ANY help would be gratefully received. Desperate times

r.mac_2

sounds like you have had a positive day, which is great. There is loads of advice on this thread and it will probably take a bit of time for you to work through it all.

Don't be prepared to take no for an answer. Try and be creative - you are doing really well.

have you thought about ebay? Its really amazing what you can get money for on there....clothes your son has grown out of/you no longer wear/fit/like. I am sure you have a few items hiding in the back of your cupboards.

Good luck and remember baby steps - anything that helps is a step forward x

jue3107

I've got a few bits and pieces for sale in the local paper tonight and am going to sort out some more stuff for ebay etc over the weekend.

You've all been brilliant and given me the confidence to talk to the mortgage company. I really thought that I would not be able to change back to interest only without a redemption. Fingers crossed they agree to this - As my mortgage is over 30 years with 27 to go it may not make a huge amount of difference but every little helps to coin a phrase )

Loads of phone calls to make tomorrow and feeling quite hopeful now that I can sort a few things out. My Dad has also offered to help me a bit each month. Hopefully with that, my freelance work and cutting down where I can I will be back in credit again soon.

x

Will_I_ever_learn?

jue3107 wrote: »

You've all been brilliant and given me the confidence to talk to the mortgage company. I really thought that I would not be able to change back to interest only without a redemption. Fingers crossed they agree to this - As my mortgage is over 30 years with 27 to go it may not make a huge amount of difference but every little helps to coin a phrase )

Hi Jue,

I changed our mortgage over to I/O whilst locked into a fixed rate deal and it was easy. I did it over the phone and they sent out the forms to confirm. I had to pay an admin fee, which I think was £75?

I think this may really help you, but I'm concerned about the Virgin card being the final straw when it finishes on the 0% - Virgin have been putting up their rates a lot recently, so brace yourself.

If you reduced your mortgage outgoing, wouldn't you have enough money available to enter into a DMP? This would not jeapordise your property... and I would try to hold onto it, but then I'm not an expert!

Be strong and stay calm (((hugs)))

jue3107

Thanks Will_I_Ever_Learn. I am definitely going to ring Northern Rock in the morning to ask about changing to I/O. The thing that bothers me about DMP is that although it would not jeopardise my property, it will impact on my ability to get another mortgage when this one is up for renewal in 2012. Given that it is with Northern Rock I can see the payments going sky high then and I won't be able to remortgage.

I'm trying not to think about the Virgin card going up at the mo - not burying my head when I say this - but it worried me somewhat when I saw the thread about 34% interest rates yesterday. I have got old credit cards that I no longer use so I may try to resurrect these and see if they will give me 0% on any of them so that I have a safety net should the virgin situation be worse than I thought.

jue3107

Hi

Just a quick question - obviously if I decide to cancel my life assurance policies I am going to save £24 pcm. Am I obliged to get cover when I change the morgage to I/O? Sorry I'm getting myself a bit confused with whether I need them or not, but don't want to just cancel them without thinking it through and trying to weigh up the pros and cons for keeping or getting rid.

Thanks
x

Will_I_ever_learn?

I would say you should have cover, as if the worst were to happen, at least the property would be security for your son's future (obviously he could live with his dad). However I think that you could get the cover far cheaper. I looked at cover for £250k through Quidco, for me and DH, and it came out at £22pm with £75-ish cash back!

Not sure whether you HAVE to have it under mortgage conditions, as the property is the security for the mortgage, rather than an insurance policy. The insurance is to protect your home in the event of a death of someone responsible for paying the repayments (you in the case). Thats my take on it anyway!

jue3107

No the endowments aren't linked to the mortgage. The one with Phoenix Life is just one that we took out years ago (1 each), just as extra cover. As far as I know it doesn't have any surrender value but I'll check and the other one was originally linked to the mortgage but when I changed to repayment this wasn't needed. The others were all failing to increase sufficiently so I surrendered them, this one however, didn't have any surrender value as it was a strange type of endowment so I just kept it going. I'll definitely look into changing them though.

jue3107

Some good news at last. Have arranged payment holiday on the mortgage for next month so that''s £876 off my credit card and have changed to interest only which reduces the mortgage by £200!!! )

groatie_queen

I suugest you check your gas supplier is billing you for the correct units - there was a report in Tuesday's Scotsman newspaper of a disabled woman who had been overcharged by Scottish Gas after the company admitted it had been charging her by the cubic foot instead of per cubic metre.

Best wishes

GQ

pania

Jue,

Please think long and hard about cancelling life assurance policies that you have in place.
1) if you should die/ be diagnosed with a terminal illness, your son (or yourself if TI) would have no option but to sell the house, where would he go to live?
2) Premiums become higher the older you are, generally by every half year. Therefore if you were to cancel cover now, in 2 years time when you are straight your premiums could've increased significantly for the cover you have available. also if you have any form of illness between now and then that will be taken into account on underwriting.
These policies should really be the last thing to go, for your and your sons protection.

I'm so glad that you have managed to switch to interest only and sort out a payment holiday. that will help for starters.

Good luck be sure to still left us know how you are getting on.
P
xx