How much to live on

QrizB

LL_USS said:

I am still not very good looking at transfer offers. When the offer says x months 0% transfer, we want longer time but also need to look further at the transfer fee right? 

I've only got half as much stoozed as Organgrinder does. My personal approach:

- Zero-fee 0% deals are the best, even if they're only 12 months.

- If you have to pay a fee, divide the fee by the months and use that to compare deals.

Eg. if you've got offers of a 2.4% fee for 12 months ("0.2% per month") or 3% for 18 months ("0.17% per month"), the 18 month one is cheaper.

LL_USS said:

... before my current purchase cards' promotion periods end, when I see a good transfer deal with no fee:

Yes.

LL_USS said:

 - and should I (i.e. does immature tranfers mean closing accounts down and that would impact on my credit score..)?

Transfers don't close accounts down, they're just another sort of payment. A few weeks ago I transferred £9k from my current "0% spending" card onto a no-fee 0% card, for example.

Your credit score is not important in itself, butt taking out a new line of credit (a new card, say) will be visible on your credit report whenever lenders check it. This might influence what other deals you qualify for in future.

Organgrinder

@LL_USS and @QrizB I would say there's no hard and fast rules. In any event it's what you're comfortable with.

For example. I just took out a 34 month 0% balance transfer with a 2.95% fee because interest rates are falling and I could fix at 4% for the duration of the investment.

My net return on the above is only 5.6% but it's someone else's money so I can't complain.

Fee free is great, but sometimes knowing you can lock the money away for longer without having to search around for another transfer gives you peace of mind. In any event sometimes it's a case of choosing the right card from the offers that are available and then just locking the money away.

I always use this to find out how much each card generates 

https://www.stoozing.com/

I've just started building up another snooze pot on my chase credit card. This should amount to £10k by October so I'm hoping I can then transfer that on another balance transfer deal. If I can, great. If not it will still have earned me £175 in that time with the potential for say £300 a year thereafter.

I must close a few cards too!

I've two Lloyds purchase cards I've just transferred to Barclaycard and Virgin. Plus I've got an RBS and NatWest Card I no longer need. My other stooze cards are Tesco, MBNA and NatWest. Now the school holidays have started I best tidy my accounts up!

LL_USS

@QrizB and @Organgrinder thank you very much both 

I have just seen my credit score down a bit and cannot see anything on the report (Clearscore). All payments made in time and have always been. It was up when I took out the first purchase cards. The only two recent changes listed on the report are positive (not gone near total credit card limit, No credit card withdrawals) so I really have no idea. 

I will need to keep an eye on it to see what happened. 

@Organgrinder- I am wondering why the net return for your example above is 5.6% when the interest rate you fixed was 4%, and also some fee. I know you said you use the calculator tool but am just trying to work out the logic. 

PS: I am still building up an ISA pot for bridging between milestones till state pension so don't want to use my own ISA allowance for credit cards balance - been using my son for this and gives him all the interests - so fruit of my labour learning and doing all these has not gone to treats for me yet :-) 

Organgrinder

LL_USS said:

@QrizB and @Organgrinder thank you very much both 

I have just seen my credit score down a bit and cannot see anything on the report (Clearscore). All payments made in time and have always been. It was up when I took out the first purchase cards. The only two recent changes listed on the report are positive (not gone near total credit card limit, No credit card withdrawals) so I really have no idea. 

I will need to keep an eye on it to see what happened. 

@Organgrinder- I am wondering why the net return for your example above is 5.6% when the interest rate you fixed was 4%, and also some fee. I know you said you use the calculator tool but am just trying to work out the logic. 

PS: I am still building up an ISA pot for bridging between milestones till state pension so don't want to use my own ISA allowance for credit cards balance - been using my son for this and gives him all the interests - so fruit of my labour learning and doing all these has not gone to treats for me yet :-) 

It assumes the minimum payment would have been invested anyway. Hence the return shown is the additional amount made i.e. the net benefit not the gross benefit.

So for example if my minimum payment is £200 a month on £10,000 then over 3 years I would put £7,200 into savings and earn interest on that.

So say the fee is £300 and the gross interest is £1200 my actual return is £900. But if the interest on my savings would have generated say £400 then in reality I've only made £500 extra.

Organgrinder

Well Dec 31st has come and I'm getting all the funds together to pay off the mortgage.

£12k from one ISA. £9k from another.

£17k from one savings account. £8k from another.

£2k from my current account.

Fingers crossed the transaction (on Jan 2nd) goes smoothly.

It leaves about £65k in various accounts, £35k of which is stoozing.

It is both a scary an exciting time.

I've redone my trusty spreadsheet as a result too. 20 months to go!!

Clowance

Congratulations Organgrinder. Happy New Year to everyone!

louby40

Congratulations on being mortgage free.

Happy New Year to all 

Nebulous2

Organgrinder said:

Well Dec 31st has come and I'm getting all the funds together to pay off the mortgage.

£12k from one ISA. £9k from another.

£17k from one savings account. £8k from another.

£2k from my current account.

Fingers crossed the transaction (on Jan 2nd) goes smoothly.

It leaves about £65k in various accounts, £35k of which is stoozing.

It is both a scary an exciting time.

I've redone my trusty spreadsheet as a result too. 20 months to go!!

It's a great feeling once it has gone Organgrinder - or it was for me. I had a lot going on at the same time, changing job, a birthday and getting a dog, an exciting time. 

Organgrinder

Thank you everyone for the comments and thumbs up. Having such a large sum in the bank unnerves me! Fingers crossed for tomorrow. Not all the funds have cleared so it may need to wait till Monday. I'll check in the morning.

MSE has been such a game changer for me. My lifestyle has improved so much thanks to learning from others. Even today I am amazed by the retirement I'll be able to enjoy next year.

I have of course made mistakes along the way, including buying at the top of the market in 2008 (I think). 

But overall things have worked out well. 

I start the year also in true MSE style by paying the remainder of our trip to Krakow using clubcard partner vouchers. The whole trip, flights, hotel, transfers, seats, luggage and parking has been paid for in vouchers. Some from a previous holiday that when wrong and almost £600 of it from clubcard. Sorry. I lie. 66p was paid for on my credit card this morning!

Happy New year everyone. I hope it is a good one for all of you.

LL_USS

Good luck and hope all the funds go through to pay off your mortgage @Organgrinder

Everytime I have to deal with big financial decisions my heart always beats like crazy and the head is hot :-). And I never count on it till everything has gone through. And such a relief when it is done and I can rest till the next plan.

Hope the new year is full of success stories like this for all of us