Can someone give me advice on legal fee's please?

mumof2girls_2

I went to a broker secured a 5 year fixed rate 4.69% with Abbey on a mortgage of 92500 (50%ltv) inclusive of legal fee's but had arrangement fee of £995.

Few days ago seen new deal on their website, 3.95% 5 year fixed rate but not inclusive of legal fee's.

Now n the latter id be saving £40 per month but dont want to pay through the nose for legal costs. I have no idea how much legal fee's are for remortgaging so might not be better off in the long run.

Any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated.

PS If I have had a credit check/application done with Abbey for the 4.69 deal (not signed it yet) if I phone them up for the new deal will I need to be credit checked again?:eek:

MrC-117

The main things they'll charge you for is a mortgage valuation (they pick the surveyor and charge you for it), and for their solicitor to do a bit of paperwork. Last time I paid for that sort of thing (was about 5 years ago though) it was about £300 for the mortgage valuation survey and £300 solictors fee. When I last remortgaged, because I'd got a good LTV (not as good as yours though) they just checked the postcode and didn't bother sending a surveyor round (so didn't charge me either). So maybe a maximum of £800, could be as low as £400, so you'd make you money back in a year or two. After 5 years you'd be a couple of thousand better off.

The arrangement fee is where they can stick on massive numbers - £995 is pretty good at the moment.

Probably worth checking with them. Sometimes they let you put those legal fees onto your mortgage, and sometimes you have to pay up front.

As it sounds like you've already been approved by them it shouldn't make much difference to credit checks. It's just trying to buy a different product from them. Anyway, someone being approved for a couple of mortgages isn't that unusual so doesn't seem to cause a problem. It's only if you'd applied for about 6 different mortgages in the last couple of months that people would be really suspicious. They're normally a bit more sensible than those "yes/no" instant credit approvals you get for interest free in Currys or credit card applications