Do's and don'ts for first time buyers

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 1:21pm #1

Saving for a deposit at the minute. Proving slow but getting there. Both late 20s. Renting privetly and could do with some positive reassurance that it's worth it and not as daunting as it seems. Fully employed.

Any tips and advices for first time buyers? What to watch out for? I haven't seen any threads about starting the actual savings proceedure and how to keep yourself from turning batsh*t crazy with saving and not having a little bit of a life.

We haven't a clue what to do besides save obviously. Is there any helpful schemes?

3DataModem · 28-05-2020 1:59pm

Go to a mortgage broker and ask them how much to save, and also other financial tips to maximise your mortgage potential e.g.
- almost certainly close *and remove* any overdraft facility
- almost certainly pay off any personal or car loans
- ensure no unusual transactions on account (gambling, etc)

That will give you 6 months "clean" history once you apply.

Give up smoking to ensure you can get the mortgage protection without any difficulty (and apply for it early when you do start the process).

Owning your own place is excellent, but don't buy anything (furniture, etc) until you actually move in. Sit on orange crates. Eat off your lap. Sleep on a futon. You'll quickly realised what you *really* need.

Start viewing places in your price range in different parts of the city / country... including places you think you'd *never* want to live. Go and see whats out there, you might surprise yourself.

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 2:18pm

Does it help that Ive got a healthcare plan already?

I've a loan. Nothing too major but I was also told to hold onto the loan to show I can pay that as well as save and pay rent. I've purposely not paid off my loan for this purpose and now I'm woundering am I best off?

3DataModem · 28-05-2020 2:22pm

Febreeze wrote: »

Does it help that Ive got a healthcare plan already?

I've a loan. Nothing too major but I was also told to hold onto the loan to show I can pay that as well as save and pay rent. I've purposely not paid off my loan for this purpose and now I'm woundering am I best off?

Having loan commitments will improve credit history, but also reduce borrowing power.

A broker can help give the best advice on the balance between the two.

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 2:25pm

3DataModem wrote: »

Having loan commitments will improve credit history, but also reduce borrowing power.

A broker can help give the best advice on the balance between the two.

Perfect. Thank you for your post. It actually helped.

I quiet like the orange crate and dinner on my lap look haha. I did panic a little bit amount the furniture when I was to purchase a house

Jen Pigs Fly · 28-05-2020 4:30pm

I bought recently - went drawdown this January.

I had the following:
Overdraft facility, did not go into it for a few months, bank didn’t care that I had an overdraft
Himself had a car loan, caused no problems, just went into our overall stress test.

Mortgage protection didn’t care too much a bout smoker status,they just add a loading to the premium. we got a loading because I have a pre existing condition. I think the difference was like €10 a month extra for a smoker vs non smoker. We have a pre existing condition loading and our mortgage insurance is €50 a month. It’s grand like.

We bought new beds, new sofas, new kitchen. It can be done.

Buying a house isn’t all doom, bread and butter. We were saving a **** tonne of money, and were still able to go for meals in Eddie rockets, TGIs, etc every weekend.

People seem to think that you need to save every penny and have no life, we had few lifestyle changes while saving, in fact, our broker said it looked better cause we wernt pouring every cent into savings. Banks like to see that you can afford to live too.

Any questions just ask.

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 4:44pm

Jen Pigs Fly wrote: »

I bought recently - went drawdown this January.

I had the following:
Overdraft facility, did not go into it for a few months, bank didn’t care that I had an overdraft
Himself had a car loan, caused no problems, just went into our overall stress test.

Mortgage protection didn’t care too much a bout smoker status,they just add a loading to the premium. we got a loading because I have a pre existing condition. I think the difference was like €10 a month extra for a smoker vs non smoker. We have a pre existing condition loading and our mortgage insurance is €50 a month. It’s grand like.

We bought new beds, new sofas, new kitchen. It can be done.

Buying a house isn’t all doom, bread and butter. We were saving a **** tonne of money, and were still able to go for meals in Eddie rockets, TGIs, etc every weekend.

People seem to think that you need to save every penny and have no life, we had few lifestyle changes while saving, in fact, our broker said it looked better cause we wernt pouring every cent into savings. Banks like to see that you can afford to live too.

Any questions just ask.

Exactly what I was looking for!

We are at a stage where we want to purchase a home but when you are renting, it's pretty much save what we can rather than "This is how much we'll put away each week". Some weeks are brilliant then other weeks it's like it goes asreways and often wondering is it even possible. I took the advice from the first poster and emailed a couple of brokers and I was amazed at how quick they responded.
I already have health insurance so I am not sure if this would be factored into having some form of insurance or if it needs to be included on the insurance forms for a mortgage.

Can I ask, how long did it take you to save? How did you find the process overall?

I am finding it hard to stop stressing myself from continuously thinking about it. Each time I get paid, I'm literally like "Right X amount savings now!" before I have even taught about what I need in the shopping haha! It's like I'm afraid to have a little bit of fun in cause it comes up in my bank account and I'm sat there like an idiot trying to find what I spent money on. Mind you, I don' spend a lot or go out a lot for that matter but even when I'm doing the food shop I'm practically watching what I'm spending because Im thinking the bank will ask why I spent more or less on different shopping haha. I'm such an idiot!

Cheers for making me want Eddie Rockets now haha!

sozbox · 28-05-2020 4:46pm

I’d recommend applying to different banks.

I applied to 4, and they all had different opinions on my loans etc. Some asked that all loans be cleared

Others didn’t care

Treat it like you would buying anything else, shop around the banks and get what you think suits your situation best

Don’t listen if someone says it’s hard, all I did was print my payslips 4 times instead of 1.

Black_Knight · 28-05-2020 4:51pm

What are you doing to save already OP?

There's some simple things like put money aside as soon as you get paid. Rent, savings, bills (estimated based on your last years usage), groceries etc could all be transferred out of your current account (we used a joint account) as soon as you get paid, and what's leftover is yours to do as you wish.

What are your reoccuring payments?
Phone bills, broadband, TV, netflix, spotify etc. Can any of those be reduced? gomo are a cheap phone provider.
Always switch your broadband/tv provider, even threatening to cancel they'll usually reduce your bills by a nice ammount (virgin do/did anyways).
Can you share netflix or spotify with family?
They're small, but they add up.

Gas/Electric - Switch these every year, using bonkers (and old bills to get accurate readings) to get the best deal. Hundreds to be saved.

You've proved you can repay your car loan, but is it worth paying the interest to prove that point? Does it make more sense to pay it off?

Do ye know when ye want to buy, and approx how much ye might require? That'll tell you straight away how much you need to save every month.
Solicitor fees, stamp duty, furnishings will be several thousand too. Don't forget to factor those in.

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 4:56pm

sozbox wrote: »

I’d recommend applying to different banks.

I applied to 4, and they all had different opinions on my loans etc. Some asked that all loans be cleared

Others didn’t care

Treat it like you would buying anything else, shop around the banks and get what you think suits your situation best

Don’t listen if someone says it’s hard, all I did was print my payslips 4 times instead of 1.

Yeah? Is it just ideal to save as much as I can then shop around?

I had a nosey on the mortgage calculators that each banks have and I swear my heart dropped to my arse. I had to keep telling myself that they are just pretend calculations but jaysis. I am completely new to all of this so when number's are thrown in my face, I get shocked and think we actually need to save millions before anyone will even look at us

sozbox · 28-05-2020 4:58pm

Febreeze wrote: »

Yeah? Is it just ideal to save as much as I can then shop around?

I had a nosey on the mortgage calculators that each banks have and I swear my heart dropped to my arse. I had to keep telling myself that they are just pretend calculations but jaysis. I am completely new to all of this so when number's are thrown in my face, I get shocked and think we actually need to save millions before anyone will even look at us

I had 4 completely different “offers”, I picked the one that suited me best and didn’t involve me paying off a car loan.

Look at the banks the way you would the phone networks. You wouldn’t just walk into one right? You’d shop around. Same thing

sozbox · 28-05-2020 4:59pm

Febreeze wrote: »

Yeah? Is it just ideal to save as much as I can then shop around?

I had a nosey on the mortgage calculators that each banks have and I swear my heart dropped to my arse. I had to keep telling myself that they are just pretend calculations but jaysis. I am completely new to all of this so when number's are thrown in my face, I get shocked and think we actually need to save millions before anyone will even look at us

I had 4 completely different “offers”, I picked the one that suited me best and didn’t involve me paying off a car loan.

Look at the banks the way you would the phone networks. You wouldn’t just walk into one right? You’d shop around. Same thing

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 5:08pm

Black_Knight wrote: »

What are you doing to save already OP?

There's some simple things like put money aside as soon as you get paid. Rent, savings, bills (estimated based on your last years usage), groceries etc could all be transferred out of your current account (we used a joint account) as soon as you get paid, and what's leftover is yours to do as you wish.

What are your reoccuring payments?
Phone bills, broadband, TV, netflix, spotify etc. Can any of those be reduced? gomo are a cheap phone provider.
Always switch your broadband/tv provider, even threatening to cancel they'll usually reduce your bills by a nice ammount (virgin do/did anyways).
Can you share netflix or spotify with family?
They're small, but they add up.

Gas/Electric - Switch these every year, using bonkers (and old bills to get accurate readings) to get the best deal. Hundreds to be saved.

You've proved you can repay your car loan, but is it worth paying the interest to prove that point? Does it make more sense to pay it off?

Do ye know when ye want to buy, and approx how much ye might require? That'll tell you straight away how much you need to save every month.
Solicitor fees, stamp duty, furnishings will be several thousand too. Don't forget to factor those in.

1) I have a Credit Union account that I know I can't get access too unless I physically walk to the credit union so I transfer a weekly amount into it. I've gotten so used to doing that that I haven't even notice it gone but I am just worried, I'm not saving enough. We both have separate accounts.

2) Funnily enough I don't have a lot that comes out of my account. Mainly rent, the usual bills of gas and electric, T.v, bins etc and health insurance and a loan that I currently have then there's Spotify. I use a family member's Netflix

I purposely switched to pay as you go. I don't have any online accounts to buy clothes etc as I closed all those accounts last year. I got rid of my lottery account last year as well, not like I was winning anyways haha. But overall, I usually have a decent enough left at the end of sorting everything out that I am thinking I could possibly add more.

3) The bills are mainly on a meter outside the house. Electric and Gas so I'm not sure if they can be changed but regardless, I found I actually haven't had to spend much on those anyways.

4) To be honest, desperately we would love it to be as soon as possible, but realistically, maybe next christmas (2021)? Honestly we've looked in Dublin and outside of Dublin just to compare prices and the confusion is too much at times. But we are leaning more outside of Dublin, for obvious reasons. I keep having to remind myself of those fees. I honestly never even taught about them until I looked at Mortage brokers websites and that shows how much I really didn't know about buying at all. My mind is well and truly open.

laserlad2010 · 28-05-2020 5:09pm

It's actually really simple.

The banks want to see regular savings.
They will take your savings for 6 months, and divide it by 6. Minus any withdrawals. If you take out money every month they don't like it.

Usually they stress test you to around 6%, which means they rack your repayments up to 6% on the calculator - that's your repayment capacity.

(Rent+savings) - (loans+child) (~250p/m) = your repayment capacity.

They don't really mind that your outgoings are after that, but if you're spending a few hundred a month on discretionary items and that means you're not saving as much as you can... then that to me seems silly.

If you have a deposit built then why not go all out during the coronavirus for 6 months and save a mad amount by direct debit, clean up your account, clear the loan etc. Clearing the loan gives you a better credit score but it's not like America where you start with no credit score and need to build it up. You start off with a fine score it's defaults that drag it down.

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 5:17pm

laserlad2010 wrote: »

It's actually really simple.

The banks want to see regular savings.
They will take your savings for 6 months, and divide it by 6. Minus any withdrawals. If you take out money every month they don't like it.

Usually they stress test you to around 6%, which means they rack your repayments up to 6% on the calculator - that's your repayment capacity.

(Rent+savings) - (loans+child) (~250p/m) = your repayment capacity.

They don't really mind that your outgoings are after that, but if you're spending a few hundred a month on discretionary items and that means you're not saving as much as you can... then that to me seems silly.

If you have a deposit built then why not go all out during the coronavirus for 6 months and save a mad amount by direct debit, clean up your account, clear the loan etc. Clearing the loan gives you a better credit score but it's not like America where you start with no credit score and need to build it up. You start off with a fine score it's defaults that drag it down.

Unfortunately during this crisis, my wages are actually a lot lower than I would normally be paid so I've also had to adjust my savings to work around the normal Debits that have to come out. It absolutely killed me doing that as I felt I was saving a fairly decent amount before. I just hope that it doesn't affect me when I do go to get a mortage and the banks questions why my savings are lower.

I am hoping my employer will allow me to return to work sooner so I can get cracking again but sure looks like a little block at the minute.

I did have high hopes to pay off loans and rebuild my savings and start from scratch again but it wasn't possible.

buffin · 28-05-2020 5:29pm

A good mortgage broker is worth their weight in gold. I loved ours. We (and several of my friends) wouldn't have their home without her. Find one who seems to really go the extra mile. She wrote letters for us when we were bidding confirming that we had sufficient funds.

Line up a solicitor and know their fees so that when you reach that stage you'll be ready. Same with a structural engineer to do a survey for you.

Start looking at houses. We spent Saturday mornings for years popping into open houses. You learn what to look for. When we finally found the house we got, we knew it didn't have any of the concerns we'd had with other properties. You'll learn what your non-negotiables are by just looking at places.

Get to know areas - we'd literally pick an area like Phibsboro and see every open house we could in that area that morning. We'd walk it and see parks / cafes etc along the way. Especially important if you're looking at an area you don't currently live in. You'll soon see there are some better / quieter / more tree lined roads that make a difference etc. We ended up buying in an area we hadn't expected but we'd gotten to know and love through looking and it was a cheaper area than we'd originally hoped for. And we get a whole lot more house.

If there are houses that you think might fit the bill start calling the estate agents and asking what the latest bid is. Try track houses and see how much they end up going for. Look for when they appear on the property price register as the actual sale price. The asking price is just an indication.

We soon saw that houses we liked typically went for 10% above asking if it was livable, but 20% above if it was renovated and lovely - and 10-20% less if it was unlivable. We ended up going with unlivable that could be made lovely with less than 30% cost if that makes sense?

We loved looking at houses enough that we found saving easier when we were looking and starting to hope!

Best of luck with it all - the time will really fly in the end. Just keep making smart choices with money and you'll get there!

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 5:42pm

buffin wrote: »

A good mortgage broker is worth their weight in gold. I loved ours. We (and several of my friends) wouldn't have their home without her. Find one who seems to really go the extra mile. She wrote letters for us when we were bidding confirming that we had sufficient funds.

Line up a solicitor and know their fees so that when you reach that stage you'll be ready. Same with a structural engineer to do a survey for you.

Start looking at houses. We spent Saturday mornings for years popping into open houses. You learn what to look for. When we finally found the house we got, we knew it didn't have any of the concerns we'd had with other properties. You'll learn what your non-negotiables are by just looking at places.

Get to know areas - we'd literally pick an area like Phibsboro and see every open house we could in that area that morning. We'd walk it and see parks / cafes etc along the way. Especially important if you're looking at an area you don't currently live in. You'll soon see there are some better / quieter / more tree lined roads that make a difference etc. We ended up buying in an area we hadn't expected but we'd gotten to know and love through looking and it was a cheaper area than we'd originally hoped for. And we get a whole lot more house.

If there are houses that you think might fit the bill start calling the estate agents and asking what the latest bid is. Try track houses and see how much they end up going for. Look for when they appear on the property price register as the actual sale price. The asking price is just an indication.

We soon saw that houses we liked typically went for 10% above asking if it was livable, but 20% above if it was renovated and lovely - and 10-20% less if it was unlivable. We ended up going with unlivable that could be made lovely with less than 30% cost if that makes sense?

We loved looking at houses enough that we found saving easier when we were looking and starting to hope!

Best of luck with it all - the time will really fly in the end. Just keep making smart choices with money and you'll get there!

Thank you so much! Seems like the savings part might actually be a lot easier than the browsing haha. Mind you I emailed a broker today and he told me step by step what to do, what I need to do and how to make it easier and I swear a whole weight has been lifted.

I'll actually take up your advice and browse the areas we could potentially look to buy. I never taught of that. I have seen houses online and liked the look of them but never actually taught of how the area would look so I'll be doing that.

I think I might be worrying more so about the savings and making sure I'm doing the process right and not realising that there's more to come after!

Keep the advices, tips and tricks coming. I'm learning so much I'm starting to think that I could buy a house now haha. Thanks everyone!

Black_Knight · 28-05-2020 5:52pm

Febreeze wrote: »

1) I have a Credit Union account that I know I can't get access too unless I physically walk to the credit union so I transfer a weekly amount into it. I've gotten so used to doing that that I haven't even notice it gone but I am just worried, I'm not saving enough. We both have separate accounts.

2) Funnily enough I don't have a lot that comes out of my account. Mainly rent, the usual bills of gas and electric, T.v, bins etc and health insurance and a loan that I currently have then there's Spotify. I use a family member's Netflix I purposely switched to pay as you go. I don't have any online accounts to buy clothes etc as I closed all those accounts last year. I got rid of my lottery account last year as well, not like I was winning anyways haha. But overall, I usually have a decent enough left at the end of sorting everything out that I am thinking I could possibly add more.

3) The bills are mainly on a meter outside the house. Electric and Gas so I'm not sure if they can be changed but regardless, I found I actually haven't had to spend much on those anyways.

4) To be honest, desperately we would love it to be as soon as possible, but realistically, maybe next christmas (2021)? Honestly we've looked in Dublin and outside of Dublin just to compare prices and the confusion is too much at times. But we are leaning more outside of Dublin, for obvious reasons. I keep having to remind myself of those fees. I honestly never even taught about them until I looked at Mortage brokers websites and that shows how much I really didn't know about buying at all. My mind is well and truly open.

Meter outside the house has nothing to do with changing gas/electric provider. If you've never done this, you're most certainly going to save money if you do. Perhaps not much, but some.

Fyi, some mortgage brokers are free, some charge. I got lucky and our pension provider at work did mortgages, and got us a great one, for free.

So, Christmas 2021. That's 18 months away. How much more do you need for a deposit, and add 10k to that to cover stamp duty, solicitors fees, valuation, engineer report, and some basic furniture.

Divide that number by 18 and that's what you need to average every month into savings for the next 18 months. Very rough guide, but it's a start

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 6:22pm

Black_Knight wrote: »

Meter outside the house has nothing to do with changing gas/electric provider. If you've never done this, you're most certainly going to save money if you do. Perhaps not much, but some.

Fyi, some mortgage brokers are free, some charge. I got lucky and our pension provider at work did mortgages, and got us a great one, for free.

So, Christmas 2021. That's 18 months away. How much more do you need for a deposit, and add 10k to that to cover stamp duty, solicitors fees, valuation, engineer report, and some basic furniture.

Divide that number by 18 and that's what you need to average every month into savings for the next 18 months. Very rough guide, but it's a start

When you add the 10k onto what we already have saved now we could possibly have a deposit on the dot but I wouldn't mind if I've to add another 2-3 months after to continue for a decent amount but preferably no longer than 2 years because at this rate, renting is draining me.

Thanks so much ðŸ˜Š

Also, I've just seen about the Help to Buy scheme. Do you think I could factor that into what I have saved? Could I go to a bank with my savings and Help to Buy application and still he approved?

Black_Knight · 28-05-2020 6:39pm

Febreeze wrote: »

When you add the 10k onto what we already have saved now we could possibly have a deposit on the dot but I wouldn't mind if I've to add another 2-3 months after to continue for a decent amount but preferably no longer than 2 years because at this rate, renting is draining me.

Thanks so much ðŸ˜Š

Also, I've just seen about the Help to Buy scheme. Do you think I could factor that into what I have saved? Could I go to a bank with my savings and Help to Buy application and still he approved?

Banks won't care about that. They'll approve you for as much as you can borrow. Then you can go for new houses with the help to buy scheme, or second hand houses. End of the day, the banks just want an independent valuation that says the house is worth around what you've paid for it.

So you need 10k to make up a good deposit? Plus 10k as I mentioned for expenses. So 20k in 18 months. Bit over 1k into savings every month gets you there.

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 6:47pm

Black_Knight wrote: »

Banks won't care about that. They'll approve you for as much as you can borrow. Then you can go for new houses with the help to buy scheme, or second hand houses. End of the day, the banks just want an independent valuation that says the house is worth around what you've paid for it.

So you need 10k to make up a good deposit? Plus 10k as I mentioned for expenses. So 20k in 18 months. Bit over 1k into savings every month gets you there.

Looks like itll be bread and butter for the next 18 months haha! It's doable. I've family that are willing to help and so has my partner so if needed we can ask but we are hoping we won't have too as that'll be more people to pay money too!

Here's to the next 18 months. Hopefully I can report back with a success story :-)

Black_Knight · 28-05-2020 7:09pm

Fyi, winter months are slow for properties, so most come off the market of things are slow. Dark and rainy days don't paint the picture of "our forever home". We capitalised on this. Bought our house in November. No counter offers. Feel like we got good value.

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 7:13pm

Black_Knight wrote: »

Fyi, winter months are slow for properties, so most come off the market of things are slow. Dark and rainy days don't paint the picture of "our forever home". We capitalised on this. Bought our house in November. No counter offers. Feel like we got good value.

Jesus another thing I didn't even think of. I never even factored that in. I'll make sure to keep an eye out during the winter. Even this winter I might have a nose around and see what the potentials are.

28-05-2020 7:15pm

Id always see it as a much better move to deal directly with the banks, brokers wouldn’t even enter my head to be honest and I don’t really know anyone who used one. Maybe if you haven’t a clue what to look for etc but if you are clued in I think it’s better to deal directly with banks.

I’ll be getting a self build mortgage also which is more limited in the banks that will give it and more complicated as I’ll have work started before applying etc so overall be easier the thrash things out directly.

cannotlogin · 28-05-2020 7:21pm

Someone mentioned it already but you really need to build a regular track record of savings, not building up an account with the surplus at the end of the money.

Commit to putting aside X amount of savings on payfate into a savings account so the Bank can see a build up on a regular basis. By all means top it up, the months you have extra spare cash but you have to do a minimum regular amount.

Ideally you need to build up a 12 month track record where your regular savings and your rent, exceed or at very minimum match for likely mortgage repayment each month.

Run a few figures on a mortgage calculator to see what the mortgage will cost. This is your target - you need to prove to the Bank you will have this figure available every month (rent & savings).

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 7:23pm

Malcolm Late Funeral wrote: »

Id always see it as a much better move to deal directly with the banks, brokers wouldn’t even enter my head to be honest and I don’t really know anyone who used one. Maybe if you haven’t a clue what to look for etc but if you are clued in I think it’s better to deal directly with banks.

I’ll be getting a self build mortgage also which is more limited in the banks that will give it and more complicated as I’ll have work started before applying etc so overall be easier the thrash things out directly.

I honestly didn't think of them myself or who exactly they were but after doing a bit of a search around and found some decent ones. I emailed and asked for advice. It wasn't exactly me asking to help me get a mortage per say, more so what the ins and outs were. Two emailed me no less than an hour after asking and they were extremely helpful and on the ball. When I do get to the deposit amounts I hope to get then maybe I'll see about getting one to help me out overall but it seems likely that we will go for it because so far I've heard nothing but great things and if it makes the process easier, sure why not.

Good luck with your home :-)

Musefan · 28-05-2020 7:25pm

Get mortgage protection insurance separate from the bank I.e dong avail of their offers, but get your home insurance with the bank. You may need to change mortgage protection if you’re changing mortgage provider, and at that point, you never know what your circumstances might be and how they may affect the premium. Therefore, it’s better to get it separate.

Rodney Bathgate · 28-05-2020 7:29pm

Avoid having transfers to gambling sites (in or out) on your bank statements.

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 7:31pm

cannotlogin wrote: »

Someone mentioned it already but you really need to build a regular track record of savings, not building up an account with the surplus at the end of the money.

Commit to putting aside X amount of savings on payfate into a savings account so the Bank can see a build up on a regular basis. By all means top it up, the months you have extra spare cash but you have to do a minimum regular amount. My partner is on the same boat. All saving but not exactly sure what the process is.

Ideally you need to build up a 12 month track record where your regular savings and your rent, exceed or at very minimum match for likely mortgage repayment each month.

Run a few figures on a mortgage calculator to see what the mortgage will cost. This is your target - you need to prove to the Bank you will have this figure available every month (rent & savings).

I had such a blast using the mortage calculator on a few banking websites and I swear I scared myself silly thinking I would never be able to afford anything. I'm pretty sure I was typing in the wrong details. That's what talked me into making this thread because all I kept thinking was, how can everyone else afford a mortage and I can't and what I was doing wrong.

I save into the Credit Union weekly. My account shows there's a set amount going into the credit union each week so thankfully they can see that. Unfortunately during this crisis, my savings is lower than what I usually would save but again, weekly and set amount and at the end of the week if I've a few quid sitting in my account the day before payday, I'll put that into my savings as well. Would this be class as saving? Or is that showing I'm just throwing odd coins into the pot?

I got a few numbers from the mortage calculator and what frightened me was that they were all different so I ended up confused on what exactly I needed to save. It's like I need someone to take over my account and do it for me because I feel like I'm doing it all wrong.

Febreeze · 28-05-2020 7:33pm

Rodney Bathgate wrote: »

Avoid having transfers to gambling sites (in or out) on your bank statements.

Have that all nipped in the bud since last year. All gambling, clothing and take away accounts all shut :-)

angel eyes 2012 · 28-05-2020 7:35pm

Musefan wrote: »

Get mortgage protection insurance separate from the bank I.e dong avail of their offers, but get your home insurance with the bank. You may need to change mortgage protection if you’re changing mortgage provider, and at that point, you never know what your circumstances might be and how they may affect the premium. Therefore, it’s better to get it separate.

What is the advantage of getting your home insurance with the Bank. Unless it's the best quote, I would recommend shopping around.

Do's and don'ts for first time buyers

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