On the road to freedom!

Anna_Glypta

Pouring with rain here so I think it's time to begin the big paperwork sort out - currently burning 1997 bank statements in the fireplace!! Don't even want to think about why I still have them.

Found the daily interest spreadsheet from Financial Bliss in an old posting (It's great) so have now set that up for me and also have written to the bank to ask about the overpayments and charges etc.

I SO want to get cracking with this that I'm impatient for a reply but I think I have enough to do to keep myself occupied until they respond!

abouttimetoo

Hi AG, good luck with the filing, I've just been complaining about my own The real fire sounds lovely and the using your bank statements as fuel sounds very MSE The weather here is horrible too and I''m feeling very sluggish in general today so I'm planning on doing not much more than loitering around here, catch-up on a couple of recorded films and I might even treat myself to an afternoon nap :rotfl:

I know you said you've lurked on a few threads so apologies if you already know all this but here are a few random thoughts that might help you

• Look at all the accounts you and OH have, do you have any old ones that have either slipped back to a rubbish rate or maybe just have a few pounds in them that would be better off collated somewhere
• do a SOA (statement of affairs) there is a proper link on here somewhere if you need it. You list all your outgoings and then if you post it on here others can see and maybe make suggestions, it will also help you budget too
• have you signed up to cashback sites such as Topcashback or Quidco. An amazing amount of money can be made with these things (one of my colleagues reckons she makes £2k per year!) Think about what you might do on-line including everything from apply for a credit card, open a bank account, renew car/house insurance, buy a second hand book on ebay, book airport parking, buy christmas gifts, change your mobile phone and much more!. All these things can earn you cashback. As two small examples I got £60 for my Amex card last year and £10.10 for a Halifax one this year. Do you buy anything on-line from say M&S, they too give good cashback
• I know you said you are conservative but do you have a credit card and if so are you making it work for you e.g. does it give you good points or cashback (I got about £165 back from just my Amex alone last year) Can you pay your council tax on your CC and get further points
• Are you with BT for your land line, if you pay a year in advance they do it for £10 pm saving you about £49
• Use bank accounts to your advantage. Eg if you pay £1000 pm into the Halifax rewards account they give you £5 per month, you can set up a maximum of three (one each for you and your OH and one joint) Just cycle the same £1000 into all the accounts to benefit e.g. from your salary set up a S/O standing order to Rewards account 1, then a S/O for £1000 from Rewards 1 to Rewards 2, then S/O to account 3 then back again to where it came from. For a few minutes 'pain' setting it all up in the first month that is £15 pm and £180 pa made
• I don't know how much you have in savings but Lloyds Vantage account pays a good rate of interest. It often misses being shown in the best savings rates tables as it is actually a current account. It needs £1000 per month but again you could bounce the same £1000 around between accounts and you can have up to three of them each for you and OH. Off the top of my head they pay 4% on a maximum of £5000 and tiered rates below that
• Will you utilites give you a discount for going to paperless billing, I have discounts with Br Gas, (me electric is with them too) and BT

Re the stoozing, as long as you set up a monthly direct debit for the minimum payment to go out and pay them back at the end of the term there is not a great deal that can go wrong

Phew, sorry about the long post, hope some of it helps

Regards
ATT

As you've already started to see, this is addictive

Anna_Glypta

Thanks very much ATT. Lots to read and digest. I'll definitely have a look through and see whether we can follow up on any of your ideas. :j

Sadly no longer in front of the fire but sat at my desk - never mind nearly home time!

Hopefully I will hear back from the bank this week so I will know what we can and can't do on the overpayments front and then we can start to make positive plans towards our goals.

AG

Anna_Glypta

abouttimetoo wrote: »

[*]have you signed up to cashback sites such as Topcashback or Quidco. An amazing amount of money can be made with these things (one of my colleagues reckons she makes £2k per year!) Think about what you might do on-line including everything from apply for a credit card, open a bank account, renew car/house insurance, buy a second hand book on ebay, book airport parking, buy christmas gifts, change your mobile phone and much more!. All these things can earn you cashback. As two small examples I got £60 for my Amex card last year and £10.10 for a Halifax one this year. Do you buy anything on-line from say M&S, they too give good cash back

Thanks ATT - I've just signed up to my first cash back site and have made my first purchase - and all allowed because I was looking at the shoes last month and I hadn't got round to buying them yet!

I do quite a bit of shopping online (hate going into town with all the crowds) so I'm confident I can get some benefits from this - thank you very much.

Anna_Glypta

On my own at work at the moment and needed to share with someone - is it really sad to be desperate to get home to see if the postman has been as I really NEED to know if the bank have replied to my letter and if the new quote for mortgage protection has arrived!

Oh well - worked through lunch so only 15 minutes to go - maybe I should actually do some work!

Anna_Glypta

One out of two wasn't bad.

So the new quote is half of the existing one - worth considering if you are paying off your mortgage quicker than normal that you may be entitled to a reduction on the insurance fees.

Even if I don't pay off the mortgage earlier than the full term I will have saved over £1,200 in mortgage payments alone which is better in my account than the insurance providers - of course the plan is to wipe out the mortgage quicker than the end of the term anyway!

Maybe the bank will reply tomorrow - otherwise with no deliveries on Saturday I will have to wait until Monday!

Have a good night everyone - enjoying reading everyone's stories and tips. So glad I stumbled on this site. :j

BFM

when you make overpayments you may / should have the choice to reduce the term OR the monthly amount.

i would think you want to make sure the term is what you are reducing to make sure you can continue to pay off a higher rate without the 3% fee.

it feels good paying it off though

Anna_Glypta

Been looking at savings accounts online and thought I'd found the ideal one only to find that because I am in the Channel Islands the minimum deposit amount is £50,000! If I was on the mainland UK the minimum amount is £10,000! Rant Over have to find another account to start up my savings pot!

Anna_Glypta

So I finally heard from the bank about making overpayments on my two mortgages. Turns out that I cannot make any overpayments on my main mortgage (although they were happy enough to accept £50k last week!) but I can make overpayments on the secondary mortgage.

I still don't see how they can refuse to accept large sums on the capital repayment if I am prepared to pay the 3% penalty so the way I see it there are two options. (Could well be proved wrong but we shall see!).

1st option

Overypay immediately on secondary mortgage to clear balance by June 2013
Then save cash for capital repayments on main mortgage.
First capital repayment June 2014 of £10k followed by annual payments of £10k
Both mortgages clear by April 2016

2nd mortgage interest saved................830
main mortgage interest saved.............5119
Total interest saved .....................5949

2nd option

Save cash for capital repayments on main mortgage
First capital repayment of £10k May 2013
Main mortgage paid off by May 2015
Make overpayments on secondary mortgage from June 2015
Both mortgages clear by April 2016

main mortgage interest saved .................6334
2nd mortgage interest saved ....................708
Total Interest Saved .........................7042

Both options mean the mortgages will be paid off 6 years earlier than term which is great and opting to save to make capital repayments makes sense as I will save just over £1k more in interest payments with the 2nd option but it's a bit frustrating that I won't see an immediate reduction in what is owing to the bank. Fees on both options would be about £600. I hope this all makes sense.

I guess I'll have to change the habits of a lifetime and practice some patience and in the meantime follow some of the excellent tips on here to speed up my savings process.

MSE things I am now doing:

Pay everything I can on my credit card (I get points on it and can trade them in for vouchers which is great for Christmas) and I pay it off in full each month so no cost credit.

I've registered for a cash back site (thanks again ATT) and am already earning money - who knew you could get paid for spending!

I've started using an Account Tracker on my phone which is brilliant - it's really focussing my mind of what I am actually spending my money on and I am sure will mean more savings.

Still looking for a decent savings account that I an eligible for but I'll get there in the end.

Really enjoying reading everyone's tips and stories.

Anna_Glypta

Just needed to share this.

I know interest rates aren't great right now but really!!

I contacted my bank to find out what they had on offer for me - the best I could find for my "capital repayment pot" was 0.4% per annum so IF I put away £2,000 for an entire twelve months I would get a massive £8 back!! Think that one will be a no then

I have found an online account with Halifax which seems good - no penalties for withdrawals (only for the mortgage repayment of course!) and for the first twelve months offering 2.8% including a bonus figure. Think that one is going to have to do - I just want to get the savings account started so even if I can't seem an immediate reduction in the mortgage I can at least see some savings growing.

Hopefully will be able to update my signature shortly. :j