Fixed rate ending soon, best way forward?

dartilov

Very briefly, Halifax fixed rate ending in Nov 09, owe £120k on a 17 year term, am looking at remortgage and change to their 5.79% fixed rate for 5 years and in turn reduce the term to 14 years. Conservative LTV is 73% based on their calculator but Zoopla suggest the house value is £180k as opposed to the Halifax of £164K ish, but will stick with Halifax, just to be safe.

Halifax have said I will go onto SVR of 3.5% come Dec which is great and this is an option, I could overpay to reduce quicker I guess but if I decided to go that way, would I be putting in jeopardy my ability for the Halifax to accept my remortgage application in the future?

Is it best to arrange the remortgage and start is as soon as possible or can you agree it but defer it for a while whilst the SVR remains low?

As ever any thoughts/advice are appreciated.

getmore4less

You should be able to remortgage at any time after the fix ends without penalty based on what the current products are.

I would take the SVR and overpay as if it was 5.79% at a min keeping an eye out for a good deal.

luckyfool

You could almost do both. Brokers can access the same halifax product transfer deals, you might be able to get one who is willing to lockin the 5.79% 5 yr fixed rate for you now but to start on 1st November. The policy COULD change at any time, but as things stand there is nothing to stop you continuously rolling that product onto replacement deals 3 months in the future benefiting from any fall in rates, but being able to let the fixed rate take effect if the rates rise. This allows you some peace of mind, but potentially 3-6months or even more on the SVR of 3.5% to benefit from the lower rates. This can definitely be done, not sure how the Halifax call centre would view it though, hence why I suggest using a broker.

luckyfool

Oh, and you can lockin a Halifax deal from tomorrow or the day after to take effect on 1st December.

SelbyJay_2

I would go on to the SVR and over pay as much as you can afford.

My brother remortgaged to shorten his term, but come the end of the fix, his repayments were so high he couldnt afford them. He's just been respossesed.

I would be very weary of remortgaging to shortern your term, when you could possibly get the same effect by over paying.

dartilov

Thanks SelbyJay, I hadn't considered that in the grand scheme of things.

Regards