FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

chirpchirp

Hi FB

Have you taken a look at Lloyds regular saver, not sure if they are still offering 5% or not. To open it you need a Lloyds current account. However, the current account if you add vantage to it ( for which there is no charge) pays upto 5% dependent on how much you are keeping in the account.


However, after tax has been taken off the 5% you are probably better just paying it direct to your mortgage.

financialbliss

gallygirl wrote: »

Can you reclaim overpayments if necessary? If so, and if there is no limit on your overpayments I would def. overpay.

We have our mortgage with Nationwide - fixed rate of 4.79% until March 2011. However, for a fixed rate mortgage it's very flexible. According to this:
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/mortgages/usefulinformation/flexiblemortgagefeatures.htm

you can "borrow back the money that you have overpaid at any time", but they also state "conditions apply".

We have over £20,000 as an overpayment reserve which could be borrowed back while we're still with Nationwide, although I've never tried to do so.

chirpchirp wrote: »

Have you taken a look at Lloyds regular saver, not sure if they are still offering 5% or not. ... However, after tax has been taken off the 5% you are probably better just paying it direct to your mortgage.

We've both had Lloyds TSB regular savers before - this was when they were market leading 2 year products with a good rate of interest, 8% or 10% I think. The good thing about these products was the extra year made a substantial difference.

I'd pay tax on the RS. but Mrs Bliss doesn't pay tax - no income. I will look into Lloyds TSB - thanks for the tip.

FB.

financialbliss

Last day of the month...(just). Which means mortgage interest.

Nationwide apply this at or around midnight, as I was up, I've just logged in and watched it refresh...:rolleyes:

Here's how it's looking for January to October:

Mortgage at start of year: 59,500.00
Overpayments in Blue.
Interest in Red.
Balance in Green.

Month: Payment (Std / OP) / Interest (per day) / Net reduction / Balance

January: 1,200.00 (898.03 / 301.97) / 237.37 (7.66) / 962.63 / 58,537.37
February: 1,200.00 (898.03 / 301.97) / 210.99 (7.54) / 989.01 / 57,548.36
March: 1,200.00 (898.03 / 301.97) / 229.56 (7.41) / 970.44 / 56,577.92
April: 1,025.00 (898.03 / 126.97) / 218.94 (7.30) / 806.06 / 55,771.86
May: 1,025.00 (898.03 / 126.97) / 222.96 (7.19) / 802.04 / 54,969.82
June: 1,200.00 (898.03 / 301.97) / 212.08 (7.07) / 987.92 / 53,981.90
July: 1,025.00 (898.03 / 126.97) / 215.58 (6.95) / 809.42 / 53,172.48
August: 1,025.00 (898.03 / 126.97) / 212.28 (6.85) / 812.72 / 52,359.76
September: 1,100.00 (898.03 / 201.97) / 201.95 (6.73) / 898.05 / 51,461.71
October: 1,100.00 (898.03 / 201.97) / 205.03 (6.61) / 894.97 / 50,566.74

Totals: Payment / Interest / Net reduction.

Minimum: 1,025.00 / 201.95 / 802.04
Maximum: 1,200.00 / 237.37 / 989.01
Average: 1,110.00 / 216.67 / 893.33
Grand Total: 11,100.00 / 2,166.74 / 8,933.26

Sad perhaps, but quite excited to break through the £50k barrier. Mortgage payment and overpayment should be collected on Sunday 1st, but this may not clear until Tuesday 3rd or Wednesday 4th.

Funds now in place for a mortgage payment of £1,100 tomorrow (898.03 and 201.97 OP), plus funds to cover other direct debits.

Financial Bliss.

uzubairu

financialbliss wrote: »

Last day of the month...(just). Which means mortgage interest.

Nationwide apply this at or around midnight, as I was up, I've just logged in and watched it refresh...:rolleyes:

Me too.

Keep up the good work. :beer:

Can't wait for the MFiT - T2 Challenge to start.

gallygirl

uzubairu wrote: »

Me too

Not fair Mine updates at a random point during the day so I can't F5 it ....... skulks off to find sulking icon

black_taxi_2

FB--your knowledge of stats is incredible

id hate to be the bank manager who underpays your interest

:T

financialbliss

black_taxi wrote: »

FB--your knowledge of stats is incredible

id hate to be the bank manager who underpays your interest

Thanks for that compliment. It's odd, as I never had much of an interest in finance when I was younger. Perhaps less income at the time, plus my first mortgage was only £38k.

At first, switching from a £4k (remainder of £38k) mortgage to a £95k mortgage seemed like a massive jump and I was determined to chip away at it.

Guess you have to stay on top of things financially, as when you go into your bank for a "financial review", the banks always put their interests first. The internet makes research much easier now though...

Financial Bliss.

Morituri

Did the OP succeed at last ?

financialbliss

Morituri wrote: »

Did the OP succeed at last ?

Hi Morituri,
New name - you're not posted in my diary before!

If by my comment of logging in at midnight and watching it refresh, it's around midnight that the mortgage interest is added to (Nationwide) mortgage accounts.

But as far as the overpayment (OP) goes, since April this year, I've set up an automated overpayment by standing order to make an overpayment on the first of the month to our mortgage account.

Being paranoid about your question, I've since logged into Nationwide and while I can see the £201.97 overpayment having been deducted from the current account, it's dated Monday 2nd November. Don't know if it's because today being a Sunday isn't a normal banking working day and they take the payment on the next working day. I've never noticed that before.

May be worth an email to Nationwide to check to see if I can action a payment sooner. Nationwide's implementation of faster payments is painfully slow:
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/faster_payments/faq.htm

and their maximum FP transfer is a pathetic £10. Wonder if FPs would extend to the mortgage in due course?

Financial Bliss.

Queen-Bee_2

Hi FB - I can completely relate to your observations re Nationwide and Faster Payments.

This month I needed to make my payments from my Barclays account rather than my usual direct debit. I sent the money from my Barclays account and saw it vanish from my account immediately. However, it wasn't visible as having been posted to my account until FIVE DAYS later. Where had it been all this time?

I raised a query with NW who told me that although it takes a few days to appear on the account, the interest is adjusted to the day it comes in (ie if you use Faster Payments, at once).

Just to make sure, because the first person I talked to told me something different, I've asked for a detailed statement wef 1st November...
QB