The Road is Long.......

jimmybrid

In 2010 my wife and I found what we hoped would be our "forever home" and in October 2011 we finally moved in. We were fortunate enough to be able to port our previous mortgage and add a fairly small top-up, both of these being offset/current acount mortgages with First Direct. These were taken out over a 20 year term, but unlike many on this forum my aim is not to pay off the mortgage early.........my aim is to maximise the flexibility in this form of lending by overpaying now and then borrowing the same money back in a few years when we plan to build a double-storey extension to make our forever home dream into a reality. Thanks to the extremely low rate that the majority of the mortgage is borrowed at (base rate plus 0.79% = 1.29% currently) the current plan, rather than overpaying directly against the mortgage is to use other savings products to earn better interest and then pay these off against the mortgages when the rates drop :T Currently we each have a FD regular saver account paying 8% (before tax) on £300 per month. When these mature the money will go into the mortgage account or one of the linked current accounts adn we'll start afresh with reg saver accounts.

Oct 2011 start:
Mortgage 1 = 118k @BR + 0.79
Mortgage 2 = 17k @ BR + 2.79

Today:
Mortgage 1 = 116k (after offsetting from linked accounts)
Mortgage 2 = 7k (after offsetting)
Reg Savers = 1.5k
Credit card and other borrowings = 0 :T

Hopefully on target for house renovations in 2015? May depend on cost of childcare though, new baby due end of Feb to add to 3 yr old at nursery 5 days a week. Keep ya posted!

jimmybrid

Been having quite a productive time of it the past week or so. It started when the pet (cat) insurance renewal landed with a hefty thud on the doormat. Premium gone up AGAIN but cat is getting on a bit now and Vets fees are becoming more likely so didn't really want to risk him not being insured. Shopped about and managed to knock about £45 off the premium, plus earnt £70 cashback getting the policy via TopCashBack.
I had signed up to TCB earlier the same day to get the £20 c/b mentioned on MSE for taking out a 30-day trial with Equifax for credit checking, but realised I could do much more with this so.........sent a friend referral to OH who used it to join TCB and also signed up for the Equifax trial to get the £20 c/b. In doing so she also triggered my £10 referral bonus, maing our total c/b from Equifax trials effectively £50.
Decided to celebrate with pizza for tea last night, TCB came in useful again as our £17 Dominos spend (Two-for-Tuesday) was accompanied by another £9.99 c/b, and the leftovers have provided me with lunch today thus avoiding a trip to the staff canteen.
Will be taking advantage of some more TCB offers over the next few days, can see at least another £100 of c/b waiting to be claimed with little outlay.
Also just reduced my phone outgoings by £54/yr by switching to paying for my Sky landline rental in one upfront payment - an offer available to new and existing customers, so jump on board people (cannot be done online, need to ring customer services).
Will be trying out the Foursquare/Amex app at the weekend to hopefully save £15 on a £50 petrol spend at Shell.

As a well-known retailer tells us "Every Little Helps"

elantan

Can you explain a little bit more about the shell deal please ?

Havn't done the equifax one either but will look into that ... Thanks

streethack

Sounds like you got your head screwed on, good luck matey.

jimmybrid

elantan wrote: »

Can you explain a little bit more about the shell deal please ?

Havn't done the equifax one either but will look into that ... Thanks

Shell deal is in conjunction with Amex and Foursquare and is discussed elsewhere on MSE, but briefly......
Download Foursquare app onto your smartphone (iPhone, Blackberry or android, not available on Windows phones currently), open an account and sync your Amex card to it. Search on the app for participating Shell service stations (you will see them highlighted as "Special" if they have offers available), go to a participating station and "Check-In" using the Foursquare app (just like doing a Facebook check-in). Now when you spend £50 or more on your synced Amex card you will receive a £15 credit directly to your Amex account. As I said, I will be trying this for the first time at the weekend, so will let you know how I get on. If it works will be doing it with OH's card as well. Offer runs until some time in April, so plenty of opportunity to do it.
Foursquare have other offers available with Amex as well, currently a £5 credit on a £10 spend at participating Starbucks' and a £15 credit for a £30 spend at participating pizza huts. Rumours abound of other offers coming along including something for Debenhams, and past offers include Nandos (£10 credit on a £10 spend), Argos, Harrods and others.

jimmybrid

elantan wrote: »

Can you explain a little bit more about the shell deal please ?

Havn't done the equifax one either but will look into that ... Thanks

Sorry, forgot to mention about the Equifax offer. Unfortunately the £20 cashback offer finished on Sunday, it's now a £10 cashback offer. Still worth looking at of course, and this offer expires tomorrow.

jimmybrid

streethack wrote: »

Sounds like you got your head screwed on, good luck matey.

Ambitious target streethack, 15 years early, but great performance hitting your targets over a number of years. Keep up the good work and any hints or tips you can throw this way would be appreciated.
My mortgage term was only 20 years, so I think paying mine off 15 years early would be showing off !!!! But, if I can keep up the strong performance with the use of the cashback sites etc, who knows.

linz

I did the Amex offer last night, not for petrol, bought £50 worth of gift vouchers in store. Seems to haveworked as I had a foursquare notification. I also had to 'load to card' after i had checked in.

jimmybrid

linz wrote: »

I did the Amex offer last night, not for petrol, bought £50 worth of gift vouchers in store. Seems to haveworked as I had a foursquare notification. I also had to 'load to card' after i had checked in.

Seen a few people using this offer for gift vouchers, although not for HMV or Comet LOL, but I need fuel more than gift vouchers at the minute.

jimmybrid

Another quick update, moved 5k between mortgage accounts last month so it was offset against higher interest rate borrowings. Savings of between £10 and £12 per month with no extra outlay.

elantan

Thanks for the info will check them out