31/12/2025 and counting...

caeler

Glad you have found some enjoyment @FiveMoreYears
My home has never been cleaner! 

Bargainhunter30

Five more years, I would definitely try and make it a priority to call nationwide. Our mortgage with them for £55,000 @ 1.94% interest cost us about £8/900 in interest last year. We did however make the full 10% OP over the year. I believe the current interest rates are lower too. Good luck. My friend said it's so easy to get a new deal with them, although I think she went onto online banking to do hers, she saved £60 per month in 10 minutes!

FiveMoreYears

Bargainhunter30 said:

Five more years, I would definitely try and make it a priority to call nationwide. Our mortgage with them for £55,000 @ 1.94% interest cost us about £8/900 in interest last year. We did however make the full 10% OP over the year. I believe the current interest rates are lower too. Good luck. My friend said it's so easy to get a new deal with them, although I think she went onto online banking to do hers, she saved £60 per month in 10 minutes!

Thanks for that advice @Bargainhunter30. I am now off work for the next six days, so will get on the phone to Nationwide at some point in that time. Thanks again.

beanielou

Give Nationwide a quick call 

caeler

How did you get on with Nationwide? @FiveMoreYears

FiveMoreYears

caeler said:

How did you get on with Nationwide? @FiveMoreYears

Thanks @caeler. I telephoned Nationwide for information, and had a fair few questions answered, though it was only a call-handler I spoke to rather than an actual mortgage advisor. All good.

However, just for the moment, I have decided to leave things as they are, and to prepare to change my mortgage later in the summer rather than straight away. Two reasons for this:

i) During the present lockdown situation, my spending has dropped considerably. At the moment, I'm able to save/overpay in a way I simply won't be able to once things get back to normal(ish). By continuing to lump on some decent over-payment figures for the next few months, it'll mean lower monthly payments and/or a shorter period when I do sign up for a new Nationwide mortgage later in the summer.

ii) I am still not totally sure about my job. HR have said that they will bring in changes to work patterns for the start of the next academic year (that'll be by October). If they do what they say they will do, I ought to be happier. But the higher echelon at work have been inconsistent and (dare I say?) untrustworthy in the past. If I do indeed decide to move on, or the jobs market has improved by then, it again might be an idea to 'make hay while the sun shines' at the moment before committing to some higher fixed payments.

With some back-of-a-fag-packet calculations, I reckon if I keep up my present over-payments until mid-summer, I should then be able to find a new mortgage with Nationwide that'd be affordable monthly payments over three years. That'd hopefully mean a final completion date somewhere in the second half of 2024.

Other updates:

Last week was payday, and I made another over-payment of £1050. This brings my monthly payments down to £350 (on a completion date of October 2032).

I didn't quite managed to keep within my £100 spending budget during February, ending up with a spending total of £130.61. I'm still happy with that though, and'll have another stab at counting the pennies through March.

Many thanks everyone!

FiveMoreYears

Pay day last week, and another overpayment made: £1050 on Friday 26th March.

This will bring my monthly payments down to about £340 (based on a finishing date of October 2032).

Over February and March, I have worked a total of twelve full days of overtime. Unfortunately, since Covid started, the pay for overtime is just the basic rate. However, it should give me enough to pay my annual service charge bill on my flat. Last year that was in the region of £1400 (which covers land rent, service charge, insurance and water bill). Compared to people I've asked in comparable properties, they seem to think this is fair enough value, and my management company seem to do a decent job.

My 'living on £100' attempt has fallen short during March - I'm edging towards £150 spent this month, and there's still three days to go. However, I'm still pleased with the efforts. If I can carry the habits of the past three months through the rest of the year, it will help make a difference.

South_coast

£1400 service charge and ground rent sounds good to me, mine is just over £1800! That does include heating and hot water though, although I'm pretty sure I'm not using £400-worth!

FiveMoreYears

South_coast said:

£1400 service charge and ground rent sounds good to me, mine is just over £1800! That does include heating and hot water though, although I'm pretty sure I'm not using £400-worth!

Thanks @South_coast.

I've been in my flat for over thirteen years, and the property management company have been positively helpful during that time. There are so many bad stories elsewhere that it's only fair to acknowledge when a company are doing a decent job and can be relied upon.

FiveMoreYears

Payday last Friday, and another overpayment of £1050 made onto the mortgage.

This will bring my monthly payments down to £329pm on a finishing date of Nov.2032.

I've benefitted recently by working twelve shifts of overtime at work through February and March. The original idea had been to use this to pay off this year's service charge from the property management company - however, I've now decided to sort out a monthly standing order to take care of that. I've instead used the overtime pay to make this latest mortgage overpayment.

I expect that this is the last time in the foreseeable future that I'll be able to make such a sizeable overpayment. I'm already beginning to feel the desire to spend at least a small amount of money on my flat and myself. However, I won't let the good work since last April slip.