GRcade

Can anyone help with tax or working tax credits? Ill be strawberry floated if i can understand the governments website, all I want to know if what the earnings thresholds are, is the website complicated on purpose??

I think they have a calculator on their website that will work it all out for you.

How does credit card debt effect your ability to get a mortgage? I'm considering trying to get a home in a year or so, and at the moment I have a bit of credit card debt since I decided to put my money in current accounts that give interest and put my big spending of the last year on 0% credit cards. I have enough saved up that I could pay all my credit cards off tomorrow if I wanted, but I figured I might as well get as much interest as possible. If I did have to be debt free to have a better chance at a better mortgage rate, how far in advance should I do this?

That's not a growth wrote:How does credit card debt effect your ability to get a mortgage? I'm considering trying to get a home in a year or so, and at the moment I have a bit of credit card debt since I decided to put my money in current accounts that give interest and put my big spending of the last year on 0% credit cards. I have enough saved up that I could pay all my credit cards off tomorrow if I wanted, but I figured I might as well get as much interest as possible. If I did have to be debt free to have a better chance at a better mortgage rate, how far in advance should I do this?

The balance needs context i.e. Is it 25/50% of your annual income for example?

Natwest can ignore quite large credit card balances without it affecting affordability.

Most lenders will ignore it if you plan to clear it before the mortgage starts.

Other lenders will want your credit report updated to reflect the new lower balance.

I would recommend 2/3 full months before you apply for a decision in principle to bring the debt down.

It's useful to play around with the various calculators to see if it makes any difference whatsoever. Just Google Halifax/Natwest/Santander etc intermediaries and experiment with the figures.

It's about 25% of my old annual wage. I just got a 33% pay rise this month, but because they're dicks it's not actually part of my rate but as a "performance bonus". I'm assuming this is so they could potentially take it away when ever they want. They're taking about promoting me and asked how much I wanted to set up this new position, but I'm thinking if they want to do the same again then it's only my base rate that's what the amount I can borrow would be based off?

I just got my mortgage with Natwest and would say my girlfriend and I have a total debt of around 25% of our combined wage with loans, credit cards, car on finance, etc. We applied for a whopper of a mortgage and it went through no problem with them after a couple of other banks rejected.

Writing that down makes it looks like I'm crippled with debt but it's not like that at all. I've always found that as long as you can show you're in control of your finances, you won't have a problem.

Glowy69 wrote:Anyone used the resolver tool for PPI on the moneysavingexpert website?

I had car finance a long time ago and I'm nearly certain the twats would have put it on, along with a small loan. Anyone had any success.

Is there anywhere that documents the accounts you've had pre the 6 years on your credit file?

Got 1500 back from capital one. BoS are investigating another one.

bigcheez2k3 wrote:I have both and have had no problems with either. Nationwide still do, I believe, a 5% regular saver if you are wanting to save any extra after your H2B.

And if you need a referral ahem

Can I still take you up on this offer? I'm now ready to open another account and Nationwide is still the best option.

Me and my wife have each referred each other to Nationwide to open a single bank a/c each (we already have our jnt a/c there for years). Her Current A/c Switch went through couple of months ago and we each got £100. Today my referral has been submitted for another £100 each.

£400 free money between us for referring an existing customer to open a new current a/c! Crazy!

And the a/c pays 5% for 12 mths up to £2500 and a free overdraft of almost £3k too.

#UnbelievableJeff

My one year is gonna run out so I may need to find a new account now, it's been good but the interest will drop massively and I've been spoilt by it... Tesco seems like best option now...

Just gonna jump on the HSBC advanced for the free £150, better than any interest I've got, then I'll go back to nationwide next year if they're still good.

How do you guys have your money distributed? I don't want to know amounts necessarily, just curious about where it is - ISAs (cash, stocks and shares), current accounts, investments, pensions, etc. I could definitely be doing more with my money, but also don't want it spread about into too many pots or too many to keep track of.

Mostly in interest paying current accounts and regular savers but over the last year I've been putting some in an S+S ISA too. Dabbled with P2P also but losing faith in that so mostly withdrawn from it.

I'd say 85% is in current accounts or regular savers however my situation may not be typical. I am stoozing a couple credit cards so I need the cash available and I want to move out so I'm avoiding putting too much into long term accounts such as an S+S ISA.

As for pensions, I have a small workplace pension but I should be doing much more on that front.

I've had to do some moving around, due to my Nationwide accounts maturing.

I had about 4 k in a regular saver of 5 %, 5 K in a help to buy ISA, and about 2 K in stocks and shares.

That's my lot.

So now with my accounts maturing I've had to move....I'm moving my main account to HSBC advanced account and will start up a new regular saver of 5 % again. Plus I get a £150 bonus which is a good deal of 'interest' so to speak.

The Help to Buy ISA will continue to get its deposits until march next year when I decide whether or not to move it to my lifetime ISa (which currently has £10 in due to shitey interest).

This gives me the 4 K left to play with. I'll most likely open a current account with tesco and move some direct debits over there, and set up a standing order between the HSBC and Tesco to keep money flowing into both accounts.

The tesco account gets 3 % interest on £3000 I think, so after this account is runnin smoothly I'll see what I've got left to play with and maybe open a third current account...or invest a little more in stocks and shares....it's blooming complicated business!

Oh yeah, H2B ISA. One of those too, been paying into for a year.

I invest all of my spare money into my mortgage.

9 pensions all growing nicely, cash isa with a tidy sum in it, £250/mth regular saver paying guaranteed 5%, current a/c paying 5% for spare cash up to £2500, Investment isa and separate regular saver £150/mth total,

I'm strawberry floating loaded

Nine strawberry floating pensions. Having to deal with one stresses me out.

I used to work with a guy who was constantly juggling money between accounts and joining all sorts of weird schemes. There's no way the £10-15 interest he was making a month was worth it for the toll it clearly took on his mental health. Never mind when he'd forget to move some cash and get charged a fee wiping out months of profit.

8 are from previous employers which just fluctuate (go up all the time over last couple of years) in value. 1 is my current employer's which I pay 5% into and they match. Some of my previous ones have been worse and one in particular was better (I paid 3%, they paid 9%!). Each one though has increased way beyond what has been paid in by me, the taxman and my employer.

All are recorded on a spreadsheet at home tracking performance every 6/12 months. Quite easy to maintain now. Just another 20yrs or so to go

KingK wrote:Just another 20yrs or so to go

What a thing to say.