A long journey ahead...

debtfreeforlife

Hi squirrel and mortgage_girl - thanks for starting up the cheer squad! All going reasonably well here today. I still haven't heard back from my solicitor and the property management company were chasing me on the bill, so I have paid the ground rent etc. I'll keep chasing my solicitor but I am not hopeful. Thankfully, the surplus I'd built up for electricity more that covered the extra to the bill - I'd been working towards house electricity prices, not flats! Mortgage_girl, I started doing swagbucks eta but found that it just took up too much time, so I am focusing on reducing costs as much as possible. It's hard having one salary but sometimes I think (seeing friends in relationships) that it has its bonuses - at least I alone am responsible for my money!

Was lucky enough to get a bonus last month (an individual one) and will get another this month (a team one) so I split this month's between the mop bucket, my treat fund and the house maintenance fund as I will be redecorating the whole place in the new year. This month's will be split between holiday envelope, house and mop. I'm going to hold off making any more overpayments until January, though. My mortgage provider apparently reviews all mortgages in Jan and will reduce monthly payments rather than the term, which I don't want them to do.

Also haven't yet decided what to do with the mortgage product that has a fixed cost ending in October next year as the other product doesn't run out until the following Feb and is on more than twice the interest. Wondering if I can get a better deal on that one if I move to the standard variable for a few months and then combine them. But if I do, then I probably need to think about paying down the larger product as much as possible before next Oct.

greent

It's not the be all and end all if the mtge co change payment and not term. I never changed the term of my mortgage when we were overpaying - so my 'required' payment went down (lots! - in the end my monthly 'required' payment was less than £10 ) I kept my payment at a fixed amount, regardless of what it was 'meant' to be (so I paid, say, £1000 per month, whether my payment due was £978 or £8.50) It gave us the flexibility, if we had needed it, of being able to take payment holidays, as we were effectively ahead of ourselves. In the end it made no difference to us - and I tracked the end date by spreadsheet, anyway, so always knew when we were due to fully repay/ what difference extra ops/ interest rate changes made to the end date/ amount saved. Just another way of looking at it, maybe

debtfreeforlife

Thanks greent, that is helpful! I am hoping to get an appointment with them to discuss remortgagjng later on next year. It is possible to set up regular overpayments by standing order to my mortgage provider so I could do as you did.

Got a pleasant email today - my former solicitor has finally come back and said there was a retainer and that the vendor should pay the 2016 managemt company fees. I have sent her copies of everything I have paid against 2016 so far and she's looking into a refund, which is fab. I wasn't expecting that! So that'll all go towards the mop bucket. As did the everyday rewards that I get from my bank - only £5.50 but it all adds up!

wishingthemortgaheaway

Great news on the management fee thing. I still wouldn't count it until its in the bank though.

greent

Great news re the retainer/ management fee :T

debtfreeforlife

Thanks all, I haven't heard anything since I sent the invoices but that's not unusual. Thankfully I had them online (in a secure alternative to dropbox) so could send them straight away - wanted to get her working on it while she was thinking about it!

Next priority is starting to sort out the flat, which I have been putting off for a year while I adjusted to moving and also while working on a long-term project I am doing out of work. Things are calmer at work now so I have someone coming in to measure for carpets today and someone coming to quote for the work tomorrow. Need to go and choose oaint colours today. I am hoping I can do it all in my house reno budget but may need to borrow from elsewhere or just allocate my bonus to the decorating instead of mop.

enthusiasticsaver

Congratulations on your bonuses and hope the decorating comes in within budget.

Don't worry too much about your mortgage provider changing payments not term when they review it in January. Do you pay by direct debit and will they allow you to pay by standing order if you want to overpay? Some providers charge for adjusting the term which obviously you don't want to do given you are overpaying to clear it asap. If that is the case you might want to leave the direct debit as it is and make a manual overpayment once a month if that is easy to do.

Great news on management fee refund.

debtfreeforlife

Hi all, been quiet recently as not had much time with work to budget and plan extra payments to the mop. Think things may be starting to calm down again though, although the decorating is about to start and that will be disruptive! Decorating definitely not coming in on budget but it was a bit of a ridiculous budget to start with, so I have reassessed it. Made a big payment for new carpets a few days ago which has dropped my overall balance quite a bit - keep looking at it and thinking how much money off the mortgage that could have been! I am hoping however that making the improvements will help when eventually selling the flat. In the meantime, I need to book an appointment in February to discuss overpaying - there are very few Saturday appointment available so hoping I can be organized!

SuperSecretSquirrel

I agree with greent and enthusiasticsaver that the mortgage company reducing your monthly payments instead of the term is not a massive insurmountable problem, but in your situation it doesn't look to be ideal. Sure, you can bump up your monthly payments and behave as though they hadn't reduced your monthly payments, but the extra you pay in each month will eat into your 10% annual fee free overpayment allowance. Since you are in a position to overpay 10% this year, and maybe the same in future years, this could result in your progress being throttled back (unless you are willing to pay the ERCs).

Certainly worth trying to have them reduce the term not the monthly payment, but if that's not possible it isn't devastating, just not ideal either.

enthusiasticsaver

I may be wrong on this secret squirrel and it may vary between lenders but usually the 10% overpayment refers to original balance lent so the overpayments should not have any effect on the amount debtfreeforlife can pay. So original mortgage is £150,000 for example and maximum overpayment each year is £15k regardless of outstanding balance.