No new trades this week:
| Code | Sector | Date Bought | Cost | Value | Gain/Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LM009 LM009-2 |
Gas, Water & Multiutilities | 05/02/2019 04/02/2020 |
£2020 | £1980 | (2.00%) |
| LM012 LM012-2 |
Real Estate Investment Trusts | 20/05/2019 28/11/2019 |
£2030 | £2340 | 15.28% |
| LM023 | ETF | 19/05/2020 | £1020 | £980 | (4.17%) |
| LM024 LM024-2 |
ETC | 01/06/2020 23/06/2020 |
£2030 | £2100 | 3.55% |
The FTSE 100 closed on Friday 2 points down from the previous Friday.
I wonder what "full time traders" do all week when the markets do nothing at all...
Not that I'm an active trader but couple the lack of action in the markets with lockdown and I find myself with plenty of time to do all my various financial admin tasks.
This year the plan is to buy a house which is likely made easier if your credit report looks tidy. I'm waiting for my unused cashback credit card account to be closed and they are taking a long time about it.
I sent a letter to request its closure in the middle of May and they responded within a week so it's around 6 weeks now since they promised to close it. But the account still exists on my credit report and though the balance is zero it irritates me to see that it's still there.
More incompetence from a credit card company - reinforces my hate for credit cards I guess!
Although I never built up particularly large debts on credit cards, the thought of running one brings back some not-so-fond memories.
It was September 2019, I'd been separated for 3 years, I was waiting for my divorce to become final and I was desperate to avoid paying interest on any of my debt.
I'd managed to go nearly 3 years paying rent where I lived, half a mortgage where I didn't, maintenance, utilities, holidays, childcare and various other bills without incurring any interest whatsoever.
Unfortunately I had to pay a solicitor and the bills came every month. I'd pay these bills on my cashback credit card, kidding myself that it was worthwhile to earn 0.2% cashback. The only problem was that to avoid interest this card needed clearing to zero every month.
On the whole I'd managed to find the money I needed to pay the card off.
Sometimes this meant selling something on eBay or taking advantage of a casino win and withdrawing the money rather than keeping it as part of my matched-betting "bank". All my 9-to-5 income was used each month either for bills, entertainment or debt repayment. I wasn't saving money at this point.
And if all else failed, if I was too stretched in any particular month, then I would resort to using a 0% balance transfer deal to clear the card.
So at this point I was just a few weeks away from getting my (tiny) divorce settlement when I realised that I had a small 4-figure sum on the card but didn't have the spare cash to clear it before the end of the month. I didn't even want to try and calculate how much the interest would be, I just wanted it gone.
The answer came from another credit card provider who offered me a 0% deal for 6 months. I didn't need 6 months, more like 6 weeks, but it was good enough. As it had a balance transfer fee it would mean paying a few quid but this wasn't strictly "interest" so I was OK with that.
Happily I gave the go-ahead for Sainsbury's to take on the debt and charge me 3% and all was well... or not.
"We need to see proof that you own the credit card with the balance on it before the transfer can proceed"
For. F***'s. Sake.
Time's ticking away and these clowns seem to think I am trying to take on someone else's debt!
I dug out a statement and sent it off first class along with a covering letter and waited.
And waited...
This may seem like a "first world problem" but I just can't stand the thought of giving any money whatsoever to a bank. Paying interest on a credit card is a huge no-no for me. I once closed a current account with HSBC because they charged me a small fee (70p or similar) and the jobsworth on the phone wouldn't refund it.
If the balance transfer didn't proceed in time then it was possible I could find myself in the unpleasant situation of paying interest on the balance on the original card and then, the next day, paying a balance transfer fee when Sainsbury's finally decided to pull their finger out and honour their end of the deal.
A couple of days' hand-wringing later and the transfer was complete. The outstanding balance on the interest-charging credit card was cleared and at the end of the next month my divorce was finalised. I was off the mortgage and free to carry on with my life. I cleared the credit cards that contained all my divorce-related debt and swore that I'd stop messing around with debt.
Nowadays, after wasting my time fretting over daft stuff like this I'm fully ot the opinion that debt is dumb and cash really is king.