uzubairu's Mortgage Free Journey

uzubairu

I've been reviewing the BT phone bill (as it's due for renewal).
It's a monthly £17.75 for line rental and Evening and Weekend calls (plus an average of 75p for 0844 numbers with no alternatives, that can only be contacted during office hours :mad:).
Line Rental saver with BT cost £129 per year plus you have to pay an extra £3.15 for evening and weekend calls.

We get our broadband from Plusnet, so I was going to switch to their Line Rental Saver (evening and weekend calls included) and add it to our plan.
Phoned BT this morning and told them that I wanted to switch to Plusnet and they have included the evening and weekend calls for the £129 fee.
Although £3.12 more expensive than Plusnet, I don't have to do anything else and it's a lot cheaper than what we are currently paying.

Savings (£7 per month) will be added to the OPs.

Finally got round to listing 8 items on eBay today. Let's see how they go.

uzubairu

December Update
2012 Mortgage starting balance = £65,703.71
2012 Overpayment Savings starting balance = £23,991.00
2012 Net Mortgage starting balance = £41,712.71


Month / Payment / Overpay / Daily Int / OP Savings / Mortgage /Net Balance.
Jan / 581.13 / 2,590.00 / 4.14 / 26,597.00 / 65,246.73 / 38,649.73
Feb / 581.13 / 2,200.00 / 4.11 / 28,797.00 / 64,793.25 / 35,996.25
Mar / 581.13 / 2,100.00 / 4.08 / 31,077.00 / 64,338.74 / 33,261.74
Apr / 581.13 / 2,600.00 / 4.04 / 33,729.00 / 63,875.32 / 30,146.32
May / 581.13 / 1,910.00 / 4.02 / 35,644.00 / 63,418.98 / 27,774.98
Jun / 581.13 / 1,800.00 / 3.99 / 37,460.00 / 62,957.78 / 25,497.78
Jul / 581.13 / 2,000.00 / 3.97 / 39,462.00 / 62,499.82 / 23,037.82
Aug / 581.13 / 1,700.00 / 3.94 / 41,362.00 / 62,036.89 / 20,674.89
Sep / 581.13 / 1,500.00 / 3.91 / 42,883.00 / 61,577.03 / 18,694.03
Oct / 581.13 / 1,500.00 / 3.88 / 44,383.00 / 61,116.27 / 16,733.27
Nov / 581.13 / 1,300.00 / 3.85 / 45,931.00 / 60,650.74 / 14,719.74
Dec / 581.13 / 1,100.00 / 3.82 / 47,031.00 / 60,188.26 / 13,157.26

Total overpayments (Year To Date) = £22,300.00

£13,157 will be my final update figure for the MFiT-T2 challange. :j
A reduction of £68,000 over the three years, and to think I initially pledged to reduce mortgage by £30,000.

gallygirl

Superb :T:T:T:T

uzubairu

We've got 2 Cheshire BS Regular Savings accounts maturing this month and I have been looking new savings accounts to transfer the proceeds to.

I can't believe how low the rates are for a top instant access savings account (2.3%):eek:
Even fixed rated savings rates are pants, unless you fix for 3+ years.

I am debating whether to just pay the proceeds into the mortgage account as a direct overpayment.
I have secretly missed seeing the actual mortgage figure go down rapidly.
First Direct don't let you take back overpayments.
We'll still have over £37K on deposit so cash can be accessed quickly in emergencies (or opportunity of a lifetime ).

gallygirl

uzubairu wrote: »

We've got 2 Cheshire BS Regular Savings accounts maturing this month and I have been looking new savings accounts to transfer the proceeds to.

I can't believe how low the rates are for a top instant access savings account (2.3%):eek:
Even fixed rated savings rates are pants, unless you fix for 3+ years.

I am debating whether to just pay the proceeds into the mortgage account as a direct overpayment.
I have secretly missed seeing the actual mortgage figure go down rapidly.
First Direct don't let you take back overpayments.
We'll still have over £37K on deposit so cash can be accessed quickly in emergencies (or opportunity of a lifetime ).

Is it not an offset mortgage? Can you not just bung in that?

uzubairu

No.
We have a Base Rate tracker mortgage (Base + 1.79%).

uzubairu

I've been really busy with work (Christmas in retail is hard) and studies recently, so haven't been doing much to maximise OPs.
Even so, the mortgage is £100K less than it was 6 years ago. :j

January Update
2013 Mortgage starting balance = £60,188.26
2013 Overpayment Savings starting balance = £47,031.00
2013 Net Mortgage starting balance = £13,157.26


Month / Payment / Overpay / OP Savings / Mortgage / Net Balance.
Jan / 581.13 / 1,350.00 / 48,448.00 / 59,720.99 / 11,272.99

Total overpayments (Year To Date) = £1,350.00

I have 2x Cheshire BS regular savings accounts maturing at the end of the month, and we will probably deposit the proceeds directly into the mortgage account, because savings rates are rubbish at present.

I've got a HSBC regular saver maturing in March so that will be added to one of the ISA accounts.

It also looks like the First Direct 8% Regular Saver is being withdrawn. Our current ones don't mature until November. Phew!!

uzubairu

Yesterday, we closed our Cheshire BS regular savers.
We've decided to deposit most of the proceeds (£13,000) into the mortgage account. They will process the payment on Monday.

I called First Direct today and they estimate that if we decide to keep the term the same (9 years and 7 months), the monthly payment will drop to £450.

I'm opening a few more regular savers with the Cheshire BS and Derbyshire BS (both are 5%) next week.
I'll also look into opening a few more current accounts that offer 3% on credit balances.
The Lloyds Vantage ones we currently have (2x 4% and 1x 3%) are generating £42 interest each month.

I plan to dedicate tomorrow to listing a load of junk on eBay and more studying.

uzubairu

I made the £13K mortgage overpayment yesterday.
First Direct will call me in the next 48 hours to confirm what the new reduced payments will be.

Still up because I have an assignment due at the end of the week.
I'll be off to bed soon.

OH is in London (work related) and won't be back until 22:00.

I listed 8 items on eBay at the weekend and have another 6 items to list today.

uzubairu

First Direct have called me today and confirmed that the new mortgage payment will be £443.16, starting from next month (March).
Net mortgage balance is below £10K (4 figures) :j, which means we are in the final stages of this journey.

We've also decided to reduce minimum OP from £1,100 to £800 and reward ourselves with the difference each month.
Mortgage will still be clear by end of the year, but we have felt that so long as we met that target, we might as well have a few more treats this year.

Appointment booked with Cheshire BS to open another Platinum Regular Saver (5%) tomorrow.
Ended up listing 11 items on eBay.

It's still snowing outside, so I won't be going out at all today, apart from when I have to pick OH up from the train station.