There are cheaper deals around says Kilroy but she would have to pay early repayment charges of around

There are cheaper deals around, says Kilroy, but she would have to pay early repayment charges of around 3 per cent of her mortgage account if she switches lenders and this would cancel out any savings made by opting for a lower rate of interest. She wants to know if she should be contributing more to this or to her mortgage repayments.She has £7,500 of savings in a cash ISA, and wonders whether this would be better invested elsewhere. Ultimately, Jenny says she would like to have enough money to live comfortably, go on interesting holidays and eventually to be able to afford a larger home.We asked three independent financial advisers for their advice: Andrew Merricks of Skerritt Consultants, Martin Kilroy from Savills Private Finance and Ben Yearsley from Hargreaves Lansdown.MORTGAGEJenny is tied into her mortgage of £78,000 with the Halifax until her five-year fixed rate ends. She is particularly worried that she may have started her pension too late because of her extended time in education. The area of work she is in and wants to stay in, however, does not have many permanent jobs, and contracts of three years (like the one she has now) are standard.Jenny recently received a small salary increase, but she feels she has very little money to spare and is concerned she may not be saving enough for the future. Employer contributes 14 per cent.
Jenny Bizley from Oxford has recently started working full time as a post-doctoral research scientist, after completing her Masters and PhD. Fortunately, Jenny’s studies were fully funded, so she does not have any student debts or loans to worry about.

If she’s wrong, however, it is just an extra £5 a month to upgrade to 40GB.. Case notes

Jenny Bizley, 27, research scientist, Oxford Income: £27,900, to rise incrementally. Monthly spending: £370 on bills, £449 on mortgage and £100 on a horse Savings: £7,500 in a cash ISA; £200 in a saver account Property: Flat bought for £190,000 Mortgage of £78,000 Pension: Contributes 6.35 per cent of salary. “Maybe too much!”The couple also use the web to share their holiday and family photos with friends and relatives.Nevertheless, Sarah says she’s happy with Sky’s basic 2MB package, and doesn’t believe they’ll need any more than its 2GB download limit. “I get one easy to understand bill every month, and when I need to get in touch with the company, the service is always brilliant.”‘We’ll save £235 a year by switching’Sarah Jacobsen, 31, from Hornchurch in Essex was amazed to discover she could save £235 a year on her broadband package by switching to Sky’s new “free” deal, which it launched last week.As an existing Sky television customer, the new package will only cost Sarah and her family a one-off connection fee of £40, after which it will be free for life. Under her current 18-month contract with BT, which is about to expire, she pays £17.99 a month. “We haven’t had a problem with BT,” she says, “but we have been shopping around.

A straight cost and service comparison with Sky broadband is just no contest.”Sarah and her husband, who have a two-year old son, Joshua, are relatively heavy internet users, downloading at least an album a week as well as the odd movie “My husband also plays online poker a lot,” she adds. “It’s more important to me that I have good customer service – I’m willing to pay a premium for that,” he says. And then she uses it for all her school research as well.”My wife’s heavily into genealogy, and spends hours on there tracing back our family trees, while I use it a lot to buy motorbike parts. The boys are always on there playing strategy games – and all of them download a lot of music and movies.”Although the Telewest package is by no means the cheapest, Nigel says he likes the convenience of having his landline, cable TV and broadband all with the same provider, and has been happy with the service he has had from Telewest. With three children of 16, 17 and 20 at home, the internet is in constant use.”They use it for all sorts,” says Nigel.