Bit Down

As the title says I am a little bit down in the dumps, I think because I've done so much money planning and money dreaming and property hoping, but most of the actual "doing" can't happen yet.

I had a look at my credit score on Equifax and it has gone up... what? I mean, I know why, my address has finally updated for two of my accounts (unlike on stupid Experian). I'm just surprised that it's risen despite the applications I've put in lately.

I also found an incorrect address in there on both places, listing me as flat 2 instead of flat 5 from when I lived in Exeter. This might explain some knock-backs for personal loans back when I was trying to buy my car, grrrr. I've put disputes in to both Equifax and Experian.

As for balance transfers in general, I am struggling to find any bills to pay off... having spare money in my hands is not entirely a bad thing, but hey ho.

Going to a property viewing soon for a 2br flat. I won't be in the market to really buy anything for another six months, but even so, I'm interested to see what my money will buy one day.

Currently eating: leftover sandwiches (free).

Things Wot I Done Did

I found a savings account that pays 5% for the first year. Needless to say I'll be using this one first and the other one second! It means that it's worthwhile for me to withdraw "credit card money" for free and then earn 5% on that money. It's not a king's ransom but it's something. For free.

It also means that when the 5% deal ends, I will have a spare bank account that can be used for switching deals. At the moment there are deals to be had if you are willing to use the Switching Service, mostly cash bonuses. I don't want to use the SS right now as I would lose my one and only current account, and it's my oldest account - older accounts help your credit score. But I won't mind doing a switch from a newer account that I haven't had very long.

In other news, the little cottage I first fell in love with has sold (one bedroom, £99,500). But there is one in the same street and same size overall which is two bedrooms, has mould on the tops of the walls (roof issues?) and could be made almost as lovely, and was first listed at the same price. It's been reduced twice, first to 90,000 and now to 80,000. Seems as if the buyer is desperate to shift it. The rooms are absolutely tiny and that plus the fear of roof repairs will be putting people off. I am only 60,000 short to buy it buahahaha... sigh. I know it will never be mine, and I'll never see one like this again. But it is still nice to dream :)

DWP Repayment, Negotiated

So when I was on a super-low income and enquired about Housing Benefit, I was redirected to a Universal Credit application. Long story short, although I basically got virtually zero benefits due to my "high" income (roll eyes), I did qualify to take out a cash advance and used it on bills. Well why not? Interest-free and all.

Obviously when you are getting no benefits, the money can't be deducted, so they sent a letter asking me to make an arrangement to repay it.

Based on my last pay packet they wanted £70 paid back per month! I told them it wasn't possible (I am reasonably sure my income will stay healthy, but there are no guarantees when you're on a 20h contract). They ended up accepting £20 per month, which is now set up as a standing order. I'm calling that a win, essentially they gave me a £500 loan over 2½ years, interest-free.

Borrowing Power, Visualised

All up I am basically close to nil assets apart from the caravan, which still hasn't sold*, and a large chunk of that should really be repaid to my parents. But as I assemble my ducks one by one, I am keeping an eye on the prize. At the moment my access to loans is very much limited by my access to easy credit (my credit card limit is pretty high) which lowers how much a lender would consider on a mortgage. I've made myself a sort of chart, it's divided into 100 squares, and as I reach each percentage of my "funds access" target for my flat, I colour one square in.

These things are motivational...

Chart: 63% coloured. This means that right at the moment I could potentially, at high interest, cover 63% of the purchase price of my future flat. Fortunately, in five months' time when my credit rating begins to recover, I should be offered much better interest rates. Touch wood!

I've put little bars in the side of the screen at the right. More motivation!

*I have taken a deposit for the caravan so let us hope this sale goes through!

Stoozing Part Two

I have set up and activated a savings account which will pay a whopping 3% interest (slow clap). At the moment I haven't got spare cash to put in it, but hey, it'll be ready when I do...

I also have a brand new 0% transfer credit card which I'll "transfer" into a smaller, 3% money transfer card, and then that one pays out the current car loan with plenty of time to repay it - something around £1240 is remaining, which will become interest-free for the grand total of a £37 fee. I can repay it easily in three months. Since I was busy destroying my credit rating already, I also applied for and got a 0% purchase card, for slow stoozing (= for everyday spending at 0% and I will put the paycheque into that savings account for the interest - again, I'll withdraw that at the end of the 0% rate and keep the proceeds). I don't plan to use any credit for anything else, my finances will be strictly managed to ensure that I am able to repay all balances in full at any time.

I did mention Money Saving Expert's MSE Credit Club earlier, which has some really useful info on my credit score and includes the Experian credit score for no charge. Since Experian's paid account has never worked correctly since they "improved" the website - I reported that the link to see changes was broken in FEBRUARY and it's still not fixed - I have dumped their stupid paid product meaning I am now £14.99 better off every month.

Excellent hours at work are continuing, very much yay. I finally returned the car seat covers and have the cash in my hands.

£32 has been earned and withdrawn into my PayPal from Prolific for doing studies in August (referral link).

Van Viewings

I've showed two potential buyers through the van. First lot seemed sort of interested, but no offer. The second has declared a pretty low amount he's interested in paying, but on the plus side he was really lovely to chat with and understands I'm not under any pressure to take silly offers. Then the agent called me and is showing another potential buyer through the caravan tomorrow - I nearly fell off my chair merely because they contacted me - hoping this one goes well as the agent still has it listed at the higher sale price and there might be a deal to be done halfway between the two amounts.

With the sale of the van, I will be in a comfortable place money-wise. It will take me six months for the recent credit card searches to move off my credit report, which I am actually thinking of as "refinancing" - because even though they're credit cards, they are cheaper finance than the current cost of my car loan. So the last six months was me getting my ducks in a row, I'm now steady on my feet, and the next six months will be me moving forward. All going to plan, that's when I should be able to apply and get a mortgage on a small flat.

My current most fascinating read was by a lady who spent seven years saving up to buy herself a fixer-upper property rather than taking out a mortgage. She reasoned that she'd be spending half as much in total by waiting, and saving. She's sort of right... because she was looking at the interest that mortgages charge... the difficulty is that we're paying rent in the meantime! My own rent is very low however, so I'll take advantage of that as long as I can and then hopefully only borrow 50-60%. We will see.

More Learnings - aka Stoozing

So there's a credit card hack called Stoozing. Essentially, it is manipulating the low- and zero-interest offers that banks dangle for new customers, to profit. It involves moving cheaply borrowed money elsewhere to invest, for a higher rate than the credit card charges. It also counts if you're taking low-interest card offers and paying off higher-interest loans or mortgages (which I'll be doing for my expensive car loan).

Slow Stoozing: taking advantage of 0% purchase offers for opening a new credit card, you spend up for all your bills and expenses, rather than using your income. You put your unused wage income into a savings account somewhere and earn the interest, then withdraw it all at the end of the new card's 0% period, pay it off, and keep the difference. Not masses of money, but still free money.

I'm going to give it a go, I have been approved for a 0% card. I can understand why stoozing isn't better known, because it requires being meticulous in knowing which money goes where! There will be a spreadsheet and lots of double checking.

Another ding to my credit rating? Yes. But since I realised that my short residence period in the UK and time in this current job are both going to delay a mortgage by at least another year... best get busy making as much money as I can.

Learnings

I went to the property auctions this week as a learning exercise, and learn I did!

They had 29 properties on the books and about 24 went ahead at auction. I was mainly interested in three of them in my desired area. Mostly, I wanted to see how accurate the "guide price" really was.

The first eye-opener is that the auctioneer started the bidding well over the guide price, every single time. I imagined being a bidder thinking it was a circa 100k property, for example, and how annoyed you'd be when he opened the bidding at 120.

Anyway. A few got no bids at the opening bid, at which point he went backwards by 10 or 20 thousand and tried starting again. A couple had no bids, a few were passed in (finishing bid was below the reserve). The nicest surprise was that some of the properties actully went for less than the guide price including one flat I loved which had a guide of 35-40 and went for £39,500. Really encouraging news I have to say.

I'm almost considering my caravan a lost cause, but even so, I'm in a sort of uplifted mood, because although it's going to take aaaaages, buying a flat now actually seems a bit more doable. One day.

Discoveries

Ho, hum, it's dangerous to have a whole day with nothing to do but read money forums.

Discovery #1: that credit rating numerical scores are made-up space language and created by the credit reference firms to sell you products to "improve your score" but are never actually seen by lenders.

Discovery #2: non-matching addresses on my file might become a pain in the arse. I corrected two accounts today which had my previous address on them, compared with new accounts showing my current one. I am REALLY wishing I kept my previous address for everything and just redirected my mail. Changing your address sucks for your credit file, you look like a flight risk.

Discovery #3: my length of time in this job (or lack thereof) is going to hinder my mortgage chances for much longer than expected. Poop.

Discovery #4: that there is no point paying out the car loan asap in terms of my credit file and/or rating. It won't affect my loan chances or amount.

Discovery #5: Lenders still hate me. Despite being told I had a 90% chance of success to refinance that loan for interest savings, I was knocked back. So I tried my own bank (TSB). 29% interest. No thanks.

My assessment on MoneySavingExpert's Credit Club indicates great debt ratio and great credit utilisation, but my disposable income is way down. This is because they assess an average person's spending habits in an attempt to mimic the way lenders make assumptions (never mind that I live very cheaply). There's no way to prove that you're frugal, lenders still go for the average. Ho hum.

Anyway, also on this site I came across money transfer credit cards. #6: that there are products out there allowing balance transfers into a savings account. Well by now I wasn't in a great mood so who cares if I apply for something else and get another hard search on my credit file? Boom. Tesco approved my shiny new credit card and it has two years of 0% interest on a money transfer for a £37 fee. As soon as it arrives I'm paying out the car loan with cash. I have no "need" to pay it out early except that I know it'll save me £900 in interest, so...

PS. Amex raised my credit limit again. I now have access to almost ten grand of credit (I'm using almost zero). Go figure.

Rocket!

Up, up, up goes the credit rating, woo!

There's a lovely little cottage for sale that I've fallen in love with. Obviously, it's months too early and far too expensive, but I can still wanna...

In the meantime I am going to the auctions as a spectator, just to see if the advertised prices are really the sorts of numbers that people are willing to pay.

An ad on the radio is currently repeating the phrase "Pay Day, Save Day". The theory is that if you put the savings aside immediately, you don't miss it. I'm not sure if that is a good idea for me... I have realised belatedly that there was an upcoming bill I'd forgotten, and fortunately it's small, because if it was big, the money just wouldn't be there. So it would work, if you actually save into an account that allows withdrawals when you have a dumb moment!

Dumb moment #1: realising that for some odd reason, the council has not been debiting the council rates via their standing order (it says "£0.00, Not Paid"). I found out via a late notice in the mail. Ended up catching up via credit card. No harm done, just slightly annoyed that I advance paid into my loan when I could have paid a bill instead! And the card will be zeroed on payday anyway.

Caravan now listed on eBay... but it's a classified ad which seems to make it near-on impossible to arrange the sale itself, because giving out my phone number is not allowed. Very odd. Oh well, no longer any mad rush to sell since there's no site fee refund anymore.

I have been given half a dozen free range eggs from the lady at work's chickens :)