Cazmanian_minx's MFi3 diary

cazmanian_minx

Ohcrudohcrudohcrudohcrud. (Actually, what I'd like to say is much ruder than that, but I think this post would get deleted.)

Bristol and West, after saying "Yes, fine, we'll lend you the money" to my other half, have now had a closer look at his credit score, discovered that 3 payments were missed 18 months ago on his mortgage with his ex-wife - which he told them about on the application - and have now said "Actually, no, we're not lending you the money, shove off." :mad:

Unfortunately, under Scottish house buying law, once your offer is accepted and missives are concluded (which they haven't been yet), you're legally bound to buy the house.

So we have a small problem. The broker, London & Country, is trying to find another mortgage for him. I could, in theory, remortgage this flat, as there's more than enough equity in it to buy the house outright, but there's the small matter of my ex still having a matrimonial home rights order on it, which I can't get removed until I have my decree absolute and I'm still waiting to get a date for a court hearing. I could borrow back my overpayments, but that would still leave us about £28k short and I'd be borrowing at if.com's standard variable rate, which is about 7.4% at the moment :eek: Though that would only be until I could remortgage - if I could remortgage, since I'm now self employed and I don't have 3 years of accounts yet.

It's so frustrating - we have a household income between us of about £60k a year and joint outgoings of about £800 a month, so we can easily afford the repayments on an £80k mortgage, but because he's stuck on the mortgage for the house he bought with his ex until her son turns 18 next year and because those 3 payments were made late when they were splitting up, if we can get a mortgage at all we're going to have to pay through the nose for it.

Off to play free bingo on the Gala website and see if I can win the cashclimber jackpot of £145k!!

Caz

Kaz2904

How about if you go guarantor for him? Or would you consider a joint mortgage?
Hope it all goes well for you whatever happens. Even if it comes to the worst and you end up with a high interest rate it won't be for ever.

cazmanian_minx

Guarantor's not an option as I don't have the income or even proof of income to do so.

As far as I can see, we've got 3 options.

1) L&C find him a mortgage with a sub prime lender (they're looking at the moment).

2) I take out my overpayments, we max out our cards and overdrafts and take a small personal loan - which will *just* cover it but leave us nothing for renovations.

3) We approach NatWest (who I've banked with for 22 years) and see if they'll give us a joint 'second home' mortgage - with my credit history (excellent) and his income combined, they might go for it.

It's been a hellofa week and other half has been quite depressed for the last couple of days because he feels like he's let me down by his past behaviour (I told him rubbish; what *would* have been letting me down is carrying on spending profligately after I helped him out, but he's been an absolute star financially for over a year now) - but he's got some graph paper and is planning the layout of the kitchen units, which has perked him up a lot

We'll get there somehow. This house feels so right for us that I refuse to believe we're not going to come up with the cash one way or another.

Caz

mountainlioness

Hi CM - sorry to hear you and OH are going through all this...

sounds like option 3 might be best in terms of your future... as a valued customer won't they be perhaps more willing to take into account the circumstances than the other lender? Surely your record with them counts for something?

We've all got our fingers crossed for you

Kaz2904

Right so if you can't go guarantor for him is it at all feasible to get a few balance transfers for 0% and filter them into your bank account? There are a few longer offers around at the moment. Or if not a 0% how about a life of balance transfer? It may be cheaper than a subprime mortgage.
Are M&S still doing a 6% one?
OK, I've just checked and they are 5.9% if transferred within 6 months and there's no fee.
If you borrowed this amount and were able to repay £800 a month then
"It will take you 39 months to pay off these debts if you snowball correctly. During that time, you'll pay £2,641.00 in interest." ( www.whatsthecost.com )
Is that doable? Even if you and OH got a card each.
Or could you make up a mixture of 0% offers and life of balance offers?

We'll get there somehow. This house feels so right for us that I refuse to believe we're not going to come up with the cash one way or another.

You will get there you just need to put your inventiveness into full operation.
If you are free this weekend then how about sticking up a full SOA for us to scrutinise and see what suggestions we can come up with?
I have everything crossed for you.

cazmanian_minx

I keep quite a close eye on our SOA, so here it is I've rounded figures up rather than down.

MONTHLY INCOME

Edit: snipped because on reflection I shouldn't be posting OH's salary details on the net without asking him - plus I just googled my user name, which I use elsewhere, and this thread is the top hit! For my income I've used the absolute minimum I can end up with each month, it's often more.

OUTGOINGS

Mortgage: £175
Council tax: £121
Electricity & gas: £38
Water rates: £21
Telephone: £15
Mobile: £5
TV license: £12
Sky: £45 (note 2)
Internet: £10 (note 3)
Buildings insurance: £20
Food: £300 (note 4)
Clothing: £20
Petrol: £30 (note 5)
Other travel: £20
Vet bills: £40 (note 6)
Birthday/Christmas: £50
Magazines: £5
Class 2 National Insurance: £10
Tax bill savings: £100

Total Outgoings: £1,035

SURPLUS: £1,500+ (sorry, being deliberately vague here again for reasons as above)

Note 1: OH used to have a company flat. When he gave it up to move in with me since he wasn't owning or renting, the company classed him as 'staying with family/friends' and gave him a £20 a night food allowance Monday - Thursday to compensate the loss of benefit of the flat.

Note 2: Sky is non-negotiable, I'm afraid, OH is a huge superleague and film fan, so it's all 6 mixes plus Sports & Movies.

Note 3: Internet and phone both from BT, tied into contract until next summer as they rang up OH with a 'good' deal and he accepted. He's about £200 in credit with them at the moment!

Note 4: I know this looks horrendous for 2 people, but OH works away once a week and it covers a restaurant meal/takeaway for him in the hotel. We also have a takeaway or go out to dinner once a week, which could easily be cut down/out.

Note 5: OH has a company car and they pay for servicing, insurance & petrol for business use. This is an estimate of what we use pottering to Sainsburys and back plus the odd trip to see family and friends in other parts of the country. Other travel is for trains/buses/trams for me during the daytime when I don't have use of the car.

Note 6: This is for my 19-year old cat whose kidneys are failing. It covers a month of Fortekor tablets and low-protein kidney diet cat food. The vet's extremely pleased with her progress (her last blood tests came back normal :T ) but realistically she's not going to be around for much longer

I reckon if we march into NatWest with a copy of that SOA, a copy of OH's court order which says his ex-wife indemnifies him against the mortgage payments on their house, a copy of my mortgage statement showing how little is left to pay and offer to let them take a second charge over this flat if they don't want to set the whole loan against the Scottish house, we might be in with a fighting chance....?

Caz

Kaz2904

OK, just a couple of things standing out to me.
You have buildings insurnce but no contents? Are your contents insured through your buisness as you work from home?
The insurance seems high but you live in a flat and this can make it high. Do you do all the usual tricks such as buy via quidco and get it yearly?

When you go out for a meal do you get a 2 for 1 or do you go top notch?
I don't think £300 is too bad for that level of eating out. Maybe you could scrimp by having a vegetarian night once a week?

My advice is to start immediately saving that £1500+ so that you have some towards it. I reckon that NatWest would tear your arm off to give you a mortgage but even if they won't I think that it's easily doable on a mix of credit cards.
Don't forget the stories we hear on these boards of people with £100k+ cc debt.
I just had a look at Martins article and snowballed the citibank card at 5.8% life of balance. At £1500 per month it would be clear in 20 months.

I hope that this has made you see that you will get this house. It is going to be a little more tricky than you first envisioned and may mean that you have to put the work on hold for a short while but you will get there.
Also if you buy it on a credit card it is going to give you the shift that you need to get it paid off quickly.

cazmanian_minx

Kaz2904 wrote: »

OK, just a couple of things standing out to me.
You have buildings insurnce but no contents? Are your contents insured through your buisness as you work from home?
The insurance seems high but you live in a flat and this can make it high. Do you do all the usual tricks such as buy via quidco and get it yearly?.

I've never had contents insurance - I take the view that I've got enough in my savings account to buy myself a bed, a sofa, a washing machine, an oven and a fridge freezer and the rest of the stuff I have is important for sentimental reasons rather than financial ones, so I don't have it insured. I don't have any say in where the buildings insurance is bought from, this is a leasehold flat and it's organised by the freeholders every year.

Kaz2904 wrote: »

When you go out for a meal do you get a 2 for 1 or do you go top notch?
I don't think £300 is too bad for that level of eating out. Maybe you could scrimp by having a vegetarian night once a week?

We usually go to a chain restaurant, normally La Tasca or Bella Italia, which works out at about £25-30 for the two of us. I live off sandwiches and pasta when OH is away (he's the cook out of the two of us!) so it balances out. Takeaways are a maximum of £12.

Kaz2904 wrote: »

My advice is to start immediately saving that £1500+ so that you have some towards it. I reckon that NatWest would tear your arm off to give you a mortgage but even if they won't I think that it's easily doable on a mix of credit cards.
Don't forget the stories we hear on these boards of people with £100k+ cc debt.
I just had a look at Martins article and snowballed the citibank card at 5.8% life of balance. At £1500 per month it would be clear in 20 months.

I hope that this has made you see that you will get this house. It is going to be a little more tricky than you first envisioned and may mean that you have to put the work on hold for a short while but you will get there.
Also if you buy it on a credit card it is going to give you the shift that you need to get it paid off quickly.

Thanks for all the advice :beer: I think we can probably rustle up a £10k deposit with no problems - we've got £8k in cash at the moment, so as long as we're sensible for 8 weeks that leaves us needing £78,575. I can probably get £54,000 out of my mortgage reserve (7.7%), £1,500 off my Tesco card (0% until 23/11, then something horrible), £1,300 off my old NatWest card (16.9% - ouch) and £2,800 from my overdraft facility (14.9%), leaving £18,975, so we'd probably look for an unsecured personal loan for that if we could get one at a reasonable rate. Then, if we couldn't balance transfer the interest down, we'd just snowball.

That's given me hope

Caz

Kaz2904

These are all quite expensive forms of credit. Can OH get any credit cards? Are you concerned about raising too many searches on your credit file because if you do all of the applications in a very short space of time then you should get away with it not having been updated.
Martin recommended some loan places and I can't remember what they were but there was one that worked out quite cheap if it was short term.
Have you heard any more from your mortgage broker yet?
How about your current lender they may be able to give you an advance.
I suppose what you are essentially looking for is a bridging loan as it would be short term (ish!).
Do you have an Egg money card? This is the one that you need to use as a mule to balance transfer through.
As you currently have an offset mortgage it could work in your favour to be getting balance transfers anyway.

I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to get most of this at lowish interest rates especially if you are both able to apply for credit.
When I applied for my Egg cards recently I did them within 2 days I think and got given £8.5k limit across the two. That was plenty as I didn't want more than £5500 to bt as I needed to clear it quickly. When my friend applied for hers to bt from she wanted a higher limit than she was given and she phoned up and asked for more. She got it.

If you have a £2800 overdraft facility how about opening up an Alliance and Leicester Premier Direct current account and getting them to match your current over draft facility at 0% for a year.
You could be really sneaky and go into your present bank and get them to max out your overdraft facility to £25000 and get Alliance and Leicester to match it.
That would give you a whole year to clear it but if you were able to pay £1500 a month to it then you would clear it in 17 months with £63 being interest.

Either way I think that Alliance and Leicester could be viable for you.
Also if you open one via quidco you will get £50 cash back and then OH could apply and get cashback too or you could refer him- you have to check at the time which will pay the most money.
Another thing to remember is that many cards and loans will pay cashback via quidco so when you find the one to apply for see if it's available on there first.
TTFN, Kaz.

cazmanian_minx

Kaz2904 wrote: »

These are all quite expensive forms of credit. Can OH get any credit cards? Are you concerned about raising too many searches on your credit file because if you do all of the applications in a very short space of time then you should get away with it not having been updated.
Martin recommended some loan places and I can't remember what they were but there was one that worked out quite cheap if it was short term.

OH has just got his first credit card in 10 years, but it's got a fairly low limit. He's still chuffed that he managed to move banks and get a debit card instead of a cashcard!

Kaz2904 wrote: »

Have you heard any more from your mortgage broker yet?
How about your current lender they may be able to give you an advance.
I suppose what you are essentially looking for is a bridging loan as it would be short term (ish!).

We should hear back from them tomorrow or Tuesday, so we're crossing our fingers. There was an interesting piece in the Sunday Times today about the credit crunch and the case study used London & Country to get a very decent rate despite having missed a few payments, so that was very cheering.

Kaz2904 wrote: »

Do you have an Egg money card? This is the one that you need to use as a mule to balance transfer through.
As you currently have an offset mortgage it could work in your favour to be getting balance transfers anyway.

I had an Egg card years ago, but don't have one at the moment. If we do go down the route of non-mortgage funding, I'll apply again (through Quidco, natch!) when I'm doing bulk applications.

Kaz2904 wrote: »

If you have a £2800 overdraft facility how about opening up an Alliance and Leicester Premier Direct current account and getting them to match your current over draft facility at 0% for a year.
You could be really sneaky and go into your present bank and get them to max out your overdraft facility to £25000 and get Alliance and Leicester to match it.
That would give you a whole year to clear it but if you were able to pay £1500 a month to it then you would clear it in 17 months with £63 being interest.

I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell that my bank will give me a £25k overdraft when they can see there's only £500 a month going into the account! This is the problem; I'm the one with the sparkly credit record, OH is the one with the big earnings and because I'm not divorced yet it's not really a good idea to combine our finances - though we will as a last resort.

Just to add to the mix, the savings pot has now sunk by £800 as we have to get the flat roof repaired and it's going to be £2,400 between the 3 flats. (The freeholders got 4 quotes and we've had a 'building meeting' this evening to discuss which one we were going to go with, it's all very democratic!) ON the plus side, my AQA earnings are £75 for the month, I've got another £87.35 coming from Quidco and I won £30 with a free £10 from Gala Bingo (signed up through Quidco ages ago and occasionally they try and tempt me to stick my own money in it!) - so that's a start towards re-filling it

Caz