Woolwich Offset Tracker

Old_Timer

Has anybody got one of these?

I need to remortgage in the next couple of months, approx £100K. I also know I will need a further advance to fund a house extention that is currently going through the planning permission pain. It is likely I will need a further £60-80K in 6-12 months time. House value approx £350K

I don't want to take a loan for the whole lot now and be burdened before I need to be. I also want to avoid another set of fees when I take the further advance.

The Woolwich mortgage offers a standard mortgage account + reserse account. The total of both accounts can be up to 90% LTV.
I'm told the reserve account costs nothing as the interest on the reserve is offset against the loan.
There is also a linked savings account that also offsets.
You can draw down the reserve whenever you like, no fees involved, you just then add the interest only to your monthly payments.
There are also other features I like such as unlimited overpayments i.e. not bound to £500 max per months (a la Nationwide)

So, all in all, the pros seem to be plenty and the cons few, unless you guys know different. Anybody got one of these?

Cheers

Andy_G_3

You can also offset an ISA with this mortgage as well.

donmc_2

I too have just got an offset mortgage with wollwich / barclays due to start in a couple of weeks. That sounds as it was explained to me.

I have been "unfortunate" enough to receive an inheritance of over 30k - does anyone know if I can pay a lump sum off of my woolwich / barclays offset mortgage - using a Credit Card ? - e.g. so I can get cashback on the lump sum?

I pay my existing mortgage with the Abbey on a credit card so I collect clubcard points on it - having cancelled my DD?

Claremac

I'm in the middle of an application process for the Barclays Offset Tracker for exactly the reasons you describe, Old Timer. Buying a house, will be building an extension but don't yet even have the plans drawn up so we will be offsetting any money until we need it. If we need more than we are borrowing on the mortgage we will be able to use the reserve without further fees. How you explained it is exactly as I understand it too. Good luck!

happybroker

Old_Timer wrote: »

Has anybody got one of these?

I need to remortgage in the next couple of months, approx £100K. I also know I will need a further advance to fund a house extention that is currently going through the planning permission pain. It is likely I will need a further £60-80K in 6-12 months time. House value approx £350K

I don't want to take a loan for the whole lot now and be burdened before I need to be. I also want to avoid another set of fees when I take the further advance.

The Woolwich mortgage offers a standard mortgage account + reserse account. The total of both accounts can be up to 90% LTV.
I'm told the reserve account costs nothing as the interest on the reserve is offset against the loan.
There is also a linked savings account that also offsets.
You can draw down the reserve whenever you like, no fees involved, you just then add the interest only to your monthly payments.
There are also other features I like such as unlimited overpayments i.e. not bound to £500 max per months (a la Nationwide)

So, all in all, the pros seem to be plenty and the cons few, unless you guys know different. Anybody got one of these?

Cheers

The reserve account will be charged at Woolwich's standard variable rate which will be higher than the main mortgage presumably.

As a result it would be in your interest to draw down the full amount you will require and off set the £60k to £80k. This means you won't pay interes on that amount until you need it and when you do use the money you will pay interest at the preferential rate.

badm88n

happybroker wrote: »

The reserve account will be charged at Woolwich's standard variable rate which will be higher than the main mortgage presumably.

We have a Woolwich Offset and i'm pretty sure borrowing from the reserve account is charged at the same rate as the offset mortgage.

From the Barclays website:

For Woolwich flexible mortgages, interest is charged on a Mortgage Current Account at the Woolwich Standard Variable Rate except for Offset mortgages where interest is charged at the Offset mortgage rate.

However it also says (and I didn't know this):

All borrowing on a Mortgage Reserve is on an 'interest only' basis.

So don't forget to make those capital repayments.

happybroker

apologies, my mistake!

re the interest only thing, you can ring the reserve team and tell them how long you want to repay the reserve account over and they will tell you how much to set up a standing order for each month.

you don't actually have to make a payment to the reserve, the interest will be added to the loan if you don't so you need to be carefull. The reserve team are helpfull though (I actually know some of them personally as I worked for Barclays for quite some years)

Old_Timer

Thanks to all, nothing here has put me off, I will apply tomorrow