Natwest Mortgage - What a Con

I recently took out an Offset Mortgage arrangement with Natwest, and this month see's my first payment, but boy have I discovered a complete scam which I am going to take up with the Financial Ombudsman, it works like this.

• Lets say my mortgage is £100k
• Each month Natwest adds to my account the interest due on that Mortgage, this is the 24th in my case, so on the 24th they add on £700 in interest, making the total I owe them £100,700
• My payment for the interest goes out on the 1st of each money, so on the 1st, £700 goes into my mortgage account to net off the £700 interest.
• All seems fine, but actually it isn't, because even though interest is applied to my account once a month, it is actually calculated daily, so for 7 days they calculate interest on £100,700... making my interest payments higher

This may not seem much, but work out how much extra interest I will pay on £700 for each month of my 25 year mortgage, it is significant, imagine how much extra you would pay also if your interest is applied on the 2nd of the month and you pay on the 1st, you will have 1 extra months interest to pay.

When I challenged Natwest about this, they simply said, yes... that is what happens, its not up to them to point this out, of course, I have now changed my payment date to the 24th to net off this interest, but this means I have to pay my mortgage twice this month which I am not happy about, I am also claiming back my extra interest I have paid this month. I would of thought a bank would have better scruples.

When is a Pie Not a Pie

Today while I was having lunch I was watching the UK TV Food channel on Sky. As always there is a chef who cooks something, normally these are really good, but today this guy made my bloody boil.

He started by saying he was going to make a pie, so he put some beef in a pan, browned it off, added some other ingredients and gravy, he then placed this in a dish and proceeded to top this dish with puff pastry and put it in the oven.

THIS IS NOT A PIE.... this is a casserole with some hairy fairy puff pastry sat on top.

A pie has to have a pastry base, it is then filled with the filling, then a lid of pastry is put on top, the filling should be raw or partially cooked so that it completes its cooking in the pie in the oven AND the pastry is Suet or Short pastry NEVER bloody puff pastry.

I have sent an email to complain about this so called pie to the TV station, I await their reply.

I'm After Damages

You see, last week I did a very stupid thing and fell off my bicycle, actually it was a bit of a freak accident, but anyway, a trip to the hospital, an x-ray later and a confirmation that I have broken my collarbone, in fact my left collar bones is now in 4 pieces.

Anyway, it hurts, I can only type with one hand (using Vista Speech Recognition for this blog entry), its going to take at least 12 weeks to heal and on Tuesday the doctors are going to decide if it needs to be pinned in place.

So, I am going after some damages for my crash, not from the bike manufacturers, not from the Manchester Velodrome but from the government, you see, its these bastards that keep telling us to exercise more and lose weight, become healthy.... if they would of left me alone eating crisps and drinking beer in front of the TV this would not have happened... its there fault.

Big brother racist

I have been amazed today by all the media attention big brother is getting with these alleged racist attacks on one of the contestants. I find it amazing that the British and Indian governments have actually got involved, do they not have anything better to do?

I have seen every programme and in my view there is not one racist incident, yes we have a group of people who have ganged up on another contestant, but this happens on every single show. Without trying to sound racist, but if this person was British I do not believe anybody would think anything was wrong, but because this is a movie star from India, the actions of the other contestants are deemed as racist.

This is yet another example of everybody being over sensitive and too political he correct, this is not racism, this is just what happens in the real world, we are by nature pack animals, and we will gang up on people we do not like or agree with, so come on get off these people's backs and stop being idiots.

Ranting Mikes Memory

You know what, Ranting Mike is going to rant about himself, why....

Throughout the day many things I see and read make my blood boil, when I get home in front of my PC I have forgotten about them and therefore can't Rant about them..... I guess its good for my bloody pressure.

I am in the wrong ??

Now, normally I not one to ask for an opinion as I am always right, but something happened today.

I was shopping at Sainsbury's and was walking down an aisle pushing my trolley, there were 2 guys chatting, not paying attention and had blocked the aisle totally with their trolleys, of course this is normal for women to do.

Unlike a woman though, one of the guys spotted me and moved his trolley out of the way so I could get past, I walked past and didn't say anything, the guy who moved his trolley shouted at me "don't say thanks then will you", at which point I turned and said, don't block the aisle next time either.

So, should I of said thanks or not ?, this guy had blocked the aisle, something he should not do, when he unblocked it I was suppose to say thanks, why should I say thanks for him to sort out his crap trolley parking. As always, I believe I was correct, manners are great and should be used, but are we taking it to far when we have to thank somebody for changing something they should not have done,
? I'm not sure.

Bloody Paint

Over Christmas I have had the misfortune of having to decorate, it would of been better to work !

Anyway, I dispatch myself to the DIY store to purchase some paint, oh dear, what I thought would be an easy task turned into a nightmare, which one !!!, I don't mean colour, I mean, which type of paint, should I purchase a non-drip type, anti-yellowing (what ever that is!), one that hides cracks, one that doesn't smell, one that only needs one coat (guaranteed apparently), one that goes on pink and then turns white, one that is washable.

No thanks, I don't want to choose, I want the one that is washable, doesn't drip, stays white, hides the cracks, doesn't stink the house out for days, will cover everything in one coat and changes colour, unfortunately, the man in the DIY store just laughed at me, surely that's an idea though.

MBE Bloody Joke

I have just looked at the new years honors list for sports people, and I am amazed that (or maybe I shouldn't be) Zara Phillips has got an MBE, whilst she has done amazingly well to win both European and World titles in the same years, its pretty much all she has won on the world stage, lets look at Gareth Edwards, who got a CBE, he is well old, played Rugby all his life for both Wales and the Lions, he is regarded as one of the best every Rugby players, it has taken a lifetime of excellence to get his CBE, and Zara gets an honor after just one good year, it just not right.