im going to play it safe with First direct fixed @ 6.19

curlyboy

rachelandgromit u got an excellent deal well done 5.99% u got peace of mind , security excellent and dont have to worry about rates rising, trackers well done

Mattfoo

I have just signed up for the 6.19% 10 yr fixed at FD.
My reasons are that I have the feeling (and have experienced recently) that banks will increase rates whenever they want to, to suit themselves.

I have experienced this with the One Account recently when they failed to pass on the BOE rate cut of 0.25% and then had the cheek to add on 0.25% just a month or 2 after !:mad:

I think that in the future we will increasingly find that the BOE rate will have little effect on how banks manage their mortgage rates. Hence looking for a more stable fixed term.

daveyliver

Im confused , firstly do you have to bank with FD to get a mortgage? secondly if everything is done over the fone I would be bricking it incase I cocked up in some way. Im new were mortgages are concerned.

allan673

you dont have to bank with them, i remortgaged with them in march 2008 on a 10 year fixed offset at 5.15%.
they open up a first account and a savings account for you.

i opted to pay traditional style repayment, and i just have a standing order from my bank paid into the first account every month.

its very straight forward to do, customer services are brilliant too.

another good thing is you can see the mortgage balance fall each month online.

great product, go for it.

lisyloo

Wau that's really important info

As regards offsetting ISAs.
I have always found ISas paying more than the mortgage.
It's getting much more marginal but it's still the case.

Reme ber that ISAs are tax free for life but mortgage offsetting is tax free for mortgage term.

In my case that's 40 years vs 8 years (estimates obviously).
So I would say that ISAs are very worthwhile and therefore ISA offsetting is not a big deal.

Things could always change of course but it was a minor factor in my choice of mortgage rather than a major one.