credit crunch

[Luke]

Halifax have just increased their rates by 0.5%!!!!!

Riz

Interesting, my broker told me today that this would happen. However he also said that their could be a shift to a lower rate in the near future too. Feck knows whats going on:ffs:

[Luke]

looks like something is being done then, good news for us poor mortgage payers

[Riz]

Right.. it looks like that my wee Mini could be gone by the end of the week....... so I should have a min of £5000 to invest etc which excludes the £60-70pm I will save in running costs on the Mini.

Any suggestions people, what can I do?

Im on a fixed mortgage until next year but I had a £10k mortgage advance which runs out of its fixed rate in the next 2-4 months time (will check exact date).

Do I pay a lump of the £10k off or stick the money in a ISA?

Any advice welcome...

Cheers

Riz :D+++

[mb]

Well generally it is better to pay off your most expensive debt rather than save as normally you will be paying more in interest than you are receiving interest...

However - before chucking the 5k at the mortgage, credit cards etc. I would also consider if you have some savings as whilst reducing the mortgage is useful you may find you need the money to buy another car, house hold repairs etc. ISAs are good as tax free but again think about how easy to get money out & penalties involved if you need it - I assume you are thinking cash ISA ?

Some of the banks offer regular savings that pay a nice bonus/high rate of interest for regular small deposits so again may be worth considering for the 60-70 pm