FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

curlygirl1971

Since they started the in-store cashback, a couple more retailers have been added......hopefully more will continue to join

Rose_Crow

Thanks for the quidco link FB. I've used Quidco for years, but not recently so didn't know about this recent development. Registered my card and will get OH to do the same. The best ones of there for us are cineworld (our local cinema), halfords, B&Q and NCP.

Thanks again!

Froggy-G

Thanks for the Quidco link FB! much appreciated!

Froggy

financialbliss

HI all,

Aims for 2011 - said I’d put a diary update in at least once a week. I’ve not been near MSE at all in the last few days, although I was doing a spot of browsing earlier in the week.

Moved son’s bedroom around this weekend. This involved pretty much emptying his room so that the wardrobes could be moved (free standing), after which we could rotate the bed by 90 degrees and place against a different wall. Got most of it put back, but we’re sorting out in the process, so it’s taking a little longer than planned.

Put two shelves up in the kitchen this afternoon. Should have been a pretty straight forwards affair, but 4 of the 8 screws were being drilled through tile, so this took longer than anticipated.

So, I guess I’m putting in a quick update to say I’ve not done too much – although being off the internet / away from shops means I’ve not spend anything either.

FB.

financialbliss

Oops. Didn't put an update in at all last week. I'll allow myself off this once - next time I'll mark a fail of my update once a week 2011 objective.

Last day of February and any regular to this diary will have been expecting an interest update. Here is January and February.

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
February: 1,000.00 (929.33 / 70.67) / 115.64 (4.13) / 884.52 / 31,551.96

Totals: Payment / Interest / Net reduction.

Minimum: 1,000.00 / 115.64 / 868.43
Maximum: 1,000.00 / 131.57 / 884.36
Average: 1,000.00 / 123.61 / 876.40
Grand Total: 2,000.00 / 247.21 / 1,752.79

Balance outstanding: 31,551.96

Once again for March, I'll be doing a £70.67 overpayment. Virgin credit card debt is down to just £250, which will get paid off in the first two weeks of March and from April onwards, in theory at least, I should be able to up the overpayments a little.

Funds in place for March payment / overpayment - this is the last payment collection on my fix of 4.79%. Had another letter from Nationwide requesting I contact them immediately to discuss fixed rate mortgages and terms, but have decided to drop onto their base rate SVR of 2.5%.

I'm also expecting a confirmation letter this week of the new payment amount with the fixed rate ending. Previous correspondence suggested this would be within 28 days of my fix ending.

FB.

financialbliss

Good news. The March mortgage payments cleared - well it's been a few days now, so they have definitely cleared!

February payments cleared on 3rd February, while the March payments only cleared on 4th March. Why the extra day - guess only Nationwide knows.

The various graphs and signature has been updated.

Mortgage balance when it cleared was £30,568.12 - meaning the next payment will take us sub £30k :T

Unless the BoE base rate jumps this week, our mortgage rate will drop to 2.5% from April.

Was looking at various ISA products and I had a brief look at the Nationwide e-ISA product earlier last week, but the rate has now jumped to 3.1% effective from last Friday. Now seriously considering opening this ISA and channelling overpayments into the ISA instead.

Presumably it works just like an e-Savings account and money can be transferred instantly from your flex account to your ISA.

FB.

financialbliss

Quick post, then I'm turning in.

Gearing up for a drop in our mortgage rate from 1st April onwards. Bit of an alien concept, but have been warming to the prospect of saving rather than overpaying the mortgage.

With that thought in mind, I've opened two Nationwide e-ISAs this evening. Pondered over Nationwide (3.1%), Barclays (3.25%) or AA (3.35%) and for the difference in interest, it made very little difference based on the amount I'm expecting to have spare for the rest of this year.

Decided on Nationwide and overpayments because:

• e-ISA rate of 3.1% beats mortgage rate of 2.5%
• Should be able to quickly transfer to/from e-ISA from current account should the cash be needed in a hurry, eg rate hike
• Expected maximum savings for remainder of 2011 of £2,700 doesn't give a large difference in savings, thus took out with Nationwide who I'm reasonably happy with
• Due to feeding mortgage savings in 2010, cash reserves are quite low, so decided to overpay to build up cash reserves a little

Expecting the accounts to become active in the next few days.

FB.

financialbliss

Quick update again – should have turned in already.

Mortgage. Got an official correspondence from Nationwide today advising that the mortgage will drop from £929.33 to £887.41 – ie a £41.92 drop from 1st April should I not take another fixed rate product, which I’m not.

Hoping to save up to £300 each month and I’ll be letting the mortgage bob along at £887.41 and saving any excess I can gather up into the newly opened e-ISAs – see below.

Just to satisfy my own curiosity, as we took out a 25 year mortgage to make the numbers work, I calculated earlier what we would be paying if I increased the term back to 2029 – mortgage finishes in 3 years in March 2014.

I was quite shocked by this, but staying on the base mortgage rate of 2.5%, I’d just need to pay £176.09 each month to make sure the mortgage completes in 2029.

One part of me says I should ask Nationwide to revert the term back to a 2029 completion and save the difference, ie £887.41 - £176.09, ie £711.31 – in addition to the £300 I’m hoping to save each month, ie bank £1,000 each month, but I believe there is now a charge to alter the term. Haven’t done any detailed calculations to see how much better off I would be by saving the difference.

Virgin CC. The 0% offer we have on this card is due to expire on 16th March. Just paid the balance down by £50, leaving £200 to be paid. 16th is the statement date, so I may have until the payment due date to clear the balance, but just to be safe, I’ll be clearing by the 16th.

e-ISA. Had a text and an e-mail today advising that Nationwide are currently processing the e-ISA application. Once it is added to the internet banking, I can start depositing savings in there. Plan is once the cash goes in there, it’s earmarked for the mortgage and mortgage only.

FB.

financialbliss

Quick round up of events of the last few days...

Credit cards. Good news is that I made the last payment to the Virgin credit card last week of £200, which once cleared will clear the balance to zero. Just checked and the previous payment of £50 credited today, but still waiting for the £200 to clear. Just in time to coincide with the end of the 0% offer.

Also got various promotions on all 3 credit cards we own in the last few weeks – American Express gets a credit limit increase; Barclaycard gets a balance transfer offer and Virgin also give a balance transfer offer. Won’t be taking either balance transfer offer up, but the Amex increase will be useful.

Council tax bill. Got our 2011/12 bill today and it’s unchanged at £145 per month – band D property.

e-ISAs. Further to my last post regarding opening two e-ISAs, the applications completed and showed up on the internet banking on Saturday, so I immediately transferred £25 to each account (opened two), so we’ve got £50 which we can reduce the mortgage balance by.

Not 100% sure when we will draw on these ISA savings, but the only purpose for these is to pay down the mortgage account. Suspect the money will stay in there until July 2012 (the bonus interest offer expires then), but I’ll be closely watching the mortgage vs ISA rates to make sure we’re doing the right thing.

FB.

financialbliss

Quick update them I'm turning in.

Was just checking my email and I appear to have a spam email that suggests it originates from HMRC indicating I have a tax refund due:

"Dear Applicant,

You are eligible to receive a tax refund of 665.24 GBP, after calculation of your fiscal activity. Your verification form will only be valid only for 24 hours and for verification your details you have the tax file number..."

HTML form attached, which I've not got anywhere near, but I'm 110% sure won't link to the HMRC servers.

One to delete I think...

What else have I been getting up to? Got a new spreadsheet which shows where I am and what effort is needed to land on 12/12/12.

Just needs a bit more tidying up - I'll probably publish it tomorrow.

If you've popped into the MFiT-T2 challenge thread or my guess the rate date challenge, you may notice I've a few updates to do. Been quite a nice weekend and got some chores done around house, cleaned car etc, so not spend much time on MSE.

I'll have a MSE catch up tomorrow.

FB.