Too scared to work out what I owe

D&DD

Hi Moozie I'm with Telewest too and the first thing I did (well after cadging 3 months halfprice on Sky :whistle: ) was lay it on with a trowel to TW I have the phone/broadband package and it was a creeping up towards £80 a month sooo the very nice lady offered to take the bb back to 2meg and reduce my bill instantly by £16 a month on top of this I was still paying for overseas calls and my inlaws moved home 2 years ago (£3.50 a month.. :doh: ) so a total saving of around £20 a month to throw at something else! It hasn't even affected the BB service so I have no clue why I was so daft to carry on paying it........

HLK

Thanks Moozie - actually thinking of changing my avatar.. getting unwanted pm's far too often.. either that or asked to stop scratching me b.m :rotfl:

BTW i'd just added something to previous post re TV.. I'll away and check for thread on reducing your package and get back soon.
tata fn

moozie_2

HLK wrote:

Moozie .. have a look at the pensions board - before you take action - most people would die for a final salary scheme and it would rarely be good advice to stop this if your employer is also paying into it. However I'm no expert but the pensions board has a few very knowledgeable people who can help.

I also noticed you cancelled your ISA - this may have been a good place to put your savings for annual bills (divided by 12 to soften the blow..). You are doing so well but it may be wise to not rush things too much. Check everything - as well as this marvellous board the other boards are more specialised and can give you specific advice re pensions, savings, current accounts etc.

Thanks again HLK. I will be very careful with the pension, promise! You are right, it's a good scheme and I must think of the time when I won't be in debt.

As far as the ISA is concerned, it was a quick move but it helped to clear the sole OD and the B/card. You made a good point about the annual bills and I really don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. Seems obvious now! The way we set up the A&L account was so that monthly and annual bills (divided by 12) could be covered. But, we always spent more out of it than we have in it per month so it never worked as intended. We have a savings account with A&L (not used) and I have a savings account with FD (not used). I will check which has the best rate and start putting there the annual bills amount per month.

You have been exceptionally helpful. I am sure other peeps have not thought of this either. Thank you very much.

moozie_2

D&DD wrote:

Hi Moozie I'm with Telewest too and the first thing I did (well after cadging 3 months halfprice on Sky :whistle: ) was lay it on with a trowel to TW I have the phone/broadband package and it was a creeping up towards £80 a month sooo the very nice lady offered to take the bb back to 2meg and reduce my bill instantly by £16 a month on top of this I was still paying for overseas calls and my inlaws moved home 2 years ago (£3.50 a month.. :doh: ) so a total saving of around £20 a month to throw at something else! It hasn't even affected the BB service so I have no clue why I was so daft to carry on paying it........

You know, I am really surprised at this. How many more things do I know nothing about? I will get on the phone to them asap and I hope to get as good a deal as you!

I will report back with my success (I hope!)

Richie23_2

moozie wrote:

Hi Richie Thanks for the very helpful post. Just as an update, I have now paid off the Barclays sole account OD and have arranged for the Barclaycard to be cleared on the 2nd March. Also the Bhs card will be paid on 17th March by DD. Have cut up both now

I don't know what I should do about the Bhs card (limit £350) and the Barclaycard (limit £9,000). Someone advised (I'm sorry I don't remember your name ) that as I should focus on the joint Barclays OD, I will probably need to apply for another 0% CC to transfer the belance off the Halifax in July. It was suggested that I limit what credit I have available to me now so it doesn't inhibit me getting abother card.

So should I cancel the Bhs and B/card or not? IF B/card have a low interest rate for balance transfers maybe it is worth keeping??? Any advice from anyone that has a view would be very helpful.

Thanks again Ritchie, you gave me food for thought

Hi Moozie.
If your Barclays is a joint then surely your OH should be paying half of this?
My Barclay card was on 19% for around £2000(as 0% had finished) and i rung my other credit card company (HSBC) transferred it across at 15% and then few days later after the balance transfer had completed then rung Barclays and did the transfer back at 6.9% so I halved the interest by doing two simple fone calls.. have you tried this. Also when you ring barclays and say you want to cancel they'll ask why? and just said much better deals somewhere else. They asked the rate and and I told a fib and said my bank offered me 5.9% so Barclays offered me 6.9% but also sent me £30 in vouchers to make up the 1% difference. Doesnt hurt to tell a fib now and then! Banks would rather you stay with them then them lose you.

Lets beat the banks together!! :T

HLK

moozie wrote:

You know, I am really surprised at this. How many more things do I know nothing about? I will get on the phone to them asap and I hope to get as good a deal as you!

I will report back with my success (I hope!)

Moozie -

here's the thread on cutting your package - do a search this thread for 'telewest' and see what others have managed.

Verbatim

Hi there Moozie,
You certainly are inspirational! And you've achieved so much in one short week. I too was so glad to see your OH was on board and supporting you.

I've just checked the FD saving rates and was not too impressed. They have headline grabbing "star" rate of 5% but there are catches. Look out for "up to" 5%, in other words less if your bottom line is under a certain amount, aalso I think the 5% in this account (or maybe a different one!) was dependent on a "bonus" payment that you only get if you don't make any withdrawals in the relevent period, a year?? In another FD savings account no interest is paid on the WHOLE balance in any month you make a withdrawal.

I have a Nationwide Flex account, their current account, that I use solely as a way of accessing their esavings account. You get a cheque book with the Flex and from April this will be paying 4.5% as long as you pay in at least £1000 a month (I think it's 1k but check). I find it very useful for paying larger irregular bills that I don't want on DD as I can just transfer from esavings to Flex online and then post a cheque. And meanwhile my money is earning a healthier rate than sitting in my FD current account! Can't remember the Nationwide esavings rate but I know it's now tiered so you get more over 10k, but still better than FD IMHO.
However there are no doubt better rates elsewhere, I think ING is mentioned, among others, regularly over on the Savings and Investment board but at any rate I think the Nationwide is a bit better than FD.

On the Barclaycard front you could wait until you get a statement saying there is a nil balance, then check whether you can BT to a life of balance low rate, or even better 0%, any balances with higher APRs you have elsewhere. That way you1) have proof that the balance is cleared 2) keep your options open re using the Bcard or ringing to close the account if you decide you have better options. Be careful of any BT fees (don't know if Bcard charges these) which are usually 2% of EACH BTransfer made although some banks cap them at £50 ish.

Well, good luck and keep posting. Enjoy your weekend.

moozie_2

HLK wrote:

Just checked this - and if your tv licence was set on DD in the last 6 months the higher payment may be right - if it's been longer than that they may OWE YOU MONEY .. perhaps a typo by the person inputting the DD to the bank who knows.

Thanks for checking. The 6 months sounds about right. I think we went onto monthly DD around Aug/Sep last year.

Thanks for taking the time to look into it :T

MoneyJoe_2

Hi Moozie - well what an inspiration you are!

I have been getting Martin's weekly e-mail for about a year, but have not been on the chat forum (until I saw it on Martin's weekly e-mail last week) and since then I have not been able to get off them!! Was nearly late for work today.

I have found it all really fascinating and such a wealth of knowledge out there - it has inspired me to joint the chat forum, do a bit of snowballing and get my debt free date (November 2010) - not sure if you are meant to include your mortgage, but have anyway! Have started collecting £2 coins (£2 total) and doing monthly shopping challenge - start of a new month today, so will let you know how I get on.

Have tried to find out how to put on signature, but not quite sure how to do that yet - will spend some time later on (when I can pull myself away from the boards) and find out.

So thank you, thank you, thank you Moozie (and everybody else) for giving me the motivation and the challenge to watch my spending.

PS - Also have started cutting dishwasher tablets in 1/2 and adding water to fat milk and suggested by others (sorry, can't remember who they were - but great tips!!)

HLK

Moozie - Aw shucks.. your welcome !!

I see MoneyJoe mentions signatures above ( select UserCp from top of tne message board & then 'edit signature' from the control panel on the left .. then just add your stuff in the box like a post) ..

I digress .. anyway if you look at mine it mentions Karma .. and Earl was right .. I popped out to TKMAXX this afternoon after my MSE fix and managed to pick up a Dooney and Bourke handbag for £19.99 :j and if you want to see it in the flesh to see what a bargain I got see this .. actually there wasn't a price on it and the assistant just said "I have to charge you more than £14.99 because it has a security tag on it... but I asked the supervisor and you can have it for £19.99" and she gave me a lovely smile.. well I was gobsmacked.. because I know they cost hundreds.. blimey on the dooney website a matching credit card holder costs $150 dollars. I just happedned to be speaking to the mother of one of my son's schoolfriends at the time and she too just stood there with her mouth open! :rotfl: :rotfl: I said meekly " d'ya think it's worth it love?"

Anyway - the moral is a wee treat once in a while.. :A for being me! So don't forget yourself.