Most-read stories this week on This is Money
10 most-read stories of the week
(Number of reader comments as of 13.00pm on 02/05)
1. Buy-to-let giant Inside Track goes bust (53)
2. Bank bail-outs to be kept secret (44)
3. House prices now lower than a year ago (53)
4. Is buy-to-let on the brink of collapse? (42)
5. Midas: should you buy in RBS cash call? (5)
6. Mortgages 'to rise by £230 a month' (25)
7. Opec: Petrol to hit £1.50 a litre this year (41)
8. Earn instant interest on new e-bond (3)
9. Abbey's 'bargain' holiday credit card offer (2)
10. Thousands face a £245 road tax rise (13)
Two issues dominated the attention of our readers this week. News on Wednesday that property investment firm Inside Track had gone under drew enormous numbers.
This cheerleader of the buy-to-let boom had made its money running seminars that promised massive returns to punters prepared to buy up strings of urban new-build flats, often well before completion.
Reality often failed to fulfil the promise, and This is Money and Financial Mail have a proud record over the years of warning would-be investors against swallowing the hard-sell of firms like Inside Track - and of airing the stories of individuals who have been scuppered by rental returns and flat valuations well below billing.
Some of our readers' 53 comments, however, expressed little sympathy with those who fell foul of Inside Track's lure. Some also questioned the ethics of buy-to-let landlordism, and others asked if the market had collapsed - our buy-to-let market analysis article was another hit.
Close on the rails was last week's Financial Mail front-page revelation that the Bank of England will not be disclosing which banks dip into its £50bn credit crunch finance. This ran all week and amassed 44 comments, largely disparaging of a perceived arrogance in the Old Lady's handling of taxpayers' money.
This reflects a year-long burgeoning of interest not only in the credit crunch, particularly as it starts to affect households directly, but also in the condition of our big banks' finances, and whether bail-outs are justified.
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