* Which mortgage have you chosen? *

CharleneUK

LOL, no, I was going for Skipton for a MIP, but then I was advised against that. So really just thinking of who to go to when the right property comes along, although rates are changing constantly!!

Very stressful this house buying malarky.

aliwali

Hi
We went for the HSBC lifetime tracker, partly because it had a low fee of £599 and that was all we had saved. We were very lucky and got it at 0.48% above base. I hope you find a house soon.

Alison

bubblesmoney

this wont help everyone, but will help some. if anyone gets a job with banks etc they get preferential rates for mortgages. dont know if there is a cooling off period after u join the job to be able to benefit from the staff rates for mortgages. for eg. natwest has 6.09% for 5y fixed, no fees, no legals and rate continues even if u quit the job i am told. heard other banks have better rates but in some u revert back to tracker if u quit the job. wont help everyone but just those who take up these jobs with an intention of using the fringe benefits and career etc

katherinef1974

I am with Skipton and came to the end of a two year deal with them last October (07)
I tied back in with Skipton for seven years fixed as I want to know how much I will be paying each month without any uncertainty
The deal was £599 arrangement fee interest rate 5.98% which raised my monthly payments from £345 to £360 on a repayment basis.
(but the 7 year fix rate is now 6.49 and the arrangement fee is at £899)

CharleneUK

I hope no one minds me bumping this now that rates have come down and some fees have been removed

bubblesmoney

i applied for the hsbc lifetime tracker mortgage because there is no fees, fully flexible, 5.79-5.99& lifetimetracker.

added bonus was that valuation free, homebuyers survey is 180£, and structural survey is £390 !!!! i havent heard of cheaper deals for the valuations / surveys.

took 1.5h for the whole application process at the branch. need to go back next week for signing some paperwork i am told. cant go earlier because the advisor at the branch is on leave for a week, otherwise would have been faster i guess.

Alikay

Our Nationwide tracker finished a few months ago, but we didn't go straight into another one as they had fairly high fees at the time. However yesterday we applied for the 3 year tracker at 5.74% (0.74% above BOE Base Rate) which is fee free. We've kept the payments at similar to what we're currently paying as it'll shave an extra year off the term.

I had a quick looksy at other lenders, but opted for this as it's a reasonable deal, and we've been generally happy with Nationwide as their SVR isn't as high as some and the customer service has been good.

bubblesmoney

bubblesmoney wrote: »

i applied for the hsbc lifetime tracker mortgage because there is no fees, fully flexible, 5.79-5.99& lifetimetracker.

added bonus was that valuation free, homebuyers survey is 180£, and structural survey is £390 !!!! i havent heard of cheaper deals for the valuations / surveys.

took 1.5h for the whole application process at the branch. need to go back next week for signing some paperwork i am told. cant go earlier because the advisor at the branch is on leave for a week, otherwise would have been faster i guess.

i applied on wednesday and immediately was told computer had passed the application but needs usual processing and signing by a different office processing mortgage applications. they seem to have processed it on thursday and posted my approval on friday. i got the approval today (saturday) and signed and posted it back. pretty fast processing times i guess. dont know what happens next though as am a FTB, will ask my solicitor about this. also got the surveyors letter today whom the bank had appointed, so hsbc seems to do things pretty fast from 1st impressions

bubblesmoney

paid for the survey on tuesday to the hsbc appointed surveyor (valuation free, i had to pay the difference for the home buyers report 180£). and today thursday they did the survey. pretty quick. the surveyor called me up before the survey to have a chat but i was busy at work and couldnt speak and i d/w him later after survey and he said to call him anytime if i had queries about the report. sure was friendly service by the esure surveyor appointed by hsbc.

everythings has moved quick in 1w since i made the application. both me and solicitor received mortgage offer as well. now just waiting for copy of survey to come by post. need to sign some paperwork in hsbc over the weekend, dont know what paperwork. dont know what happens next though and what delays there are. guess will find out on saturday when i go to hsbc to sign the paperwork.