It's That Time of Year Again...

And Paul has already submitted both our tax returns online and we await our rebates.

I have also sorted out this year's ISA. Lloyds 1 year fixed rate ISA has won my business. It is not the highest rate available at 3.0% (becoming 3.2% if over 30K) but it is fixed, which may or may not be a good thing. I am all in favour of fixed rates, at least for shortish periods, at the moment...

I could set it up over the phone and also set in motion switching my others into it. It is certainly worth checking the rates of any existing ones you have lying around - the rates had plummeted with the Bank of England base rate cuts. Apathy costs money...

Losing Interest in the Banking System?

I have been waiting for two cheques to arrive - one from the FSCS for the Icesave account and one from Friends Provident for a 10-year drip feed 'long term always done better than interest rates in the past'. Well, let me say it would have been better off under my mattress! And they have the gall to try to get me to keep drip feeding more money into their coffers...

In the meanwhile, waiting for these to arrive I had started in motion a Halifax regular saver and sent off for a Coventry BS fixed rate bond. We had also decided to each open a Barclays regular saver.

So Monday afternoon we planned a quick trip into Duns to get the Halifax one activated and then on to Berwick for Barclays.

Into Duns armed with bank statement and passport to verify my identification at the BoS to activate the Halifax account. Yes, I would be able to pay in cash for my February payment. So trot over the road to RBoS and take out a large amount of cash. I hand half of it over. But there is a problem - account won't take the money. Another lady helps out - doing an electronic identity check and that works fine. But the account still has a stop on it. They were very helpful - gave me a receipt for the money and would phone me if they still had problems. Oh - and are you happy with your other bank?

So off to Berwick. We did a couple of other chores and then into the bank. 

No - we couldn't just open an account. We needed to make an appointment with one of their account advisors. It would be at least half an hour each. No free appointments for that day. Okay - Friday is best for us as we need to come back into Berwick then anyway. I guess it will be a little like the Time-Share no-obligation but can we get you to switch all your other accounts to us too. Pleeeeeease.

It had occurred to me that the problem with the Halifax account may have been that I also needed a websaver account, and although one had been created it was moneyless. So we went back to Duns. No - they didn't think that was the problem. After a couple more tries they decided to phone their computer help desk, who managed to lift the stop and Hey! Presto! money has gone in.

Paul now wanted me to go back in to RBoS and put the rest of the money back in as it would no longer be needed for the Barclays account - his funds would have cleared by the time if/when we get that sorted, but I refused on the grounds that I would be too embarrassed...

Anyway, the cheque from FSCS arrived yesterday. Back into Duns and payed in along with the excess cash. Asked if I had plans for the money - Yes, thankyou...

But too late for the Coventry BS bond - no longer available when I looked on the web. So FirstSave is now getting it...

And at last the FP cheque arrived today, only two weeks after the policy expired. Another trip into Duns this afternoon.

2008 Budget Report

The two end-of-year financial reports were printed by Paul today - spend versus budget and the 2007/2008 comparison report.

The good news is that if we were not having the extension built our income exceeded expenditure - always a good thing. Paul did do some work last year but our main income is from bank interest so this will be plummeting in the coming year. I did add a little to the pot with one significant scrabble prize-money win.

Our expenditure was also fairly significantly below budget. 

We have three holiday budgets - bridge, scrabble and other. No 'other' holiday this year (well, we are permanently on holiday) was our major saving, but Paul cheated on his bridge holiday budget by offsetting his Pau trip against 'other' so that his overspend looks less than mine!

We spent very little last year on household maintenance - no major disasters that needed work done to fix. I also did my bit on gardening - very few trips out to garden centres/nurseries and no binge ordering plants online. This year should be more expensive though getting the new back garden developed.

Also a very cheap year on clothing - no mad shopping sprees. Gipson family pact also helped on our gifts budget.

Other than tax (booh!) our only major overspends have been the cars - the cost of petrol last year being a real bummer and extra servicing/maintenance.

If I remove the depreciation of the value of our cars from the year on year report we actually spent less than 2007. 

The significant movers and shakers were: 

Bills: the cost of heating oil and we had our septic tank emptied

Healthcare: Paul needed new glasses and we now have a dentist

Holidays/Household maintenance: See above

Leisure and Entertainment: I didn't buy myself another emerald bracelet :(

FSCS To The Rescue

When Paul got home from his bridge match last night he had an email from the FSCS regarding the Icesave bailout. I hadn't received anything but knew they were planning on sorting us all out in batches so was not duly concerned. However, on a whim this morning I got Paul to check whether my email had been spammed by my over-zealous service provider. 

It had. 

So if you are still waiting to hear check your spam/junk...

The good news is that I will be able to opt to hold off rescuing my money until the end of my fixed term which means I will get all the interest as if nothing ever actually happened. Hurrah!

Icesave Meltdown 2

It looks as if I may have misinterpreted the BBC story.

Icesave does not appear to be part of the ING deal. It is just too confusing...

The treasury statement is here.

Icesave Meltdown

I, like thousands of other people, am waiting to see what is happening to Icesave. 

Paul and I had been very sensible in ensuring that we had not put more than the 'safe' 35000 (now upped to 50000) in any one institution, and I had a one-year fixed rate bond with the aforementioned ex-bank. This is not due to end until February. According to the BBC website it looks as if ING is taking over my account if the deal goes through. 

I will await my welcome letter to put next to the one I have from Santander for my Bradford and Bingley account.

The recent troubled times have seen our pension funds plummet. Luckily for us we still have a long time to go before we need them so hopefully they can recover. We may now need to die quite a few years before his optimistic 90...

BOLSHY OLD S**

There has been some discussion on my scrabble group as to what to name the new Lloyds + HBOS bank. I came up with the above gem.

It did spur me on to check whether I needed to rearrange my accounts yet again. With only 35000 'secure' under any single parent organisation we need to keep on top of our finances. Mergers and takeovers also make it harder and harder to find suitable accounts. Luckily I think I am okay this time, only having money in one of the affected 'brands'.

Still, some good may come of all this. I suspect this could be the end of Halifax's Howard on our TVs...

Alone Again...

I drove Paul to the railway station yesterday afternoon. There is some dispute as to how long he is away. We are not in disagreement on the date of his return, just whether twelve days and a few hours is 'just over a week' (Paul) or nearly two weeks (me).

So I am now settling in to life with the dogs.

Paul always accuses me of picking the evenings it is raining to have a bath and miss the late night outing. Well, there was no avoiding it last night... come 11 p.m. and I could hear the rain pelting down outside. I got their coats and mine on. As expected Jen didn't care but I had to drag Poncho out the door. He was digging his paws in all the way to the road, then shuffling along in a state of misery refusing to do anything. We returned, drenched and unsuccessful.

At least the sound of the rain drowned out the noise of the bats in the eaves - at least I hope it is bats. They seem to be getting noisier and noisier, with their chittering. I may find them entrancing flying around outside but they are becoming a pain in the **** when I am trying to get to sleep. I am now imagining them as I lie awake in the dark flying around inside the loft, thousands of them. And then breaking out into our en-suite like something from a Stephen King novel...

I still have not got my new camera, although the extra memory for it (from somewhere else) arrived after a couple of days. I sent an email off on Wednesday to find out what was happening. I got a reply in the evening saying they had none currently in stock but were expecting a delivery in the coming week. I got another email last night telling me "Your order has been reviewed and processed and the warehouse is preparing the shipment". So, what would have happened if I'd paid for the express delivery? Or does this mean that someone else did and has got MY camera???

I got a letter today from new building society that I am trying to give some of my money to, telling me the proof of identity I sent was not adequate. So I wasted several hours today
(a) trying to find a suitable document from the Inland Revenue (P2 that was sent was not acceptable) or DVLC to avoid the need for a certified copy of my passport or driving license. I found a VLA from 2006 but apparently they will only accept the latest one.
(b) Failing (a) I then failed to get our Lexmark printer/scanner/photocopier to photocopy. I tracked down via Google that the laptop needed to be plugged in even to just photocopy but it made absolutely no difference.
It's all very well in these times of banks in trouble/credit crunch in trying to spread your assets around but it is not that easy!