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Bold leap into retirement
Morning all, I hope you have managed to find some time for yourself in what can be a busy period. We have enjoyed spending time with family over the last 3 days, it’s a quiet one today, then off to visit more family tomorrow. I’m not planning anything wild for NYE, but have been really starting to think about what I want…
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Retiring Early SIPP access advice
My wife has retired early and has no income at all, she wants to access her SIPP (£380k) to provide a modest income and also make use of her unused tax allowance. I cannot fathom whether she's better off with flexible access drawdown or an annual lump sum of £16,670 each year. Any advice would be most welcome. TIA
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Claim Form Nov 2025_Smart Parking via DCB Legal
Hi all, I’m hoping someone can help me with preparing a defense for
a County Court Claim Form I've recently received from HMCTS regarding a parking
charge. I’ve read through the forum guidance and some of the templates, but I’m still
unsure how to tailor a proper defense to my situation, and I don’t want to get
anything…
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Getting from Longstay South Carpark to North Terminal Gatwick
Staying at the Courtyard Marriott with parking in Long Stay South, but flying from North terminal. It mentions online that there's a shuttle bus from the carpark to the terminal but doesn't say whether it just goes to South terminal or whether it goes to both. Trying to establish if we will need to get the shuttle train…
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New car buying dealer selection
Eight years ago, my wife bought a Land Rover Discovery using an internet service. The service obtained price quotes from dealers, and my wife selected the best price. She saved a considerable amount of money. I cannot remember the name of the service now. Can anyone give me a pointer, please?
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Growing grass
Hi all, I put down some miracle go complete 4 in 1 lawn treatment about a month ago but what I didn't realise is that I have to wait about 7 weeks until I can put down the grass seed but with that date being 9th June how do I make sure that the grass grows properly given it's in summer time and the warmer weather Kind…
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Stock markets are too high and set to fall?
Unusual intervention/comment - why?
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The Best Is Yet To Come
The Best Is Yet To Come - or so the front cover of my new diary says. I normally hang out in the debt free wannabes, but as I have had my diary on there for almost 10 year (yes the same diary), and have been debt free since April 2018 I thought it was time to migrate over to the mortgage free wannabe area. Please be gentle…
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Jet2Holidays Free Child Places Summer 2026 on EVERY flight
Hi Forumites I hope this is OK to post - Im the Travel Agent who beats prices on the Beat My Quote Thread - see link below I just thought id post that Today Jet2holidays have added a FREE CHILD PLACE to every flight going summer 26 so up to 31/10/26 If you do find a hoilday on there ?(or on TUI etc) do post it in the Beat…
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ES PARKING, GLADSTONES court claim 2025
Struggling how to word a response in to the template for section 3. Any help would be greatly appreciated. E S Parking Enforcement Ltd Parked at Holmes Mill Clitheroe Lancashire [Images redacted for personal information by Forum Team]
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Should I have paint protection on new car?
Thanks for all replies on my "New Small Family Car Suggestions" thread. Much appreciated. I have now done a deal on a brand new Suzuki Swift, and collect it next week. When I did the deal, the salesman wanted me pay an extra £695 for paint protection. I refused this, but wonder if its something I should have had? Would you…
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Ask a StepChange debt advisor a bankruptcy question
September 2021: We have started a new thread as the previous thread was becoming quite long. If you’re struggling with debt and have a question around bankruptcy, this thread is here to help. There are many trained advisors from the debt charity StepChange here on our Forum ready to answer your questions. They’re…
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Conveyancer charges for remortgaging
Hello, I would just like to gauge experience and opinion of remortgaging fees. The first time on a "fee free" mortgage a bill to the tune of £50 was charged by the conveyancer(employed by and working for the mortgage provider) for 'transferring funds' from our new mortgage provider to the conveyancer and then on to the old…
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Won a service charge tribunal case against my property management company (FirstPort)
NB: I originally shared this on Reddit and have been encouraged to share it here as well. I wanted to share this in case it's useful to anyone in the same boat, because I really struggled to find an honest account of what the process of taking a property management company to tribunal actually involves before I started.…
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APCOA PCN
Hi MSE Crew I got valuable advise with regards to challenge / appeal Apcoa Mcr Airport drop off .. It let me pay the fee but i was few hrs past deadline day after event .. I got appeal template think this one from chirpy chicken This is an appeal by the registered keeper - No driver details will be given. Please do not…
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Halving our income and still aiming for mortgage free!
Hi everyone, A long time lurker of DFW forum, and then here. Finally starting my own diary as I feel it will help keep me on track! As the title suggests we are halving our income as I have resigned my job in order to keep sane and support DD with home educating for the next year. The last two years we have managed to…
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DCB LEGAL, SMART PARKING, court claim Discontinued , Success
Hi, So, I have a DCB Legal LOC for a Parking charge that apparently occurred on 12/12/2020. I've read the thread about what to do but wanted to ask some advice. Reason being the charge is from ages ago and frankly I don't remember anything about it. They have an image of me entering and leaving which I found on the Smart…
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Cooling towers???
Given the hot weather I am wondering about purchasing something like an air conditioner to make it easier to cope. (I don't do hot) The air cons seem quite big and bulky and the alternative seems to be an air cooling tower fan (example in the link). Has anyone tried these? Are they effective? And easy to move??? John Lewis…
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Pay rate is unclear?
Hi, Next week i am starting a work contract. Full Time Its 3 month contract, inside IR45. They said it was £45/hr, but then sent the attached wage breakdown. The recruitment consultancy are dealing with my pay. Do you know how much i will receive into bank account each hour? (or week, etc). It looks like i am paying into…
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Long term planning - reduce tax bill
Hi, Is there anything further that I can do to further reduce tax charges? Currently I do the following: Put the max £60k per annum into my workplace pension Use my full £20k per year ISA allowance Give my wife any spare cash to put into her ISA Put the maximum £9k p/a into my chidren's ISAs. The idea being that they can…
