******* Thread now closed, please see volume 52 ********
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In this thread you may ask any question for which you need help, advice, suggestions or whatever.
It does not need to be motoring related. In fact, in this thread it should not be.
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When posting a NEW question, please \"Reply to\" the first message in this thread, i.e. this one. This keeps each question in it\'s own separate segment and stops each new question from getting mixed up in amongst existing questions. Also please remember to change the subject header.
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SWMBO is going for a screen test for a pilot programme. I'm sworn to secrecy so can't say much but it's a practical/design type programme related to her profession. She was selected as she has helped with other programmes but purely giving technical advice to the camera crew making sure what they were shooting was following the script.
This will be her first, has anyone taken a TV screen test before, or know what the likely scenario is? Would like to be well prepared obviously, to give her a good shot at it. A website perhaps? Or first-hand knowledge would be great.
My email address is also in my profile if you prefer to contact me 'off air'.
Cheers,
Stu
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I have a basic, variable rate, repayment mortgage with the Halifax. I can view the balance of this on the Halifax online service.
Below the amount are the words 'Please note that the outstanding balance displayed is not a repayment figure.'
Why wouldn't the outstanding balance be a repayment figure? If I were to walk into my local Halifax and pay off my mortgage tomorrow, how close a relation would the amount I'd need have to the balance shown?
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Not sure but presumably the balance shown does not include all interest charges/mortgage payments 'real time'. In other words the balance figure shown at any given time will need to be adjusted to take account of any charges/payments still to be debited/credited plus any redemption/admin charges which may be levied.
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That figure will only be the amount owed at the end of last month. Your 'contract' will state what terms apply to repayment, but that may include a repayment penalty (doubt it in your specific case, but the advice is probably generic). Then they add on a 'sealing fee' and sometimes a 'Deeds release fee' (or similar). Typically this costs about £100 (not a bad little earner for deleting your account from their computer and getting the tea boy to retrieve the docs from the vault. In order to fully release yourself from the mortgage, you may have to pay a solicitor to remove the mortgage charge over your property at the land registry (having not been in the happy position of not having a mortgage yet, I am not sure about this!).
--
RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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I paid off my mortgage a few months ago and had to pay all the things RichardW states. I think the mortgage release fee with the Hafilax was 75 quid. It did annoy me that I had to pay extra to close the account, especially given all the money I had paid them over the years. One way around this of course is to leave yourself a tiny mortgage - not sure how little you can get away with but £10 is what I would like to do (I now have a new mortgage). This also gets around the problem of where to keep your house deeds.
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When I decided to pay off our mortgage several years ago I was advised that it would be a good idea to keep a nominal sum in that account and the Building Society would then continue to store the house deeds safely FOC for as long a we wanted. As Robin says, doing so saves the bother of finding somewhere else to store them.
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Thanks for all the replies.
I'd realised that there would probably be various fees involved but I wouldn't have thought these would require the disclaimer to be there. I took it to mean the calculations of the balance remaining were different when paying off the mortgage.
I'd seen the tip about keeping a minimal amount outstanding mentioned somewhere before.
At this stage the most I'm likely to do is pay off a sufficiently large chunk to make a dent in the monthly repayments. There's no point in paying off a mortgage only to find that I need to take out a more expensive loan to fund home improvements.
Is anyone aware of any pitfalls associated with paying off part of the capital? Am I likely to find myself saddled with the same fees etc. associated with paying it off in full?
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When I decided to pay off our mortgage several years ago I was advised that it would be a good idea to keep a nominal sum in that account and the Building Society would then continue to store the house deeds safely FOC for as long a we wanted. As Robin says, doing so saves the bother of finding somewhere else to store them.
And also (at least with the Halifax) if the amount of your mortgage that you leave outstanding is the specified minimum (£125, now that it has become HBOS) you aren't charged any interest.
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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man drove up in van, cut a 4 inch diameter hole in the pavement in front of a lampost. Did something involving brown water and then plugged the hole again. I've since noticed loads of these on our streets. What's he doing?
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digging down to a tap on the pole - opening it, and allowing any rainwater thats acumulated in the pole to drain out, probably?.
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fake police cars !
has anyone noticed ( i live in the midlands) how many police cars , are just parked up for the night at random places? ive noticed one at our local petrol station (5 nights without movinG) and on closer inspection there was no radio in it or anything , are these just dummy !? cop cars you can hire for the night ?
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if it`s anything like round here where you are, you are no 2 to make a closer inspection - no1 got the radio!!
billy.
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Many years ago, plod was called to a disturbance in the nearest pub.
On returning to their car, other locals had removed the front seats
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I read often, only post occasionally
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we have just moved to a new house and have begun to find some very curious black spots around the house. They are black, about 1mm in diameter and appear in clusters which are about 2 cm wide. They appear on the skirting boards, on the kitchen table, kitchen bench, in the conservatory, in fact everywhere downstairs. When we attack them with a cloth they wipe up easily enough to leave a red stain on the cloth. This looks like blood. My wife is convinced they are insect droppings of some sort and the red stuff is undigested blood. What sort of insect vould do this (we live in Yorkshire, not the tropics) We get a lot of flies, especially in the conservatory where they seem to come to die. We live in a village and the field behind our house has a handfull of cows in it.
Does anyone have any idea what these spots might be and how we can remove/discourage whatever it is that is causing them?
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Sorry if I'm the bearer of bad tidings, but it might be bed-bugs. They leave dark red/black fecal spots. However, the spots are usually confined to the bed and the area nearby, so I'm not at all sure that this is the problem. I've never seen them, but know of them. Something to check for in dubious hotels and B&Bs.
I'd say it's less than 50% certain.
I'd try the local council pest control man, he may be able to give expert advice without wanting to sell you a treatment of doubtful relevance.
See www.uky.edu/Agriculture/Entomology/entfacts/struct...m
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I doubt it's bed bugs...you'd be covered in maddeningly itchy bites if it was (I got 68 bites over the course of 2 nights in a backpackers hostel in Sydney...hungry little beggars).
It's probably fly poo. We get a fair few flies in our conservatory too and they poo everywhere...even more so if they are being devoured by the many spiders that have set themselves up in there...or the venus fly trap!
--
If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished
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the exhaust / tyre chain - are they still in business, or did they go bust a year or two ago ?
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you have to get out of the car sometime
so visit www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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We have one operating in town, the admin capital of N. Yorks.
DVD
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Ta... saved me losing a bet there !
--
you have to get out of the car sometime
so visit www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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I thought the admin capital of N.Yorks was my local town Northallerton, (HQ of NYCC is there) but there is no Charlie Brown's listed on Yell for the town. If you do mean Northallerton and there is one, please let me know as I need to find a good place for some bits and pieces. Cheers
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CB was taken over by Kwik Fit I believe.
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True, it was. At least two years ago.
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Bit of a longshot, but if anybody in the BackRoom has a competition licence, I'm thinking about getting rid of some racing overalls that I have no use for, but I dont know what the current spec is, so I don't know it they are any use to anybody. Can anybody with access to a blue book let me know ?
--
you have to get out of the car sometime
so visit www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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A bit of a strange one but whilst out DIY shopping at the weekend I noticed that bottles of the above were on sale but the Turps cost about 40p more for the same size bottle.
What's the difference ? (and please don't say the price)
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A bit of a strange one but whilst out DIY shopping at the weekend I noticed that bottles of the above were on sale but the Turps cost about 40p more for the same size bottle. What's the difference ? (and please don't say the price)
White spirit
White spirit is a colourless, liquid mixture of volatile hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum and used as a solvent for paints. It is often known as turpentine substitute because the original solvent for paints was turpentine, a naturally-occurring hydrocarbon extracted from pine resin.
Turpentine
Turpentine is a semifluid resin obtained from trees, mainly pines of the genus Pinus. A volatile oil called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine or, colloquially, turps can be extracted by distillation. Turpentine has been described simply as "distilled trees". Turpentine is used as a solvent, especially for thinning oil-based paints, and as a raw material for the chemical industry. Turpentine was also used in folk medicine for the treatment of intestinal worms or mixed with animal fat as a primitve chest rub for nasal and throat complaints. Some modern chest rubs still contain some turpentine (e.g., Vick's Vaporub).
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& my local B&Q informs me that you cannot buy Meths on a Sunday owing to alcohol licensing laws. Do they think we want to drink it...?
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wasn\'t that why they put the nasty tasting additives in it because people were doing exactly that ?
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That's why they put the methanol (only a few percent) into the ethanol (90-odd percent), as it makes it highly poisonous. The colour is meant to put you off. Didn't know they put things in to make it taste nasty as well, but you're probably right.
It's still highly intoxicating (think unshaven men, park benches & brown paper bags) & much cheaper than Vermouth/Carlsberg Special Brew. It just makes you go blind because of the methanol. Hence 'methylated'.
If you have a chemistry lab you can buy pure ethanol. There was a news story a few years ago about some teachers who decided to have a party on the ethanol out of the chemistry stores... without realising that it included methanol. They were very unwell (& looked pretty silly in the newspapers). Don't know if HM Customs & Excise prosecuted them for duty evasion.
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This was standard practice when I was a chemistry student - all the best parties would have a couple of litres of spectroscopic grade ethanol in the 'punch'. Normally the PhD students or younger lecturers would fetch it along.
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>>all the best parties would have a couple of litres of spectroscopic grade ethanol i
Your supervisor would have been better of spending money on Gin - that stuff's expensive! The big mistake people make is to use too much of it. Remember it is at least 94% ethanol, whereas Gin is half that, or less.
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& my local B&Q informs me that you cannot buy Meths on a Sunday owing to alcohol licensing laws. Do they think we want to drink it...?
I have it on good authority that some people do!
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Lets try and keep to "I have a question" please...
Thanks.
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Thank you for the comprehensive answer. As far as using either for cleaning brushes/thinning etc, are they equally effective?
Presumably white spirit is cheaper to produce and therefore cheaper to buy.
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I have a tall fridge which has a plastic handle. Very nice, albeit cheap, design.
The door has taken to sticking - you know how they are somehow magnetic. Sometimes it takes a hard tug to get it open. The family are less gentle with it than I am!!
Problem is, I've just noticed two cracks at the top and bottom of the handle. I am going to try ordering one just in case, but what can I do to make the door less sticky?
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Not a lot.....means the seal is working. When the door closes it forms an airtight seal and as the warm air that entered while the door was open, cools it contracts creating a partial vacuum. The external air pressure then holds the door very firmly shut.
If the seal didnt work so well you would constant leak warm air inside and the fridge would either freeze up and require constant defrosting or consume vast amounts of energy.
You could try cracking the seal before opening...slide a credit card sized piece of plastic in to break the seal.
Sounds like the handle is under-engineered.
StarGazer
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>>sometimes it takes a hard tug
Presumably when it has just been closed, so the hot air has contracted & air hasn't had the opportunity to leak in to equalise the pressures.
After a long time pressures are equalised & the door will open more easily.
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I've turned the volume down and it doesn't seem so sticky... :-)
Thanks
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The helicopter household has just purchased a new all singing all dancing Panasonic digital television.
It autotunes to get the best signal in our area which is not the best reception area for the freeview digital channels. We have aerials tuned to two transmitters so that we can receive both London and South Coast transmissions. We therefore have around 100 channels of audio and visual.The analogue signals are up around channel 90.
DVD player is connected up and plays OK.
The problem is that we have connected up our old Sharp video which will play back our existing videos but I cannot work out how to tune it to record from the new television ( I am grateful that helicopter junior with a Cambridge masters degree is also stumped!). I believe it may be that the video will only record from the analogue signals but any suggestions as to how to sort it would be appreciated ( NOT ask next doors five year old!)
Or should I just get a new DVD which records as well as plays? If so which one?
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put the television on tuned to a channel and then set the vcr to autotune ?
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Old analogue VCRs usually work by taking the incoming analogue RF tv signal and splitting it, one part to the VCR and the other part via a cable to the RF ariel input of the analogue TV. This means that you can watch one channel and record another.
The digital TV takes the digital TV signal from the ariel directly.
Connecting up the VCR to the TV will allow you to send the analogue video into the digital tv for playback (ie the TV has an RF analogue TV input).
I think what you require is an RF TV output on the digital TV
to send to the ariel inout on the VCR? Unless the VCR can cope with recording from a straight rgb video signal (not RF) which is often an optional signal output.
I wish we had the capability for simple diatrams in this forum!
StarGazer
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ps,
diatrams ---> diagrams
airiel inout ----> ariel input
fingers too large is my only excuse.
sorry!
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The problem is that we have connected up our old Sharp video which will play back our existing videos but I cannot work out how to tune it to record from the new television...
Your problem lies in the fact that a video recorder doesn't normally record from a television. It has its own tuner and records from the aerial. As it does this independently of your television, I don't see why it shouldn't still work in this way.
Obviously you want to be able to record the extra channels provided by the new set. My guess is that you'll be able to connect your TV to the video using a SCART lead and will find that whatever is on the TV appears on the 'aux' channel of the video. My eleven-year-old Philips video certainly does this. You won't be able to watch one digital channel while watching another unless your TV has two digital tuners. I don't know whether this can be done with the TV switched off. My guess is that the built in tuner may work with the screen switched off specifically for this purpose but I don't know for certain. You'll need to consult the TV's manual.
I don't see how updating the video would help and you'd get the same problem with a DVD recorder. The ideal solution would be a video with a built in digital tuner but I'm not sure whether such a thing exists. I'm pretty sure I have seen a combined hard disk video recorder and Freeview box.
If this is a big annoyance, and the TV itself doesn't have a solution, one possibility might to buy a Freeview box (£40-50) to use with just the video. Then you could go back to using it independently of the TV. I'll admit that this isn't a very elegant solution, especially when you've bought an integrated digital TV to avoid the need for a set top box.
Maybe someone who owns an IDTV will have a better solution.
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Thanks for the suggestions - I will have another closer look tonight bearing in mind what you have said and see if I can crack the problem.
Our old television has a separate digibox and I could at least record the analogue channels on that but I did not crack the problem of recording digital ones.
If all else fails I will read the manuals again....or I might just settle down to watch the ladies beach volleyball ......
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I think in order to record digital programmes from the TV, the connection order would have to be aerial > TV > video, since it's the TV which is decoding the signal.
You should be able to tune one of the channels on the video into a 'TV' channel, so it just shows whatever the TV is showing. Does the video have scart connections? Connecting the scart out from the TV to the scart in on the video and selecting the videos 'aux' channel should achieve the same.
As said before though, you'd have to watch the programme you were recording.
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Bazza - the video does indeed have a scart connection.
IIRC the new television does have three or four scart connectors for AV and I am thinking that it may be that one is a dedicated DVD , one a dedicated digital video or dedicated analogue video etc.I think I can change them from the remote . I will have to read the manual . It really is quite a complicated bit of kit.
It would not worry me if I cannot record other than the four main channels. Having to watch what you are recording does rather defeat the object of a video in the first place.
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Ah, it may be down to the type of scart socket actually. Depending on whether the one you are plugging into is an RV, RGB or S-Video scart, and what the video is capable of using. And no, I don't understand the difference between them either.
If the only channels you want to record are the analogue ones, then you can go the opposite way around I think. Aerial > Video > TV.
Switch the TV to 'aux' to get the video channel, then tune the video channels in as normal.
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helicopter -
you need to set the vcr to tell it to record from a particular source.
eg. on my 2 year old vcr, i have the option to record either from the inbuilt-analogue-tuner, or from the front av input, or from the 2-scart inputs at the back (on mine, one which is input/output is connected to the tv, the other which is input only is connected to the digital-set-top-box.)
when i switch on the vcr, using the channel up/down switch, i can cycle through all the 8 possible channels (i.e. ch 1-5, plus av1, av2, av3. note, av3 gives me the 100+ channels via digital signal ).
as someone has already pointed out, you can only record the digital channel that the digibox or digitv is tuned to. some new vcr have the capability to send a signal to your dig-remote to change the channels as you wish to record in your absence.
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OK guys - instalment 2 of the helicopter video saga.
The television has 4 scart connections , currently the tv AV1 is connected to the DVD player by scart cable and works satisfactorily.
The video was connected to tv AV2S and was playing back OK before I started last night.
The remote has a button to press TV/AV - pressing AV brings uo the AV1 , 2 etc .To select you press the relevant colour button.
The remote also has a 0 button which is supposed to be for AV.
Suffice it to say that after trying to follow the manual and tune in to the television on the TV front panel I cannot now even get the video to playback. The menu for tuning the video has to be displayed on the screen. I am currently unable to display or tune anything to anything.
The only compensation is that Baywatch Hawaii was on channel 11 ...
The question is guys , what cables should be going where?
Currently I have two scarts. One from TV to DVD and one from TV to Video and an aerial cable which is going directly into the television.
I did try last night connecting the aerial cable into the video and another coax from the Video into the TV but without success.
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hi helicopter,
just had a look @ my digital tv/sky/vcr set-up which seems to be working o.k.
digibox vcr scart --> video-in on vcr.
video-out on vcr --> tv scart 3.
alternatively..digibox vcr scart --> video-in on vcr, r.f out on vcr --> r.f out on digibox.
digibox tv scart --> tv scart 1.
dvd player scart --> tv scart 2.
HTH,
billy
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The VCR doesn't need to be tuned into the TV, provided that it is connected to the TV via a SCART lead, to AV1, 2 or whatever.
To judge from your experiments so far the DTT signal isn't 'passed on' from the VCR to the TV aerail input, when the aerial is connected to the VCR.
Only way I can think of round this is to use a splitter in the aerial lead & route it to both the TV aerial input and the VCR aerial input, but I have a horrible feeling that the DTT signal into the TV may not be strong enough to give a decent picture. May be worth an experiment, as a splitter should be less than a fiver these days.
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If the VCR power switch is on at the same time as the TV is on and tuned to Channel 4, the TV picture is just complete rubbish. Under all other circumstances there is no problem, and there is no problem with Five. It's only happened since I moved house. The VCR records Channel 4 OK, but only provided that the TV is not working at the same time. The connections between the VCR and TV are the normal co-axial cable plus a scart lead. What's the cause of the problem?
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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L'escargot - your video is probably tuned to a channel on the TV which is adjacent of very close to channel 4.
On older videos there was a small screw somewhere that enabled you to retune which channel it output on. More recent videos allow you to do this by menus. So, retune the video then retune the video channel on your telly to match.
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I have Sky satellite TV in the UK and want it in France too without another £32+ per month subscription.
I know I can just take the box with me to France and plug it in there, but then nobody at home can watch it.
Can I take advantage of their latest offer to upgrade to SKY+ for £100 thus liberating the old digibox and then taking up offer No.2 to install and connect my old box somewhere else in the house and watch my subscription channels for only(!!) another £10 per month.
Then the cunning bit - take the liberated box to France and use it for £10 per month.
Some techno bod will hopefully be able to advise.
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Can I take advantage of their latest offer to upgrade to SKY+ for £100 thus liberating the old digibox and then taking up offer No.2 to install and connect my old box somewhere else in the house and watch my subscription channels for only(!!) another £10 per month. Then the cunning bit - take the liberated box to France and use it for £10 per month. Some techno bod will hopefully be able to advise.
I think you will find that Sky will insist that the second box is connected to the 'phone line. That being the case they will switch off your second card if they detect the box is not connected. Otherwise, there is no problem.
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Thank you for the phone thought - I suspect as long as the new box is "on-line" it might be OK. Will check.
Do you think the moved second box will then have its own coax cable running from the dish? Or will they "T -in" to the existing cable? I know for certain they don't install a second dish.
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Thank you for the phone thought - I suspect as long as the new box is "on-line" it might be OK. Will check. Do you think the moved second box will then have its own coax cable running from the dish? Or will they "T -in" to the existing cable? I know for certain they don't install a second dish.
They will fit a dual output lnb to the minidish so you will have two cables coming from it. The existing cable will plug into the new lnb, and they will run a second cable from the dish to the room where your new box will be situated.
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Only really posting on this because we just had murderous trouble with our Sky. About the phone line - ours hasn't been connected to the phone for the past 2 years and it's worked fine. Countless engineers have been out and not mentioned it. Apart from not being able to buy a movie (let's face it - what's on that's worth watching) and getting a message on Power On, there's not a problem.
Adam
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The 'phone line only has to be connected for the first twelve months if you take advantage of Sky's offer of a free digibox. It also has to be connected, permanently, if you get an extra card at a reduced subscription. This is done to prevent people using the card at a different address.
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Mmmmm! This may well scupper my plan of a £10 subscription and using box 2 at a different address.
Also, if anybody wants to know - just as soon as my one year deal was up (about 3 or 4 years ago now, or maybe longer - just when sky digital started)I disconnected the phone line and have had no problems whatsoever. Mind you, I never order films, play games or buy today's special offer of toe nail trimmers - luxury model or whatever.
Are there any web sites dedicated to fiddling about with Sky - the mags in WH Smiths don't seem useful at all in this respect. But then if it's a bit dodgy you need to keep it quiet. Nobody reads this site - do they.
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hi D.E,
i have an acrobat PDF file entitled "understanding sky digital tv--the trade secrets",
that may answer a lot of your queries, or that you may find generally useful, i may be able to e-mail it to you, should you wish.
billy.
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hi D.E, i have an acrobat PDF file entitled "understanding sky digital tv--the trade secrets", that may answer a lot of your queries, or that you may find generally useful, i may be able to e-mail it to you, should you wish. billy.
>>
Now that does sound useful - thanks. How do we go about you e-mailing to me without the whole world knowing addresses etc. Do we ask the ever so kind mods to give you my e-mail address?
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Forward the document to me and I will forward it on. I wouldn't mind a look at it myself, as it happens.
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Do we ask the ever so kind mods to give you my e-mail address?
Yes. DD.
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Haven't yet seen Billy25's Sky stuff yet. Is it lost in the ether?
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document e-mailed to Mark, hope its some use.
billy
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Billy has now passed me this file - to be completely honest he did it a few days ago.
I'll send it to Dulwich. Before I do, does anybody else want it ?
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I'll send it to Dulwich. Before I do, does anybody else want it ?
Yes please.
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There are indeed plenty of sites around; there's some useful info. over on www.satcure.co.uk , then there's the google group uk.tech.tv.sky for starters.
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Are there any web sites dedicated to fiddling about with Sky - the mags in WH Smiths don't seem useful at all in this respect. But then if it's a bit dodgy you need to keep it quiet. Nobody reads this site - do they.
There is nothing that's of much use.
Sky digital has not been hacked - or if it has it's been kept well hidden. The Satcure site is only useful if you have technical problems with your Sky equipment.
If you just want to watch BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five when you are in France, then you would be better off buying a second-hand digibox with a card. A friend of mine has just bought one for £15 with a card. The card must be the one with a little yellow house printed on it.
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Sigh, one day this message *might* actually be taken notice of.
PLEASE NOTE:
When posting a NEW question, please \"Reply to\" the first message in this thread. ie, the topmost one. This keeps each question in it\'s own separate segment and stops each new question from getting mixed up in amongst existing questions. Also please remember to change the subject header.
Apologies to those who already know and do this.
DD.
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We want to change our mortgage to an offset type. As part of the do/don't we process we have been trying to calculate the effect of various payment options. We have come unstuck with trying to find a simple formula to calculate the effect of overpayments. Briefly, we will have a mortgage on which we pay the interest every month. We will pay a fixed amount each month, which will be in excess of the interest. The effect of this is that the overpayment reduces the capital. The next month the interest payment is less (cos of the overpayment) so becasue we pay a fixed amount every month the overpayment is greater and the capital reduces even further. And so on. I guess this way of looking at it is just the same as a repayment mortgage (I have ignored the effect of any savings etc). We have struggled to derive a simple formula which will allow us to track how the capital will decrease. There must be an easy way to do this which we can out into a spreadsheet. Any ideas?
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robin -
have you tried
www.woolwich.co.uk/content/opn/borrowing/calculato...m
search for other calculators at google.uk for keywords
"offset mortgage repayments calculator"
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first direct also have a calculator at their website. I can highly recommend them BTW, they have been extremely helpful in the past and I have found their customer service to be excellent. I have no connection with them other than as a customer.
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We've used the calculators on the websites but we want to try out scenarios that they cannot cope with and to include the results into a more general model of our finances (sound flash but it is not really). Hence, we would like to work out the simple formula.
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Hence, we would like to work out the simple formula.
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robin,
when you have daily compound interest calculations, variable daily savings/current account balances, variable "overpayments", i am sorry to say that there is no "simple" formula. not in my book, anyway.
personally i would not pay "overpayments", when the alternative is to keep the money in your saving account ( has the same effect as overpayments on your offset mortgage - which is why it is called offset ) leaving the cash available for you to put it to good use when the opportunity arises. but then that is my choice.
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personally i would not pay "overpayments", when the alternative is to keep the money in your saving account ( has the same effect as overpayments on your offset mortgage - which is why it is called offset ) leaving the cash available for you to put it to good use when the opportunity arises. but then that is my choice.
It makes no odds with the firstdirect mortgage as you can move money in and out of the mortgage account as you wish within the maximum agreed. You do need lots of self-discipline though otherwise it'll never get paid off. It has been invaluable as I have been renovating a house and have only drawn the money when necessary.
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Granted, the full calculation is not easy. However, all I am after is a way to calculate easily the effect of a fixed payment each month on the capital borrowed. Her 'indoors has produced a very accurate equation which would require multiple loops to evaluate (one for each month).(she has a Bsc in Maths) We both think there is a simple way to do it but cannot work it out
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Pig of a job.
Just face it: the answer is loadsamoney. The more you repay, the much better off you become. Do it!
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>>" has produced a very accurate equation which would require multiple loops to evaluate (one for each month).(she has a Bsc in Maths) We both think there is a simple way to do it but cannot work it out "
robin -
if you really want to try ( let me tell you it is as pointless as the multiple scenarios that government economists draw up to work out potential outcomes of the future economy); then you need to set out
1. a spreadsheet very much like like a cash flow forecast
2. with variable net daily or weekly input/output cash flows
3. with variable estimated future daily interest rates
and so on
then apply a formula equivalent to calculating the internal rate of return (irr) so that the future-value/present-value/term/infltion-rate/etc. are as per your mortgage.
the maths degree may be useful here, but otherwise look up financial functions help on excel/lotus spreadsheets.
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Excellent. I was sure that there must be a way to do this and even that there would be an Excel function for it. The trouble was that being able to write down the problem mathematically and knowing the 'accounting' term for the problem are 2 different things. You need the accounting term to be able to fnd the excel function.
Many thanks
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robin -
the financial term is "discounted cash flow analysis".
i am a chartered engineer by qualification but use this tool for project vialbilty/finance calculations. i only need to input an annual interest rate and use just monthly cash-flows for my purposes but you could have a daily iteration using daily interst rate and end-of-day balances in your spreadsheet. you can change the cash figures as you like, to be positive or even negative depending on whether you draw out a lump sum as needed.
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robin -
p.s. there is a microsoft link which may help (i say may, because i am unable to get it to load)
office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=RC0...5
if it is dead link, try finding it from
office.microsoft.com/home/office.aspx?assetid=FX01...3
and scroll down to "training" -
"Plan payments and savings by using financial formulas"
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mods - apologies for taking 3 shots at this answer.
robin -
p.p.s. the following links should help (find more from google)
teachmefinance.com/
www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_irr.html
www.solutionmatrix.com/glossghijk.html - scroll down to irr internal-rate-of-return section and you can download a spreadsheet from there.
www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dcf.asp
pdf file
www.clean-power.com/research/customerPV/BasicEcono...f
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Since it's a bit quiet in here today....
I have noticed that a lot of stuff I buy, and have been buying for years/decades, is flashed 'New!' on the packaging.
Isn't there some limit to how long this description can be applied under Trades Descriptions Act?
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frostbite -
isn't something "new" as long as it is not "second-hand" or "used"?
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frostbite - isn't something "new" as long as it is not "second-hand" or "used"?
Yes, but I'm referring to manufacturers not retailers packaging.
Things like food, cleaners, etc., not normally associated with 'second-hand'!
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A car is "new" until it has been washed for the first time during your ownership. This is regardless of whether it has had any previous owners or not!
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Velux® Window
Does anyone know how to take out and refit the entire centre pivot velux window (that?s glass frame and hinges) from its roof frame?
Cheers
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No worries - found out how its done
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We have been reviewing the heirlooms (not much really!) and have a couple of items which we don't believe we will ever use, and although there is a certain amount of sentimental value it isn't enough to make us want to hold on to the pieces. So what we have decided to investigate is selling it, and using the proceeds to buy something similar, but to our taste, which we can make use of.
Specifically, there is a diamond ring valued at £1500 14 years ago. This was an "insurance" valuation and probably never had any bearing on it's true sale value. There is also a hunter watch valued at £400 at the same time.
Where can I get a honest valuation of the sale value, not the insruance value (and preferably on the cheap!), and what do the panel think would be most successful, easy and profitable way to sell the items? (I know and continually say that something is only worth what someone will pay for it, but I need to know where to start!)
(An alternative with the ring is to have the stone remounted into a different ring, but I am told this could be very expensive...?)
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I would suggest trudging round a few jewellers pretending to offer for sale will get a free valuation - add >50% to the best price quoted and you should be in the retail value.
You could then put the items on eBay with a suitable reserve, and make sure they are on offer to other countries as well as UK.
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It is not expensive to re set a diamond. It is much more expensive to sell the entire ring and buy a new one - its like selling an old car and buying new, there are two lots of profit being taken out by dealers.
You want to find a manufacturing jeweller (there are some in Manchester and loads at Hatton Garden in London) who will take your ring, use the gold for a new setting and place the stone in the new design. That is of course if you like the stone in the first place.
Even a good retail jeweller (independent) will be able to assist you.
--
Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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My parents have just done the same thing. Went to a few jewellers to get valuation. Many of the jewellers said that they would clean up the ring and put it in there shop window. Once it sells they would take 10%-20% of the final price. (depends on which jeweller you got to)
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I've had my late mil's jewellery redesigned and reset in a completely different style (few years ago now though) cost about £400 for a ring then (about 1997)
Looked into something similar recently and was quoted in the region of £1000 - bear in mind that this is for a handmade crafted piece, rather than buying new which has been commercially manufactured.
Depends where you live - we are down south and it's pricey round here. It shouldn't cost you anything to get initial ideas if you like the stones and want to know what could be done with them. You should also ask what the final insurance valuation would be if you did spend the money and have something re-done - i.e. is this stone worth spending on?
How about an auction house for an estimate on the watch?
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I'd drop into an auction house. I'm going to guess that Bonhams would be your best bet - they have lots of regional offices. www.bonhams.com alternatively a good local provincial auctioneer. They'll give you a free estimate. Remember, if they sell it for £1,000, you will have to pay them £200, and the purchaser will have to pay them £200.
If you sell on eBay, you'll have to run the risk that because you're not a reputable jeweller it won't make very much. I'm afraid I wouldn't buy a ring from you (or anybody else on eBay, except a reputable jeweller) - e.g. it might be chipped & you might not notice; it might be cubic zirconium rather than diamond. I certainly wouldn't buy it from you if I were overseas. Also it would be a high value item from somebody with no appropriate feedback. This will depress the value.
If you get a jeweller to put it in his window & take 10-20% (figure taken from above - sounds cheap to me, no idea if it's likely) that sounds pretty good value to me. But you may be waiting a long time before it sells. How quickly do you want to buy yourself something different.
As for remounting, I can let you have the name of an excellent Manchester jobbing jeweller. Expect to pay about half high street prices by going directly to the man who does the work anyway. London (Hatton Garden) prices in my very very limited experience are much higher. In fact, any jewellery that you want to buy you should go to a 'grimy' workshop rather than a Bond Street jeweller. Their prices are *much* lower as they don't have to hold stock (which costs money).
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Whichever way you are going to sell the jewellery is the same way you need to get a valuation.
If you are going to sell it at an auction, then get a valuation from an auction house.
If you are going to sell it to a jeweller, then you need to ask one what they would pay you for it.
There is no point in asking either of the above for a retail value if you're not going to sell it retail.
If you are going to sell it retail, and I have no idea how you would go about that other than an idea that was mentioned about a jeweller selling it for you, then you're going to need to get a retail value. And that would be something you will probably have to pay for.
If the ring, for example, is not fashionable, then its value will be the stone and the gold - and that might be a lot less than you think.
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