r/UKPersonalFinance

So the title is pretty explanatory. I’m trying to cancel the holiday I had planned with my ex. Reason for the cancellation is because we broke up, with no intention of getting back together.

Now here comes the tricky bit which is making it more difficult.

I’ve only paid a partial deposit for the holiday, about £40. The total cost of the booking is close to £800, and I’m expected to pay around £500 at the end of the month for my next installment. We only booked in about a week ago, and when attempting to cancel on the website (OnTheBeach), I’m prompted to pay an additional £600 just to cancel the holiday, which is completely ridiculous. For that expense, I’d rather go on the holiday on my own.

I’m now wondering if any further action can be taken if I refuse to pay. Do they have any legal standing to pursue repayment if I refuse to pay? Should also note that payment was not made by my account, and was made via a third party company.

I'm looking at a £160k mortgage with a £40k deposit.

25 year:

• £844.54/month
• £93,361 total interest

40 year:

• £668.70/month
• £160,977 total interest

On the face of it, 25 year saves a lot of interest but I think the 40 year might actually be better for someone who is discplined with investing/saving.

With the 40 year, I'd have an extra £175.84 each month. If I invest that instead and get a higher return than the mortgage rate, I'd potentially make more money than I would by paying the mortgage off faster. I also like that I'm not locked into the higher monthly payment. I could overpay the mortgage if I wanted to but if I needed the money for something else, I'd only have to meet the lower payment. Another benefit of the 40 year mortgage term is that £668.70 in 30 years won't be worth anywhere near what £668.70 is worth today because of inflation so the longer the better.

Am I missing something here?

First time posting anything on here. I've lurked for years without ever having much to say, but a mate kept telling me I should stick this up and see what people reckon, so here goes. Bit of a long one, sorry.

The house was my dad's. He was here a long time and towards the end he was elderly and things quietly got away from him, the way they do. Nothing dramatic, just years of small jobs not getting done. I inherited it when he passed so I own it outright with no mortgage, and I've spent the time since working through the place myself. Most of it's at a decent standard now. The roof is the one thing I can't touch.

Earlier this year I had a leak at the chimney stack. Insurance covered that one and it's been sorted properly. But the roofer had a proper look at the rest while he was up there and told me the roof generally is in a bad way. Loose and slipped tiles, water's clearly been getting in at various points for years without anyone noticing, and he reckons there's probably rot in the timbers. Not what I wanted to hear. With autumn coming I'd rather sort it now than find out the hard way in November.

Insurance won't touch it. I asked and got told it's gradual deterioration and lack of maintenance, which given the history I can't really argue with. Council have come back too and said they've got nothing available to me at the minute.

Money wise, I work full time on just over 28k. No benefits, don't qualify for any of it. No savings whatsoever. I've got a few debts I'm paying off on agreed plans, all under control, but it means there's not much spare at the end of the month. Credit score's poor so a loan or a card isn't realistically happening either.

So I'm in that gap that seems to catch a lot of people. Earning too much for anything means tested, not enough left over to actually pay for the work, and no credit to bridge it.

What I'm really after is just, what do people do? I'm not fussed whether the answer is a grant, a charity, a lender or something I've never heard of. If you've been in this position yourself I'd like to know what actually worked rather than what's supposed to exist.

Things I've wondered about: whether any of the charitable or benevolent funds ever pay out to someone in full time work rather than on benefits, whether credit unions lending on affordability instead of credit file is realistic for a few thousand, whether roofers ever do staged payments or finance, and whether it's daft to have the worst areas made watertight now and the full job done later or whether that's just paying for scaffolding twice.

I'm getting quotes so I'll know the real number soon rather than guessing at it. Any steer appreciated, even if it's just telling me I'm out of luck.

My wife and I, along with our 3 month old, are in the process of looking for a flat to rent in London.

I wanted to ask if my budget is not only realistic but if I’m missing anything/capturing everything possible? I have excluded childcare for now, as I will have factored this in later down the line.

Just to note, it is part furnished and we have all the relevant furnishings we need. I will not be factoring this or moving costs as I’m just looking more for monthly expected costs once we have settled.

Rent- 2000
Council tax- 173 (calculated using latest borough rate)
Broadband- 35
Gas & Electric- 140
Water- 90
Groceries and household essentials- 400
Nappies and baby essentials- 100
Car insurance- 63 (calculated using latest annual cost)
Contents insurance- 25
Fuel- 100
Road tax/MOT/Maintenance- 75
Mobile- 15
Misc. subscriptions- 100

TOTAL- ~£3,316

Also, any tips to reduce any of the costs if possible?

Thanks!

I want to move £15 thousand from my Barclays to a new savings I've opened in another bank and I want to do it using a cashiers cheque.

I know it's stupid, but I've always wanted one since I was a kid when my mum got one.

Do Barclays do it? Will it cause me any issues compared to using a faster payment?

Hello, so recently my ex partner has started having our son 3 days a week but only recently. I am a single mum and I have him 4 days a week. I take him to his appointments, buy him everything l. Receive no maintenance from his father and now he’s telling me he’s going to add him onto his new uc claim? Im worried as this could take Mu housing benefit ajd work allowance away I wouldn’t be able to survive. What should I do

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I'm a full time employed worker earning £35k annual before tax and trade using a broker PU Prime, mainly live trading with gold and bitcoin using my own money. I've started to slowly become more successful with my trading and building a decent amount of money (in the 10k+ region) and want to start looking at withdrawals to put into savings and paying off debts etc. Should I be mindful of being taxed? Should the money I withdraw from this account into my bank be declared in a self assessment return? If so how would I calculate this?

I had a high-value item listed on Gumtree for a couple of weeks with no serious offers. Someone eventually got in touch, we exchanged numbers, spoke on the phone, and he came round with his flatmate.
He checked the item, was happy with the condition, and agreed to buy it. He then made a bank transfer from his NatWest account to my Monzo.
The money didn’t appear. We looked online and saw that NatWest payments to new payees made after 18:30 on weekends can be delayed by up to two hours.

He briefly used the NatWest AI chatbot, got the Faster Payments ID, let me take a photo of it, and showed me his banking app so I could see it was the genuine NatWest app (not a fake or third-party app designed to generate screenshots).

I offered to let him wait the two hours, but he insisted on leaving and coming back the next day once it had gone through to collect the item. He seemed reluctant to ring NatWest properly — said he didn’t have his card with him and would need the details. When I pointed out that the card details are visible in the app, he changed the subject.

He left, saying he trusted me. The item stayed with me. The next morning I contacted Monzo support, gave them the Faster Payments ID, and confirmed there was no pending payment. I messaged him screenshots of the Monzo chat and my recent transactions, and suggested he contact NatWest as the payment might be held under fraud or security checks.

No reply. It’s now been 48 hours since he was here.
I’m trying to work out what happened so I can decide whether to relist the item. My main concerns are:

• Is this some kind of elaborate multi-stage scam?

• Could the money still arrive in my account days later? (I’m keen to sell the item to someone else but don’t want to end up owing a stranger money if it suddenly lands.)

• Was it a scam that relied on me feeling awkward and handing the item over anyway (“you’ve driven all this way…”) so I should be more vigilant next time?

• Or was it a stolen/mule account, and the payment never went through because the real account owner couldn’t complete 2FA — which is why he didn’t want to contact the bank in front of me?

Either way, I’ll be steering clear of Gumtree and using Facebook Marketplace from now on, as at least there’s a name and some profile information attached to the buyer.

Has anyone had a similar experience, or any thoughts on what most likely happened here?

Hi.

I've just had ACL reconstruction and I'm signed off until November.

I work a very physical job which means there isn't office work/ light duties available.

I will get SSP. But it won't cover my rent, bills and everything else.

My question is how can I maximise my income for the next 3 months?

I've applied for universal credit but can't actually get to the appointment as I can't drive/walk .

What else could I sign up for?

Is there any other incomes?

Charities?

Anything at all.

Haven’t been able to get a clear cut answer from other subs so wanted to ask to make sure before going ahead.
Been working from home remotely for nearly last 4 years now and haven’t claimed for the wfh relief from Uk gov. My contract states home based with the expectation I work at their various offices or client locations as reasonably required.

Based in Manchester at home and the office is in London, I go down maybe once every 3 months now. I can probably work out how many days in office over the last 4 years it would be maximum 6 for each year. Company hasn’t provided any relief for wfh and it’s PAYE.

I assume that I should be eligible to claim for the last few years of wfh at just the £6 a week flat rate?

Is it what looks to be a case of creating gov uk account and then filling in the p87 form section 7? And can I do all 4 years in the one form?
Cheers in advance!

Hi all 22M

So i have an ongoing on and off issue in my family with a toxic parent and therefore have been saving up to move out eventually.

Recently, the landlord called saying he wants to sell the house and we have around 6 months to either move out or pay the mortgage on the house.

I just finished university and work part time and my parents are pestering me to first cough up 10k to help with the mortgage and after I told them I dont have that sort of funds, their next solution is to get the mortgage in my name.

I know this will put me in debt and in a bad position and wont allow me to move out or get a home of my own in the future.

I just dont know how to overcome this situation.

Any advice helps.

Hello, I (31F) recently transferred to an S&S LISA with AJ Bell. I have about £26,400 in there. How should I best manage the risk of what is potentially a 5 year window? Originally I thought of putting it all in the HSBC FTSE All World Index, but with 60% reliance on the USA - one country - I'm thinking £10K in there.

I have a fairly high risk tolerance, but since I'm new I feel I should probably diversify the rest amongst lower risk options perhaps? Any recommendations for what kind of investments to put the rest in? I'm thinking of a 3 way portfolio split of high risk, medium risk, low risk.

Extra info:

Currently on a level 3 engineering apprenticeship (£24K/yr after tax) that ends Oct 2029, and won't need to move out until achieving my career goal of working in ride maintenance at the Universal Studios Bedford theme park, due to open in 2031 unless it's delayed. (It's a UK project after all). Therefore 5 years isn't set in stone. Living with parents very cheaply.

Hi all

I opened a junior isa for my baby recently and put in £142 to invest in the VWRP (this was the minimum it would let me invest due to the share price I think?)

I had a look earlier and I’ve lost £42? I don’t understand to what though?

Can someone explain thank you!

Edit: it says on the app £-42.68 cash value?

Hi everyone!

I would really appreciate some feedback re. my intended LISA usage.

Specifically, I am concerned that I will encounter issues due to opening my second LISA within 12-months of when I intend to purchase a property (October 2026).

My LISA history is as follows:

LISA 1 - opened in April 2025 via Tembo

LISA 2 - opened in April 2026 via Moneybox & maximum £4k contribution made

My question is primarily whether, if I transfer LISA 2 into the older LISA 1, will I be able to use all of the funds in it towards my property purchase in October 2026?

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

Currently have around £50000 left on mortgage with 9 years left. Need to remortgage in October. I am financially secure and have enough savings to cover mortgage with secure job. (Self employed)

54 now and Planning to retire 62. With interest rates is it sensible to go for a 2 year fixed or 5 year fixed with the plan with 5 years to overpay and then hopefully pay it off over 5 years etc. What's the thinking these days of actually paying off a mortgage as I can use my savings to do so. Currently ISA rates lower than interest. My current fixed term interest was lower than ISA so had no interest in overpayment etc

I’m going to use my work car phev for personal miles, can I just use the electric element to go back and to, to work, then work pay for the petrol element for long business journeys. Would I need to keep some sort of log? I think the other option is to pay for fuel myself then charge back the business miles but I do about 20k a year and have to fill up at services so not sure how well 17p a mile will stack up?

Just to check that my logic (and self-assesment) are correct:

On September 2024 I bought 140 units of CSH2 for £158,000

On November 2024 I sold the 140 units of CSH2 for £162,000

ERI on 31/10/2024 was 60.2 EUR = £51

Calculating my CGT for FY25, accounting for the ERI: 162,000-(158,000+140X51) = -£3140 (capital loss)

On my FY26 self-assesment, I declare the ERI interest: 140X51 = £7140

The strange thing is that since my income for FY26 is low, the £7140 interest carries no tax at all (it falls within the starting rate and personal allowance).

So effectively I made a capital gain in FY25 but because the way ERI is treated, there is no tax to be paid, and moreover I also have a capital loss to carry forward.

I feel that this is wrong somehow, but I can't spot where.

Please can someone help explain as per title, I currently have a mortgage on a property which we bought for £170k (5% deposit so 161500 mortgage) at 4.05%, 35 year term, 5 year fix. 1 year left on fix

I am looking at moving in the near future however I am still within my fix term period, I do not want to pay the early repayment fee so trying to work my head around how the porting of mortgage and borrowing more works?

House I am looking at moving to is 210k, and my house (based on approximate valuation) has gone up 10-15k since we bought it, so approximate value of 180-185k. With this I have an approximate equity amount of £27-32k.

Few questions with this:

• How is the interest calculated on the additional amount required? Is that based on the LTV of the new house value?
• If I needed to "release" some of the equity month to pay for solicitors fees and stamp duty, is that possible?

Apologies if this is a silly question, I can't seem to wrap my head around it all!

Re-posting as my title wasn’t specific enough.

Last year I saved £18k into Premium Bonds for my tax bill, but have somehow managed to cash flow actually paying it, which means this money is still sitting in PBs. It was my first year of paying on account; my bill was roughly £11k plus the extra, so I paid approx £5k in April, another £5k in July, have about £7k to pay in January 27, and then another £5k due after that. I should be able to continue cash flowing these payments so I don’t think I’ll need what’s in the PBs.

I’d like to take £4k out and put it in my LISA (and maybe the rest out and put it in my S&S ISA too) but I’m nervous that I might be misunderstanding how payments on account work and I’ll suddenly find I owe more than I thought and need a load of cash to give HMRC! When I do my next tax return (I always do it in April) my payments on account will be set against what I owe for 26-27, and I’ll start making new payments on account for the next year, right?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for advice specific to the fact that I am self employed, looking to buy a house next year, and wanting to contribute to an SIPP as a higher rate tax payer.

For context: I am a self employed 30yo, earning around £60k per year (can fluctuate higher or lower month on month), and am planning to buy a house in about a year’s time. I have £60k saved for the deposit, and am looking at houses costing roughly £250k - £280k.

Alongside that, I have a £10k emergency fund in a Cash ISA, and £15k in a S&S ISA. At the moment I’ve unfortunately contributed nothing so far to an SIPP, which I realise being self employed is quite important to start doing ASAP (especially now that I’m a higher rate tax payer).

With a recent bump in income, I’m looking for advice on where to best allocate remaining funds after living costs are covered.

My living costs are quite low (love living in the north), and I travel quite a lot, but otherwise can be decently aggressive with my savings and investments. I do plan on having children with my partner in the next couple of years, so am conscious of maintaining a bit more liquidity than, say, a single person.

I’ll hit my ISA limit within this tax year, after investing monthly into my S&S ISA (full amount in the Vanguard ESG Global All Cap UCITS ETF) so questioning whether or not any surplus is best put in an SIPP or GIA. Either way, my idea is to put this money into the same Vanguard fund.

I understand FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund is preferable, but I’ve got to draw the line somewhere, and would prefer to minimise investments in fossil fuels, defence industry, etc.

I am open to any and all advice, and appreciate everyone’s help.

Thank you!