is more significant. For less than a week, they price is smaller, but it can still get you into trouble.

If for some reason you can’t pay back the loan on the specified day, all sorts of charges can occur. Since some services use a post-dated check, you can have bounced check fee from both them and your bank. If it is done electronically, you don’t usually have fees from your bank, but they charge you for every extension that you request beyond the original pay date. They can charge you an extension fee, another fee for the amount you borrowed, and they can continue to double the amount of the fees for every extension after the third one. This can add up very quickly! You could find yourself in over your head in no time with the various fees while still owing the principal amount.

So, while an instant payday loan may sound like a good option if you are short of cash, it is smarter to simply live within your budget and consider alternate options if an emergency arises. These companies make an advance on your payday appear to be a simple thing, when in reality, it can turn into a big mess.

Our guest author Bob Hett offers tips and advice regarding all aspects concerning loans. Get the information you are seeking now by visiting http://www.loanscentral.info.

The Money Blog has no connections with the author or website listed.