Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

We’ve been looking around the prices of places locally and there’s quite a divergence between what some places are actually worth and what they might sell for at the moment.

For example, there’s a major hotel/restaurant complex near us that’s listed for almost EUR 2.5 million. It’s easily worth that as it’s a recently modernised building with over 30 rooms, large swimming pool, gardens, sports facilities, has a second building under construction to add another 30 rooms and planning permission for a third building for the complex plus extensive grounds.

Unfortunately, that complex is totally out of character with the region. There’s nothing comparable to it locally and for good reason: there just isn’t the market for it here.

So, whilst it might well be worth 2.5 million (and probably more), chances are that it’ll sell for around 1.5 million or so. That’s if it sells at all, of course, as it’s nothing like what people would expect in this area which means that nobody is looking to buy such a facility here.

If you’re looking for a house in the UK at the moment, it’s pretty much the ideal time with lots of bargains around.

Usually to get a “bargain” you need to look for something well off the beaten track or needing some work done to it but at the moment that, for the most part, doesn’t apply. Whereas normally prices in the UK are usually firm, at the moment many people are open to negotiation so you’re quite likely to get an offer lower than the asking price accepted. Obviously not ridiculously low but you can probably start around 10% below the asking price.

Getting a mortgage is a different matter though as the criteria have been tightened up somewhat of late but if you’re able to bargain down the seller a little then the loan % should also go down and thereby make it easier for you to make that bargain purchase.

As always, the answer is “it depends”.

If your website is one of the majors, the answer is “probably not”. Would it really make any difference if Amazon decided to spend another million dollars promoting their site? I think not. After all, there can’t be many people around who haven’t heard of them these days and realistically nobody is going to buy twice the number of books through them no matter how much they’ve promoted the site.

On the other hand, if you’re like most organisations, essentially average then it probably does make a difference. Unless your name is very well known then you do need to invest some money in getting your site into search engines and perhaps also through PPC programmes such as adwords. If you don’t do that you run the risk of becoming an also ran in your business niche which was the fate of many small bookshops having an online offering at the time Amazon was launched.

Finally, there’s the special case of start-up websites. If you don’t promote them, nobody will know about your super-duper new site. For these, what you need to to usually is to spend a little at the start to get your site into the search engines to begin with (usually under $50 is enough) and start higher level SEO investment three to six months later.

What you’ll find after a while though is that, regardless of your level of investment in promotion, the traffic on your sites will grow over time. In my own case this growth is roughly 3x year on year which keeps things at a manageable level for me: the growth rate that suits you may well be different of course.

One thing that’s very noticeable in Valencia is that everywhere you see employment vacancy signs which implies quite a strong local economy.

As in other places in Spain there’s building work going on just about everywhere but it doesn’t seem so intrusive as it does in some cities (notably Madrid) with many quiet areas around the city. There’s more of a laid-back feel about the city too: everyone is certainly going somewhere yet they’re not going at the hectic pace you often see in Barcelona.

With the building work, there’s certainly money to be made in property speculation of course and the apartment we rented was owned by a relatively young Spaniard.

And the banks? It seemed like almost wall to wall banks in most of the central area of the city. Both more branches and a much wider variety of banks that I’ve seen anywhere outside London. They’re all competing for business too with many offers available on loans, credit cards and so on.

MBNA Europe seem to be in the process of an across the board increase in their interest rates to 34.9% in an effort to force their credit card customer base into taking secured loans with their affiliate company loans.co.uk at equally extortionate rates from 10.3% to 17.5% (vs more like 7% for a normal mortgage).

If they’ve hit you with this increase you don’t need to simply accept it as a fact of life though. Approach them in the right way and you can get the rate decreased.

First off don’t get angry, get even. To do this you need to remain calm and polite with them on the phone.

The number to call is 0800 783 1116 which is the direct number for their “Rates and Fees” department.

Ask why your rate has been increased and point out (if applicable) that you’ve managed your account with them well and not missed any payment. Their usual stock answer is that it was due to an “account review”.

At this point tell them that you do not feel that this represents a fair treatment, that the rate is punitive and that you’d like to make a formal complaint. It’s important to use wording along those lines as that will highlight to them that you’ll proceed further which, of course, they’d prefer you not to as they’d almost certainly lose a case that got as far as the Ombudsman.

Usually, they’ll have to consult their manager at this point and, all being well, will come back and confirm that your rate has been revised substantially downwards. Ask them to confirm this in writing.

If that doesn’t work, inform them that you propose to make a formal complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service and ask them how you should first take up the complaint formally with MBNA (as required by the Ombudsman). Also, ask them how you should make a Subject Access Request with them (to get all the information that they hold about you) as you’ll need that for the Ombudsman.

Hopefully, that will be enough to shake some sense into them re your interest rate. If not, just carry on as you said you would and take it up first through the MBNA complaints proceedures and then through the Financial Ombudsman Service.