I've Done It!! I'm Finally Mortgage-free

JillD_2

Assuming you're married, why not consider opening an Egg Money account in your husband's name?

Getting my husband to open an Egg Money card in his name is a great idea, can't believe I didn't think of it myself, seems obvious ! At least this means when we feel on top of new baby and life enough to have a stab at this we can get cracking with Egg Money. And of course we can apply for it this week so its ready and waiting for when we are feeling like giving stoozing a bash.

Cheers
Jill

Running_Horse

belle103 wrote: »

thats really good! if being mortgage-free feels good, why go into mortgage in the first place?

What a bizarre statement Sir Spamalot.

barnishroader

ok so i just transferred £3000 into my egg money account from barclaycard.
so in 7 days or so it should show up.

do i next transfer this into a mini-cash isa ie NS&I and pay min payments to barclaycard so i can earn interest on it over the next year?
and then transfer the remaining balance to another card when my 14months is up and use the savings to pay off my mortgage and start the process again with the new card?

sorry for asking but i just want to get it clear that i am following the correct steps before i scale up the stoozing to higher amounts.

Martinslovechild

barryheffron wrote: »

ok so i just transferred £3000 into my egg money account from barclaycard.
so in 7 days or so it should show up.

do i next transfer this into a mini-cash isa ie NS&I and pay min payments to barclaycard so i can earn interest on it over the next year?
and then transfer the remaining balance to another card when my 14months is up and use the savings to pay off my mortgage and start the process again with the new card?

sorry for asking but i just want to get it clear that i am following the correct steps before i scale up the stoozing to higher amounts.

Yes - that's completely correct. You've got it Barry.

Well Done - you're now on your way to Stoozimus Maximus

If you're married, you could of course pop the next £3K in an NS&I Cash Isa in your wife's name. Once you've used up the £6K in ISAs in the current tax year (for the both of you), your next lot of stoozed cash after this will need to go either into your mortgage overpayment fund or a Savings Account (Bradford & Bingley now offer an Internet Saver account paying 6.4% gross).

Please remember that if one of you is a higher-rate taxpayer and the other is a basic-rate taxpayer, always put savings in the basic-rate taxpayer's name - to do anything else is like sending gifts to Gordon Brown. And you don't wanna do that!!

bockster

Martinslovechild wrote: »

At last, after 6 years of hard work & determination, I'm finally there! Yesterday, I made my final mortgage payment to the bank and am now officially 'mortgage-free'.

Yipppppeeeeeeeeee!!!

:j :j :j :j :j

It feels [strike]pretty[/strike] very good to finally add my own 'I've paid it off' thread after reading lots of uplifting stories on this forum over the past few years from so many of you.

A big 'Thank You' to everybody here for keeping me focused on paying it off...

well done you!!!

i'm one pay day away, next friday i will be 100% offsset, with my own money,
thanks to saving, stoozing, being thrifty and this website, thanks everyone!!! now, how to celebrate

motch

I have an egg credit card from about 2 years back... in order to try the money transfers to my bank account will I need to cancel my existing card and then apply for an Egg money card?

Moneygoes2money

Hello Martinslovechild, many congratulations on your achievement, as someone said in an earlier post, a truly inspirational story.

I am sure I will have a lot of questions over the coming months as I get to grips with stoozing so I hope you will still give this forum (and the credit card forum) a look-in even though you are mortgage-free!

First question, let's assume I apply for the Ulster Bank card, which is 0% on balance transfers for 6 months with no fee (I think). When the 0% deal expires on this or any other card for that matter, should I cancel the credit card?

I was wondering whether it was better to cancel the card so that your credit file doesn't show too may 'live' cards, which increases the amount of credit available.

As an example, my partner has a Goldfish credit card with a limit of £10,000 and I am named as an additional card holder. All purchases are made using this card and the card is paid in full every month.

However, I will be applying for the Sainsbury's credit card (0% purchases for 12 months) and adding my partner as an additional card holder (see my post in credit cards forum) then minimum payment will be made every month and the balance stoozed in an appropriate account.

So you see, the Goldfish card with a limit of £10,000 will be redundant. Should we cancel the Goldfish card? If so, will this improve our chances of larger credit limits on balance transfer cards in the future (i.e. Capital One etc.) because £10,000 credit will not be available from Goldfish?

Any help would be much appreciated.

barnishroader

:beer:

Martinslovechild wrote: »

Yes - that's completely correct. You've got it Barry.

Well Done - you're now on your way to Stoozimus Maximus

If you're married, you could of course pop the next £3K in an NS&I Cash Isa in your wife's name. Once you've used up the £6K in ISAs in the current tax year (for the both of you), your next lot of stoozed cash after this will need to go either into your mortgage overpayment fund or a Savings Account (Bradford & Bingley now offer an Internet Saver account paying 6.4% gross).

Please remember that if one of you is a higher-rate taxpayer and the other is a basic-rate taxpayer, always put savings in the basic-rate taxpayer's name - to do anything else is like sending gifts to Gordon Brown. And you don't wanna do that!!

just did an analysis of what i think happens to the money over the next year and just wondered if i am correct.

Month Total Min payment
1.00 2700.00 60.75
2.00 2639.25 59.38
3.00 2579.87 58.05
4.00 2521.82 56.74
5.00 2465.08 55.46
6.00 2409.61 54.22
7.00 2355.40 53.00
8.00 2302.40 51.80
9.00 2250.60 50.64
10.00 2199.96 49.50
11.00 2150.46 48.39
12.00 2102.07 47.30
13.00 2054.78 46.23
14.00 2008.55 45.19
736.65 paid to card


Savings 2700.00
Interest after 1 year 170.10
Total 2870.10

Does this mean i will pay £736.65 against the card yet the interest earned is only £170.10 meaning after 1 year i will have a balance owed of £2008.55 and spent £736.65 totalling a cost to me of £2745.20 with £2870.10 in my savings giving a net profit of £124.90.

Is it all worth it without investing more and more, therefore having to pay out more and more each month?
Or maybe i am looking at this all wrong!!

Dumped

WOW, I could do with some tips, new to this web site and about to renew my mortgage after 2 year fixed. I owe quite alot and need a good deal. Any help would be gratefully received.

Martinslovechild

bockster wrote: »

I'm one pay day away, next friday i will be 100% offsset, with my own money, thanks to saving, stoozing, being thrifty and this website, thanks everyone!!! now, how to celebrate

Excellent - Very Well Done!! :T. I recommend nipping to the bottle shop on Friday and purchasing a nice bottle of champagne. If you'd like a recommendation, go for Bollinger (very nice indeed - my favourite!!).

motch wrote: »

I have an egg credit card from about 2 years back... in order to try the money transfers to my bank account will I need to cancel my existing card and then apply for an Egg money card?

I recommend applying for the Egg Money card whilst you still hold your existing Egg Card account.

Before Egg Money, there used to be a card called Egg Blue which Egg actively promoted amongst Egg Card customers, trying to get them to take both. I believe that this is still the case with Egg Card/Egg Money Card.

Moneygoes2money wrote: »

Hello Martinslovechild, many congratulations on your achievement, as someone said in an earlier post, a truly inspirational story.

Thank You!!

Moneygoes2money wrote: »

Let's assume I apply for the Ulster Bank card, which is 0% on balance transfers for 6 months with no fee (I think). When the 0% deal expires on this or any other card for that matter, should I cancel the credit card?

I was wondering whether it was better to cancel the card so that your credit file doesn't show too may 'live' cards, which increases the amount of credit available.

Yes - I always cancelled any credit cards which were surplus to requirements, however - it's always worth phoning them to do this as it's surprising how many people (me included!) have been offered additional 0% offers when they've called up to cancel. If you're passed to their 'Customer Retention' department, there's a good chance that they may offer you another 0% offer.

Moneygoes2money wrote: »

As an example, my partner has a Goldfish credit card with a limit of £10,000 and I am named as an additional card holder. All purchases are made using this card and the card is paid in full every month.

It's always worth applying for a card each rather than becoming an additional cardholder on your partner's account. In general, I've found that you tend to be offered higher credit limits across 2 separate cards than on one card with 2 cardholders.

Moneygoes2money wrote: »

I will be applying for the Sainsbury's credit card (0% purchases for 12 months) and adding my partner as an additional card holder (see my post in credit cards forum) then minimum payment will be made every month and the balance stoozed in an appropriate account.

So you see, the Goldfish card with a limit of £10,000 will be redundant. Should we cancel the Goldfish card? If so, will this improve our chances of larger credit limits on balance transfer cards in the future (i.e. Capital One etc.) because £10,000 credit will not be available from Goldfish?

It's possibly worth ditching the Goldfish card if they won't offer a further 0% period on your spends, however going back to what I said above, it may be worth applying for the Sainsbury's Card in 2 separate names rather than as joint cardholders. It's true to say that there is more transparency now in the credit checking arena - even a couple of years ago, the likes of HSBC and several others didn't even report info to Experian unless a creditor defaulted or made a late payment, i.e. the amount that they'd lent to you was effectively 'invisible' from other banks' eyes. A lot of this has changed meaning that if I attempted the same thing now that I did 2 or 3 years ago, I'd probably struggle to get anywhere near £100,000.

barryheffron wrote: »

Just did an analysis of what i think happens to the money over the next year and just wondered if i am correct.

Paid to card 736.65
Savings 2700.00
Interest after 1 year 170.10
Total 2870.10

Does this mean i will pay £736.65 against the card yet the interest earned is only £170.10 meaning after 1 year i will have a balance owed of £2008.55 and spent £736.65 totalling a cost to me of £2745.20 with £2870.10 in my savings giving a net profit of £124.90.

Is it all worth it without investing more and more, therefore having to pay out more and more each month?
Or maybe i am looking at this all wrong!!

That's correct - if you were to put the cash into a Savings Account.

However - I don't need to tell you that you'll obviously pay tax on any interest earned in a Savings Account, which is why I chose instead to drop the cash in a Mortgage Offset Account. You could also choose a Cash ISA to prevent interest from being deducted.

Don't forget that the £2700 is earning you £125 that you never had before - this is equivalent to approx £184 gross for a basic rate taxpayer. However - should you choose to increase your stakes to £27,000, you'll earn £1,250 (or £1,840 gross for a basic rate taxpayer / £2119 for higher-rate). I'm sure you'll agree that these sums of money are very respectable reasons for stoozing.

If you're worried about funding the minimum payments each month (and these can mount up, particularly if you owe tens of thousands on credit cards), you could simply keep sufficient back in an Instant Access Savings Account (e.g. Sainsbury's Bank) to cover the minimum payments for the duration of the 0% period and deposit the remainder of the Balance Transfer in your offset account / Cash ISA.