arrgee1991

Lenders still do this. However they do have a tendency to add on 0.5% to the mortgage rate for interest only these days. The lack of availability of Interest only mortgages for older borrowers (50+) is a factor in the low number of property transactions. Very few people borrow on a repayment basis for much less than 25 years as this makes the monthly payments very high. Most end up staying put and just continuing with the mortgage they are already on. It's insane that people with large pension pots are forced into repayments.

It is! The best thing to do is to die aged 74 and 364 days and then get the whole pension fund tax free and possibly life insurance as well. Just hope my kids don't work this out in about 20 years time. Still it worked for Mr and Mrs Darwin for a while... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Darwin_disappearance_case

The best thing most people can do is exhaust all other savings before going anywhere near the pension pot. Extend the mortgage term to your 75th birthday and then take the tax free lump sum and pay it off if need be. Should you die before you are 75, the whole pot is tax free and free from IHT. Better to use 100% of the fund to pay off the mortgage rather than 25%.

This is highly unlikely as all pension pots are in trust. It would require the trustees to agree to this which is unlikely.

They wouldn't have much to spend. For a higher rate tax payer putting £10,000/ annum into their pensions at best they would only get less £6,000/annum net and in many cases far less than that. If taxes were reduced then people would put less into their pensions and spend more.

I suspect saving 50-65% on their tax bill now will more than outweigh the loss of the state pension, which on average only pays out for about 15 years. It is inevitable that the state pension will be reduced or means testing introduced.

Corporate and Wealth taxes such as CGT, Mansion Tax etc. are more likely than income taxes. When you add in NI, the governments taxes everyone at least 40% on everything earned over the personal allowance, and at the cliff edges 65%. It would be difficult to get much more out of people.

No, However there probably won't be many large pots for those who have already retired who would mostly have annuities or those who plan to retire in the next few years who will pocket the 25% tax free lump sum and drawdown rapidly. I suspect that those whose retirement is ten or more years down the line will be at most risk from such a raid.

Agree with all you write. If you have too many kids your marginal rate could be over 100%. £41,865 is my maximum taxable pay these days because with salary sacrifice I can put £2 into my pension rather than £1 in my pocket thanks to getting the employers NI. Sadly, I'm old enough to look at it as a short term savings plan paying close to 100% interest.

Total tax and NI is 40% up to the top of the lower rate band followed by 49% when the effect of the 13.8% Employers NI is considered. £1000 gross is really £1138 to be paid by the employer for basic rate £200 + £120 + £138 = £458 ~= 40%; higher rate £400 + £20 + £138 = £558 ~= 49% NI will doubtless be extended to the £50K threshold making the true saving about 9% on the £8000.

Mainly cos the free streams are poor quality and liable to be blocked with zero notice. Also I believe they are illegal. Surprising Virgin are doing this because they had a £150 Sports Season Ticket for the ten months of the football season, so their offering is significantly cheaper. I was going to just get the Now TV passes as and when required for £11/week, but I figured with all the Champions League games and most recently the GAA it would be worthwhile stumping up the £150 in advance. And because I have Tivo, I can always delay my viewing until the kids go to bed. So that's why I pay. The bigger rip off is BT Sport. £15/month on Virgin for one Premier League game a week at best; none between 8th and 29th November, whilst Sky have half a dozen plus European games and internationals .

It is different. Low interest rates encouraging higher level of debt that can't ever be paid off, so it never will be. Those that graduate next summer will start with £50K of debt and end up with effective tax rates of over 50% on what they earn. Roll the mortgage on down the family.

Sub prime doesn't equate to crisis. With the current low interest rates regime none of the above will cause a crisis. The EU dropped its rate, US won't increase rates whilst they are still using QE, so no chance of UK raising rates

People have, or had because banks don't like to give them out, interest only mortgages for a variety of reasons. I made the decision that I'd be happier just paying the interest on a monthly basis and use any windfalls like bonuses to pay off the capital. If I had a repayment mortgage at the moment, then due to the remaining term being just over ten years, any payment I make would be 20% interest with 80% going towards the capital repayment. I could pay off the whole thing with savings, but as my savings are earning more than 2.5%, I'm profiting and have no desire to make any repayments. In the future I suspect no one will ever pay off the mortgage. For expensive properties, it would make more sense to use equity release and keep the value of the estate below the IHT threshold. The banks normally win in the end as they will get the money one way or another short of another sub prime crisis. Interest Only -> Equity Release -> Grave seems like the option for many.

Exactly. If I owe the bank a million, they have a bigger problem than me. PS I don't owe them anything like a million.