FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

black_taxi_2

the negative GDP prob was a blessing for mortgage rates.at worse a rise not till end of year

financialbliss

Quick update this evening.

Virgin Money. Had a little bit of an issue with this card - a 0% 12 month card, but spending went a little off the rails. Now got the balance down to £800 and the 0% offer expires mid-March. Should get this cleared by them.

Nationwide. At the weekend, we got almost a plea letter from Nationwide. Letter along the lines of I'm a valued customer and I don't appear to have arranged another fixed rate product with Nationwide just yet. Please speak to an adviser ASAP so they can discuss the benefits of being a Nationwide customer

Variable rate of 2.5% looking more attractive after the negative GDV figures last week - good point black taxi.

Interest stats. Also from Nationwide, but my own internet banking this time is the monthly interest for January:

Opening Balance: 33,304.75

Overpayments in Blue.
Interest in Red.
Balance in Green.

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

January: 1,000.00 (929.33 / 70.67) / 131.57 (4.24) / 868.43 / 32,436.32


Totals: Payment / Interest / Net reduction.

Minimum: 1,000.00 / 131.57 / 868.43
Maximum: 1,000.00 / 131.57 / 868.43
Average: 1,000.00 / 131.57 / 868.43
Grand Total: 1,000.00 / 131.57 / 868.43

Balance outstanding: 32,436.32

Not a lot to look at just yet and nothing to compare to, but monthly / daily interest is our lowest yet and continues to drop.

Funds been transferred today to cover the February monthly payments - expect the mortgage payment to have cleared by Thursday, so if I've not updated by then, expect one on Thursday evening.

FB.

financialbliss

Good news. The February mortgage payments cleared today. I’ll be uploading the graphs and details shortly…

In the mean time, I’ve a little puzzler for anyone who would care to respond.

Have been searching for two products on the internet. Found them at one retailer except one item was cheaper at another retailer. If I’d ordered separately, I would have ended up paying two sets of postage costs, so I asked the first retailer if they would price match to the second, which they did and I placed the order last weekend. With me so far?

Trouble is that the retailer found that they didn’t have any stock left of the second price matched item after I placed the order. They gave me a few options, of which I took them up on the offer to refund the price matched item, plus they offered to refund the postage costs as a gesture of goodwill.

Received notification of the refund this evening, except they refunded me short by just 90 pence. Think I can live without 90p, but it’s the principle of them saying they would do one thing and then doing another.

Wondering if pointing out their error would be worthwhile, or should I just let it go?

Thoughts anyone?

FB.

gallygirl

Let it go - life's too short and they sound genuine enough

black_taxi_2

inland revenue sent me a 9 page document because i over paid my tax by 3p :eek:

financialbliss

QuidCo. Don’t know why I’ve not done this before, but I’ve this week registered my credit card with QuidCo In-store:
https://www.quidco.com/in-store-cashback/?nclnsi

Basically, register your credit card and as you shop in the high street, you get cash back credited, similar to what you would when shopping on-line. At least that’s how I understand it. We’ll see what tracks, as I used both B&Q and Halfords today.

Halifords was particularly interesting today. Went in to our local Halfords looking for a large picnic rug, which we had seen on the internet for £16.99.

On the way into the store we spotted a "reduced" section. First we saw a picnic run which was previously at £4.99 reduced to £3, but then to our surprise, there was the £16.99 rug reduced to £3. When we queried the assistant, he admitted that it had been reduced in error, and had to sell it at the marked price, so we decided to take both the small and large rugs – total price of £6.

QuidCo suggest we should see 4.5% Halfords discount if/when that tracks, but at just 17p, isn’t going to pay the mortgage off

Still, every little helps…

FB.

golfiematt

thanks for that quidco link, i will be interested to see the % tacking success rates!

curlygirl1971

I've had in-store cashback. Only from Cineworld - about 4 times since I've registered my card details with Quidco. It's tracked okay

Not sure whether I've gained from it though - as I find myself offering to pay everytime we go to the Cinema!

financialbliss

Very quick post before I turn in for the evening.

The QuidCo In-Store purchases from last weekend have now tracked:

B&Q - 20p cash back
Halfords - 23p cash back

I'd calculated 17p for Halfords, but won't grumble at 23p :rotfl:

At least the card is now registered and in future, I'll automatically get credited with the cash back as I spend.

FB.

SuiDreams

Thanks for the tip re quidco going to register my cards now.

Looking at there is only 1 or 2 places i actually shop. Oh well