remortgaging

Blunda

We got this deal to get on the property ladder and now it seems its going to be difficult to get a remortgage, So I dont realy have a plan. Any suggestions?

Locoblade

Surely you don't have to remortgage, you can just drop onto the SVR rate that Northern Rock offer and carry on with them? That rate is going to be higher than your current fixed rate but probably not a lot higher than most fixed rates offered at the moment, so may not work out hugely more expensive than if you could get a new deal.

Doing this you could put off remortgaging for another year or two which may give you some time to get some more cash together or do the house improvements you've mentioned. The problem is I guess that house prices are currently dropping faster than most of us with new-ish mortgages are paying off the capital (ie we're paying mostly interest but not reducing capital that much), so in a years time if they continue to drop, you could end up with a higher LTV even though you've managed to pay off some extra capital, unless your home improvements cancel that out and add some value too.

sdooley

The plan is to stay on the current deal and gradually increase your payments so as to pay the mortgage off.

lisyloo

We got this deal to get on the property ladder and now it seems its going to be difficult to get a remortgage

That's one issue.
There is a second issue which is that you won't be able to move.
Now you might not be planning to move but sometimes things happen that people don't expect like (for example) their job moves.

So I dont realy have a plan

You need to get one.
Not knowing how you are going to pay the mortgage off long term, is something you need to address.
Although in your posistion I would probably decide to concentrate on the wedding short term, but you DO need to deal with it.

Any suggestions?

It sounds like you do have some spare cash (which you are currently using for the wedding).
The safest way to repay a mortgage is with a repayment mortgage.
So you could look at getting a quote for that.
It should be fairly easy to do. There are caluclators on the web e.g. https://www.thisismoney.co.uk
where you input your term, loan and rate and it can tell you the monthly payment.

If this comes out too high for you to afford then you need to do some serious thinking. Ideally you want to be mortgage free before you retire, so your options are
1) Look seriously at your spending as to where you can cut back to make the repayment.
2) Make a partial repayment now, but aim to improve it at sometime in the future.
We don't know your circumstances so it's hard to make specific suggestions but sometimes things can improve when e.g. debts are paid off or one partner can go back to work after child care.
3) Don't pay any off but defere the problem till later. Long term this isn't a good plan as the situation needs to be resolved at some stage and the longer you leave it the more interest you pay.

Ideally you should be aiming to pay off as much as you can because
a) long term it's a good idea
b) short term it will help you get into a posistion to remortgage
c) short term is will help you get into a posistion to move.

MarkyMarkD

I agree with many of the preceding posts. It will be unrealistic to remortgage until your total debt is less than 95% of the current value of the property, and even then you won't get a great choice of lenders, so it might be better to work towards 90%.

I would switch the mortgage to repayment as soon as the wedding is out of the way, and your surplus cash each month increases. And overpay as much as you can, to get the LTV down.