Hurrah, my MFW quest has started

Baz_2

Hows those Lloyds shares going?

I had the same dilemma when both the rights issues came along, I took up the first but sold up the day before the second. There was a selling op when they reached 68p a month or so back but since then things have been a bit poor with the potential to get even worse.

Congrats on the mortgage OP by the way.

abouttimetoo

abouttimetoo wrote: »

I've tackled another little money task this week. I have a PEP from years ago with shares in it, obvioulsy PEPs are obsolete now and it's really an ISA but as I didn't officially tranfer the contents I wasn't allowed to add to it but this didn't bother me as I then opened share ISA's.

So in the PEP is £120 cash which was dividends from the shares. Now you're not allowed to take the cash out if it's less than £250 but as those particular shares have had their dividends suspended for the last 18 months the cash equity has not been increasing. So I found myself in a catch 22 situation of not being able to take the money out and it's not going to increase at all to £250.

So, this week I've got them to agree that if I send them a cheque for £130 to make up the balance to £250 they will then send me £250. Seems madness ay but it appears it's the only way I can get my hands on the money and use it to better effect.

Ok, so it's now a month since I sent the cheque and I'm no further forward. I got a letter last week saying that as the total balance had dropped below a certain limit then I couldn't withdraw the cash. My options are to do nothing (so the £120 would still sit there!), close it or transfer it. I've chosen to transfer it - which I should have done years ago - into my main ISA but I've just never got round to it. They are sending me a form (still not received) and then it could be up to 6 weeks after I return the form that the shares will be tranferred to my main ISA and then finally I can get the £120. What a palaver :eek:

abouttimetoo

Baz wrote: »

Hows those Lloyds shares going?

I had the same dilemma when both the rights issues came along, I took up the first but sold up the day before the second. There was a selling op when they reached 68p a month or so back but since then things have been a bit poor with the potential to get even worse.

Congrats on the mortgage OP by the way.

Hi Baz, yes, you're right about the selling opportunity but I'm definately sitting it out for the longer term now. I've done all the rights issues and only time will tell if this was the right thing or not. A couple of weeks ago i spent nearly a full day at the weekend trying to work out my avergage price paid, this was pretty tricky as I've been buying Lloyds shares for many years and have some at the heady days of £5,6,7,8,9 and even £10! Unfortunately when I started out my record keeping was not what it is now which is why it took such a long time to unpick.

I think I'm there now and the last rise wasn't too far off my average so things are looking more positive. The other thing I bear in mind is that I have made quite a lot of money with them over the years via previous sales so I've had the good times too, I just hope they return

abouttimetoo

I would normally make my OP to-morrow but I'm having a few days away on holiday so I've just set my internet banking to make the payment to-morrow while I'm away. Plus I needed my fix of updating my signature :rotfl:

I've had a letter confirming my ISA share transfer is underway so hopefully within the next few weeks I will have the £120 cash element in my account which is what the whole thing has been about anyway

The other little task I need to do is ring Tesco credit card - after paying the bill off completely they have subsequently taken another £93 via direct debit, I could have underdstood this if the dd was only a couple of days after I'd paid it off as it would already have been in the system but it's nearly a month afterwards so it's annoying that I've got to follow up on it.

Hope you are all doing well with your plans

abouttimetoo

Hi all

I'm having such hassle on the money front this month!

• due to an admin error I didn't get paid this month :eek: With being away last week I didn't find out until late Friday night so have spoken to HR this morning and I should have it to-morrow; I've also got to get them to sort out refund of bank charges as no pay meant I went overdrawn
• I've spoken to Tesco clubcard about the £93 dd they took when I had a nil balance, apparently it would cost me £25 for them ro refund by BACS so I've had to opt for the free option which is refund by cheque and will take up to two weeks
• due to admin delay with BTL council tax I've overpaid by £33 so waiting for a refund from them
• still waiting for approx £120 from PEP cash equity but this could take up to another month
• spent more money last week on holiday than i'd intended but there is a small positive in that I got 600 ciggarettes (yes, I know I shouldn't be smoking!) at less than half what I would normally pay here

SmlSave

There's a lot of admin errors atm! :eek: Are you going to be ok?

abouttimetoo

Thanks Smlsave, thanks for your concern, yes, it certainly is a lot of admin errors isn't it... I feel like a magnet for things like that this month! Yes, fortunately I'll be ok as my pay is coming in to-morrow and even if it hadn't been then I'm lucky enough to be able to borrow from family until it did. My mother and I both said that when things like this happen it's easy to see how people who might already be struggling finacially just get deeper and deeper into the mire.

I just find the whole thing so frustrating that it's my time and energy that is used having to put the situation right and it's particularly annoying that I have to wait for Tesco to send a cheque. The other downside of course is that i'm losing interest all the while this money isn't in my account.

It was certainly a shock to come home on Friday night and see my current account overdrawn and typically these things happen at the weekend when you can't do anything about it.

abouttimetoo

Hi all

I've been on holiday this week and had a lovely time doing mostly nothing which is what I really like to do

Like many other people I got the letter from Goldfish credit card saying they were changing the points system from 1750 = £10 to 3500 = £10! Originally I had just skim read the letter and only noted the increase in points required, however, fortunately thanks to the good people on here I became aware that the letter also said that if existing points weren't redeemed by the end of this month then we could only redeem them at the new rate :eek::eek:
So, I'm pleased to report that I've just put the order in and got £20 of Boots vouchers and £20 of M&S; there's nothing I really need from either of these at the moment but I know they will come in handy for something before to long

abouttimetoo

I've just managed to get another little job done and that is to apply for the American Express Platinum card; this is in an attempt to better the rewards I would be getting now that Goldfish have changed the system so much. My American Express card has been accepted and I also did it via Topcash and got a £10 cashback so that's nice too.

I don't know what the credit limit on the new card will be yet but I suspect not in the league of the £12,000 that I have with Goldfish - not that i need that much, it's mad isn't it that they can give limits that high.

I'm not quite sure whether to cancel my Goldfish card yet, I'll decide on that another time after I see how the American Express goes. If I've read it right I will get £100 cashback for a £2000 spend in the first three months (special introductory offer capped at this time and amount) then a tiered cashback interest rate after to a maximum of 1.5% if the conditions are met. Subject to appropriate credit limit I can't see any problem with spending enough as I can put work expenses through it.

abouttimetoo

:j:j:j

I had a couple of cheques in the post this morning, the council tax refund of £32.58 and FINALLLLLLLLLLLLLY i have the £120.21 from the cash equity part of my PEP which is now all transferred to my main ISA. I won't be able to pay them in until to-morrow though but it's good to have that money back after quite a tight month.

I'm currently pondering selling some shares with maybe a view to buying them back if the price drops back but I'm not sure what to do