the nerd's wannabe-mortgage-holder savings diary...

greenmantle

Well, i just phoned Co-op to chivvy them about my credit card application, and I was pleased to discover that it's all been approved, and the forms sent out. This is going to inspire some randomly boring musings on credit cards! :beer:

Don't yet know the limit, but that's not important, since I don't intent to use this beyond monthly expenses within my budget, and expenses abroad (more work in the US in July/August).

This is good news, as if I'm going to be honest, I didn't even really need this specific card. I wanted a second credit card as back-up in the case of fraud-freezings when i'm travelling (this happens when HSBC are a bit trigger-happy about their security, and I'm left high and dry). It didn't need to be this one:

http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/servlet/Satellite/1193206375414,CFSweb/Page/Bank-CreditCards

But if I'm going to be honest, I did feel like it looked like quite a 'high-rated' card, and I wanted to test my credit rating and see if a scattering of late payments (disorganization rather than total crisis, although I had a few of those at the time, while still always making payments) in 06-07 would act as a bar to this kind of card.

I'm encouraged to find that the underwriter thought not. It's kind of increased my confidence a bit.

It's also a bit of a lesson to me in really paying attention to 'refreshing' credit cards, as a tool for saving money, much more regularly than other accounts (although not as much as savings accounts - see posts above!).

I'd been stuck with an Egg card which I'd taken out in 1999. I'd used it for many years as a balance stash location for the 0% anniversary deal, but since reaching zero, this was no longer necessary. Instead I was left with an utterly stupid 26.9% AER for purchases.

I didn't dare use it, in case I incurred interest at this high rate. Even with my Direct Debit paying the whole amount off every month, you still get hit with a charge (see this for an explanation of that - sneaky - http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/jun/15/egg-credit-card-trailing-interest).

So, after an utterly pointless online exchange of messages, where I asked twice (over three months) politely for a reassessment of my AER, and was met with a series of cut-and-paste, unresponsive brick walls (nul points for customer service functionality, Egg folks), I got the account closed down. (to be honest, this was a bit botched too, as I gave 28 days for reassessment of my interest rate, and they replied immediately 'we've closed your account as requested' - duh). When I phoned up to confirm this had happened, the lady on the phone, bless 'er, was in agreement that the whole interaction had been ballsed up on their side.

But anyway, the point to this rambling is: I need an alternative card, a card with a guaranteed low APR (this one fixed 9.9% for five years) for the odd trailing balance, without it being sneaked up after 9 months, and from a bank with some sort of reputation for having a vaguely responsive customer service (24 hour UK call centre). So aside from First Direct (who were going to give me a card with the bog standard 16.9% - no thanks), this was my next call.

I hope this one's going to be a good choice. The only alternative was Nationwide (for low overseas usage charges) - I think I'll save their 0% offers for any possible future major project emergencies, where sheltering the costs for free for three months would be a help.

You wouldn't think I could write so much about this, would you? Summing up: note to self: don't stick with a credit card, just because you've had it for years. Pay attention to what you need, and don't be afraid to move on.

greenmantle

A bit wrung out today. Sleepless night (not debts - don't ask).

So I spent the ludicrous sum of £7.15 on a multi-course breakfast from Pret a Manger, as a bit of a recovery strategy. Fool.

Rest of day will be No-Spend, so no will proceed to Egg and put an extra £10 in the 6.3% account, so that I save some face today...

Thanks all! *exhausted smiley*

greenmantle

Today looking up slightly:

firm for whom I did freelance work finally paid up. I only discovered this because I checked my 'old' about-to-close LTSB account online to see whether it was... closed, and found the money had been paid in today. :eek: that was close!

Immediately transferred to HSBC, which is where I thought I'd ask for it to be paid in the first place... From there, I'll divide it up for savings purposes...
:beer:

zigmeister

Hi!

Woah, expensive Pret breakfast! :eek: Not that I'm one to talk about stupid spending...

You sound like you're very organised! Glad you mentioned keeping an eye on banks/mortgages in your first post - I'm now thinking should I be doing that?!

I'll keep reading, so keep posting! I love having a place to write and organise my thoughts

Zig x

Raini

greenmantle wrote: »

A bit wrung out today. Sleepless night (not debts - don't ask).

So I spent the ludicrous sum of £7.15 on a multi-course breakfast from Pret a Manger, as a bit of a recovery strategy. Fool.

Rest of day will be No-Spend, so no will proceed to Egg and put an extra £10 in the 6.3% account, so that I save some face today...

Thanks all! *exhausted smiley*

greenmantle wrote: »

Today looking up slightly:

firm for whom I did freelance work finally paid up. I only discovered this because I checked my 'old' about-to-close LTSB account online to see whether it was... closed, and found the money had been paid in today. :eek: that was close!

Immediately transferred to HSBC, which is where I thought I'd ask for it to be paid in the first place... From there, I'll divide it up for savings purposes...
:beer:

You are not alone in this! I do *good* for so long but then somethings tough or upsetting etc ... I pop to the shop ... you know the rest!!

Congrats on getting paid ... always a bonus!

greenmantle

Woah, expensive Pret breakfast!

Thanks Raini & Zig! Glad to have readers to share the guilt! Yep, it was: tomato and mozzarella croissant, granola and yoghurt, double capp (necessary. more money for two shots, obviously) and an apple juice. :eek: (but... so nice...). I did try not to look at the price of the apple juice, particularly, as I bought it....

I used to go to Pret a lot when I started the present job - out of desperation for late lunches, often. Now have got (thank goodness) completely out of the habit, but in extremis I'll sometimes thing: need food. need food. lots of nice food. And even in an emergency, head there rather than somewhere cheaper. Duh.

Well that's my lot from Pret for Quite Some Time, anyway...

Glad you mentioned keeping an eye on banks/mortgages in your first post - I'm now thinking should I be doing that?!

Oh, inevitably when it comes down to the wire, I'm sure there'll be lots of things I won't have planned for, and maybe will have to go elsewhere, but at least it feels like you're staking out the territory, you know what I mean?

And yes, the money has really cheered me up. I was cycling along calculating how my savings total's going to go up...

greenmantle

payments from First Direct to HSBC & vice versa: instant
payments from Egg savings to anywhere (or into from HSBC & FD): almost instantaneous

payments from Lloyds TSB to... anywhere else: *drums fingers*
:mad:

Projected spend today: £3.15 for a swim & a few pounds for grocery basics, when i get around to fetching something for dinner.

greenmantle

*still drumming fingers*

Attempt to trace the progress of this deposit from closed account to dormant account yesterday involved ringing HSBC and LTSB.

LTSB young thing wasn't aware that a few years ago, TSB had had the bright idea of setting up 'remote' internet accounts, so that I didn't have a branch to go into for queries. Where did I close the account? Erm, I phoned you, got sent a 'closing' pack, signed and sent it off... Nevertheless, he said, I'd have to go into a branch to trace the payment, since he had no more access to my account than I did to my internet banking interface...

HSBC subcontinental call centre was just as friendly, but no more helpful, since they tried to tell me that HSBC had a 'relationship' with LTSB which allowed for immediate payments (I think she meant the faster payments system). When I told her that LTSB weren't so sure about that and had ended faster payments over internet banking, for unclear reasons, she faltered and just continued reading from the script.

So that got me nowhere, and 750 quid is still floating somewhere in space, instead of being accessible to me for plugging into my high interest Egg account. Bah!

greenmantle

:T just checking in to update savings total on my signature. After inching forward for a while, i suddenly feel I'm getting somewhere. Also, payday!

The freelance fee finally reappeared. For the record, it took Tuesday - Friday...

greenmantle

Just recording a different approach to my wages this month. No interest on the FD account, and a week or so before my ISA payment goes in, so I've temporarily put a chunk in the 6.30% Egg savings account, in the hope that that means I won't take it all out again for miscellaneous expenses.

The savings are going to fluctuate more as a result. But the money's easy to get at and transfer back, so I'll see how this strategy works out.