Mortgage Free ASAP

greent

Queen-Bee wrote: »

Just checked my mortgage balance after the clearance of this month's payment ... The news? 'Only' £23,000 left. Next month, I hope to be under the £20k mark...
QB

Blimey!!! That's SOME major achievement - well done you and give yourself a HUGE pat on the back!!!:T:T:T

Queen-Bee_2

Well... yesterday I got my results for the first year of my Masters' course. They average at 74% and I am absolutely delighted.

I really struggled getting back into my studies (a lot has changed since I was last at university 20 years ago) and it's highly unlikely that I'll be able to repeat this success next year, but for now, I'm basking!

In the 'real' world, there's no one I can tell without it sounding a bit self-important, so I'm sharing it on here instead. Hope no one minds!!!
QB

5monkey

Queen-Bee wrote: »

Received a £75 payment for participating in an on-line focus group last week. Straight into the bank - £25 to put some petrol in the car and the other £50 into the repayment pot!
QB

what focus groups do you use?

taka

:T :j _party_ Well done! _party_ :j :T

katsu

Congrats on your results QB. That is a fantastic achievement. :j

greent

Queen-Bee wrote: »

Well... yesterday I got my results for the first year of my Masters' course. They average at 74% and I am absolutely delighted.

I really struggled getting back into my studies (a lot has changed since I was last at university 20 years ago) and it's highly unlikely that I'll be able to repeat this success next year, but for now, I'm basking!

In the 'real' world, there's no one I can tell without it sounding a bit self-important, so I'm sharing it on here instead. Hope no one minds!!!
QB

Woo hoo!!:j:j:j:j:j:j:j We enjoy celebrating ALL things on here

Queen-Bee_2

It's been a while since I last posted, but thank you for your congratulations on my passing my first year!

Encouraged by some of the other MFWs on the board (yes, whoever it was amongst you who managed 70+ listings in a single week!!), I have finally 'broken the seal' on my e-bay activity, listing 4x items of clothing on a 10 day listing last Thursday.

This means that they will end this coming Sunday in the evening. Apparently, this is the best time to end your sale (I've been doing my research! ).

So far, it seems I have seven watchers, but no bids...

I keep popping back in to check, but I guess I need to keep my cool - people only start bidding in the last few days, right?
QB

Queen-Bee_2

This week, I ditched mySantander Zero card. Oh, and also my Santander bank account and am moving my ISA elsewhere...

Like many other MSE'ers, I was initially attracted by the Santander Zero card's 0% balance transfer charge, plus 1x year's interest free credit on that balance transfer and a further 3 months of interest free credit on new purchases.

So far, so good - I transferred an outstanding balance of around £1k onto the card from another just over four months ago, and all seemed to be well. So much so that a month later, I decided to purchase my £350 car insurance with it too.

When my this month's statement turned up however, I had a shock - there was a predicted interest charge on it for next month, despite the fact that I've been making all the minimum payments required by the T&C.

When I rang Santander to find out what was going on, I was told that the interest related to the £350, as the 3 month interest free period on this amount had just expired.

My response was to try and pay off the entire £350, to which this related to avoid getting clobbered for the interest next month.

But no... ALL payments made to Santander are applied firstly to balance transfers, which means that until the initial £1,000 I'd transfered onto the card was cleared, I would be charged interest on the £350 I'd spent subsequently (at the usual, pretty punitive credit card rate...).

Of course, I know that the way card re-payments are applied were buried in the (several pages) of Terms & Conditions forwarded when my application was first approved. And indeed, the call centre operator was quick to point this out when I voiced my objection.

The fact is however, that the Zero card was (and presumably still is) marketed in terms of the Big Picture - ie the 0% transfer fees and 0% interest.

This is a classic incidence of the devil really being in the detail. The moment the 3 months' interest free credit period expires on any new purchases you make is the moment that interest rates start to apply... And there is no way these interest rates can be avoided until you have cleared the entire balance you have previously transferred.

I accept that this is my own fault for not being quite clever enough, BUT I also feel that there is a substantial element of 'trickery' on the part of Santander - I am sure I am not the first person to find themselves caught out by this!!

I've chosen to vote with my wallet by clearing my entire Santander Zero card balance and shutting down my Santander bank account and transferring my ISA to another provider. It won't make the slightest bit of difference to Santander - and indeed no one asked why a customer of 20 years standing might want to sever all their connections with them - but it did mean that this was one particular customer who decided they didn't want to play ball.

So... the moral of the story is... if you take one of these cards out because you're attracted by the 0% interest on balance transfers, don't make any further purchases on it!!
QB

gallygirl

Well done QB - it really is galling

Queen-Bee_2

I've decided to make the most of the lovely weather by catching up on a few DIY jobs around the house.

To spur me on, I've decided to create a list, which I am going to monitor on here. So here we go:
1. Sand, undercoat and paint the downstairs sitting room window frame
2. Repair and paint the sitting room window sill - it needs new silicon filler between the sill and the window frame, and cement filler at the edges where it meets the brickwork
3. Repaint the cement rendering at the bottom of the house - most of the existing paint has dropped off
4. Revarnish the wooden plaque with the enameled house number on it
5. Hire an industrial carpet cleaner and clean all the carpets in the house
6. And this is the biggie... re-paint the outside of the conservatory. I'm not looking forward to this one... I'll borrow my Dad's electric sander and do it a bit at a time, but it's still a large job..
QB

PS - couldn't resist popping back on E-bay to see how many watchers there were on the items I'm auctioning. However, one of watcher has disappeared - now I only have six on two of my four listings!