tracker mortgages

mortgageman1000

can anyone tell me wether tracker rates ie the percentage above base rate , (I am currently looking at Woolwich lifetime tracker which is +1.09) are likely to rise or fall as the Bank of England base rate falls ?
Many thanks

Rikki

Yes....................

Locoblade

The BoE rate drop makes trackers a better bet compared to fixed rates at the moment (in the short term at least), so I wouldn't expect lenders to drop their rates further as there's no need to make them more attractive. From a couple of threads on here today, if anything it seems many are planning to raise them again to re-align their tracker offerings with their fixed products / make more profit / make their products less desirable (for those that only want to lend at higher rates).

daley_lama

Further advice from soebody in exactly the same position, i.e. me

There are better tracker mortgages out there, with other high street banks if you're a bit concerned in that area.

Woolwich = 1.09% plus £995 arrangement fee

HSBC at 0.79 with a £599 arrangement fee (less than 75% LTV) or 0.94 with £499 arrangement fee

or the one that I'm going for....

First Direct offset tracker

No arrangement fee, 0.79 above the base rate tracker, even if one doesn't offset anything it stacks up favourably against the above two products.

Cheers

Lama

Locoblade

daley_lama wrote: »

or the one that I'm going for....

First Direct offset tracker

No arrangement fee, 0.79 above the base rate tracker, even if one doesn't offset anything it stacks up favourably against the above two products.

Yup, and if you move your banking to them, any money in your current account (monthly salary etc) will automatically offset whilst its in there, so the effective rate you'll be paying will be something marginally less than +0.79%. Im not sure if you HAVE to do this anyway or not - you certainly need an FD current account (First Account) where the mortgage is paid from, but Im unsure if you can still keep your existing current account as well, if you dont want to move.

daley_lama

Hi Loco

You can certainly keep your existing account wherever, the way I'm setting this up with FD is to have a current account with them and pay a standing order directly into there from my existing current account prior to the morgage being taken out.

I know it's not using the offset benefit to it's full at first, I simply want to get my mrtgage tranferred and up and running before changing all of my bills/wage details.

Locoblade

Yup, can understand that, we're doing the whole lot, remortgage and current account transfers pretty much at the same time and it does feel like plate spinning at times, making sure sufficient money is in each account just in case and working out which direct debits etc will get paid from which account around the transfer date.

DelBoyPhil

my hsbc moved this week to the 0.99 on base rate to 5.49 with no fee so thats not a bad deal for me.

jiggy2

Locoblade wrote: »

Yup, can understand that, we're doing the whole lot, remortgage and current account transfers pretty much at the same time and it does feel like plate spinning at times, making sure sufficient money is in each account just in case and working out which direct debits etc will get paid from which account around the transfer date.

Locoblade,

can i ask you a question (or anyone else who can answer it)?

for the first direct mortgage, when HSBC securities sent you the legal mortgage doucment to sign, and your signature needs to be witnessed, who did you use as your witness?

the cover letter states "your signature should be witnessed, but witness can't be relative etc". this suggest witness could be anyone

the legal mortgage doc says.."you should sign this mortgage infront of a witness who should be your solicitor, legal advisor or a HSBC bank plc official".

I presume the second one is more likely to be the required one, but just wanted to check, before i call them!

thanks


Jig

Locoblade

I just asked a friend at work to witness it, as did my wife. I checked with FD and they said that was fine.