2010 MF Wannabes

Moniker

pencekeeper wrote: »

Obviously one of things one decides for oneself, but this happened to me 14 days ago when I deliberately made the balance £1 instead of £0.

Especially as you get older, in the (hopefully unlikely) need to get back capital quickly, if your product allows it you can get back money without remortgaging - which may be a problem if your circumstances don't look good to a lender in the future.

I keep a £1 coin on my mantelpiece as a little psychological symbol, even though in actual fact my lender wouldn't require any money from me to close the mortgage anyway. And leaving £1 on the sheet didn't take the shine of the experience of becoming MF for me.

I take your point, but as we will be selling up and downsizing in the next five years I can't see the need to borrow any more, plus we won't have the income to make repayments once we are retired as neither of us has much in the way of pensions income to look forward to. I am not sure if NW will give us preferential treatment once we are not in employment - but that's something we will find out at our meeting with the mortgage advisor.

Moniker

curlygirl1971

pammyj74 wrote: »

I'm with halifax too, and I wish they would update the figure every couple of days and not just once a month. I also wish you could see a statement. would be chuffed to see it there in black and white when you need to.
I opened a rewards ac but you cant even OP from there online which is stupid!! :mad:

I'm with them too. As banks go I've always quite liked them and and have had a lot of different accounts with them (depending on interest rates etc) since the age of 8. They have further endeared themselves to me by the introduction of the £5 reward. Yummy yummy.

But yes, the online mortgage situation is quite ridiculous in this day and age. It's just lazy. There's something almost secretive about it. It's as if they don't want us to OP or understand our mortgage. They really let themselves down on this score and it pees me off no-end.

My Mortgage Month runs something like this:-

1st of Month - My Regular Mortgage Payment leaves a different Current Account, My Over-Payment Standing order leaves my Halifax CA. Also on this day my Mortgage Balance rises as they apply the previous months daily interest.

Any !!!!!!!g time between 2nd - 5th (Bank Holiday Depending) my payments hit my mortgage reducing my bal. Phew. I can update my lovely spreadsheet

Around the 20th I work out what my next months Over-Payment will be and due to the complete lack of reasonable functionality with their online facility I have to a) ring them or b) queue in the branch.

a) means that I have to navigate through the 'Press 1..' maze to speak to a human. Infact there isn't really an option for people like us so I end up pressing any old thing and then apologising to whomever I get to speak to - thankfully they are always willing to help although I get the feeling an ad-hoc mortgage payment is a rare thing indeed as it's rarely dealt with in the same way twice. I've even been told that I need to check with the mortgage team first to see if I'm allowed to make an OP or, even more fun, we play a game of ...
"You can do that online you know"
"No, I can't"
"Oh yes you can it's easy"
"No, I can't. Really. I've tried everything. I can't."
"You just need........."
"Even my branch, who spoke to the Mortgage Centre, eventually agreed it can't be done"
"They're wrong, you just select 'Make a payment'"
"IT CAN'TTTTTTTTTTT BE DONNNNNNEEE"

b) means that sometimes they go as far as printing off a two page form that I have to sign and sometimes not. But what does happen every time is that the Cashier tells me I'm on the wrong rate and I should make an appointment for a mortgage review because they have some 'amazing rates'. "You mean the products with fees so big that they totally negate any saving I may make over the life of the product?", "Would you like me to make you an appointment?"

And something thoroughly wierd happens if I make a mid-month OP. My balance seems to go up rather than down. I suspect that they add the interest incurred upto that point rather than adding it at the end of the month as usual and because I only OP a small amount (<£40) the interest is more than the payment at that point. But I've yet to suss it out properly and await next August's annual statement......because you can't view history on-line.

Midnight rant over. Thanks for listening (?)

Despite having saved up for xmas pressies............I'm finding this time of year a bit expensive. But if I tried harder and denied myself a few foodie things I could eek out a bit more I guess. How's everyonoe else handling the approaching festivites?

curlygirl1971

sheslookinhot wrote: »

Folks,

This is a hard one. Please be understanding. I had £64 left on my mortgage, due on the 1st December. However, I need to raise some cash for medical treatment and I will not take it from our savings (locked into FR ISA's) or a small S&S ISA (£7k). I am also saving to pay off some 0% CC's due April/June.

Rather than personal loans, the best option has been to "borrow back" my overpayments and add another small amount.

So my mortgage free adventure starts again.

Good luck with your treatment - health comes first and well done in being in such a position that you can fund it

COOLTRIKERCHICK

curlygirl..

i have

halifax account,
bank of scotland ( these two are purley for hte extra £5 per month)
lloyds
barclays
santander

satander i went to to get the free£100 for transfering from barclays, but they didnt close my barclays account, and my child beneift goes in there, This is now my emergancy account.. that i forget i have:rotfl:

i made my extra payments from my lloyds account.. with the simple option of make a payment, i didnt want to do a standing order, as my payments will be a bit erractic, depending on what i can sell, save etc..

Thinking about it i think i should be opening a halifax a rbs account for hubby too;)

curlygirl1971

I have a NW CA (Moved there last year when they offered me £150 to switch!). Am now considering a First Direct CA to get their £100 and they also offer an 8% regular savings account to their CA customers....

I have 2 Halifax Reward Accounts and am also the proud owner of a Halifax Clarity Reward Card. So thats £5x3 every month If I'm a good girl.

All cash incentives are of course put towards OP's. Honest guv

Infact, even if I spend Nectar, Clubcard or Boots Advantage points - I put the cash equivalent towards an OP. Every penny counts :rotfl:

COOLTRIKERCHICK

curlygirl1971 wrote: »

I have a NW CA (Moved there last year when they offered me £150 to switch!). Am now considering a First Direct CA to get their £100 and they also offer an 8% regular savings account to their CA customers....

I have 2 Halifax Reward Accounts and am also the proud owner of a Halifax Clarity Reward Card. So thats £5x3 every month If I'm a good girl.

All cash incentives are of course put towards OP's. Honest guv

Infact, even if I spend Nectar, Clubcard or Boots Advantage points - I put the cash equivalent towards an OP. Every penny counts :rotfl:

I havr got a Hlifax clarity cc, but havent started using that yet, Also got an Amex card... so will only use that now for big spends for work... as its down to 1% cashback...

I was looking at the first direct too, thinking of switching my santander account to them....even though they have the great 8% savers account... I think i might just stick to throwing the money against our mortgage....whiles the interest rates are low, as I honestly think somewhere along the line these low interest rates will come back and bit us in the bum....as at least now with the low interst rates a higher %age of my payments/extra payments are going towards the amount i owe and not paying higher interest charges...( hope that made sense...why i am not taking advantage of the 8% savers account)

I havent listed on ebay for ages, so i might list a few things in the run up to christmas:j

black_taxi_2

just to say my payments have been mortgage an o/p so i can keep track better

hope im not banned-(:>)--thx for the two jumper smilies for reaching my tatget

cake21

curlygirl1971 wrote: »

How's everyonoe else handling the approaching festivites?

By putting my head in the sand...I spent the Christmas money I'd been saving in the summer

cake21

pammyj74 wrote: »

Would you be willing to do the thread again cake21?

If you mean am I willing to roll this one over and start a 2011 thread in January, yes definitely.

If you mean am I willing to run this one and start up a 2011 thread simultaneously, definitely not, got Christmas overindulging to be getting on with

cha97michelle

Cake - you are an angel for even thinking of doing it again, so do it however you fancy it. No-one else can say anything, or if they do have something to say they should run it themselves.

sheslokkin hot - i am glad you are not facing un-necessary financial burdens on top of medical stuff. Sounds like it has been good that you have overpaid, and you will get back to it when you are well again. Hope that is not too long for you.