new mfw

BlueMoo

Yep - the ice/water dispenser is wonderful!

Also means you get more freezer space as it isn't taken up with 2 trays of ice cubes.

chirpchirp

Hi BlueMoo, I never made ice cubes before, absolutely terrible mother!

Update on the refund of delivery charges. I sent a further email stating that they had been in touch and told me Customer Services would contact me to give me a the delivery refund but as of yet they hadn't been in touch. They phoned this morning and are now giving me a good will gesture as well. Result thanks to Gallygirl for encouraging me.

chirpchirp

I have just been looking at my online banking and found a they do a save the pennies which appears to be a bit like a Tilly Tidy. I've registered for it which means if I spend 9.81 they will sweep 19p into a savings account for me. At the end of each month I'll tidy it into my ISA which will eventually go towards the mortgage.

I also noticed they were doing a cashback offer when I use my debit card yet they don't seem to have any offers for me to spend on. It will be interesting to note how this works. I normally use my debit card rather than credit card or cash so wondering if this will mean there will be less offers for me as the objective is presumably to get me to use my debit card more. Has anyone experience of this with Lloyds?

BlueMoo

Don't have a lloyds account I'm afraid so wouldn't know. maybe you could try the current account boards?

The sweep the pennies is a great idea - wish I had that with my bank.

How has the refund/goodwill gesture turned out?

chirpchirp

Hi BlueMoo,

I got my £16 refund sorted after again writing to the CEO and explaining how they had rang to inform me that the £16 would be refunded and that customer services would be in touch. After ten days I wrote to the CEO told him that customer services hadn't been in touch and would appreciate a cheque rather than the twenty mile round trip to their store. As a result the £16 got refunded and a £14 good will gesture making £30 refund meaning in effect the original botch up has saved me £214!

chirpchirp

Damn, my oven has broken just after I blew the yearly appliance budget on a fridge freezer. When I switch it to the oven setting the grill is coming on which doesn't seem very safe to me and certainly won't a casserole!

chirpchirp

I have just had a play at making a spreadsheet to see how much difference my regular overpayment makes. If my calculations are right each time I make a payment and extra £2.00 comes off the mortgage so my figures for October were:

Normal estimated capital payment: £547.09
Estimated overpayment direct to mortgage:£264.01
Other payment to savings:£78 (payment as increase to regular amount didn't come out this month and £16 due to the refund on delivery of fridge freezer)
Regular payment to savings £250

Total overpayment for October:£592.79

chirpchirp

Having done the grocery challenge in November I have £51 to add to the ISA savings which are intended to be used towards the mortgage at some point. Money manager on my bank account showed that I'd spent in the region of £225 in October which I thought had been rather a frugal month. I'm really noticing the trips to the local store for bread and bits for the kids packed lunches, most of the time they seem to end up eating these things at home.

I've updated the spreadsheet and can report the following for November:

Normal estimated capital payment: £547.09
Estimated overpayment direct to mortgage:£335.55
Other payment to savings:££51 didn't hit account until December so taking this out of November payments - result of grocery challenge.
Regular payment to savings: £250

Total overpayment for November: £585.55


Although I didn't have any other payments to savings this month, I should do next month as I have had some extra work this month which I will put straight into ISA.

chirpchirp

:beer:Hurray, now paying less than £9 a day in interest:beer:

chirpchirp wrote: »

Thanks to Thriftygirl 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.

I've been looking at the above post following my work on my spreadsheet (yes it's very addictive!). At the time I calculated my interest based on:

the amount outstanding x interest rate and divided by 365

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:jIn November my daily interest rate dropped to 8.96 which means that during December I will be paying 8.89 per day. this is the first time I've broken the £9.00.:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

Unfortunately last year my interest rate rose to 2.99% as when I was moving I needed to change my mortgage rate. This meant that at the end of the discounted period I had an increase of 1%. I now pay 1.49 above the interest rate but it has a floor of 2.99%.

What's really motivating about the daily interest rate is imagining someone coming knocking for that money everyday. If someone did that then you'd sure as anything do your best to get the amount paid lowered. However, with mortgages most of us still see them as a necessary evil.

wantabetterlife

Never thought of the mortgage interest like that chirpchirp, but you are right, it would definitely make you think twice.