Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

How much?

10 replies

Mortgageandmoney · 31/05/2020 22:02

I'm seriously thinking about making some changes to start making a decision in my mortgage. I don't want to overpay so much that I will leave myself in a pickle - can I ask how much you think you should have I'm savings set aside? I do have a figure in my head, but would love to hear what others think.

OP posts:
Mortgageandmoney · 31/05/2020 22:02

Decision should be dent!

OP posts:
catmg · 31/05/2020 22:11

It depends on your lifestyle and your committed outgoings. Ideally you should have 6 months salary saved for a rainy day, but I certainly don't have that!

Theyweretheworstoftimes · 31/05/2020 22:14

Start small and build up. We moved in 2015 and over paid by £50 a month, we now over pay £600 a month. We change it about depending or circumstances.

Love51 · 31/05/2020 22:19

Are you looking for a new mortgage deal, or just to overpay on the existing one?
If something goes belly up, do you have a access to an interest free credit card?
I've never felt the need to have 3-6 months expenses in the bank, but do look at stuff like the fact that I knew my car was going to die and need replacing.
Remember you can always overpay if you calculate too liberally; you'll be a long time miserable if you calculate too tight.
It's hard to give a figure without knowing what you lived off in Feb (loads of us are saving money in lockdown through commuting costs, school costs and not paying for kids swimming lessons - remember that you won't always want to live as cheaply as you may find you are now).

Mortgageandmoney · 31/05/2020 22:22

We have 6 months saved and yes have a credit card but I have only used it once or twice, not sure if it is interest free! No, we only remortgaged recently, just to overpay. Can overpay 10% of current outstanding mortgage.

OP posts:
thenamesarealltaken · 01/06/2020 00:02

6 months salary is good. I've no months' salary saved, as single parent with 3, no maintenance payments, and they need a lot at this moment in time.

Nix32 · 01/06/2020 07:25

Have a look at overpayment calculators online. Any amount will make a difference.

BarbaraofSeville · 01/06/2020 07:39

If you pay the credit card off each month, it will be interest free, so you should do that as a matter of routine.

Your cash savings should include an amount that can pay any annual, irregular and unexpected expenses without using credit.

You say you have just remortgaged, if it is a fixed rate, there will be a limit, usually 10% of the outstanding amount, that you can repay without penalty, so you need to bear this in mind.

Also the interest rate on your mortgage, it could be so low that you can get more interest in savings anyway, there have been many deals advertised recently with an interest rate of under 1% and you can get slightly above this rate on the best instant access savings anyway, so it's actually costing you money to overpay, so if that was the case, you could just save the money instead, but bear in mind that if you ever had to claim universal credit, this would be affected by savings above £6k, and you'd not be entitled at all if you had savings of over £16k.

Mortgageandmoney · 01/06/2020 09:51

Thank you all for the advice!

OP posts:
ChessieFL · 01/06/2020 09:53

Think about paying more into pensions as well to take account of tax relief.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page