Should I pay off my mortgage discussion

DrMopp

My husband has been dismissed on grounds of capability. He is disabled and his company cannot make necessary adjustments to his role or find him a different job. He was earning 50k a year and we have a mortgage costing 1k per month. (which was easy to pay when he worked).

His company have told him they will pay him an ex gratia payment of 30k seeing has he has worked for them for 12 years.(nice of them. lol).

There is no way on this planet, that he can get another job earning that sort of money. The best he has seen is around 25k per annum for the same job.
He has applied for a few jobs but not getting anywhere. So he made a claim for benefit the other day. Good grief, what a fiasco, we have never claimed before! It was a bit of a culture shock to be honest!

They told my hubby that as long as he turns in his sick notes from the GP he can claim incapacity benefit back to when his SSP ran out and his company waved bye bye.

Thing is because he will recieve the 30k they won't pay anything to keep his wife and disabled child??

We have no choice but to reduce our mortgage payments.(or do we??)If we use the 30k to reduce our monthly mortgage liability he will have more options in the job front.

We are new to all this, having always worked, and we really don't know what to do.

We have no credit card bills but our council tax is 1500 per annum and just to heat our house cost around 200 a month. Yes we have all the energy saving gizmos you could ask for. We just live in a very cold and windy place.

If anyone has any advice I would love to hear what I should be doing.

Thank you. sorry it was so long

FreedomGirl

Hi DrMopp,

I know that the people on the Motley Fool (Dealing with Debt board) advise on not just outstanding debts but help with benefits etc. I don't know about the Debt Free Wannebees board here. I'd go over there and ask, and perhaps someone who knows MSE can advise too. I think you also need to get a union involved re your husband's situation.

In any case, you're likely to be asked for a statement of affairs, which details all your incoming income and outgoings.

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

This will help people advise as to the best course of action e.g. paying off the mortgage or not.

HTH

FG

Moonstruck_2

Dear All,

I am a higher rate taxpayer and I see that I would benefit from making additional mortgage payments rather than saving any disposable income. I know that my mortgage allows me to make additional payments each year up to a certain amount.

What is not clear to me, because I have a part-interest/part-repayment mortgage, is how I ensure that any additional payments are used to 'pay-off' part of the repayment part of the mortgage, and therefore whether I would gain immediate interest reduction benefits, or whether (like paying credit card balances) the mortgage holder can determine which part of the debt the money is used for. Perhaps using additional payments as a sort of 'holding' against future interest (based on the interest repayment plan)?

Thanks for any insight,

Bargain_Rzl

Moonstruck,

Sorry if this is stating the obvious, but I think you need to contact your mortgage lender and ask

egor110

We have our mortgage (77,150) fixed at 6.08% for 2 years.
We haven't regularly saved so decided we'd overpay the motgage and get it down to 16 years, we now find we have 200 pounds spare each month, should we over pay mortgage even more ( we can overpay 500 month with no fees) or start filling up a cash isa?

ShowMeMoney

I currently have a bog standard mortgage with A&L. 14 years left (£42k). I asked about redemption fees and was immediately offered a Flexi-Tracker Mortgage as an alternative to the Offset Mortgage, that still allows overpayments and lump sums,savings..Though I would need to open up a Premier account to facilitate this(£420!).
I have considered Offset, but this Flexi deal sounds interesting...plus I would be saving on fees etc....

Advice please!?

StuartGMC

Run the different rates through the mortgage calculators in one case with you offsetting then in the other calc your interest earned (less tax, let's assume you would have cash ISAs in both cases) and compare with costs for the tracker. Should answer your question quickly on costs are repayment time.

Does it track BoE or their own base rate?

FatherAbraham

jamesd wrote: »

You can get 10% before tax from the Halifax International regular saver, putting in 100-2,000 per month for one year.

Halifax Internation is a Manx bank, and outside the UK's depositor protection scheme.

The Isle of Man has its own depositor protection scheme.

What of the Isle of Man found out that it didn't actually have enough resources to fulfil its promises, should it be called upon to compensate those who'd invested in Halifax's (independent) international arm?

Remember that the population of the Isle of Man is tiny, while their financial sector is (relatively) large. Just like Spiceland.

Warmest regards,
FA

co123456

jamesd wrote: »

Morty_2008, I don't see any prospect of you being better off financially by repaying. It's easy to make more than 4.79%, with 8% after basic rate tax available from the Halifax International regular saver account.

I wouldn't be chipping away with 500 a month. I'd be taking the money back out and making more from it by saving or investing it somewhere.

Paying a penalty to end that mortgage deal early would be a poor idea unless you're doing it because you're selling and the mortgage isn't portable.

James, Why do you push the Halifax product so much, and why do you assume that most people are not high rate tax payers? What's your motivation for promoting this product?

ShermanPotter

I have 2 endowments (£30,000 and £10,000) still costing me £70 per month ....
My mortgage has been converted to repayment.
I intend to cash in the endowments - but can't beat the incredibly low offer from Phoenix (£17,000 combined) - they are both "with profits" Sun Alliance policies (4 years to go on 25 year policies) - does anyone know of one of these second hand endowment companies who may improve my offer ?