Is a Pensions Release the right option for you ?

By Roger Gordon

In the present UK economic climate a great many people over the age of 50 are experiencing some degree of financial difficulty. Many in this age group may be unaware that they could utilise their pension funds earlier rather than later to alleviate their financial hardship.

You are able to withdraw the Tax Free Cash and leave the remaining fund invested to produce your pension income until your planned retirement Yes, it's true, by using Pension Release you can access some of your pension benefits now in date. Pension Release is a method of taking some or all of the Tax Free Cash from your pension (usually 25% of the fund value) and leaving the remaining fund invested until you chose to retire or take income from your pension. From 2010 you will have to be 55 to take Pension Release.

Even if you take benefits from your pension as young as age 50 you can still continue to work and contribute to your pension. This can be done immediately or at some point in the future when your finances are back under control.

The new contributions qualify for tax relief and may be paid by way of lump sums or regular installments. From this new fund you will be able to obtain additional tax free cash and income. You must ensure that you discuss this with a qualified Independent Financial Advisor before taking any action.

Pension Release may seem like the ideal solution to your financial problems. You need to be fully aware that this will reduce a portion of your personal income in later life. Consequently you need to be consider any hidden costs and the potential loses and gains involved before you take such an important financial decision.

You should seek Specialist Pensions Advice and certain Independent Pension Advisers will not charge you to investigate your pension plans and inform you of your options, so shop around.

The initial investigation of your entitlements should not involve a cost and you should establish this before you proceed. Your current arrangement may have the facility to offer Pension Release, but it may be that you have to transfer the funds elsewhere to achieve this. This is likely to involve extra costs and you need to be aware of these before you confirm the transfer. You should be able to request that a gross deduction of the Tax Free Cash is made and any costs and charges are levied on the remainder.

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Thanks for reading my article, for pension transfer, and other pension related services go to website http://www.pensionlite.co.uk

Simple & Free Credit Repair You Can Do Right Now!

By Mark Alison

Whatever your background or record, you can take some simple and quick steps to begin your own credit repair. It costs nothing and you can begin right away - but the results can be tremendous!

The first step is to get copies of your credit report, read them, and understand them. There are three credit reporting agencies, and there can be differences in your file between them.

The law now provides consumers the right to one free credit report from each of the bureaus, Experian, TransUnion, and Equfax. You are entitled to one from each company every year.

The FTC, or Federal Trade Commission has a website set up specifically for this: annualcreditreport.com. This is the "official" site for these free reports - be wary of any other offers for "free" credit reports, as they won't actually be free.

You can begin your credit repair efforts once you have your reports in hand. You will want to go through them carefully, line by line.

Along with the report, you will get a "dispute" form - or an address where you can get it. This is where your initial credit repair efforts will focus.

Make a note of each and every entry that is either incorrect, outdated, or inaccurate. For each of these, you will be filing a dispute. You will want to list why the entry should be removed, such as a debt that has already been paid but hasn't yet been removed.

By federal law, the credit reporting bureaus have up to 30 days to verify each dispute. If they don't do so, or don't do it within the 30 days, they must remove those entries from your credit report.

This simple step can remove many of the negative strikes against you, and they will no longer count towards lowering your credit score. In many cases, this can lift your score by up to hundreds of points!

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