The long road to being mortgage free!

martin_dabinett

iam new to all this but goodluck i dont know what the codes are could you enlighten me

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi Edinburgher, I find £co unbelievably slow at paying out, but do seem to speed up as it gets to annual renewal. I was deliberating whether to cancel but I like the check in facility, and the fact that your card is recognised for points in various stores.

Tilly x

ammonite

Edinburgher - They are generally fine, I've never had many problems with them, Paddy Power have never paid out in TCB or Quidco which $^^&% me off as I'd only signed up for the free bet and cashback so I wouldn't trust them at all. John Lewis didn't pay up once and currently got a dispute in with Ocado. Other than that they have been generally OK. I am liking the "faster paying" on some of the merchants now, they really do pay faster, as in...within the month. I have had very very poor success with TCB which is odd as I know some people rave about it compared to Quidco. I don't have too many policies etc. with them though, particularly lately I've found buying car insurance through comparison sites directly (and no cashback) to be cheaper than trying to get cashback and going to the website myself. No idea why?!

Hi Martin - what codes are you after?

edinburgher

I'm one of those people who loves TCB

While Quidco are generally quite helpful and friendly when it comes to settling disputes, I find that with TCB I never have to raise a dispute in the first place. Been using them for a year or so, haven't had a single issue since joining.

ammonite

The last 3 things at TCB haven't tracked and customer service has been terrible for me so I never use them...strange isn't it!!

OK adpoints update...I have got my 250points this week, still some problems with it through the day and seemed as though all the adverts had been watched and had no points left but I went back again this evening and there are unwatched ads so I made it up to 250 points. Hopefully these are just teething problems.

Bonus categories changed for DY today but luckily 'hair care' is in the top paying categories so hopefully have a few things I can write about in there - last week's catgeories were brilliant, I had loads to write about. I'm just £1.50 away from the £75 pay out......been screened out of all Onepoll the last 2 days

Need to keep an eye on spending now for the next week - my grocery spends this month have been huge but on the plus side the cupboards and freezer is bursting again so I'm hoping to go back to £25 per week shops after next week. Will need to re-visit my friends on the Freezer thread on the Food board

Thinking about eBaying on Sunday if I can get myself geared up.

Also been thinking about our mortgage switch (still fixed for another 13 months - by 'eck the rest of those 5 years have gone fast though!) and wondering how I find out our LTV? Will the mortgage people come out and value the house or do I need to get an estate agent to do it. Obviously I have 13 months to wonder about this but I wonder if anyone knows. I can estimate the price based on what we bought it for and what we've spent on it but there are no comparable houses in the road really so it really is just an estimate. Anyone know what happens?

icklehelen

When we remortgaged the mortgage company sent out a valuer - all quite straightforward really! Certainly not something you need to spend the next 13 months worrying about!!

ickle

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi Ammonite, if you are remortgaging, then the house will need to be revalued. Simple and quick process and many organisations either do free valuations or have a cash back facility which covers the cost.

Goodness the time is flying by

Tilly x

ammonite

Thanks helen and Tilly that is good to know I wasn't sure if it was something we needed to organise ourselves or if the mortgage companies would do it for us so thanks for clarifying. Tilly, by a re-mortgage...I think thats what we are doing? Changing mortgage provider for a better deal - is that what counts as a re-mortgage? Sorry to sound clueless, we've only had one mortgage before - this one!

Made it to £75 on DY - very pleased, just need the miles to clear now and I can claim a payout

BookWorm

Hi Ammonite :hello:

Just passing through to say hi as don't think I have done so this week.

Well done for reaching £75 on DY.

Also wanted to say thanks for asking the questions about remortgaging - as my fixed deal is due to end next year - and they were the sort of things I wanted to know too! I'm nervous that my house value will have dropped and so may not be able to get a new deal as my LTV may become too high . Keeping my fingers crossed though!

BW

ammonite

Hi Bookworm - Thanks for popping by! Good luck for your re-mortgage, do you have any idea what your LTV might be? We were lucky as prices dropped when we bought, we ploughed money into it to get it into a liveable state (rather than it being liveable and paying more for the house in the first place) and had a decent deposit so I conservatively estimate our current LTV is around 50% - hopefully it stays in that sort of region for the next year. I'm sure by the time I get to re-mortgage the interest rates will have shot up after being low for 5 years - we got a house when the prices dipped but the mortgage rates were still fairly high sadly Oh well, can't worry about it, just got to figure it out when it happens!!

As for me, it is almost payday and I can't wait. We have spent a lot of money on food this month but I don't mind as the freezer is jam packed full of frozen home made meals which will last us months and I had to buy loads of meat to make the meals. I'm back to trying to keep our food bills around the £25 per week mark (or less) which should be do-able (no meat!). I'm also envisaging about £60 spend on petrol (or less hopefully!) this month and as we topped up electricity more than usual last month, probably only need £30 this month.

- Food £100
- Petrol £60
- Electricity £30


One of our direct debits on a 0% interest free purchase ends this month so we are £50 per month better off. Also have enough for the house insurance now (£20/month) so won't be putting that money away until after we've paid the renewal.

Think I will have to give us a social budget this month too, so that will be about £100 - get it out as cash and use it, that seems to be better than going to the cash point willy nilly throughout the month.

All the rest of our spare cash will almost certainly go towards work on the house this month (but at least it isn't coming out of savings directly as we had thought it might have to).

Only Quidco payments to be overpaid this month which will be next to nothing but every little helps! DY payment will be going towards Christmas as will any other vouchers and all eBaying will also go towards Christmas for the next month or so.

Going to have to be really well behaved with the food shopping - it is my nemesis!

Target for the week: START eBaying!

Target for the day: Sort out the paperwork in my office

Reminder to people doing Nectar adpoints: the new week has begun!