Getting a better mortgage rate

manlysea9

Hi Martin,

My husband and I have recently come out of our fixed term with Abbey but are struggling to get a better rate. Abbey came out to do a valuation on our property and valued at 270K. We have a 240K interest only mortgage so limited equity. Abbey are being very reluctant to give us a better deal and are currently on a standard variable rate of 7.04%.

We are reluctant to shop around as our credit file is ok but not brilliant. We have been really good always paying our mortgage on time for 2 years of having our house, so are really annoyed we cant get a better deal with Abbey than currently 6.9%. Are Abbey being difficult as only have 30K equity in our house?

Any advice would be great.

whu

Hi- It seems to me unfortunately that this is quite normal for banks/BS with that level of eqity - I doubt they give credit for paying the mortgage on time as they would expect you to do so when taking out the mortgage

space_rider

Why have Abbey done a valuation when you are already with them? I have a mortgage with them and my current tracker ends in December but they didn`t do a valuation. I have a repayment mortgage.

herbiesjp

The problem you have is you fall into the higher LTV bracket - 90%

You could find deals around the mid 6% with free legal fees and valuation - you do not say what fee Abbey will charge you for your new deal, how much is that?

Mithos

space_rider wrote: »

Why have Abbey done a valuation when you are already with them? I have a mortgage with them and my current tracker ends in December but they didn`t do a valuation. I have a repayment mortgage.

It's like herbiesjp says, BS/Bank's now have a max LTV for existing borrower products, with property values going down they don't want to risk you defaulting on payments and them having to repossess your property at an even greater loss, so valuations are being done again.

space_rider

Mithos wrote: »

It's like herbiesjp says, BS/Bank's now have a max LTV for existing borrower products, with property values going down they don't want to risk you defaulting on payments and them having to repossess your property at an even greater loss, so valuations are being done again.
quote]

Yikes, thanks for that. Just as well I went for a 5 year product as I bought Dec 2006.