My Mortgage Free Diary

CathT

Welcome, you have some clear goals there and i wish you lots of luck.

mpgsheep

Got email to say my sent in mobile phone is ok, so £16 has been paid to me (not in account yet but fingers crossed for tomorrow). Also waiting on £64 cashback, but could be upto 28 days apparently. Also couldn't resist moving £7 over to the holiday fund so figure was nice and round lol

mpgsheep

Got the cashback and mobile phone money so thats £80, though staying in current account for now, as bit short this month due to needing some new work clothes. 5 ebay items sold, bit disappointing to only get £18.54 total, however got one more auction ending soon which is upto £13.50.

Booked the December holiday (7 days in Barbados), however Virgin cocked it up, so seems like the £300 deposit has been taken twice (sigh). So am writing this whilst on hold now with them!

mpgsheep

Good afternoon all, some updates:

Only one deposit for holiday came out of our account this morning, however the account is still showing -£300 coming up, but hoping this is a blip, otherwise Virgin are going to get it in the neck! Have moved £300 out of holiday savings to cover the actual payment.

My 6 auctions are finished, total is £35.54. Had £18.64 of that already which is good. Hoping to spend some time Sunday sorting spare room and seeing if any more stuff that we can sell.

Got my combined bill from npower today, showed us in £339.42 of credit, this is almost the same as it was 6 months ago, when we reduced our direct debits down to quickly cancel it out. As no change, have requested a refund of £239.42 (prefer to leave a small amount of credit in case our consumption increases), and they have corrected our direct debits to hopefully pay a more realistic amount now. Am sure it will mess up though... Anyway this will go into the holiday fund.

Will update signature once these refunds/auction money's come in.

mpgsheep

So Virgin Holidays didn't take a second payment, which is good.

Been thinking about possible remortgage plans, as at some point I assume the base rate will start to rise again. Just to recap, we are currently on SVR of 2% (1.5% above base), with min payment of £623. Given our current overpayment of £400, then we "safe" if our interest rate rises upto a max of 6.50%, ie the base rate would have to rise 4.5 points to 5% before this becomes an issue. So really my intention is to persist with our overpayments as they are, and then once rates start to rise, start looking into getting a fixed rate, probably for 3 years but depends on possible deals. However what I am thinking is this. We paid £168,000 in total for our place, after the bank who owned (was repossessed) dropped the asking price from £200,000 to £170,000. The place was in a bit of a state, and we have improved the decor everywhere, and also added in an ensuite, so now we have 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, instead of 3 bedrooms/1 bathroom. Using Zoopla (I know its not an exact science..) shows value at £180,000. This therefore takes us over 10% LTV, meaning we could remortgage now (assume mortgage valuer takes similar view on value). What I am thinking is that if I wait for the base rate to move up, am i losing out by the house value falling over a similar time frame, leaving me stuck with a higher interest rate, and not having sufficient LTV to remortgage? This thought really only just occured to me in the last 30 mins lol, but wondered what people's views are?

SmlSave

Hello

I've been researching remortgage options too - makes my head spin! My plan is that the minute I hear the base rate goes up is to run into my bank and fix a mortgage deal and pray they're not as quick as I am in upping all the mortgage rates!

But I really wish I had an accurate crystal ball for rates and house values.....

mpgsheep

Yes sadly have lost my crystal ball...:(

There really is a lot to consider. I would really like an offset, think it would encourage my OH much more knowing that we can take it back at any point (obviously we wouldnt want to). She is definitely in the "build savings" camp as opposed to the "pay off mortgage" camp that I am in! However we also both like the security that comes with a fixed rate mortgage, and from quick research I have done, is not possible to get a fixed rate offset? Would also really want to fix for decent period (min 3 years).

mpgsheep

BOE keeps interest rate at 0.5%, suits me well for now - no remortgaging yet I think.

mpgsheep

My latest overpayment went out today, will update my status today/tomorrow when I get a chance to speak to the bank. Thought I would share two money saving things my OH and I have done. Am afraid she wins though..

1 - I used my Oyster card for the first time 2 weeks ago, and royally messed up, forgetting to touch in twice, ended up being overcharged £2.80. So I emailed thinking I would get nothing, then was told a refund could be credited to my Oyster card if I used it within a week, which wasn't going to happen, so asked for alternative, and they sent me a cheque! So £2.80 cashed yesterday

2 - My OH recommenced the nursery we use to two of her friends, who signed up. She mentioned it to the Manager of the nursery today, who has said we can have two free sessions for our DS! Saving of £82.

So you can see, she wins hands down, but it all counts!

mpgsheep

Signature now updated, we now own 7% of our flat..long way to go!

Signed up for the Post Office saver account yesterday, plan to use this to keep holiday fund money in, and also 0% credit card (tesco).