Great ''Financial Mistakes” Hunt. What’s your biggest mistake… help others avoid it.

julie777

I assumed that my mobile cashback scheme was the same as the one I arranged for my husband before. I missed the first deadline and therefore lost out on every repayment. Always CHECK the instructions!:embarasse

Not as bad as some friends of ours who needed their camper refurbished. One of the pair (naming no names) gave the tradesman carte blanche, ended up with such a huge bill they could only pay it by selling the camper, which wasn't worth as much as the bill!:mad:

juux

About 6 years ago we took it out a non-front loaded loan at an excellent rate over a long period to minimise payments, then paid it off early without penalty when some cash, when we had been waiting on, finally materialised. The whole thing cost us less than £100 in interest which was very cheap for the amount being borrowed.

A couple of years later we were in a similar position so went for the same option with the same provider, only this time the small (microscopic!) print had changed and we were surpised with a hefty early repayment fee which basically meant we were just as well off keeping up the monthly repayments.

That taught us to read the small print throroughly in future, I can tell you!

irishwench69

Well before I found this site (of course ), I signed up with a debt management company - one of the ones that charges, not someone like CCCS or CAB........idiot :rolleyes:

Luckily I found this site, and got out of dealing with this company - lost some money, but minimal compared to what I've saved since!! :money: :money:

The things you learn eh?!

IW x

wendyhaz

If you lose a cheque when you are in Spain the bank does not have to reissue the cheque, even if it has not been cashed and you have reported it to the police. I lost a cheque for 18,000€ (from the sale of my home) I had to employ a solicitor to go to court to get my cheque back. It took 2 years 3 months, 2 court attendances, a large solicitor’s fee and I was unable to claim any interest for all the time my money sat in the bank’s own account. A costly lesson as I lost about 4,000€ of my hard earned cash.

sheehlb

For us it is buying new house before we sold the old one. We bought it last year when the markets were fine and put our house on market in Jan and we can't sell it!

We either end up with 2 houses with 2 mortgages or we pull out of new house and lose very large amount of cash!

Will never do that again - will sell before we buy!

L

DAV9000

Hi this is my first post (and the second time I've typed it, but that's a different story)

About ten years ago, I got a phone call out of the blue from a certain finance company whose name consists of 3 letters. (Branches everywhere). At that time we were struggling to pay the various loans we had, so when they told me they could consolodate them all into one loan, and lower my monthly payments, it sounded too good to be true!

I thought I had asked all the right questions, and decided to go ahead with it. BUT... the interest rate was variable and kept going up. The payments stayed the same, the additional amount I owed was added to the length of the loan.

Also, two of the loans had less than one year to run. If we'd simply tightened our belts for those few months, we would have been better off. I realised that the loan would take years to pay off, and the end was not in sight. With a heavy heart, I appraoched our bank for a loan (fixed term, this time!) and paid them off.

Moral: If it seems too good to be true: IT IS!!

stingyscot

webwiz wrote: »

OK. What are you about to do?

Well, we were intending to sell at the end of the year when husband retires, which has probably triggered the present price falls in the south east. Now we're not sure what to do. When we decide, I'll let you know.
We won't be buying shares, after the last big stock market fall in 2002 when we returned from a 2 week holiday (not keeping watch) to find we'd lost £12000. We stick to cash accounts now...so watch out for more bank crashes!

dunstonh

We won't be buying shares, after the last big stock market fall in 2002 when we returned from a 2 week holiday (not keeping watch) to find we'd lost £12000.

Yet had you waited just a few years you would have gone on to double your money. As is the nature of the stockmarket that you take the ups and the downs. Plus of course, stockmarket and cash are not the only options and going 100% into either is usually a foolish move (as well as missing out the other options as well). And stockmarket is not one level of risk either.

We stick to cash accounts now...so watch out for more bank crashes!

I'd be more worried about inflation if I was you. Especially if you are using the interest to supplement your income.

mevster

Make sure you take out plenty of home contents insurance - we've just been caught out by being under insured. I never realised before but if you make a claim and the insurance compnay feel that you don't have enough cover for ALL your belongings (I mean books, food, clothes, the lot) they'll only pay out a percentage of your claim. This has cost us hundreds of pounds that we would have been covered for by paying just afew more quid a month.

Inexpensive_lady

Biggest financial mistake ever ...

Buying my 1972 MGB Roadster instead of a sensible, modern, (yet boring) car, just because my mother always wanted one.

My mother's biggest mistake - leaving all the finances to my dad. Since he passed away, she worries as she doesn't know what is and isn't a good deal.

Please, please, please, share the responsibility and decisions for finances in your marriages and talk about it - if the worst does happen, at least the survivor won't be clueless and starting from scratch.