We unlocked £100,000 tax free from our home
We paid off our existing mortgage and credit-card debt so we could enjoy our retirement stress free
Moira Fitzpatrick and her husband George worked hard to save for their London home, which they bought 22 years ago for £76,000 with the help of an interest-only mortgage.
At the time, Moira, who has been a nurse with the NHS for 50 years, and George, a self-employed carpenter, were delighted with the move, but as the years passed and their incomes didn’t allow them to save much, they began to worry about what they would do when it came time to repay their lender.
At the same time, the rising cost of living and a series of unexpected bills meant they had slowly racked up £25,000 on credit cards.
‘Lord knows how it happened,’ Moira says. ‘£25,000 sounds like a lot of money, but it mounts up very quickly, even without trying. We used credit cards for general living expenses, things we needed but didn’t have the capital for – for example, when the car broke down and we had to pay for repairs.
‘The problem was that we always paid off the
minimum, but the amount just doesn’t go down in a drastic manner. The interest rate is so high on credit cards that you never seem to get to the end.’
The pressure of these debts was becoming unbearably stressful, says Moira, who explains the couple felt that, with three years to go until crunch time with their mortgage lender, they had no alternative but to put their home up for sale.
‘As the years went by, it was getting nearer and nearer to the end of our mortgage term. It was a stressful time; not only was I worrying about how we were going to pay off our £75,000 interest-only mortgage but also a significant amount of credit-card debt.’
The couple put the house – now worth £349,000 – on the market last year, but, as Moira explains, ‘we just couldn’t find anything we liked.
‘We liked our house and the local area. Then a friend suggested we look into equity release. It gave us the answer. It allowed us to stay in our home and pay off the existing mortgage along with our credit card debts.’
Moira and George got in touch with Key, with some reservations initially.
‘We thought it would be a really long, drawn-out process,’ says Moira. ‘But, actually, we were pleasantly surprised at the speed at which it all went through.
‘We were visited by one of Key’s advisers, who gave us all the information we needed. We told him what we wanted and he gave us several options to do different things. He went away, did his research, and then got back to us with a proposal.’
The couple discussed the options and agreed on a plan suitable for them. Within five weeks the whole thing was complete*.
‘It all went very smoothly. We’ve already recommended it to one of our good friends, who also had a very good experience with Key,’ says Moira.
‘For others in a similar position to ourselves, I would definitely suggest speaking with an equity release adviser if they have equity in their property, which most people my age will.
‘For us, equity release was the answer. We even had money to redecorate the front room, which needed doing, and we are able to enjoy nice meals out.’