Miscellaneous advice

Equity release Many folk who decide to release equity from the value of the property that they are living in, often discover after the event that they have given themselves a life sentence of being a prisoner in their own home. At some point, someone will have to meet the cost as this is not a free service & that just might be you, not someone to whom the property has been left to. Any number of changed circumstances could bring about a situation where you wanted or need to move house, but equity release will prevent that until the entire release value has been repaid, along with the huge fee. I would not dream of telling anyone what to do in their life circumstances, but I do want us all to know & understand the actual facts. ps: Equity Release frequently asked questions The above links with some of the basic questions & answers. One of the questions & answers : Can I move home if I want to? All providers that are members of the Equity Release Council, have to allow you to move if you want to, without charging a penalty - subject to the new property meeting the lender's acceptable property criteria. The last part of that answer is as good as No!

I wonder if this equity release could be used as a way to prevent you losing your property in the event that you have to go in a nursing home? I have always thought it unfair that whilst people without savings or their own home can get nursing home care for free, those who struggle to pay a mortgage for 25 years are forced to sell their childrens potential inheritance to pay the fees.

Hi all Equity Release. The above article states ten good reasons for releasing part of the value on your home & for many folk it is a legal way of providing extra funding in old age. The implication of reducing your tax burden is possibly the most attractive aspect for many. Do remember though, that benefit is only under the present rules regards property ownership. They could change at any time particularly as so many are doing it nowadays. Parliament only has to change the rules, so that it is whoever's name is on the deeds, without any reference to whether there is a deferred debt to be settled. The other thing to take into account, is just ask yourself why is this being offered? Someone comes along & gives you say £30k, with a binding contract where they receive £30k when the property is not needed anymore. Not quite right. Yes, you might receive the £30k, but the debt owed maybe twice or even three times more than that value. It is not being done for nothing. So, please spare a thought for that. I saw a stat recently, for a huge well-to-do area of one of our nearby towns where equity release was affecting over half the homes. That volume of devaluation going on under the noses of parliament, might just force a change in what folk have to contribute for receiving care in the future. Just my own thoughts. In my own case, if I was single & living on my own, under current rules it might be viable, or at least worth a consideration, but an absolute no-no for me as part of a living couple. We could be leaving a noose around the survivor's neck.

Hi all Equity Release I have said so much about this issue but whatever the myths or non-myths, what is fact is that very little if any is ever left over for family or loved ones following equity release. That is why we are all being encouraged to do it. You obtain 40% of your home value, the remaining 60% goes to the "fat-cats", not anyone else. They are laughing all the way to the bank!

Hi all A news item that has caught my attention. Equity Release, may be a big factor, will explain my reasons. The sixties, seventies & eighties were big city exodus times for so many, either early retirement with moonlighting interests or even those exploiting that scenario of folks with a few bob to spend on luxury items & services. As their funds dwindled, many have turned to equity release. That only lasts fo so long, plus the fact that equity release is as good as giving the property away with cornflakes. The reason being that in less than a decade from the cash release date, more is owed on the property than the property is worth. That is why, inspite of the mass advertising giving some advantages for equity realease, for a couple living in their own house, to release whilst both are still alive, usually leaves the survivor as a prisoner in their own home. This scenario is not just confined to seaside towns, many of our local high value housing estates are in the same "boat", but not in the same volume as being described in this news article. Please don't misunderstand me. I am not totally against equity release, but I do wish that folks understood the implications & risks of doing it.

Hi all, The Perils of Equity Release, be warned.

Evening all, I've just watched the Martin Lewis Money Show, the last in the current series. Tonight's show concentrated on scams. Personal identity theft, or even partial identity theft, is so common. So much so, that even if we were to change our passwords every week, within a day, some part may have been breached. Not necessarily from our records. One of our traders or the like may have been accessed. The one thing that we can do, if we bank online, is to check each account that we have very regularly. Not just once a month, please. I check mine daily, using a separate device, with no phone access. That's my take on the subject of scam vulnerabilities. Hope that helps.

Banks and credit cards are introducing phone code security, where certain actions like adding payees require you to enter a code sent to your phone. On mine I get sent an email or text message if a payment is above a certain size or my account goes below a certain level. Unless a website is a bank or similar, I never give my real birthday. I have to keep a list though. But I don't keep the list on my computer.

I got a scam call today - though perhaps yesterday by the time you read this. A call from a 01403 number (code is for Horsham, Sussex) suggested my internet would be cut off within the next two hours. To prevent it I should input the number one and that would automatically put me through to my service provider. DON'T!!! Twelve hours later my internet is still working. Robin

Thanks for that Pix, I had exactly the same message twice last week but saying it was Telstra and then NBN saying they were working in the area. I had to press one. The one from NBN was a woman's voice. My internet is still working a week later - touch wood. Although they did ring off after their message. I hope their call cost them a packet!!

Beware. As I said in a recent post, I got the same scam purporting to be from Amazon - and I've never done Amazon! Whatever you do don't press one! Especially from a mobile. The scam is you've then initiated a call which is charged at premium rate, e.g. £99 per minute, which you won't know about until your next bill. As for the "incoming" number and area code, that doesn't mean anything. It's usually spoofed. The Amazon call I got appeared to be from Plymouth (Devon, UK). One of the downsides of modern digital technology is that it's made life easier for the criminals. They once had to physically break into a bank vault to steal your life savings. Difficult and risky. Now they can do it from anywhere on the planet, using the internet to hack your account and embezzle. Easy.

My friend regularly gets the 'press one or your phone and internet goes off' calls. Touch wood, I get none at all. I'm signed up to receive no marketing calls (Telephone Preference Service TPS), I'm ex directory and I'm ex visible voting register and have been since I got the number. My friend hadn't done this for her maiden name and even though she's married now, she still gets called but they're for her maiden name. I discovered that that name was still visible in online directories. Last time I looked her name had gone - it remains to be seen if the calls taper off. The TPS used to be set by name but I think it must now be by phone number. Which makes sense as you don't want to miss a member of the family or the previous owners and get their marketing calls anyway. What I do get is periodic calls for a pair of ratbags who give my number to things like their gas supplier and then don't pay. I get called by debt collectors and even the Citizen's Advice Bureau. Quite a few of those organisations have automated system to ask for the person and then say 'if this is not you press 1. I just hang up'. If they really want to find out, they'll have a real person ring.

Beware of the latest TV Licensing scam - appears regularly in TalkTalk emails. They claim they have been "unable to automatically renew your licence as your bank has declined the latest Direct Debit payment." They are trying to trick you into clicking on the Direct Debit link - DON'T!! Best thing to do is to delete the email and/or forward it to the "phishing" department of your ISP (Internet Service Provider).

Hi all, Sorry to annoy you with my old moan subject, but two Equity release stories have unearthed themselves to me in recent weeks. One, a widow in Coventry, another in Nuneaton. In both cases, each widow was expecting a financial provision from their substantially valued homes, but alas, in both cases the cupboards are empty. Folk just do not realise the implications of compound interest, where just a fairly minor/modest release of a few bob, in one case just over £20k twenty years ago, now means that the home, in a very well to do area of Coventry has no value for the widow, at a time where she was hoping to employ carers. Neither of these families could be described as stupid, both, skilled members in society, but their finance expertise, zero. Equity release is easy, too easy, often portrayed as the obvious solution to a cash shortfall. There are various ways to manage it, if it's undertood, that for example would require a relatively small monthly payment, just to pay off the interest in its infancy when it is manageable, not waiting for the value to rise to £7k a year. I'm honestly so sorry to gripe you with this issue, BUT, PLEASE, PLEASE BE WARNED!

A very important warning Philip. I was well advised from the get go since I took out a repayment mortgage at the height of the endowment selling era. Every bit of spare cash went to paying a bit more off. I liked the idea of having a guaranteed roof over my head. It would take a lot to persuade me to reverse that process.