FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

MallyGirl

financialbliss wrote: »

Wow. 18 users say thanks for a returning post by me. Was my boring drivel missed? :rotfl:

Quick post before I turn in. Way to late for me to be up...:eek:

12th September.

This is an interesting day for us. We took out a 0% credit card 18 months ago. The 18 month 0% window ends on 12th September.

We have a £4,000 debt on this card. Fortunately, I’ve done a bit of forward planning and I’ve a regular saver, which drops from 6% to 1.5% in October (it has a 4.5% bonus rate), and has a balance of £3,500. The regular saver balance, regular saver interest and a small chunk of September pay should see this debt cleared.

Intending to clear this (Nationwide Select) card sometime this month and well before the payment due date. Not too bothered about a few extra pennies by leaving regular saver until the last minute before I close it - rather close it a little early and know for sure that I don't get and credit card interest rather than leave until the last minute and there be a complication in a money transfer or something.

FB.

I am a stoozer by nature so for me I would be applying for a 0% card to transfer that £4k to rather than paying it off. You can get transfer fees as low as 0.9%

financialbliss

MallyGirl wrote: »

I am a stoozer by nature so for me I would be applying for a 0% card to transfer that £4k to rather than paying it off. You can get transfer fees as low as 0.9%

Thanks for the insight MallyGirl. I paid my mortgage off in September 2012 - by overpaying, saving and, in the final 12 months running up to September 2012, concentrating as much as our spending as we could on 0% credit cards while paying the minimum monthly repayments, thus freeing up the cash to save / pay off mortgage depending on interest rates.

At it's highest, we had about £17,500 of 0% credit card debt. I've not paid a penny interest (or fees) on any of this, but I'm more inclined to pay this off rather than continue switching the debt.

Plan to start saving in earnest in 2014 and want to clear the debts first.

FB.

MallyGirl

Understand completely.
Back in the day when Egg allowed you to do balance transfers to your current account with no or little fee we did hit around £35k in 0% for a while. With interest rates much higher it was a really good thing to do and helped us to pay that mortgage off - then we bought a bigger house
Now I am back to 0% purchase cards and hassling OH to get one too in time for fitting out the new extension when it is finished.

financialbliss

Evening all,
Been a rough 24 hours. :eek:

Had a chill night last night – just stayed in and had a “few” drinks. :beer:

Turing in for bed and realised the car was still out - we garage ours overnight. Handy hint - when you hit/move the garage fridge freezer, you know you’re not parking it well… :wall:

Cooking this evening. Managed to:

a) Slice end of finger when cutting some carrots.:eek:
b) Put kettle down on hot ceramic hob and melt bottom off.:eek:
c) Picked up casserole dish lid (without oven gloves) that I’d previously put to one side on bench after it had been in the oven for nearly an hour. Boy did I swear (multiple times) :eek:

Went for a 22 mile cycle this morning to dust off cobwebs and typing this with a plaster on and sore fingers – both on same hand as it happens.

Tempted to got for a lie down and pretend the last 24 hours didn't happen.

FB.

SmlSave

Oh fb, your poor hands! Hopefully you've got rid of the bad luck now and next week will be extra nice to make up for your missing finger, burnt hand and melted kettle

I hope the car/fridge is ok?

financialbliss

Quick personal diary note for this evening.

Before I even started using Microsoft Money, I got into the habit of taking a snapshot of our various current and saving account balances every Sunday, so that you could sum, average and track trends over time. Even after using Money, I’m still doing this.

And… today, for the first time since September 2012 when we became mortgage free, we have more savings than credit card debt. Ok, only £810.97 more, but it’s heading n the right direction. On 30th September, we will be paying £4,000 off the Nationwide select credit card as it’s interest free period ended earlier this month. Now just into the normal time frame where you get a grace period between the statement date and the provider starting to charge interest. Needs cleared by early October, but I’m not taking any risks. Think that’s the high point for me for the last week.

Have also closed a couple of poor savings accounts at 0.45% and 1.25% and got £1.45 interest. Will be closing a regular saver for the majority of the £4k being put towards the Nationwide select card and than then frees us up to potentially start shopping around for current accounts. I know Santander have had a hard gig in the past for their customer service, but as I’ve no experience of them, I’m very inclined to take a stab with their 123 current account paying 3% on balances, plus cash back etc.

That’s it for me just now. Going to try and keep posting regular again…

FB.

abouttimetoo

Hi there FB

Think I saw you posting somewhere asking about savings rates?

You've really got to work hard for your money these days and I try to keep my eye out for the best rates as I help a family member manage their money. I think I also read you say that you'd spotted that these days, ironically many current account pay better interest rates than savings and I'd agree with much of that.

You've probably already spotted these but these are the ones I like a lot and have experience of

• Lloyds Vantage - 3% on balances of 3-5k. You need to pay £1000 in a month but you can transfer it straight back out again. You could also transfer £500 in and out twice e.g. could be any multiple as long as it makes a total of £1k in that month
  • you can have three of these, as could Mrs FB so £30k at 3% not to be sniffed at
• Band of Scotland Vantage - exactly the same as the above right down to you having three accounts each so another £30k at 3%
• TSB, now they've split from Lloyds they have their own version of Vantage and it's called Enhance. Exactly the same terms as above and again you can have three each

So, the above (funds allowing ) means potential of £90k at 3%

• Nationwide Flex account - 5% on balances of £2500, again you need to pay in £1000 per month but can move it straight back out again
• Nationwide Regular saver, quite an interesting one as the higher rate depends on how much the balance increases month on month you get 2.5% if the balance increases by £500 to £1000 per month with a maximum deposit of £1000 per month
• Halifax Reward, you need to pay in £750 per month (but could move that straight back out again) plus have two D/D's paid out per month. You get a fixed £5 (after tax) paid out on the first of the month
• Halifax debit and credit card accounts. They are just rolling out a cashback scheme, looks different to all the others I've seen eg new offers every month that you have to 'enrol' onto (just the click of a button on your account). Think this months had a range of things from DIY type shops to Body Shop and cashback of 10-20%. The cashback is paid out monthly
• Lloyds monthly saver, 3%, need to pay in £25-£250 per month
• Bank of Scotland monthly saver, exactly the same terms as the Lloyds one above
• Santander 123 (not got personal knowledge of this one) but others seem to like it

PS, apart from the £5 Halifax Rewards one all the rates I've quoted are AER's.

Finally.... very well done on getting to the position of your savings now exceeding your Stooze balances, brilliant news so I can understand why you are now tackling the savings market

Regards
ATT

financialbliss

abouttimetoo wrote: »

Hi there FB

Think I saw you posting somewhere asking about savings rates?

Completely failed to spot you posted here today. I've been lurking in the credit cards and bank accounts parts of the forums recently. You raise some pretty good points. I'll come back to those, but not this evening. Was aiming to turn in for 10.30 and I've failed.:o

I'll now post the info I've just drafted up.

Hopefully touch on this tomorrow evening...

FB.

financialbliss

Where are we one year on…?
Almost one year ago the transfer initiated to before mortgage free completed and on 29th September 2012 we became mortgage free. At that point in time, we had around £11,380 of stoozed credit card debt. Managed to let that slip a bit and we managed to increase that up to £17,655 before (post Christmas) we got our house in order and put plans in place to reduce the debt.

Main aim for 2013 was to clear the debt before 31st December (2013). Our debt currently stands at £7,917 as of today and I’m going to pay £4,000 of that off in the morning, leaving just £3,917.

We have a regular saver which will cover most of the remaining balance, but that doesn’t mature until 28th November. I’ll come back to this date sometime soon!

So in short, we let our hair down a little post-mortgage, but are chipping away at the debt. Also managed to have a holiday to Florida and two camping holidays too, so haven’t done too badly.

What we (or at least I) have learned. Obvious really, but you still need a certain amount of discipline once you’re mortgage free. I’ll return to that in the coming days and weeks, but for now I’m turning in

Thanks for popping in and reading.

Financial Bliss.

financialbliss

Hi,
I’m almost at the point where I’m in a position where I have no ties to any one bank or savings account – we currently have one remaining regular saver that is linked to our Nationwide joint Flex account. Once this matures in November, we can rip everything up and start again…

So, I’ve been doing some analysis on bank accounts and credit cards – I’d pretty much came to similar conclusions as abouttimetoo’s epic post #1968 – I’ll come to bank accounts later, but for this evening, a quick post about credit cards.

We currently have:

• Barclaycard (was Goldfish) – balance 0.00
• Nationwide select – balance 0.00
• NatWest (YourPoints?) – balance about £4,000

Aim to clear the NatWest in November, although the 0% rate runs until January or February – not actually 100% sure of an exact date.

As we pay (normally – if not in a 0% deal) our credit cards back in full each month, we’re looking for rewards / cash back credit cards. I’m currently steering towards the following:

• Amex Everyday cashback card – 1.25%
• Amazon credit card – 1.00%
• Nationwide Select – 0.5%

Amex – comes in at 5% initially, then tiered, and I intend to put the bulk of the spending on this card, thus I’m assuming I’ll hit the 1.25% tier (£7,501 upwards or about £633 a month). Had an Amex card in the past, so I don’t see any issues in being accepted for another.

Amazon – Don’t do a massive amount of shopping at Amazon, but the fact that it’s 2% cash back for Amazon purchases and 1% everywhere else is steering me towards this card. From experience, we do need a backup card for places that don’t accept Amex. Assuming bulk of purchases will be at 1%, thus put down as that rate.

Nationwide – aim to keep this card as we have an £11,400 credit limit, although it only attracts 0.5% cash back.

Barclaycard – Do hope to close this, but previous attempts to close this card resulted in a £50 credit on the card.:j

I have also looked at other cards such as Tesco, ASDA, Santander etc, but the above appears to be the best choice just now for our pattern of spending. Eg Santander and ASDA cards give 1% cashback at supermarkets, but we should be able to get 1.25% with Amex. We don't shop much at Tesco, ie Tesco CC.

Going to apply for the Amex card and the end of this month, so I can try and maximise the 5% cash back in the run up to Christmas. May also apply for the Amazon card too, as I’ve got a pre-order at Amazon and I should be able to apply the £5 gift certificate immediately if successful.

Can't see too many flaws in the above, and I'm also prepared to ditch and switch if a better deal appears...

One quick question - does the date you apply become your statement date? It did for the Nationwide card, but I know not all card providers are the same.

FB.