Monday, January 29, 2007

Natwest Pay Up !!

Yes that's right...I got money out of a bank !!

I got a letter today...it looks like a standard reply. They don't believe the charges are unfair, the rules are all laid out in their guidelines etc etc... A full A4 page of gumph
Then on the next page ...as a gesture of goodwill, we will refund £833 into your account.

£833.... a gesture of goodwill !!!

That's the full total of all the charges I've had over the last 6 years.

As far as I can see its a full admission by Natwest that they haven't got a leg to stand on. Its true I could decline this and take them to court to get the extra interest, but to be honest asking for that was just a bargaining tool, and I'm completely satisfied with getting he money back. At the end of the day all it took was two letters, and I get £833.

What a result !!

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Is the mortgage a debt....part 2

Some interesting replies to my original post, most of which were very helpful.

I have decided for my benefit, that yes, I will keep the mortgage in my net worth calculation, as its something I have to pay each month. Also if I want to be moving towards the million mark the first thing I need to do is to get rid of the debt before I can start investing for growth.

The second thing is that I am NOT going to include the value of the house in my net worth calculation. This is because I don't see it as an asset as I cannot / will not use it to raise capital. My family's security is paramount and the house is key to that. Its not something I plan to use at all.
I'm sure the purists out there will be pulling your hair out, but I've made my decision and I'm sticking to it.

Still no answer from Natwest. It looks like I'll have to get the relevant information together to start the court claim... Can't say I'm looking forward to it, its a bit scary.!

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

No reply from Natwest

One week gone and no response from Natwest, Not even an acknowledgement. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I wonder how many of these letters they get a month ?

Went and got a new PC monitor at the weekend but took an ex display model so we saved £20 on it which made me feel a bit better. And the sky man came to look at our dish and he said it was definitely knackered so again I feel a bit better spending the money as he has put it right.

DVD recorder is playing up now though..... What have I done wrong !!!???

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Tracking My Status

Currently this is my first month, but as I imagine this is going to be a (very) long road I need to see how I am doing. I stumbled on this great site NetworthIQ which allows you to enter a value each month and it will track how well you are doing.
The graph on the right of this page will eventually show my total net worth going up over time ( or down !).
It looks a bit rubbish at the moment unfortunately.

The only problem with the site is that its in dollars not pounds, but that's only a symbol, the numbers stay the same.

Is the mortgage a debt??

For the past few days I've been mulling over whether to include the mortgage / equity in the house as part of my calculations of net worth.
The fact is that the house is not a realisable asset as we need somewhere to live and the mortgage is part of that. Also as the mortgage is over 30 years and secured against the house, is long term secured debt different to short term unsecured debt.
The long and short of it is that I don't know, and I don't know what the financial people would decide either.
After a good few nights in the bath thinking about this... yes, money is what I think about when I relax....I have come to the following conclusion...

I will NOT include the equity in the house because we need somewhere to live and it is not reasonable to have this value as part of my net worth as it cannot be released.
I WILL include the mortgage as part of my debt calculations as its still money I owe and have to pay for. After all that £722 a month makes a huge hole in my bank balance every month. The mortgage is like a millstone around my neck and I want rid of it. And if I want to be aiming for a million in 20 years then first I need to get rid of the mortgage then I can start investing heavily to build up cash.

So overall no change, but I'm now happy with what I am doing. I can't believe its the 21st Jan already and nearly a month gone. I have to say I'm dreading doing my net worth on the 1st Feb as after such a rubbish month its bound to be worse, I just hope its not too bad. Still, if I wasn't doing this I would just be drifting along....now I have a purpose !

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Am I Jinxed ??

I think I must be.
This was going to be my year of living frugally and getting my finances into shape ready to really push down my debt over the next few years...
And what a start !
The car broke....2 grand
The monitor broke...£100 ish
Sky has stopped working ( because it got a bit windy ) which is £65 just for the engineer to visit.
And we need to get a roofer in because we have lost some tiles.

happy new year !

Thursday, January 18, 2007

A Fellow Struggler

Nice to see a like minded individual at myfinancesareamess so hello Dave and welcome aboard.
I have to say though, given the info in one of your posts I would gladly swap places. I mean, earning 64k, 2 holidays, two cars sounds like absolute luxury. For mere mortals like me earning £28 k with no holidays and only one rustbucket on the drive the challenge is a little tougher.

Still, I guess its all relative. Hopefully we can learn from each other as we go.

No reply from Natwest yet. The letter was posted on Monday and I sent it recorded delivery so they can't say they never received it......

Me and the Missus had a good chat today and decided to cancel the sky sports and Films. To be honest we hardly watch either and we can still get box office films if needed and that will save us £20 or so a month.

Another rubbish day today... the PC monitor has been on the blink and last night finally gave up the ghost. Unfortunately as its 2 years old its out of warranty...more expense !!

Still no luck with the casino scalping, but I've been working a lot over the last few days so had no time to do it, plus I've had loads of jobs to do round the house. Very windy today and Sky isn't working at all...It had better be on by ten because I really can't miss Battlestar Galactica, the best show on TV at the moment until Lost comes back.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

A Slight Hitch

Well, For two days now I've been trying to log on to my Intercasino account with no luck so I've had to email support.
I've also been rereading their terms and conditions and they seem to have wised up to the fact people are scalping them. I now have to play through the deposit and bonus amount before I can withdraw ANYTHING!
But I still believe the process is valid so I'll stick with it and have another go tomorrow.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

First Attempt at Casino Scalping

Yep, that's it...tonight.

I'm going to have a go at intercasino as they have a monthly bonus of £50 which would be nice to get some of.
Unfortunately, they are obviously wise to the process as you cannot withdraw your deposit until you have gambled the money through, so I guess its Monte Carlo or Bust for me..

Wish Me Luck

Monday, January 08, 2007

Reclaiming bank charges part 2

Well its been a couple of days since I last posted and its been an OK weekend. We had some friends round on Saturday night so I had to splash out on some booze, but taking advantage of special offers I got plenty for a tenner. So all in all not a bad week as I kept below my £20 pocket money target...in fact I even ended up with about £3.50 left.....
Oh, But I owe son number 1 JC his pocket money which is £4 so....50p in the red..not that good a start then !

Back to reclaiming my bank charges. They total about £800, but you can actually charge the bank interest on top !! Thats a first ! Certainly means that you can get your own back !

The moneysavingexpert website has a handy thing that you can enter all your charges and it automatically calculates the interest owed and then puts them all together in a printable format. It took me about 20 minutes to punch them all in and then the bloody printer ran out of ink so I can't print it !!

I just hope I saved it right.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Getting ahead with annual bills

One of the things I find most frustrating with my finances is getting on an even keel then suddenly...car tax...have to find £160. Or home insurance ...have to find £400...

So what I'm going to do is work out how much I think i need a year, then add 10% for safety then divide by 12 to work out how much to put away each month. that way I'll be ahead and actually have the money for those things rather than have to put it on a card and then end up paying twice as much for the privilege.

So what do I need?

Car tax £160
Car service & MOT £150
Home and contents insurance £450
Car insurance £350

The grand total is £1110 which means I need to put aside £ 92.50 per month. Fortunately I have an extra pay day this month as I get paid 4 weekly rather than monthly, so I can put aside the extra ( about £1000) just for this slush fund. At the moment I'm paying my home insurance monthly as it came with the mortgage so I need to put aside £50 per month to pay for the car bits, then when the home insurance comes up for renewal get a better deal and pay it in one go then start putting aside the full amount ( about £90)

This seems like a lot of money to put aside and keep putting aside, but its money that I have got to pay out anyway. Surely its better to have it ready rather than have to use a card or pay monthly. I want to get my monthly outgoings as low as possible so I can pay bits off the mortgage which will help in the long term. A small bonus is that this slush fund should generate a little bit of interest..not much , but if it slowly grows then I can slowly reduce the amount I need to put in every month.

day 5 and I have spent a little today, getting some tobacco. I know its an unnecessary cost, but its my only vice.... I used to smoke 10 - 15 cigs a day at work and I've managed to cut them out, but I still like to relax in front of the telly and have a couple of smokes. I guess I'll just have to get anyone I know that goes abroad to get me some cheap baccy. !!
On the plus side I've taken sandwiches to work every day this week which has saved me £3 a day so that £15 for the week....makes me feel better now thinking about that.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

A good start to the year

Yep, Day 4 and so far I've only spent £1.50 and that was on a lottery ticket. i know its probably money wasted but you've got to be in it to win it.

On a separate note I got my statements from natwest yesterday. I went through them and was really surprised to find that I have only had charges totalling £800 over the past 6 years. Still its money for nothing so I'll be claiming them back shortly.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Statement..... Month 0

Assets

Mortgage -£133,776
Skycard -£ 1441
overdraft -£3,484

Total -£138,701

Assets

Savings account £0.56
Current Account £ 1001

Total £1001.56

Total Net Worth -£137,699.44