To remind myself how far I've come - my debt diary. - SOA added

chocaholic110

Is this a terrible terrible idea?

Our mortgage is one of those flexible types. We have been making overpayments on it for the last 3 years or so. Browsing it the other day i notice you can get back the overpayments. I don't actually know how much we have overpaid but I am considering finding out, getting it back and using it towards our final credit card.

I realise this isn't actually getting rid of the debt, it's just transferring it, BUT it's not actually adding to the mortgage as it's been overpaid anyway. If we hadn't made overpayments we could have had the debts paid off.

It's quite tempting to do, especially as my wage is going down for the next 8 months and OH's pay is going to be up and down over the next 2 months or so. It would be nice to think we only had "normal" bills to pay.

Also we could then start saving (imagine!!) and making lump repayments to the mortgage when we save significant amounts.

Or am I just being impatient and should continue as we are?

chocaholic110

On another note - I have finally convinced OH to cancel Sky sports. We are cancelling movies, sports and music channels tomorrow - £25 a month saved! (And I won't have to watch any more bloomin' darts!)

The other moneysaving thing I've done is give my Egg card and debit card to DS. (You may remember I tried this with OH and he lost them!!) So far DS has been very strict and the one time I needed them I had to give a full explanation of why I did. He has instructions now NOT to give back the Egg card save for an emergency before the end of February!

hypno06

Re the mortgage overpayments/reclaims etc, do whatever feels most secure and most right for you. The amount you owe isn't enough to worry about transferring the risk in my opinion, so if moving it to the mortgage feels right then go for it.

Re sky sports - :j :j

chocaholic110

I agree it's fairly low risk. And the mortgage is only around £33,000 anyway. I just wonder whether I'm being impatient and cheating!

hypno06

Given that you are about to have a baby, I would be tempted if it was me to put it onto the mortgage and concentrate on recovering after the baby, then when you are working again etc etc you can concentrate on getting the mortgage hammered down.

pandapaws

I think I'm sort of leaning the other way - you've achieved SO much, and you're so close to the very end of a long hard slog - £2000 is such a (relatively) tiny amount to have left, and I reckon that even with reduced pay etc you could probably clear it quite quickly. What is the last £2k actually comprising of? If you could get the whole lot to a low interest or 0% credit card, then you could make min repayments and overpay when possible. I just think that the sense of achievement that you would get when you sent of the final payment would just be so fantastic that it would make the whole process worthwhile, and you wouldn't get that feeling if you took it back out your mortgage.

But at the same time, I'm not saying it's a bad idea! Maybe you could see how things pan out for a while - at least it's always an option that you've got, and if you're not working for a while then you can always draw some of the mortgage money at a later date if you need it.

DIfficult decision - sorry if I'm playing Devil's advocate!

chocaholic110

The 0% credit card I have has just gone up. OH and I have both applied for new cards but been turned down - don't know why? £30 grand in debt and we could get new cards easily, pay nearly everything off and we can't get credit which is weird and rather worrying!

Thanks for the opinion. Still not sure what to do as I can see both sides to the argument. I think I am just getting rather impatient! I am going to phone and see how much we have overpaid though - maybe that will solve the dilemma if it's only £50 or something!

chocaholic110

Just phoned the mortgage company and we have overpaid £3650 so more than enough to pay the credit card off.

Decisions, decisions!

spud30

chocaholic110 wrote: »

Just phoned the mortgage company and we have overpaid £3650 so more than enough to pay the credit card off.

Decisions, decisions!

That's great Choccy.

Can you just claim back what yo need to repay the credit card, and leave the rest?

chocaholic110

Yes, I just checked that and they said you can get back anything between £250 and the amount overpaid as long as it is a multiple of £250.

Come on, spud, (and others), weigh in with your opinion!