remortgaging worth it ?

asturdy2

iam coming to the end of a 2 year discount rate with nationnwide. Ive weighed up my options and taking into account all costs i would save £300 over 2 years by switching to britannia. At what point is it not worth switching ?

herbiesjp

probably the point at which you do not save any money - or what you personally think is a worth while saving versus the hassle of re-mortgaging

Gambler

how much hassle involved? I'll face the same decision in a couple of months and have never remortgaged before (currently in 1st mortgage - 5 year fix).

Thanks

lisyloo

I don't think this is a difficult one.

Work out what you will save.
Estimate how much effort involved.

Divide one by the other to get an hourly rate.

E.g. savings £3000 per year for 2 hours work is a phenominal rate.
Even £300/2 - £150 per hour will be worth it for most people.

Then you have to decide how you value your time.

If you run your own business or have a highly paid job then you may value your time quite highly in financial terms.
You might also value it highly in quality of life terms.

It's down to personal choice but I find working out the hourly rate is a fairly effective tool for coming to a decision.

Gambler

but is there a lot of hassle involved remortgaging?

lisyloo

I would say that you need to allow 2-3 hours (but might be spread over several months).

The work involved is

research - to get the best deal
application - should take about 20 mins to apply, you might also need to send off payslips etc.
chasing/checking - I personally like to make sure that the redemption statement is correct and that everything goes through on the right day (might be crucial if you have penalties).

You also need to allow a valuer to come round to the property but if you have a neighbour that you can leave a key with then that's not a problem.

So I personally don't think it's that much hassle.

silvercar

I always think moving to a lender that will allow you the pick of all their current mortgage offers when it is time to remortgage again saves you money. You may have to pay the booking/admin fees but you won't need to get another valuation on your property or salary checks. Also the paperwork will be minimal.

I always check if the new mortgage will be portable ie you can move it to a new property. I accept early redemption fees but want to be able to move house if I need to.

lisyloo

Nationwide are a lender that allow you access to all their deals at the end of a mortgage.

No connection, jsut a service they offer.
I'm sure there are others.

Nationwide tend to offer competitve trackers with no legal fees or valuation fess (although checkout the application fees).
e.g. 4.39% for 2 years.

Gambler

I have a 2 year fix with C&G which expires 30-Apr and a 5 year fix which expires 31-Aug. I'm thinking of giving them a call to see if they can consolidate into one new mortgage but at the end of Apr and not having to wait till Aug.

Not sure if they'll go for it but they would be getting another 2 years out of me.

Gambler

Gambler wrote:

I have a 2 year fix with C&G which expires 30-Apr and a 5 year fix which expires 31-Aug. I'm thinking of giving them a call to see if they can consolidate into one new mortgage but at the end of Apr and not having to wait till Aug.

Not sure if they'll go for it but they would be getting another 2 years out of me.

They can't consolidate the two mortgages, anybody know why please?

Gorgeous_George

I like Britannia. I'm on a lifetime tracker of BR+0.75%. It's a flexible mortgage so savings earn 5.25% effectively tax-free.

After a couple of years you share in the profit sharing scheme.

They paid almost all my fees when moving from Birmingham Midshires including a free valuation 1 working day after I contacted them.

I won't be chasing discounted rates anymore. The fees generally outweigh any benefit IMHO.

GG