Manage My Budget

Most of you will agree, you can’t always trust your bank, even if you happen to have been banking with Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC or any other bank, for as long as you can remember. Banks are renowned for overcharging, unfair bonuses to lousy bank bosses and terrible administration, so of course we are going to start searching elsewhere for a bit of help sorting out our finances.

If you have a poor credit rating, bank loans can be very difficult to get, especially now the banks are so reluctant to lend. On the plus side, pawnbrokers aren’t reluctant at all to lend and the only thing you need is some suitable ID (like a driver’s licence, passport etc) and an item of value the loan is secured again. This could be a watch, a gold necklace or a precious antique. You might get up to 75% of the value of your item loaned to you and with most pawnbrokers lending on average between 50-1,000,000, the possibilities are endless.

It might surprise you to learn that pawnbrokers (or pawn shops) are a realistic alternative to getting a risky bank loan, despite their shady image. Pawnbrokers like H and T, Uncles the Original Pawnbrokers and borro.com are shops of the modern age that provide a reliable, efficient service catered to you, the customer.

Pawnbrokers are exceptionally quick as making decisions on your item and offering you an amount. You don’t have to explain what you intend to do with the money. You don’t have to sit in with a bank manager and discuss your finances. The job of the pawnbroker is to lend you the money you need secured against an item of value.

You might think pawnbroker interest rates are awfully high at an average of 4-7%, but think of it like this: the loan lasts on average six months and the money can be in your hand or your bank in as few as 24 hours. Even if you can’t repay the loan, you will simply lose the item to the pawnbroker, who will then sell it off to replace the cost of the loan.

Many pawnbrokers are also now online, making it even easier to get a secured loan. Uncles the Original Pawnbrokers, a family-run business operating in the United Kingdom, was in fact the first genuine pawnbrokers to start trading online. The way it works is pretty simple. You type your item into the loan estimator, add a few personal details, and he presto, Uncles give you an estimation based on the description of your item.

Its entirely up to you if you want to follow it up afterwards. Being the technological business hub it is, the internet makes pawnbroking simpler and easier for everyone involved. Pawnbroker loans are an excellent alternative to bank loans and are almost completely hassle free.

Get an online loan at the lowest interest rates around online with Unclesmoney.co.uk

With cuts to some benefits and rising VAT, low-income families might be facing even greater difficulty meeting payments or paying bills. If you’re part of a low-income family, or a single parent struggling to provide for your child or children, you might be entitled to other benefits, grants and support that you never knew existed so don’t miss out on things that can help you and your family live a more comfortable life.

There is a substantial list of support available from the Sure Start Maternity Grant to Funeral Payment, Community Care Grants, Budgeting Loans, Crisis Loans, Tax Credits and Jobseeker’s Allowance. Qualifying for any of these is dependent upon your financial circumstances, so read on to find out what you might be entitled to claim.

Sure Start Maternity Grants are payments of 500. These do not need to be paid back, but in order to qualify to receive this particular financial support, you or your partner must be claiming the following, according to direct.gov.uk: “Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, Pension Credit, Child Tax Credit at a rate higher than the family element, or Working Tax Credit where a disabled worker is included in the assessment.”

This grant must be claimed at least 11 weeks before the birth of a child and can be claimed up to three months after. If you have a child by surrogacy or if you adopt a child, the claim should be made within three months of the parental order or adoption. The Sure Start Maternity Grant is a one off payment based on a selection of criteria you must meet before you can qualify.

Similarly to Sure Start Maternity Grants, Funeral Payments are granted based on whether or not you are already receiving one of the aforementioned types of financial support. This payment will help towards funeral costs and is granted based on your relationship to the deceased.

A Community Care Grant is between 30 – 1000. In order to qualify for this support, you must be receiving income based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support or Pension Credit. Budgeting Loans are the same amount and are interest free, intended to help towards the cost of furniture, household equipment and other essentials to aid the process of finding and starting work.

Crisis Loans are also interest free, used in the case of serious health and safety risks to you or your family post emergency. This particular loan does not require other benefits first, but you must be over 16 in order to claim.

Tax Credits come in different types. If you are responsible for one or more child, you may be entitled to claim Child Tax Credit. If you are on a low income, you may be able to qualify for Working Tax Credit. There are other criteria you must meet before you can qualify for this type of support.

Jobseekers Allowance can be claimed by anyone between the age of 18 and State Pension age who is capable of working and actively seeking work. They must also be currently working less than 16 hours per week and live in Great Britain. In very special circumstances, Jobseeker’s Allowance can be paid to 16 and 17 year olds.

If you’re a low-income family looking for a low-interest loan to help with essentials, come to Unclesmoney.co.uk today and have cash in your bank in as few as 24 hours.

You will be amazed at how different a pawn shop looks today in comparison to those of, say, 20 or 30 years ago. In fact, as you walk through the doors you may be quite surprised just how much they look like a regular store. So what things might you find in a pawn shop today?

Take Uncles Money for instance, one of the most popular pawn shops of today. Walk through their doors and you will not find yourself in a dimly lit room made impossibly small by towers of shelves cluttered with other people\’s old tat. Instead you will find a neat and orderly store filled with all manner of items and friendly staff with a drive to assist.

If you are interested in excellent quality computers, laptops, TVs or any other electrical item you can possibly think of, Uncles Money is the place to go. In fact, it is almost guaranteed that they will have at least one item that takes your fancy. Of course, this excludes guns and other dangerous items. The condition and suitability of all items are thoroughly assessed by professionals before they reach the shelves.

Supply and demand is taken into consideration before items are made available for purchase on both a national and regional basis so, for instance, stereo models that are known to be a better brand and quality are more likely to be chosen due to the high numbers of stereos cheaply available.

Pawnshops will happily accept electrical goods as collateral, but at the same time they have to consider that they are quickly updated and replaced with newer and better models. Any item that is out of production tends to be very difficult to sell and therefore they must limit the number of electrical items they accept.

But along with the more conventional kinds of items you see in a pawn shop today, there are some that are little stranger. In quite a number of stores today they have musical instruments available. The ones that are most commonly available to purchase in stores such as these are guitars (electric and acoustic) and drum kits. However, there are occasions when some stores may actually have a flute or even a saxophone available as well.

So as you can see from above there are a wide variety of things you might find in a pawn shop today. Certainly if you are looking for a good quality TV, cooker or even fridge freezer for your home it is worth considering taking a trip to your local one to see what is on offer.

Pawnbrokers Uncles Money is one of the very first of its kind to go live. They provide loans against nearly all valuable items from jewellery to cars.