Getting the balance right

elantan

savingholmes said:

I think I already mentioned my elec blanket which I switched to late Jan / early Feb and now swear by... Saved me a fortune.

I have one of them, just about to look it out for winter, although to be truthful I'm currently still kicking the very thin covers off at night due to hormones, we have a couple of the ones lodl sell as well that's like a blanket for the couch but has electricity going through it, may add them to the couch pile for when were just sitting in the living room. 

Have managed to pay enough off the credit card so that I shouldnt have to pay any interest this month, will still have a negative on the card roughly £500 or so, but it hopefully saves us some money in interest. 

Managed this by paying the registration fees for my profession and having to pay for repairs with the money that I had put by and with the car breaking down through the week we needed to spend money on it so a wee silver lining. 

This weekend I'm off up a wee hill then we have a plan to try and go away with the tents before our last break of the year, we dont have much money but it will be tent, car and caravan and taking our food with us. 

our local charity has kindly put on an African themed day cookery course, I'm.signed up mr El and myself as we love food and loved our food in The Gambia, it's free but we will pay a contribution so that others can experience it another time, I'm looking forward to it, it's not till just before xmas but gives us something to look forward to 

pay day this week, this is the first month I'm putting money by for adventures so @skint_spice we need to get organised for our sunflower adventure. 

Think that's me up to date for now 

Have a great day 

savingholmes

Enjoy the cookery course. Sounds fun - and your camping trip.

Aimingforthegoodlife

Have a wonderful time camping, cooking course sounds great!

elantan

what I dont understand is ... I can have a clear score rate of 836 and yet when I apply for a loan I get offered 9.4% and yet I used to get offered loans for 2.9% ( they are now up to 3.9%) 

it's rather confusing 

jackieblack

Because the ‘score’ is meaningless - lenders don’t use it, they all have their own criteria measured against your credit history not some number made up by an unconnected organisation 

savingholmes

Are you or hubby late payers?

Is your credit utilisation of the cards you have over 50% overall or worse each or even a single one?

If you have no missing payments - it's possible to have a high score despite huge debt... I did. 

Do you update the credit agencies regularly with any pay increases you get etc?

Are you on the electoral roll?

Do you do too many credit applications close together?

Do you use the MSE credit club to help you target your application to those most likely to accept you?

elantan

jackieblack said:

Because the ‘score’ is meaningless - lenders don’t use it, they all have their own criteria measured against your credit history not some number made up by an unconnected organisation 

yeah I understand that at the end of the day companies will go with who they want to for credit scores, I just woukdve thought they would all be similar ... thanks for the input 

elantan

savingholmes said:

Are you or hubby late payers?

Is your credit utilisation of the cards you have over 50% overall or worse each or even a single one?

If you have no missing payments - it's possible to have a high score despite huge debt... I did. 

Do you update the credit agencies regularly with any pay increases you get etc?

Are you on the electoral roll?

Do you do too many credit applications close together?

Do you use the MSE credit club to help you target your application to those most likely to accept you?

no were never late apart from 1 time over a year ago when we got paid whilst away, I sat down and paid everything but I think I didnt get good enough internet and 1 payment didn't go through, others I know paid as well bu there was no financial repercussions, it was transfers to savings etc, the next month we got a £12 fee and I cleared the debt off ( was a 0% credit card) 

I do use my credit card every month but until last month it was cleared every month, last month was the first time it wasnt and I paid interest, wasnt happy about it but it's part of the new plan to get on top of finances. 

Both on electoral roll, not really applied for credit much just this loan ( that i have applied for a few times now) as I have an account with them, I dont apply for it I fill it in as if I am applying to get a quote. 

I dont really need a loan just now tbh it's more a case of just checking to see if I can get one should the need arise. 

I wonder if it's because we dont have much credit at all, two mobile phones and one card which we cleared every month ( till last month) no mortgage etc? 

elantan

Wages in again yesterday, Mr El sorted them out again, he is gaining confidence which is brilliant to see, weve agreed that he sticks at the level he is for another few months before I show him other bits, it's best to learn it a bit at a time till he is comfortable with it. 

He remembered that he got extra money in his wage and went looking for it last night and it wasnt where he thought it was, so I pulled out the book where I'm keeping any extra spends and showed him where it went, this was good for him to see that simple things like bulbs for cars, bottles of wine ( over and above the normal amount) gloves for arthritis, lunches out and vacuum sealing bags have to be paid from somewhere, he was a tad unhappy as he had hoped it would go towards a wee break away, so I asked him which thing we shouldnt have spent so that we wouldve had money for a break away. 

Hes slowly understanding that money doesnt just appear. This is good. 

savingholmes

It's good you were able to talk about the budget. I quite like the barefoot book for that where he suggests a monthly date to agree budget priorities for the month etc