Was Mortgage Free until 52!!!

A_Frayed_Knot

Was just reading Mrs E's diary, and took a couple of excellent tips from it. :T

No idea when making overpayments why I was saving up/waiting till I had between £500 - £1,500 lump sum, then overpaying.:o

Once it was pointed out that even overpaying by £1, its a £1 less that you never have to pay interest on again. Love this. Will check tomorrow how much I can pay over and will even try to get it to under the next thousand down.:cool:

Can't wait.:D

A_Frayed_Knot

Thought I ought to update, took that long needed break last week and went to a lovely quiet peaceful place, weather could have been better but hey ho, it was the break to recharge my batteries that was needed.:cool: and it also gave me a chance to catch up with some diaries.

Still not got round to changing my mortgage but have an appointment for Thursday after work. Not sure what I'll plump for as thought I had it down to 2 options but have been reading about the "offset mortgage" and although not sure how this works would like to find out more about it.

Will have some extra this month as I had o/t from two months ago, will find out either tomorrow or if I get to the bank today just how much extra I have:D

Have listed some items on bay of e and sold two items so far - its a start. Now I need to get on with some chores, as usual my list is endless.

A_Frayed_Knot

Just received a phone call about my appt on Thursday, seems they made a mistake and that there will not be a mortgage advisor avail then, told me I could apply online, so started the application only to read as long as you dont want to change the term, then continue - but of course that's what I want to do, up payments, change term.:mad:

Anyway so mad, enough of waiting about, so went online and just made another quite large o/p :Dwhich was unexpectedly easy to do, ;)considering when I went into branch - I had 3 tellers and Manager all not knowing quite what to do - as I requested my lump sum all be put to mortgage and not split into the 3 accounts I have.


Only problem now is to see whether they reduce my monthly payments, as they done 1st time round, how do you get round this, if you want to keep same payments every month and just pay extra without reducing monthly payment. They are so crafty - don't you think?


Anyway back to square one - I need an appointment.:(

bexster1975

That is a pain! I don't have that. Whether I am on a fixed rate or SVR I have never had the bank reduce the term or monthly payments because I have overpaid. If they did, and wouldn't stop it, I would work out the difference and set up a DD to transfer the difference each month. If on a fixed and ERC will kick in, transfer OP to a savings account out the way until fixed ends/new year allowance becomes available. I think a meeting with mortgage advisor is needed. A word of caution however, the couple I have met knew less about my mortgage than I did - so go in armed ( not literally, security will escort you out! ).

If they don't want to play, shop around. I think you might like an offset, certainly worth finding out about.

Bexster

A_Frayed_Knot

Thanks Bexster, when I received the letter telling me they had reduced my monthly payments, I was not best pleased :mad:and thought it defeats the purpose of overpaying. Hence when I O/P the next time I found they couldn't have made it more difficult for me - 3 tellers had to call the Manager who had to make a phone call - they didn't want my money but I stuck it out, told them I wanted to pay to mortgage account and did NOT want my monthly payments reduced. Seems when I made my 1st o/p I should have told them which account I wanted it to go towards - as if I would pay against the 0% amount, but anyway they split it - much to my disgust.

Anyway todays o/p was easy peasy :j- will phone them tomorrow just to make sure and to put a note on my account to state that anytime an o/p is made I do not want monthly payments reduced. Also going to read up on that offset mortgage.

Tomorrow is back to work:eek: and tomorrow night I'm going to another house auction;), like to keep in touch with the market.

Have a nice night.

A_Frayed_Knot

While I was on the phone today I asked the bank why my mortgage payment was not showing up on my statement, they said it was due on Saturday and nothing happens on a Saturday so have a look at close of business tonight.

I've just logged on again, and my mortgage payment(which is not in my bs account) still doesn't show on the statement and worse still my o/p via faster payment has disappeared out of my bs account but not yet in my mortgage account.

Out of curiosity how do they calculate the interest?

bexster1975

Hi

I think it depends on your bank. Mine calculates interest daily, but adds it in the last day of each month. I don't think that's true for all banks though. It really is the limit that your bank make it openly difficult to overpay. I doubt halifax are delighted that I will pay mine off 15 years early, but they have never made it deliberately difficult for me to do so. I would seriously consider where I remortgage if I were you.

Good luck back at the grindstone.

Bexster

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Hello,

I found that staff at the Halifax really were not all that clued up about overpayments. I had to really emphasise what I wanted to do or the money would just sit in the mortgage account without being used to overpay or reduce interest. As you say, they don't like people overpaying.

Well done on your progress so far,

Squirrel x

Watty1

I started out wanting the amount reduced - when the mortgage got lower I wanted the term reduced - I've never succeeded in getting the bank to understand the reduce the term bit - so - I just started to look at the difference between the new and previous mortgage payment as part of the next overpayment.

A_Frayed_Knot

bexster1975 wrote: »

Hi

I think it depends on your bank. Mine calculates interest daily, but adds it in the last day of each month. I don't think that's true for all banks though. It really is the limit that your bank make it openly difficult to overpay. I doubt halifax are delighted that I will pay mine off 15 years early, but they have never made it deliberately difficult for me to do so. I would seriously consider where I remortgage if I were you.

Good luck back at the grindstone.

Bexster

Hi bexster,
:beer:seems we are with the same mortgage company!! I checked online and my payments are now showing on my statement:j. but with the payment date as 3/8/15 when it was due 1/8/15.
Just a thought but will I be charged 2 days extra interest - if so, seems a crusade for MSE to take on board. With everyone claiming back the extra days interest charged through no fault of their own.:D

Back at the grindstone - got payslip with o/t incl - nice surprise. Going to round mortgage down to the next£500.