Hi folks. My name is Gary, I am single, 31 and live in Derbyshire. Hope you like my ONE ACCOUNT re...
Hi folks. My name is Gary, I am single, 31 and live in Derbyshire. Hope you like my ONE ACCOUNT review. Here's to being mortgage free by 2011....GET IN!!!
Member since:15.01.2007
Reviews:4
I HAVE WROTE AN UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE. HOPE YOU ENJOY READING AND PLEASE FEEL FREE TO GET IN TOUCH IF YOU WISH. GARY.
The One Account…...where to begin??? Well for a start you need to have a common sense mentality, or this product will simply not work for you.
The account works by purchasing your house on your switch card, i.e. you have a massive overdraft; as simple as that.
You then pay in your wages and any other sums of money you can get hold of into your account, and hey presto, you simply pay off the debt.
Why does this product work for me? Well my scenario is that my I own over half of my property, so I benefit from the lowest rates of interest that they offer. If you are not in this situation then the account is not really for you as better deals can be found. Now for the interesting bit…..can you save money….or do you have savings???
Quite simply, if you have £10,000 of savings in the bank that you like to have access to but save it and don't spend it, then you will technically make more money by paying it off your mortgage and reducing your interest than having it sat in a bank account. The Halifax etc brag about 5% interest on current accounts which in a normal world is very good, yet I get 6.5% on my
savings TAX FREE as it is held in the form of a debt. I still have access to it as I please and when I want. I simply call the One Account and arrange to pick it up at my local Royal Bank of Scotland.
As for the common sense approach to this account. You can take payment breaks when you like, take more money out on your house and buy a car, holiday or home improvements, as long as you pay the interest the One Account are happy. But I can not emphasise enough that if you don't pay the debt, then you will stay in debt, it is the same no matter if it is a credit card bill or £100,000 on your house….the debt needs to be paid, the quicker the better.
I am not going to harp on for ages about the pro's and con's of this mortgage, but the smart money is held in these accounts, and as long as you are careful, sensible and have a desire to actually own your house one day then this is the best form of mortgage ever, it really is that simple.
Feel free to read reviews about these guys not passing on interest rate cuts etc, SO WHAT!!! Come on, in reality these days of petrol price hikes and food price increases etc etc……say to yourself, a few pounds a week…..do a reality check and look at when you last spent £20 on a round of drinks and didn't bat and eye lid, then £15 on a taxi home, see what is more important and what cuts you can make first. AND you still get the higher rate tax free on the 'savings' in the account.
Again this account is for smart people and smart money, I will advise the 'moaners and groaners' out there to stay away and not to annoy the call handlers just before I get through requiring sensible help. Take my word for it, Moneysavingexpert.com 's word for it, trendy house buying magazines word for it and your financial advisers word for it (if you can trust them to be 'independent'….yeah right!!!) and save yourself loads of money and own your house as quickly as you can pay for it.
AN UPDATE AS OF THIS ACCOUNT, OCTOBER 2009.
Since I wrote this review there has been a whole host of changes in the financial climate in this country.
Now I am lucky enough (depending on how you view it) to have a job where I am not going to get made redundant due to what I do, basically work for the government.
So, how has my One Account faired? Well it was a massive benefit when the interest rates fell, despite the RBS not quite going as low as the base rate, but the result was that I am managing to pay off my mortgage faster than ever.
The way this works is that I have not had my mortgage fall from £700 a month to £500 a month and having an extra £200 in my back pocket, cash that most people feel better off having in order to basically treat themselves (or put to use for other non-essential items). The way this ever so simple account works is that the extra cash has been paying off my overall debt, therefore the more I pay off the less the debt gets and the quicker and quicker this is happening. So my £200 a month better off, became £210 the next month, £220 the next and so on, my debt getting smaller and smaller all the time.
My projection is to pay off a £63000 mortgage in about 5 years, 15 years less than what was predicted when I entered all of my details into their web site.
My financial situation is that I only earn around the national average wage, but this account was planned towards what I earn, and has been smashed to smithereens as the projection was estimated/projected to ensure that I meet it in a worst case scenario.
I have talked my partner into changing her mortgage to this one. For that we both received £120 cash (I give it to her towards the charges incurred in changing to this account, so ‘in effect’ she managed to transfer to it for around £80 for all the surveys/legal fees etc). She also feels it is the best financial move she has ever made and is expected to take around 10 years off her old mortgage projection/timeline.
I cannot recommend the One Account enough. In fact I think you are crazy not to change to it, but remember, ONLY CHANGE TO IT IF YOU CAN SAVE MONEY!!!! This account really is no good if you can’t resist spending what you have left over in your wage packet; that is not the point of it!!
If you want to change to this account and want to get £120 for free off the RBS, then I am more than happy to recommend you as a friend. Please feel free to contact me on gary.miller1978@tiscali.co.uk and we can sort it out.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Good interest free overdraft, nice piece of plastic, lots of branches Disadvantages: Online banking a chore to setup, customer service should be better
May 15th, 2008
(Oct 28th, 2009)
very helpful by (100%):
