Live chat with Alvin Hall, Thursday July 3rd 1-2pm

[carriemumsnet]

Hi all

Just to let you know that Alvin Hall, independent money saving expert, is coming along on Thursday to answer your questions about all things financial. A well respected author and presenter, Alvin advised the nation on BBC2's Your Money or Your Life and has written several books on the subject.

One of the reasons Alvin has agreed to join us is that he has recently worked with OMSCo, the Organic Milk Suppliers Co-operative, to compile Cheap Changes, a pocket guide full of money saving tips to help you to beat the 'credit crunch' without compromising your lifestyle. This is available as a pdf for Mumsnetters to download here

If you can't make it on the day, please post your questions in advance here. Otherwise - see you on Thursday.

MNHQ

[RTKangaMummy]

WATCH ITV1 @ 10.45

[CatIsSleepy]

another thread has just made me think

me and dh don't have life insurance-but we both have pensions that would pay out a lump sum if either of us died-
is this sufficient? is it worth paying out extra for life insurance as well or would be be better off saving any spare cash into a high interest account?

[lulumama]

can i ask why you think the acquisition of money and material goods has become so intertwined with our perceived happiness in the last couple of decades? keeping up with the joneses, having the newest/best/biggest of everything...

how much do you think the media and lifestyle mags are to blame for this type of aspirational living, that people cannot afford and strive so hard for , why are we as a nation sooooo dissatisfied ?

thanks alvin

[PeachyHidingInTheShed]

(WWW- , that hapened to me and when i told them they let me keep it for my honesty and kept me on that level as long as i agreed no annual rise; when rise time came nobody else ot diddly squat (including dh)- you employers are mean! they could at least say ta!)

[Jux]

Our bank (NatWest) has just offered us their credit card to which we will transfer our existing credit card balances, as NatWest are giving us 0% interest on the balance transfers for 13 months. If we use these cards in place of our old cards can we then pay off our monthly purchases every month with a bit extra to get the balances down? I suspect that whatever we pay each month will be used against our transferred balances, while new purchases will accrue interest.

Can we specify where our money goes - old balance or new purchases?

[mybabysinthegarden]

Hi Alvin, another big fan here!

What do you think of CTFs? We're on a very low income at the moment but I'd like to put £100-200 pounds a year away for our daughter if we can manage to. I've invested her voucher in a CTF but nervous about topping it up as I'd like to ensure that she uses it for something sensible (uni, etc.) when she turns 18, rather than fritter it away on clothes and holidays (as I would have done if someone had handed me a few grand at 18!)

Also, I took out a credit card last year and transferred a balance onto it that was supposed to be 0% for nine months but (sshhh...) the nine months has come and gone and they haven't started charging interest yet. Can they come after me for the interest retrospectively if they wise up? (I've been scrupulously paying the bill on time each month.)

Thanks!

[mybabysinthegarden]

Jux, Nationwide have a credit card where they will use your monthly payment to pay off the most expensive (i.e. highest interest-earning) part of your bill first, but I think hana's advice is best!

[Jux]

Thanks you lot!

We do need a credit card though, but we have cut back drastically on the purchases and have managed to reduce our total bill by a couple of thousand in about 6 months.

Presumably then, it would be better not to use the new card at all, but just pay a bit off each month for as long as the interest free bit goes on and then transfer the rest of the balance to another interest free credit card like we are doing now and take advantage of that for as long as the no interest period goes on etc etc.

Meanwhile, we continue to use an existing credit card but pay it off totally each month thereby accruing no interest anywhere?

[Jux]

By the way, we have one card which dh drew cash on a couple of times TWO YEARS ago. You'd think that would have gone by now, but no, we still get charged interest for cash withdrawal. DH has spoken to them about it, and there's nothing (apparently) that can be done; it's the last thing to get paid off.

[charlotte121]

Heya Alvin. Im a young single mum at university so i dont have a very big income. I want to upgrade my car for something bigger for my growing family and more relyable for my daily commute which means I will have to find money to finance it.
What would be my best option to do this?

[WideWebWitch]

Alvin
Hi, I?ve just had a quote from a pension co that says if I put in £1k a month now I will get a lump sum of £113k and an annual pension of £16.6k assuming growth of 5% and interest rates on retirement of 2%. (retirement in 25 odd years) My questions are:

• pension funds aren't protected are they? so could I put this in and lose the lot if eg the pension fund goes bust?
• Is there a better way of investing £1k a month from now until retirement to allow for a higher annual income on retirement?
• What are the alternatives to pension funds?

Thanks

[AlvinHall]

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[AlvinHall]

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[RTKangaMummy]

Hello Alvin

Welcome to Mumsnet

Mumsnet is deffo brill

[funnypeculiar]

hello & welcome Alvin

[fryalot]

We have managed to find ourselves in tons of debt and are currently paying money into the bank from credit cards just to keep afloat.

There is no immediate prospect of an upturn in our finances and we can't see a way out. What would you suggest we do?

[MegReally]

1k a month if that's the kind of money we're talking then I need to kill myself now

hello Alvin

[Piffle]

oh hello clever, likeable and sensible mr alvin hall!
Dying to hear about pensions and alternatives. Dp puts too many £ in each month to several pensions when we could better use the money to clear debt (all interest free) and mortgage.
Am needing some ammo to hit him with. He has excellent corporate scheme, final salary... So why he refuses to abandon the 4 other pensions is beyond me.
says she with no pensions but with investment desires.
ps
thanks for coming on, lots of us really dig you!

[JustineMumsnet]

Hello and welcome to all and especially to Alvin... who'll be with you shortly (fingers crossed).

[callmeovercautious]

Hi Alvin

My question is:

Is it worth adding to my Daughters Childtrust fund or should I just save into a Cash ISA?

[AlvinHall]

Hello, This is Alvin. Glad to be here today. Let the questions roll in. I've already answered some that were sent in earlier.