new mfw

chirpchirp

chirpchirp wrote: »

I see a new issue for Martin and the team to get their teeth into once they have sorted the bank charges!;)

I had no choice but to fly with them as they are the only airline which flies to the airport which I need.

Looks like Martin is getting to grips with the issue which I discussed a few months ago when I was annoyed at paying booking charges with Ryan air. I've noticed a few articles about this lately :T

Meanwhile, looking forward to a not very MSE weekend. Have booked a B&B at the seaside, 240 miles away. Off for a curry and some dancing (hopefully).

setmefree2

chirpchirp wrote: »

Meanwhile, looking forward to a not very MSE weekend. Have booked a B&B at the seaside, 240 miles away. Off for a curry and some dancing (hopefully).

Enjoy

Queen-Bee_2

chirpchirp wrote: »

bang goes the idea of stoozing using credit card cheques, they charge me 3% of any transaction even though it's interest free.

Hi ChirpChirp - I never quite 'got' the stoozing business. It was something I was thinking of investigating (like matched betting) but have been putting off! Now you've saved me the trouble.. Thanks, QB

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Hey ChripChrip... after reading about it on your board, I checked out Green Metropolis. Seems quite good. The approach I decided on was to check used prices for each book on Amazon first then list on Amazon or Green Metropolis depending on which had the best potential profit/most likely to sell. It took ages to list all the books in our 'to go' box but we sold two (one from each site) whilst still uploading the rest!
Thanks for the tip!

chirpchirp

Excellent news. I still haven't sold any and will probably take them down when the new term starts as I know I won't get round to getting to the post office to post them then. I'll just put them up during holiday times, but at the moment I've sold nothing.

chirpchirp

Just updated signature to show investment ISA as of 31 July 2009, oops showing wrong date at the mo. will update that shortly. Looks impressive since January but all this really does is show the fall as in 2007 it was worth 21,000. Since then it's had another £3600 paid in. This ISA is further complicated by the fact that the management fund it was in was closed in February by the company it is held with and transferred to a different fund. I think at this point it incurred a further 5% charge!! For those of you who think it looks a lot bare in mind it was taken out in 1996 as a PEP and then became an ISA. Since 2000 it's had £150 a month paid in regularl and before then it was £60, £50 and £40, a year for each amount. This is what was suppposed to pay the mortgage (+ the other one which my ex husband has kept hold of which was identical).

If you're thinking of taking an interest only mortgage bare in mind that whilst the ISA money isn't worth the total that has been put into it at the moment, it's not just the amount that has been put in that has been lost. I've been paying interest on the full amount borrowed with this type of mortgage which had I been on a repayment mortgage not only would my mortgage have reduced by the actual amount I have paid into ISA's but so would the interest, so I would have paid more in. Hope that made sense!

However, despite this I'm still thinking of adding more into my ISA's for the next couple of months whilst the market is still relatively low.

My short term aim is to pay 100k off the mortgage as quickly as possible using the ISA amount, direct repayments (overpayments as this is still an interest only mortgage so any extra is strictly a repayment) and any savings which I can build up whilst my interest rate is so low. I want to pay off the 100k in the hope that my wages will have increased to a level by then that the BB will allow me the mortgage in my own name.

Despite interest rate being 1.49%, I'm paying some money direct to the mortgage even though I know I could get a better interest rate somewhere else. This is so that it shows the building society that I am capable of paying a large amount when I can finally get them to agree to put the mortgage soley in my name. At the moment it is still joint with my ex as the mortgage company will only use my wages as income and none of my maitenence, tax credits or family allowance.

Queen-Bee_2

Morning CC - I hear what you say about the ISA. I had a PEP as the repayment vehicle for my first mortgage around 17 years ago, and kept it going when I changed the mortgage itself to a repayment one. The drop in value during the slump in the early 90s was nerve wracking, but not nearly as much as it would have been if I'd still been relying on it to pay off my mortgage!

I also posted about my dilemma in whether to invest more into a stocks and shares ISA on my thread a few days ago. Like you, I have taken the decision that now is probably the time to do this, as prices are low and year on year, the stock market has shown a better return than straightforward savings. However, rather than invest in an actively managed fund, I've stuffed cash into the L&G UK Index Tracker ISA - the management charges are much much cheaper, which means that due to compounding it should accumulate more quickly. I read about this on the Motley Fool ages ago, and when I looked back at the performance of that original PEP, years ago, I realised how much was being creamed off, for relatively little benefit... to me.

However, you're doing really well, and I am very envious of the interest rate you're paying - I'm locked in at 4.59% until March 2011!!!

chirpchirp

I've also thought about coming out of a managed fund but have decided that I don't really understand enough to go it alone so to speak. Also ISA is underway at the moment so I don't want to lose the rest of the allowance by swappin somewhere else.

Yes I'm very lucky with the interest rate, which I believe is a life long tracker tracking at .99% above BOE. However, I was tied in at 4.89% for two years and two months which took me up until June. During that time I kept thinking I was losing out on interest rates being so low but didn't dare swap as I wanted the lifelong tracker rate which would be difficult to pick up elsewhere in the current climate.

chirpchirp

Time for a proper monthly update. The figures are based on locoblades spreadsheet, so they may not be 100% accurate. I won't know until I recieve my yearly statement in January.

Here's what I think has gone towards the mortgage this month:

£1000 - Building Society = £702.54 capital £297.46 - Interest payment

£400 - Regular Savings accounts (paying 5% interest) (£250 to Lloyds, £150 Halifax)

£150 - Regular amount to ISA Stocks and Shares.

Have arranged to put regular saver amount to £500 for next month. I'm dreading the mortgage interest rate increasing as at the moment I at least feel I am making some sort of inroad into this huge mortgage. At least when they do rise I'll be paying interest on less so I won't feel the hit as badly as if I'd never reduced the amount.

Off to update signature now :beer:

chirpchirp

Thanks to Thrifygirl in another post I have just done some number crunching to see how overpaying has affected my daily interest amount:beer:.

Obviously, being on a low interest rate ( hey did I mention 1.49%:rotfl:) and not having overpaid for long the difference isn't huge. I would have been paying on £241,000, £9.84. I'm now paying £9.75. A difference of 9p a day.

However, if you look at a more realstic rate, like the 4.89% I was paying you really start to notice the difference! I was paying £32.28 and I would now be paying £32.00. Over 30 days this is a difference of £8.40:T Which over the year is a saving of approx £100.

So whilst it may not seem that it's worth overpaying when interest is only 1.49% once rates go up I really will notice the difference. A big thank you to all you old timers:rolleyes: and of course to :money:for really grabbing my attention with this.

For years I told my ex husband that we should try and pay the mortgage off and he didn't think it was worth it, he wanted to rely on equity to allow us to move to a smaller place in years to come. I remember telling someone when I first took out my first mortgage that I wanted to pay it off quickly and they told me that it was silly to pay off the mortgage as it was one of the cheapest forms of credit I would ever get so let it run for 25 years and enjoy life. I hope that the figures above highlight to anyone who is thinking about making overpayments that it really can be worthwhile.