The Money Thread...

[Grumpy David]

If you invest £1,000 with Nutmeg before 5th April 2023 via the Chase app they'll add £100 on top. Capital at risk and all that.

How does this work? Can you withdraw straight away?

Need to keep the £1,000 in until 1st July to receive the cashback.

[Roonmastor]

Making a bit of a risky play here but (thanks to a windfall) I’ve *just about* enough in savings now to settle my car finance early, so I’m doing that this week. I’m only 5 months in to the 45 month PCP agreement so it’s certainly an extreme action cutting out 40 monthly payments PLUS the huge final payment, but it saves me about £6k in interest over the remaining term.

strawberry floating bricking it though. I should be able to build back up, but my mortgage is up this year, the energy prices go up next month when the govt support changes and I pre-paid a ton of gas before the price hikes (which is now running low), so my monthly outgoings will take a few jumps by the end of the year. The car payments being gone will hopefully offset the increases, but I imagine I’ll have to ask to extend the term of my mortgage when I renew to stop it getting silly. I have it down to 9 years so there’s plenty of “working age” to work with.

I’m sure I’d save much more money in the long term if I overpaid the mortgage instead of settling the car, but the ticking clock of having to come up with the final payment all over again by the end date or lose the car is something I’d rather avoid.

I know you've already addressed this speculative point, but if you put all the money into your mortgage instead, would it bring your term down to within 40 months?

With my car, I overpaid a big portion of the value required to pay off the installments and then left the balloon payment at the end. Its a bit of a halfway house.

Alternatively, you can pay off a lot of the final payment early and leave the installments in play.

Finally, I've put the rest of the cash I had into savings to offset the interest rates, which is a slight loss Vs paying off now, but gave me versatility on not buying the car at the end / dealing with other big expenditure.

Martin Lewis has a decent calculator for putting money in savings Vs overpaying your mortgage. I'm guessing your car finance costs more than your mortgage in % so is probably the better cost to target.

[jiggles]

Making a bit of a risky play here but (thanks to a windfall) I’ve *just about* enough in savings now to settle my car finance early, so I’m doing that this week. I’m only 5 months in to the 45 month PCP agreement so it’s certainly an extreme action cutting out 40 monthly payments PLUS the huge final payment, but it saves me about £6k in interest over the remaining term.

strawberry floating bricking it though. I should be able to build back up, but my mortgage is up this year, the energy prices go up next month when the govt support changes and I pre-paid a ton of gas before the price hikes (which is now running low), so my monthly outgoings will take a few jumps by the end of the year. The car payments being gone will hopefully offset the increases, but I imagine I’ll have to ask to extend the term of my mortgage when I renew to stop it getting silly. I have it down to 9 years so there’s plenty of “working age” to work with.

I’m sure I’d save much more money in the long term if I overpaid the mortgage instead of settling the car, but the ticking clock of having to come up with the final payment all over again by the end date or lose the car is something I’d rather avoid.

I know you've already addressed this speculative point, but if you put all the money into your mortgage instead, would it bring your term down to within 40 months?

Oh, no chance. Would barely take a quarter off the balance.

Actually, now that I think about it, even the new mortgage fixed rate will be lower interest than the car currently is, so paying off the car, saving up to the same amount in the next 40 months then paying that off the mortgage then works out better than cutting it off the mortgage today and re-saving for the final payment.

…I think.

[Roonmastor]

Sounds right Jiggles

[jiggles]

Making a bit of a risky play here but (thanks to a windfall) I’ve *just about* enough in savings now to settle my car finance early, so I’m doing that this week. I’m only 5 months in to the 45 month PCP agreement so it’s certainly an extreme action cutting out 40 monthly payments PLUS the huge final payment, but it saves me about £6k in interest over the remaining term.

strawberry floating bricking it though. I should be able to build back up, but my mortgage is up this year, the energy prices go up next month when the govt support changes and I pre-paid a ton of gas before the price hikes (which is now running low), so my monthly outgoings will take a few jumps by the end of the year. The car payments being gone will hopefully offset the increases, but I imagine I’ll have to ask to extend the term of my mortgage when I renew to stop it getting silly. I have it down to 9 years so there’s plenty of “working age” to work with.

I’m sure I’d save much more money in the long term if I overpaid the mortgage instead of settling the car, but the ticking clock of having to come up with the final payment all over again by the end date or lose the car is something I’d rather avoid.

I know you've already addressed this speculative point, but if you put all the money into your mortgage instead, would it bring your term down to within 40 months?

With my car, I overpaid a big portion of the value required to pay off the installments and then left the balloon payment at the end. Its a bit of a halfway house.

Alternatively, you can pay off a lot of the final payment early and leave the installments in play.

Finally, I've put the rest of the cash I had into savings to offset the interest rates, which is a slight loss Vs paying off now, but gave me versatility on not buying the car at the end / dealing with other big expenditure.

Martin Lewis has a decent calculator for putting money in savings Vs overpaying your mortgage. I'm guessing your car finance costs more than your mortgage in % so is probably the better cost to target.

Yeah, I’m convinced now it’s the best thing I could do with the money (I love the car and will want to keep it. It’s fun to drive, practical for family needs and is the cheapest car to run I’ve owned by a million miles. No chance of my requirements changing by then). The uncertainty comes from burning my safety net entirely with the intention of building a new one, really.

[Tomous]

If you invest £1,000 with Nutmeg before 5th April 2023 via the Chase app they'll add £100 on top. Capital at risk and all that.

How does this work? Can you withdraw straight away?

Need to keep the £1,000 in until 1st July to receive the cashback.

So as it's an investment is there a risk come 1st July your £1k has gone down more than £100?

[Grumpy David]

If you invest £1,000 with Nutmeg before 5th April 2023 via the Chase app they'll add £100 on top. Capital at risk and all that.

How does this work? Can you withdraw straight away?

Need to keep the £1,000 in until 1st July to receive the cashback.

So as it's an investment is there a risk come 1st July your £1k has gone down more than £100?

It could do, Nutmeg have lower risk funds that are tilted more towards bonds rather than equities (and they're largely negatively correlated with one another) that can minimise the potential severity of fluctuation.

Would have to be quite unlucky for your £1,000 to decrease in value to less than £900 so that even after the £100 cashback you're still at less than 1k.

Worth a go if you've got the risk appetite for it.

[poshrule_uk]

RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank have a £200 switch incentive for each. An easy £600 to make with no risk.

[Grumpy David]

RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank have a £200 switch incentive for each. An easy £600 to make with no risk.

Do they not have exceptions in the T's and C's? All 3 are part of the NatWest Group so it seems like a strange loophole to allow what is essentially an internal transfer to one another to triple the cashback.

EDIT: typo.

[Tomous]

If you invest £1,000 with Nutmeg before 5th April 2023 via the Chase app they'll add £100 on top. Capital at risk and all that.

How does this work? Can you withdraw straight away?

Need to keep the £1,000 in until 1st July to receive the cashback.

So as it's an investment is there a risk come 1st July your £1k has gone down more than £100?

It could do, Nutmeg have lower risk funds that are tilted more towards bonds rather than equities (and they're largely negatively correlated with one another) that can minimise the potential severity of fluctuation.

Would have to be quite unlucky for your £1,000 to decrease in value to less than £900 so that even after the £100 cashback you're still at less than 1k.

Worth a go if you've got the risk appetite for it.

Thanks

[poshrule_uk]

RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank have a £200 switch incentive for each. An easy £600 to make with no risk.

Do they not have exceptions in the T's and C's? All 3 are part of the NatWest Group so it seems like a strange loophole to allow what is essentially an internal transfer to one another to triple the cashback.

EDIT: typo.

The t&C's state that if you have had a bank switching bonus from a NatWest group switch account before (I think it's since 2017) you're not eligible for the offer but they don't check the sister brands.

I can confirm I have had RBS last year and NatWest the year before that and I'm currently doing Ulster so I should have £200 next week.

Loads of people on Money Saving Expert forums confirm the same as well.

The only way you won't get it is if you try and get the same brand switch incentive again within the exclusion period.

[Grumpy David]

RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank have a £200 switch incentive for each. An easy £600 to make with no risk.

Do they not have exceptions in the T's and C's? All 3 are part of the NatWest Group so it seems like a strange loophole to allow what is essentially an internal transfer to one another to triple the cashback.

The t&C's state that if you have had a bank switching bonus from a NatWest group switch account before (I think it's since 2017) you're not eligible for the offer but they don't check the sister brands.

I can confirm I have had RBS last year and NatWest the year before that and I'm currently doing Ulster so I should have £200 next week.

Loads of people on Money Saving Expert forums confirm the same as well.

The only way you won't get it is if you try and get the same brand switch incentive again within the exclusion period.

Wow! Not too much hassle for an easy £600! Seems like an obvious thing to exclude.

[Dual]

NatWest group just paying for PS5s lol fr

[Rocsteady]

I don't really want to switch my main Bank of Scotland account - could I just set up a new account with somewhere offering a bonus for doing so, then switch three times and reap all the benefits?

[poshrule_uk]

I don't really want to switch my main Bank of Scotland account - could I just set up a new account with somewhere offering a bonus for doing so, then switch three times and reap all the benefits?

Yes but you can't switch RBS to NatWest as an example as they are part of the same group but if it's an external banking group then it's not a problem.

[poshrule_uk]

I don't really want to switch my main Bank of Scotland account - could I just set up a new account with somewhere offering a bonus for doing so, then switch three times and reap all the benefits?

Check this page out lots of good information https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banki ... -accounts/

Make sure your on voters roll and stuff, if they can't verify you then you may need to go into branch which I think would be inconvenient for you.

[Rocsteady]

I don't really want to switch my main Bank of Scotland account - could I just set up a new account with somewhere offering a bonus for doing so, then switch three times and reap all the benefits?

Check this page out lots of good information https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banki ... -accounts/

Make sure your on voters roll and stuff, if they can't verify you then you may need to go into branch which I think would be inconvenient for you.

Thanks man, I'll read up on that.

[Tomous]

Can anyone who uses nutmeg tell me if the app is down?

I've tried a few times to do the sign up via Chase (with both apps installed) and Chase says it cannot connect me to Nutmeg at this time and when I try opening Nutmeg myself it keeps saying something went wrong.

Have tried a few times in past 24 hours and no luck. Not sure if it's me or what.

[KingK]

Can anyone who uses nutmeg tell me if the app is down?

I've tried a few times to do the sign up via Chase (with both apps installed) and Chase says it cannot connect me to Nutmeg at this time and when I try opening Nutmeg myself it keeps saying something went wrong.

Have tried a few times in past 24 hours and no luck. Not sure if it's me or what.

Nutmeg & Chase apps all fine with me. Was in there earlier today without issue and just checked again just now

[Clarkman]

Hi everyone, been a while since I posted on the forum as I've mostly been in the WhatsApp.

I was hoping for some advice. With the Student Loan Plan 1 repayment interest rate now being at 5.25%, I am seriously considering drawing on savings to pay off my remaining balance. The tax on my salary doesn't feel worth it, when I'm paying off strawberry float all after the interest.

I know it is 'good debt' but I like the idea of being debt free.

Anyone else in a similar position or planning to do the same? Any advice would be welcome.