Personal finance and due diligence

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betty swollocks

large member
I'm not diligent basically.
I just give statements - bank, savings plans, mortgage etc - a cursory glance
and then just sling them in a drawer. Sometimes I don't even bother to open the envelopes: they just get slung in unopened. As long as everything appears to be in the black and savings appear to be accruing. That's as much as I bother.
I admit it: it's not good enough and I've been particularly slobby lately. I've even grown a beard. People have noticed: and while I haven't had room-evacuating b.o. or halitosis or anything (perhaps friends and colleagues have been diplomatic), one or two have had a discrete whisper in my shell-like and commented that I appear to have let myself go a bit
Well, today's been a day of action!
Blitzed the house, shaved and went out and bought two lever arch folder thingies, some of those tabbed cardboard dividers and loads of plastic A4 wallets.
I then heaved a huge pile of envelopes on the floor, opened, sorted and filed them. Everything is now in order and I've come up for air, feeling terribly pleased.
Anyone care to give me a virtual slap on the back?
Now to get that endowment mortgage sorted - which has been playing on my mind.
Where do I start?
 

bonj2

Guest
betty swollocks said:
Now to get that endowment mortgage sorted - which has been playing on my mind.
Where do I start?

Get rid of it. ASAP.
 

ChrisKH

Guru
Location
Essex
Complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service for being sold an endowment mortgage by a bloke from xxxxxxxxxx saying it was 'guaranteed' to pay the minimum death benefit on maturity. I would suggest. If you don't get any joy out of the seller.

Then change to a repayment mortgage (if you haven't already) or invest more money elsewhere to repay the deficit.

Or summat along those lines.
 

gkerr4

New Member
Location
Blackpool
try this site for starters - some of the people on the forums seem a little obsessive, but take what you need:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

Martin is very good and the articles are very helpful.

also- and this is a personal feeling - move all your things to "online" status - bank account, credit card, savings etc - much easier to check when and where you want. all the info is there and no more receiving statements to throw away without looking at them! (make sure you do actually log on and look though....)
 

ChrisKH

Guru
Location
Essex
I wouldn't personally recommend switching to on-line statements and the like unless you have the discipline to back up on-line statements and these aren't likely to be corrupted. Paper copies, whilst a pain in the arse, are physically there and their arrival prompts you to do something about them. Electronic statements for credit cards and bank statements do not remain on-line beyond a few months (as I found out to my disgust when my old PC died along with all the electronic copies). But I'm an old man and only used to paper.
 

domtyler

Über Member
Migrate to an internet bank and do all your banking online. You don't get paper statements, you can access the last six years through your PC instead. It is easy to move money around between different accounts and you should be able to do share dealing as well. I recommend smile.co.uk as they have a one hundred percent ethical policy.
 

domtyler

Über Member
ChrisKH said:
I wouldn't personally recommend switching to on-line statements and the like unless you have the discipline to back up on-line statements and these aren't likely to be corrupted. Paper copies, whilst a pain in the arse, are physically there and their arrival prompts you to do something about them. Electronic statements for credit cards and bank statements do not remain on-line beyond a few months (as I found out to my disgust when my old PC died along with all the electronic copies). But I'm an old man and only used to paper.

I whole-heartedly disagree with this, do you still keep your savings under the mattress Chris?

All banks archive six years worth of statements, they are required to keep these by law but not to offer them for downloading (although most do). Paper statements are still liable to become corrupted by fire, water etc, getting lost or stolen etc.

I can access my statement from, say May 1998, in about two minutes, could you do this with your paper copies? I doubt it unless you are a very sad man indeed. :biggrin::biggrin:
 

asterix

Comrade Member
Location
Limoges or York
Get a shredder; don't chuck any papers with your financial details in the bin unshredded. ID theft can happen to anyone.

If a financial business cocks everything up and gives you a lot of hassle, complain persistently. I've just rec'd £100 in compensation for wasted time:thumbsup:
 
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betty swollocks

betty swollocks

large member
Everything discarded had been ripped up into small pieces, shuffled around, put into two separate black bags and deposited into two separate wheelie-bins.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Slap on the back from me. I do something similar everyso often, file all the statements properly, shred old stuff, etc but in between they do tend to pile up a bit...
 

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
Beware of going entirely online - it's still good to have a building to go to if necessary.
The online customers of Northern Rock couldn't withdraw from the high Street shops.
 

ChrisKH

Guru
Location
Essex
domtyler said:
I whole-heartedly disagree with this, do you still keep your savings under the mattress Chris?

All banks archive six years worth of statements, they are required to keep these by law but not to offer them for downloading (although most do). Paper statements are still liable to become corrupted by fire, water etc, getting lost or stolen etc.

I can access my statement from, say May 1998, in about two minutes, could you do this with your paper copies? I doubt it unless you are a very sad man indeed. :biggrin::biggrin:


Perhaps I should move banks dom. I can't go back more than three months with electronic statements from HSBC (unless I'm doing something really wrong on-line) and likewise with Halifax vis a vis credit cards, unless I back up the statements myself. :biggrin:

And regrettably I am a very sad man and can access paper statements in 2 minutes dating back to 1984 when I opened the account, but only when at home.:biggrin: But then when I started work we had paper ledgers and Bakelite phones. And I aint kidding.
 
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