salamander

My bad. Didn't realise that a current lender is obliged to let you switch to a better deal, even in negative equity situations. Thanks for the correction.

I personally find the arrogance of some people on here unbelievable

It might be true that no-one chooses the SVR, but in order to avoid it at the end of, for example, a fixed term you would need to remortgage. It will almost certainly be the case that any potential new lender will require a basic survey including an up to date valuation before they will give you the mortgage. If prices have fallen to the extent where you are in negative equity at this time it is very unlikely that you will be granted the new mortgage so will be stuck with the SVR offered by your existing lender. Oh dear

So long as you are OK with locking some of it up for at least a year, you could consider some of the NS&I investments http://www.nsandi.co.uk. You can currently invest 30K (2x15k) in index-linked savings and 30K (2x15k) in fixed rate savings. These are all tax-free so will be most effective if you are a higher rate taxpayer. The terms for each are quoted as longer than 1 year but so long as you leave the investments in place for 1 year there are no early withdrawal penalties. Note that if you do take out the capital in the first year you will get no interest at all. The same people do premium bonds (up to 30K) but obviously returns on these (tax-free winnings) are not guaranteed. I've used up all of my tax-free allowance with NS&I (93K including their ISA) but appreciate that this approach will not suit everyone.

She's on and looking dog rough. Someone in make-up clearly doesn't like her!

I'm hoping cash based pension funds are a safer haven in these uncertain times. I switched all of my pension funds there today, just for the time being. Been thinking about if for a couple of weeks and sent off the letter to the pension co. this afternoon. Fingers crossed for the next day or two. Much less spectacular returns but ought to be far more resistant to nasty bursting bubbles.

Looks like someone new to her forum has raised the possibility of an HPC, in a very gentle and caring way that nevertheless could make her and the other readers of that thread very nervous... I wonder who could have done that?

A bit more detail on odds of winning/not winning (if I can remember properly how to do the maths...) Each bond has a 1 in 24000 chance of winning according to NS&I A single bond therefore has a 23999 in 24000 chance of NOT winning, a probability of 0.999958333 If you hold 30000 bonds, the probability of NONE of them winning is 30000 of these 0.999958333s multiplied together, which comes to 0.286497336 or 29% Therefore, in any month, the probability of this NOT being true (i.e. of winning at least one prize) comes out at around 71%.. I think

I invested in these today and I don't think that is right, based on what I was told. I put 15K into both the 3 and 5 year issues today and according to the salesperson I spoke to, whenever there is a new issue of either (which can happen several times a year) I can put another 15K into that as well. In fact, she said she knows of people with over a million pounds total invested in these and a quick calculation shows that (ignoring interest) you would have to reach the age of about 125 in order to accumulate this amount, if only only 15K can be held in each of the 3 year and 5 year certificates at any time. Hope this is helpful to anyone thinking of investing in these.

..so long as interest rates never go up. That £800 for LIVING expenses disappears far more quickly for the larger mortgage as rates go up (£220 vs £80 for a 1% rise). Let's hope they remember to go fixed.