Posting on behalf of a parent but I have all the details.

Recently sold and downsized their house so they are mortgage free and have around £1m in cash after buying the new house (no mortgage). Other than state pension, no pension, no investments or other income to speak of. Parent is keen to get advice on how to use their money, but all their friends are recommending them st James place and I'm trying to convince them that this is a bad idea.

My idea is to provide them with an alternative route, mapped out so that they can pay for a 1 off fixed fee chat with an ifa, using the plan I provide as a starting point. They are not super financially literate so this seems like a good middle ground between paying exorbitant fees to sjp and just self managing with no advice. posting the plan here for your critique and in case it's useful for others looking to do similar.

** Needs to last to at least 85 (planning to 95). They are a relatively cautious investor and don't want an annuity as one of them is relatively ill, but I think this may need exploring. Expecting the full state pension from 66/67.

**The split**

• **£250k cash and fixed savings (years 1–8):** £60k easy access, then about £47.5k each in 1, 2, 3 and 5-year fixed bonds at different banks (all under the £120k FSCS limit). Cash ISA used each year.
• **£300k index-linked gilts (years 9–16):** held to maturity, roughly one maturing each year.
• **£250k global tracker (age 82+ and longevity reserve):** Moved into a S&S ISA £20k a year.

Roughly 31% cash, 38% gilts, 31% equities.

**How it runs**

• Spend from cash; bonds and gilts refill it as they mature
• Top up from equities after good years, leave them alone after bad ones
• Use the full £20k ISA allowance every April

**Target income:** about £28–30k a year from the pot plus the state pension (about £12.5k), so £40–42k total in today's money.

Seeing an IFA soon. Anything you'd change, especially the equity share, or using low-coupon gilts instead of some of the fixed savings?

Hi all,

I'm planning a loft conversion costing around £70k–£80k. I'll use £60k in savings, but expect to borrow up to £30k to cover the shortfall. I'll also use an interest-free credit card for some purchases where possible.

We have around £200k equity in our house, but our fixed-rate mortgage has another four years to run.

I should be able to repay the borrowing within a year using my annual bonus and monthly payments of around £1,000.

What would be the most cost-effective option? Mortgage borrowing may offer lower interest rates, but I'm concerned about early repayment charges and fees. Would a personal loan work out cheaper overall for such a short period?

I'd appreciate any advice or experiences. Thanks!

EDIT: Reason for not waiting a year is because the price keeps going up. Just under £5,000 less was my quote from the same company last year.

Ive been paying my student loan via my employer paye but none of the payments have been credited on my student loans account, as far as they are concerned i have no paid. Ive tried filling in my employment details 3 times and calling slc and they say that the issue is for my employer to fix but they say theyve done everything they can. So ive lost the money but have no repayment to show for it. How do i fix this if my employer will not deal with it.

Student loans suggested requesting my money back from my employer but thats likely to cause workplace drama.

Any advice appreciated. Can i contact hmrc directly to get this fixed if so how?

Many thanks

Hi everyone!

I'm 30 and hoping to buy my first property around April/May 2027. I'm looking at flats in Portsmouth, ideally between £140,000 and £160,000.

I work for the NHS on a bank contract, so I'm not on guaranteed contracted hours. However, I work regularly and can choose my shifts.

I will be earning £32,000 gross annually, and I am aiming for around a 15% deposit.

My circumstances are:

Employment: NHS bank worker with variable hours and income.

Shift pattern: I'm planning to work three long days a week (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday), plus one Sunday a month and potentially some additional half shifts.

Previous earnings: My hours have varied quite a bit. Some months I've mainly worked weekends, while others I've worked considerably more.

I have worked for Bank Partners for 3 years, but had a temporary DBS gap in August/September for 2 months so I wasn't able to work so would affect my recent annual earnings.

Deposit: I'm expecting to have a substantial deposit, partly from inheritance and ISA savings.

Property budget: Approximately £140k–£160k.

Location: Portsmouth, Hampshire.

Application: Hoping to obtain an AIP around April 2027 and start viewing properties shortly afterwards.

My biggest concern is how lenders assess NHS bank income, especially when previous months haven't been as consistent as my intended working pattern.

I've heard that some lenders will consider three or six months of payslips, but I'm worried about getting an AIP, finding a property and having an offer accepted, only for the underwriter to request 12 months of payslips and potentially reject my application because my earlier earnings were lower.

I'd really appreciate advice on the following:

Has anyone successfully obtained a mortgage while working solely on an NHS bank contract?

Which lenders are generally more flexible with NHS bank workers and variable shift patterns?

Do lenders typically assess the most recent three or six months of earnings, or could they request 12 months during underwriting?

I've loaned a friend a few thousand at an agreed rate of 5%.

(This is someone I trust, and we have some safeguard measures in place, for example in his will. The interest is only a few hundred a year, not big bucks.)

He deposits my interest in my bank account every month. Technically this is taxable income, right? I'm already maxed out on all allowances so this would be taxable at 40%.

So when I come to do my self assessment, how do I declare this? Alongside other investment income earnings? But those are from banks, building societies, so HMRC already know about those.

If I declare this as income, will it raise questions with HMRC?

I got my tax calculation through which says I owe a couple of hundred in tax because of interest over the allowance (most of this is extra mortgage we took out for building work sat in a savings account for a few months). I looked at their calculation and I recognise the interest on most of the accounts except for one which shows me having about £450 in interest from an account I don't recognise. As much as I want it to be the case, I don't have £10k lying around that I've forgotten about.

It looks like HMRC phone lines aren't open till Monday. Is there anything I can do in the meantime to look into this? I'm assuming HMRC won't accept "that's not my money, don't tax me on it" at face value.

Hi all,

I set a password notice of correction on my credit file last year and can’t remember the password that I set.

I am going through a mortgage application at the moment and during the application interview earlier this month the notice of correction was flagged by the mortgage advisor.

I have since requested the notice of correction to be removed from my file so the application can go through and I’ve had written confirmation from the Experian that it has been removed.

I have also checked my credit report with the other two UK credit agencies Equifax and Transunion they also say there are not notices of correction on my file yet my lender can still see it on their side?

I have sent my downloaded credit files as proof to my lender but they can still see it. What can I do here?

I’m a 30 year old freelancer who’s having a particularly good year, and will be earning about £60k+ come April. Up until this point, I’ve just been contributing monthly to a S&S ISA, but now there seems to be more tax-efficient options (SIPP).

For context, my partner and I are looking to buy our first home within the next year, and have children within the next 2-3 years.

I’ve also been unfortunately too relaxed about pension contributions in my 20s, being self employed and not having any employer contribution. I realise now that was not the best choice, but better to realise now than later.

At the moment, my accounts roughly stand at:

£65k — house deposit (spread across premium bonds, cash LISA, and high interest savings accounts)
£15k — S&S ISA (invested in global index fund)
£10k — emergency fund
£7k — SIPP (also invested in global index fund)

I’m looking for advice on where to put any additional income that will be taxed at 40%. My instinct is to put it all into my pension for the tax relief. But with a house purchase coming up, and children on the horizon, another part of me wants to keep some of it as cash.

I’m also weary about AI and the global market affecting any immediate contributions to SIPP / S&S ISA. I understand time in market is better than timing the market, but part of me thinks keeping cash for the next year could be better if a correction occurs. Obviously it’s hard to predict (I.e I could also miss out on gains) but it’s been playing on my mind a lot.

Does anyone have any thoughts and advice? Would really appreciate it!

Hi all,

I'm 29 and in London, investing for the long term (retirement), and I'd like a sanity check on where to keep my ISA money.

My setup:

- Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap fund (VAFTGAG, accumulation OEIC) on the Vanguard platform: about £8.2k, currently £200/month, going up to £300/month next month
- Trading 212: a cash ISA with about £24k, plus a stocks and shares ISA where I hold some individual stocks
- About £9k in a H2B ISA
- About £7k of this year's ISA allowance left

I'm thinking of moving my Vanguard ISA over to T212 so everything is on one platform, and buying VWRP there instead.

Vanguard's platform fee looks like £48/year under £32k on top of the 0.23% fund charge which is about £67/year, whereas T212 has no platform fee.

Is it worth switching purely on fees, given it's a cash transfer and I'd be out of the market for a few days?

VWRP is FTSE All-World, which covers large and mid caps but not small caps, unlike my current All Cap fund. Is that gap worth caring about?

I've seen Vanguard has launched a Global All-Cap ETF (VALL) with a 0.07% charge that also seems to be on T212.

Would that be a better replacement than VWRP, given how new it is?

Or should I just leave it where it is and put the extra £7k allowance into T212 instead?

I'm not planning to touch any of it until retirement. Any thoughts or things I haven't considered? I’m concerned about how if would affect my tax free ISA limit for the tax year

Thanks!

I bought some stuff from a high street store, about £60.
When I tried to pay with my phone the machine threw an error so the assistant reset it and asked me to try again. It went through ok second time.
Checked CC online and it showed 2 pending payments. Went back to shop and they said one would drop off after a couple of days.
It didn’t so I contacted retailer via web chat and they said they would sort it in 24-48 hours.
Heard nothing so contacted them again, they said give them another 24 hours which I agreed to.
If I hear nothing after 24 hours would it be reasonable of me to contact bank to instigate a chargeback ?
Are chargebacks easy to do ? I’ve never had to before.

Hi, my elderly father has a pension that takes him over the 12750 allowance. He also has a Yorkshire BS savings account that has for some years been accruing over £2000pa in interest. Does he need to declare this to HMRC, please? If so, how far back does he need account for? Thanks

Hi All,

We have been trying to sell our home for a year now and market conditions mean we have lots of viewings but no real offers. Only options we have left are:

1. Part exchange
2. Rent it out and buy something later.

I know the cons of both (and have researched them in quite detail. I know people only voice negative outcomes. So I’m looking for the opposite.

In the current market what are just the positives for both options?

Our home: bought it (3-bed semi) for ~270k, 9 years ago new in Exeter. On-market for £290k. Few part-exchange offers between £280-290k (one at £315k but we are not sure of the location). Rental income potential £1.4k per month. Both (me & my wife working and earn above £60k each

We are not worried about tax, regulations etc. Just long-term plans.

Update: ~100k remaining on mortgage.

I have no one else to blame but myself if I've royally screwed up here. Bit of context, I had a random text saying resolvecall would be sending someone round a couple of weeks ago. Ignored it because it gave no information about what it related to and had no letters from them. Fast forward to about 20mins ago I'd nipped out and someone triggered my ring doorbell. Thinking it was a delivery answered it and they announced they were from resolvecall,

Ok fine what's it about ?

"Can you confirm your details as all discussions are recorded important note)

Once again asked why all I wanted to know was what this was about.

The usual blah blah if you confirm I can give you the details...

This is where my frazzled brain possibly screwed me.. I just said fine address is x

Postcode z

Finally says it's regarding Capgemini Santander at which point alarm bells ring I do vaguely recall that but it was a VERY long time ago and most definitely statute barred with no ccj so I quickly after remembering the "this is being recorded" added "I do not acknowledge any debt and require any further correspondence in writing"

Thankfully the guy buggered off when I kept saying I wanted it in writing and I wasn't willing to discuss with him especially not over a bloody doorbell.

So how much have I potentially f!*ked myself and how do I go about sending the usual I believe this to be statute barred letter (assuming the mse ones are still valid?) if they haven't even bothered to leave details on a card?

Editted to add: found the text they sent (in junk!) and it does mention an account number but nothing further so I guess I'd need to write to resolvecall with that account number? Just to reiterate the guy door stepping never mentioned account numbers just the company names.

Got a amazon card check from the us so flagged it as fraud, this card (card 1) got a new number on the natwest app and card 2 (unrelated card) has completely disappeared from my account?

Update: natwest said card 2 was overlimit and expired, it wasn't. Card 1 was expired but it had a balance of £0 and that's still on my account?

Hi all,

I will try to keep it short.

My partner and I are planning to buy a £400k house in Fife later this year. Unfortunately, I own a property in NE Scotland purchased during the height of the market in 2014, and it has lost at least 40% of the value since than, due to saturation of the local market with hundreds of similar properties. I still have £65k on the mortgage, and if lucky the flat will sell for £100k. If unlucky, much less.

The rental market seems to be hanging in balance. And nearby flats were often rented out in weeks for £750ish

We would like to get the flat sold so that we can avoid paying the second home tax (Thank you Scottish government for punishing people with a significant loss even more). However, my fear is that the flat may not sell within a reasonable time, so now I am looking for alternative options. A transfer to a ltd is option 2, and last resort is keeping it in my own name and make a £300 loss (fees, 42% tax bracket) monthly topped up with £32000 second home tax

Would transferring ownership to a limited company be an option? What are the things I should take into account and what are expected transfer costs?

Cheers,