Cash, Cars and Babes

People who are finding the current mortgage market a bit of a struggle may want to consider a fixed rate mortgage. As opposed to their alternative, the tracker mortgage, they may offer homeowners a greater peace of mind, particularly first time buyers. This is because homeowners, in the first few years of their homebuying lives, may have to stretch to the top end of their income to afford their new home. A fixed rate mortgage would be a good option in this scenario, as the rate doesn't change in accordance with national base rate of interest; whereas tracker mortgages do.

Only 23% of consumers in the UK would opt for a tracker mortgage, in comparison with 57% who would opt for the fixed rate alternative, according to a survey done by the Fair Investment Company.

It's worth learning about the costs of selling something through EBay, so below is a few of the main fees involved:

• Insertion Fee - This is compulsory and varies between 15p and £2, depending on the starting price you choose.
  
• Picture Fee - This is optional. EBay allows one free piccie per listing, but if you want a gallery (so buyers can see the item on the main listing page before clicking on to see it), it will cost you 15p. This can be quite good to make your item stand out. Additional photos cost 12p each and you can pay more to get them enlarged or use other photo features.
  
• Buy It Now Fee - This is also optional, meaning someone can buy your item straight away if they wish, rather than bidding on it. The charge is based on the Buy It Now price you set. Under £5, its 5p. More than that, it increases.
  
• Final Value Fee - This is compulsory and depends on the item's closing price. If the item sells for under £30, the fee is 5.25%. If it's over £30, you still pay 5.25% on the first £29.99 and 3.25% on anything up to £599.99. More than this, you also pay 1.75% on anything above this amount. Complicated.
  
• PayPal Fee - You don't have to accept PayPal, but the vast majority of buyers will want to use it as its fast and gives more protection against fraud. It's also free to use, unless you want to upgrade your PayPal account to business or premier, in which case you are charged per transaction - A flat charge of 20p plus a varying % of the final price. If this is less than £1500, the highest % applies - 3.4%
• Also, there are sometimes catergory-specific fees, so check whether these apply to prevent you getting any nasty suprises in your invoice.
  
• For Example...
  
  • You list a pair of shoes at 99p and they sell for £10
    • Take away the insertion fee of 15p and the final value fee of 52p, and you actually get £9.33
  • You list a pair of shoes at £5 and the sell for £10, also using pictures
    • Take away insertion fee of 35p, final value fee of 52p, gallery shot plus one extra photo cost of 28p and paypal fee of 54p, and you are left with £8.31
  • You list a pair of shoes at 99p and they sell for 99p
    • Take away the insertion fee of 15p and the final value fee of 5p, and the gallery shot plus one extra photo cost of 28p and the PayPal fee of 23p, and you are left with a whopping 28p. Hardly worth it!
      

It's definately worth having a think, before you decide to use EBay. There are other options to sell your stuff, depending on the cost of it. It's worth knowing the fees though!