First Direct Offset Tracker?

Eliza1001

Hello everyone!
First time poster here. I am looking to remortgage from 1st Jan 09 when my 2 year 4.59% fixed rate halifax deal ends.
I rang First Direct last week to apply for the fee free +.79 tracker, but was told I had to speak to a FD mortgage advisor and the next available telephone appointment was next Saturday!!
I'm really worried FD are going to withdraw their current rates in the next couple of days, especially if the BOE base rate changes later in the week.

Did everyone else experience a similar delay?

Eliza

bluenose1

We are just in the process of re-mortgaging with FD.
We intend to go with the 5.79% rate and intend to stay with this mortgage until we pay it off.
We liked it cos of the no fees. Also as it is a low rate for the life of the mortgage. We couldn't find a better deal. In fact my OH said IF and Woolwich have both increased their interest rates in the last day or so.

You can apply now and they will reserve it for 6 months. I am no expert but I think it is well worth going for.
My husband thinks this rate won't last long.

Locoblade

indig wrote: »

I am thinking between BR + 0.49 and 0.79 .Just one to clarify that .79 is totally fee free but .49 has some additional fees as well apart from £999 which are Valuation fee (£99 - £200) based on whether property can be externally valued or not and also £ 149 exit fee so would assume will add 8-12 months more into break even time if you haven't included them in your costs.

Has anyone actually confirmed this by speaking to them, because my +0.49% deal that I nabbed when they first launched it certainly does NOT have any fees other than the £999, and I couldn't see any mention on the website when I looked the other day?

Obviously if there are additional fees, that would affect the break-even timeframe, out to about 36 months from a quick look at the figures.

Locoblade

Eliza1001 wrote: »

Hello everyone!
First time poster here. I am looking to remortgage from 1st Jan 09 when my 2 year 4.59% fixed rate halifax deal ends.
I rang First Direct last week to apply for the fee free +.79 tracker, but was told I had to speak to a FD mortgage advisor and the next available telephone appointment was next Saturday!!
I'm really worried FD are going to withdraw their current rates in the next couple of days, especially if the BOE base rate changes later in the week.

Did everyone else experience a similar delay?

Eliza

Nope, this didn't happen when I applied, just called them up, went through a 45 minute phone "interview" there and then, giving them all our details and doing the basic credit check etc, at the end of which we had an agreement in principle and a no obligation booked rate which we had about 4 working days to take up before the booking was lost.

atlantis187

Locoblade wrote: »

Has anyone actually confirmed this by speaking to them, because my +0.49% deal that I nabbed when they first launched it certainly does NOT have any fees other than the £999, and I couldn't see any mention on the website when I looked the other day?

There is definately a £99 valuation fee attached to the 0.49% deal. Thats one of the reasons i've gone for the 0.79% rate. I applied for mine a few days after these new deals came out and was told about the fee's then.

I think the reason they may have been missed your's is because you originally applied for the old 0.99% tracker rate and then you changed it to 0.49% so somewhere along the line they may have already processed half of your old application before sending out the new one.

rp8049

Right, think I'm gonna go for the +0.79% deal and get on the phone to them this lunch time. Cheers for all the advice guys

rp8049

Damn, can't make the call 'til I get home as no time today at work, so just praying they don't decide to withdraw the deal with interest rates being cut!

rp8049

Also, does anyone know how far in advance First Direct can start to arrange mortgages? Just checked and in fact my fixed rate is not up until 31st Jan, so if they have a max 3 month policy then I'm stuck at the moment anyway!

Locoblade

I think I saw mention on here that you could reserve for 6 months, but not sure

Locoblade

atlantis187 wrote: »

There is definately a £99 valuation fee attached to the 0.49% deal. Thats one of the reasons i've gone for the 0.79% rate. I applied for mine a few days after these new deals came out and was told about the fee's then.

I think the reason they may have been missed your's is because you originally applied for the old 0.99% tracker rate and then you changed it to 0.49% so somewhere along the line they may have already processed half of your old application before sending out the new one.

The change could explain the £99 valuation fee anomoly but my mortgage offer certainly doesn't mention anything about any exit charges etc, which have also been mentioned previously. Given that nobody seems to have been charged anything yet (early days I guess) Im just wondering whether a few of their people on the phone were mis-informed about the 0.49% offer and mistakenly mentioned fees simply because some of their other products have them.