Search the Community

Hi, I'm buying a used narrowboat, ABC are the brokerage. Are there any searches/checks I can do to check for any outstanding debts/finance secured against the boat from the previous owner? Thanks

Last time I reported on the forum finances was at the end of 2018 when we had £870.16 in the bank. This report covers the whole of 2019. At the beginning of the year we had £870.16 in the bank. At the end of December we had £959.67 in the bank. During the year we received nearly £1250 in donations. The monthly average was a little over £104 and the best month (January) we received £183.11 while the worst month (Oct) we received £40.42. In 2018 donations were £1857. We spent a little more than £1140 on running the site, at an average cost of £95/month. In 2018 our costs were £2006. The reduction is due to a good deal of work by Rich our Tech Admin to reduce our costs whilst maintaining a reliable site and good service levels. For those who like pictures: Our Main expenses are: Forum Software: Invision £65.00 6 Monthly Hosting: Digital Ocean £83.00 Monthly Licences Digivity/Panellicense £5-00 Monthly Controls: Cleverbridge AG £5.00 Monthly E-mail relay: SendGrid £12.00 Monthly The costs above are not exact, as some are paid in US Dollars and fluctuate as the currency exchange rate varies. Thank to everyone who supported the forum. For those who are thinking of donating regularly, an aggregated annual or 6 monthly sum is most effective- PayPal charge us a fee for collecting each donation and this is a greater percentage of a small sum than a larger one. As an example from 12 x £1.00 donations we get £10.80. From an annual donation of £12.00 we would get £11.35- an extra 5%. Thank you again for your support and Happy Boating in 2020. Regards Nigel

Hi there people. It has been a while since I posted on here due to some health problems, but am now, once again, fighting fit and contemplating buying a narrowboat. I am currently living in Spain and my house is on the market again, etc etc...My question is, would it be feasible to 'survive' on a monthly income of £ 440 back in the UK?. I know its a sort of 'elastic' sort of question and am sure there are many people with a wide range of incomes who are already 'living the life' and it would be good to get some input from you guys and gals. I can allocate £35k for the boat and it will be bought outright, with survey etc., I will also be planning on having a £10k buffer for the annual stuff, Licence, insurance, safety cert. and possible winter moorings, although I do plan to Continuous Cruise for as long as possible. I am 62 years old and within 3 years will have my UK single person pension to add to the pot, so to speak. I don't drink or smoke and have few expensive excesses in life apart from my 2 dogs, a very simple life in fact. (10 years of living through the Spanish crises has helped prune down the excesses). Your comments will be most welcomed, thanks. P.S House for sale in Inland Spain....anyone ? !!

Hello, I want to borrow £15k to help buy a boat but I am self-employed. I do have a near perfect credit rating though (971 out of 1000) Does anyone have any recommendations of where to look? Obviously I will say I am buying a car etc. I've tried HSBC and if you're self employed they want a tax return. This is okay but tax returns are kind of quite far in the past and the last one I filed in for 2014 - 2015 was the year I was doing an MA so there isn't mega bucks recorded, about £10k. There will be more on my next one which is due in January so could wait until then. Any advice appreciated. Thank you, Ruth

Hello, I was wondering if anyone has had experience of securing finance on an old boat (potentially 100 years old). We have a large deposit which may or may not help. Thanks