First Direct Offsetting Overdraft

Locoblade

The external valuation was free for my +0.49% deal, that may have changed now although Ive not seen any indication on their website that's the case. They always did charge for internal surveys etc regardless of product though, so thats possibly where the £99 fee comes from, if your house isn't visible from the road etc? Other than the £999 fee though, the two mortgage KFIs I was sent (for the +0.79% and the +0.49%) seemed identical regarding charges (or lack of).

Without knowing your mortgage details I can only assume your calcs are correct, certainly if you've got a fairly small mortgage over a relatively long period then over 5 years the 0.79% would work out cheaper.

firesidemaid

re. the £999 fee.

what i was trying to say was if i have 1k spare i could either use it to pay the fee or an extra 1k off the mortgage, you couldn't do both with it IYSWIM.

from what i gather - there are potentially a few fees on the 0.49 mortgage as you say, but absolutely nothing on the 0.79.

i have booked in now, but my mortgage isn't due to change until the end of feb, so if things change before then and i find another deal, then i have lost nothing.

lisyloo

what i was trying to say was if i have 1k spare i could either use it to pay the fee or an extra 1k off the mortgage, you couldn't do both with it IYSWIM.

Yes you are correct.
But if you pay the fee you will save the following on your mortgage (approximately)

0.003 * mortgage capital * number of years

That's not exact because capital reduces but it's a good enough approximation to give most people an idea of what they will save.

If your capital and number of years is large then you will save lots.
If your capital and number of years is small you will not save much.

So it's not a clear cut answer becasue the factors will vary between mortgages.
I reckon I'll save about £4K by going for the 5.49% deal, so I'm going for that one, but clearly it's not the same for everyone.

firesidemaid

thanks for that - just did the sums.

although i am going to set my term at 10 years i hope to overpay massively and pay it off in only 5, so its probably swings and roundabouts.

and if a better deal comes along and i move during that time then i think i will be happier that i have not paid any fees - as you say it's all in the calculations x

Locoblade

firesidemaid wrote: »

re. the £999 fee.

what i was trying to say was if i have 1k spare i could either use it to pay the fee or an extra 1k off the mortgage, you couldn't do both with it IYSWIM.

from what i gather - there are potentially a few fees on the 0.49 mortgage as you say, but absolutely nothing on the 0.79.

i have booked in now, but my mortgage isn't due to change until the end of feb, so if things change before then and i find another deal, then i have lost nothing.

Yup thats what I thought you meant, but from the big increase in your calculation from 38 to 58 months, it appeared to me that you'd paid off £999 of capital from the 0.79% but hadn't paid the same amount (the fee) off the 0.49%, so weren't comparing like for like.

For example, for me with a £174k loan over 21 years, as mentioned before with the 5.49% loan with £999 fee, I break even at 25 months if I overpay at the same amount as the 5.79% loan with no fee. If I had £1k spare and pay off £1000 from each (ie paying the fee on the 5.49 and reducing the capital on the 5.79% to £173k), I still break even within 26 months, so it hardly changes. Thats what led me to believe you paid money from the no fees loan, but forgot to pay the fee off on the other one before doing your calculations. :beer:

Locoblade

firesidemaid wrote: »

from what i gather - there are potentially a few fees on the 0.49 mortgage as you say, but absolutely nothing on the 0.79.

Just for info, Ive double checked my +0.49% offer details and can confirm that the only fee is £999, there's no exit fee or any other fees listed, so apart from that booking fee, it seems identical to the +0.79% deal. Worth noting though that I took this offer up when it first appeared a couple of weeks ago, so I guess its possible that FD have since added fees to the same basic product.

atlantis187

One of the reasons I didnt go with the 0.49 tracker was also because of the £99 valuation fee on top of the £999 arrangement fee.

What am hoping to do is go with the 0.79 product and when its all been set up change this to the 0.49 product inorder to save on the valuation fee. (if this product is still around).

Also will get £100 for opening a 1st account.

Locoblade

As mentioned, I didn't get charged for the valuation and Ive not seen it mentioned in any of the blurb for either rate, although I did jump from the 0.79% to the 0.49% during the application, so its possible the charge was overlooked in my case, but I dont think so.

If you think the +0.49% is better for you though, is it really worth risking not getting it for £99? For me, £99 saved would be swallowed up in about 3 months of payments if I was stuck on the higher rate, so I personally wouldn't play around for that small sum especially as Im not convinced there's a charge either way regardless of rate. Also, don't forget that these rates are only available for new customers remortgaging from other lenders, so you can't wait for it to complete then swap in a month or two's time, because you'll then be an existing customer and that rate won't be available to you. The only thing you can do if you still want to go down this route is wait until they've done the survey then ask to change before completion, but it seems a lot of mucking about with some risk (that the rate is withdrawn) just to save £99.

neil9313

atlantis187 wrote: »

One of the reasons I didnt go with the 0.49 tracker was also because of the £99 valuation fee on top of the £999 arrangement fee.

What am hoping to do is go with the 0.79 product and when its all been set up change this to the 0.49 product inorder to save on the valuation fee. (if this product is still around).

Also will get £100 for opening a 1st account.

Im just looking at both offers now with the paper work in my hand, you will still need to pay the £999 fee and that is if they let you switch to it;) the 0.49 is a great rate it wont be here long IMHO.

neil9313

Locoblade wrote: »

Just for info, Ive double checked my +0.49% offer details and can confirm that the only fee is £999, there's no exit fee or any other fees listed, so apart from that booking fee, it seems identical to the +0.79% deal. Worth noting though that I took this offer up when it first appeared a couple of weeks ago, so I guess its possible that FD have since added fees to the same basic product.

Are you sure there is not an exit fee of £149 on the 0.49 rate?