Ok so how are people mainly affected by this "credit crunch" thing

[stoppinattwo]

And what do you propose to do about it as a family???

SO, my fixed rate mortgage comes to an end next August, should I shop around and remortgage now or wait it out?!

it depends who you are with.
Some mortgage companies have written to their customers advising of potential changes. Ours wrote to say that they would not be the most competitive, so they could either offer us something and hope we'd stay or assist us in changing to another company. Not that we are coming up to remortgage, just a standard letter.

Bibithree - we have just used a broker called CHarcol (recommended by business section of the Times). They are a whole of market broker and dont charge you a fee. I have found them to be brilliant. Thorough, professional and adapatble when I have gone back and asked them about further options before deciding. Let me know if you want further info and I can give you the details.

that is really helpful popsycal

It is stuff like that I think we need,If people have good ideas or people need help getting the best advice, post here and see if anyone knows that answer or can help

Agree with expat that it's not the city lot who will be worrying - they will have enough assets laid down to ride out the storm.

As part of the crunch I suspect we will see the last of the 0% credit card offers, so it will be harder/ impossible to transfer credit card balances cheaply.

Oh, and people like myself (self-empoyed) will probably be hit in employment terms, as we're part of the workforce that's very easy to shed in hard times. Time for another bambino

Just to add aswell - the fixed rate we got was not the best fixed rate there was for us. But we paid NO FEES barring 30 quid for transfer of money. The best rate wanted more than 2 grand worth of fees. Over the 3 year fixed term, we would have paid WAY more with the cheaper rate as we really didnt want to add the fees onto the mortgage gathering interest.

We are also able, at the moment, to overpay a little and then when we need to (in about 6 months time!) revert back to the fixed rate payments.

The lady we spoke to was excellent at explaining all the ins and outs - persuaded us to keep our mortgage at the 18 years we have left rather than revert back to 25 years.

Thoroughly recommend them.

Other ideas.
Get O% balance credit cards that you might be paying off transferred to a new one quickly. The current best are: Virgin,Barclaycard, Abbey and Tescos.

Also get on www.uswitch.com and change providers for electricity and gas. Ring your own provider first - ours changed our tariff and reduced our direct debit.

Also phones. We are with Primus on their saver option 2 plan (not sure if it still exists....). You have to pay BT rental (11.99 a month?) but with primus, all calls, anywhere in the country, cost 3p connection charge and nothing else (for an up to 90 minute call). Calls after 6 and at weekend are FREE.

Also go on 1899.com and register. This lets you key in the prefix 1899 before ringing. Cheaper rate for calling mobiles.

We saved TONS by doing this.

Yep - if you need to transfer to a 0% credit card get it done now. I reckon they'll soon be a thing of the past.

I've also saved massively recently by reviewing my mobile package - by staying with the same provider but taking a different package I've cut my bills in half

Was going to say mobiles. Ring up saying you want to change. DH did that.

I have an o2 payg sim card - 1000 free texts, got to top up 10 quid a month. I text LOADS but rarely ring. 10 quid a month is normally more than enough for me.

primus saver option 2 for landline cheapness

ooh 18185 seems to be cheaper than 1899 for calling mobiles now...

must look into that

Chonky....when my phone contract was up I wrote to them telling them I wouldnt be renewing it and they slashed my contract price from £24 per month to £9!!!!!

and i got a new phone. I think the trick is to write to them..it seems so much more serious than a phone call.

I hope this thread can be of use to people so keep the ideas coming.

good point popsycal about looking at the bottom line with mortgage deals....sometimes the extra % is better than the huge set up costs.....it always pays to do your sums before you accept a deal, or if you cant do the sums ask the bank which will cost the most im the longer term

Goldfish are offering a 4.5% for 36 months on balance transfers. I am currently with Halifax at 0% and moving to Goldfish.

my partner is a mortgage broker and he has an ad on here and does the same as Popsycal said whole market with no fee you can contact him here if you want any advice

am i the only person who still uses PAYG for a mobile?

so does DH.

if we can't afford to top up, we have to go without the mobile.

we're also still using 5-year-old mobiles given to us by friends who were upgrading.

We're using some of our savings to pay off our credit cards in full and shelving them for the time being. Something we've been meaning to do for ages anyway. Not looking forward to having to shop around for a deal when our fixed rate mortgage runs out next year. We've shelved plans for investing in a buy-to-let flat for the time being as we'd rather have a chunk of money in various savings accounts while we wait and see what the market is going to do. Not panicking, though.

popsycal thank you. i will look into them

no I do expat - one less bill coming thru my door each month. I try to put £10 per month on there thou as then I get 300 messages free, the phone initially cost £10 when XH and I split up as we shared one previously.

Article in The Grauniad about ways to save during the credit crunch (I reckon the journos Are MNetters, as I think we have all of them covered here )

Credit Crunch Tips

My friend & I were discussing this yesterday.We are self employed,as a cleaner & gardener respectively & have a lot of the same customers.I wondered if things got tough,we'd be the first to go in the belt tightening.

We were both commenting on how we scrimped & saved,trying to keep up with the cost of petrol,food ect.Meanwhile,our employers seem to have money to burn,employing cleaners,gardeners,personal trainers,personal shoppers,ironing ladies,children at private school,foreign holidays.

My friend says she thinks our jobs are safe-these folk have no mortgages & have had staff for so long,they've probably forgotten how to do things for themselves.Her theory is that they'd give up a lot before they'd give up their help.Lets hope so!

Chonky I love this one in your Credit Crunch Tips

13 Hire, don't buy

Don't spend hundreds of pounds on 'it' shoes or bags - hire instead via fashionhire.co.uk. An iconic Louis Vuitton bag as sported by Madonna can be yours for £60 a month; ideal if you have a special occasion to go to, although there is a waiting list for that one.

Oh yes hiring a handbag for £60 a month will really cut our outgoings pmsl!!!!

Credit crunch = the long-overdue return of a tiny bit of sense. The free lunch was never going to last forever.

For us, it means our mortgage payments are going down, for now (I'm well aware that could change). We're lucky that we have a good amount of equity in our home. We hope we've planned our lives in such a way that we won't lose our home if mortgage rates go up (we have options, having only borrowed against a single, below-average salary).

The credit crunch did mean it was harder for us to get a mortgage, but when you're borrowing that kind of money it should be tough, shouldn't it?

I know Flibbertygibbert, I know. I can assure you that there's no buying or hiring of handbags in the chonky household. My own personal chancellor of the exchequer (DH) sees to that!