At last, I can sort out my finances

qman69

My current situation is that I retire in 4 years at the age of 60; my mortgage continues until 65 and I have three endowment policies maturing at about that time (each with a predicted shortfall, of course) and various loans and credit cards. Over the years I have recognised that this is a disaster in the making and have tried to manage it by looking at bargains; using uswitch etc. etc. with little success.

At the start of this year I realised I needed to make a more serious effort and so I looked at my expenditure over the last couple of years. Apart from trying to look after my family I soon realized that the biggest culprit was me. So keen was I to grab the bargains that I was buying stuff because it was cheap rather than deciding what I absolutely had to have and then looking for the cheapest price for it.

Now that the children have left home I can't use them as an excuse and had to sort it out.

So I resolved, no more CD's; DVD's; Computer extras etc until either I was debt-free or, in the case of the computer parts, it stopped me using it. In fact now the policy is "I can do without that for two years, can't I?" I then reviewed my finances and these were -

2 loans due to complete in Mar 08
Cahoot and Texaco cards (low interest balance transfer cards) that would be clear in Jan 08 and May 08
MBNA with a stupid amount of money on it where the interest was only £50 less than what I could pay off each month. :eek:

This gave me a total debt of £30,000 :eek: :eek: :eek:

I used MSE to find the lowest low interest balance transfer card (BA AMEX card) and applied for one. They gave me enough credit to halve my MBNA card and I drew-down the remainder from my Building Society where I had been overpaying for ages trying to minimise the impact of my retirement.

Rather than reducing my monthly payments this simply made them more effective against my outstanding balances. Then, as each one is paid off, I will increase the payments to another of the outstanding cards until they are all clear. At the current rate this will be January 09 but I estimate I will actually clear all of the cards by start-2008. As far as I can work out there's no point in trying to pay of the loans early as I will still get charged for the interest.

Unfortunately, I will need to replace my car in 2008, but at least I will have some money available then.

A note on some of the credit card companies -

Cahoot - great company, they seem to have forgotten to charge me any interest so far ! (shh! don't tell them :rotfl: )

Texaco - great service, no problems.

AMEX - Oh my god! they call this Customer Service? I've never had such bad service! The biggest puzzle for me is that if you set up a direct debit, the only choices you've got are (a) pay the minimum or (b) pay the whole lot I wanted to pay a fixed amount each month then, as the balance decreased, a larger percentage would be paid off each month. I had to cancel my direct debit and create a standing order. This then triggered letters and txt messages from AMEX asking why!

MBNA - They seem OK. I keep them open because they've given me the biggest credit limit which may be useful in the future. Occasionally I get bugged by sales reps trying to sell me something but they soon go when I say I'm not interested.

I monitor my current status at the start of each month and produce charts to illustrate my progress (complete with predictions on when each debt will be paid). I realize that's getting a bit anal but it helps me.

One good thing to come out of all my bad fiscal management is that both of my daughters are well aware of the dangers and are staying in control of their own situations. My youngest daughter ended up with the minimum student debt and a credit card debt (interest free) that will be paid off within the deadline.

Good luck to all who are working on becoming debt free :beer:

P.S. Am I right in thinking that the £2 club is just people saving their £2 coins? I'm currently saving my coppers for Diabetes but I think I'll start saving my £2's

moozie_2

Hello qman69

Welcome and thanks for sharing! Yes, you are right about the £2 coin club and there is a 20p club too - spoilt for choice here

Take care and hope you enjoy the DFW board as much as we do

chevalier

You mentioned that you had three endowments all with shortfalls. Have you investigated whether you have a complaint ref mis- selling of these. It is one of Martin's bug bears at the moment. It wouldn't do any harm to bang off a letter to each one asking. You never know you may get some compensation, which could help you out!
best of luck

Annie_Fanny

Copied from Martin's email tips

"I refuse to apologise for nagging about this......... I'm not even a bit sorry!
This is one of 16 similar-ish e-mails I've received since putting a reminder lower down this e-mail a fortnight ago. "Thank you, read your article, printed off a letter and complained that I'd been missold my endowment. I'm now waiting for my cheque for £2033.75 to arrive. Were it not for your nagging, I'd never have complained - and all it cost was the price of a stamp." Remember the clock's ticking, read and act on Endowment Misselling: How To Grab Your Compensation"

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1138020285,19271

qman69

moozie wrote:

Hello qman69

Welcome and thanks for sharing! Yes, you are right about the £2 coin club and there is a 20p club too - spoilt for choice here

Take care and hope you enjoy the DFW board as much as we do

Yes, I've done that and got some compensation - not enough to make up the difference, though! I'm now waiting for the stock market to climb back up so that the returns on the policy improve over the next 8-9 years I've got left. Have you noticed how fast they dropped and how slowly they are recovering even though the stock market, I believe, is now at a higher level than when it crashed?

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

qman69 wrote:

Yes, I've done that and got some compensation - not enough to make up the difference, though! I'm now waiting for the stock market to climb back up so that the returns on the policy improve over the next 8-9 years I've got left. Have you noticed how fast they dropped and how slowly they are recovering even though the stock market, I believe, is now at a higher level than when it crashed?

Yes this puzzles me too! Is this because the endowment companies no longer care about these policies and does this mean that the returns on them are pitiful for eternity? I cashed in one of my policies taken out in 1993 but still have one left - taken out in 1987. It's a scandal ( but then we all know this now :eek: :rolleyes: ) not just the selling of them but the way they've performed in the latest stock market rally. It makes me want to weap We just have to sit around and put up with it and keep paying our DD every month. Grrrrrrr :eek: I want revenge. :think: