We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.

This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide

Tracker versus Discounted Mortgage?

Hi
I'm looking at taking out a new mortgage and considering a 3 year discount or a 3 year Tracker with the same society. The discount is 2.13 below the Building society rate and the tracker is 0.1 below the Bank of England Base rate. At present both discounted rates are very similar. Am I correct in thinking that this is always going to be the case as the Building Soc rate will go up and down with the Bank of England rate? - all be it with a lag then rates go down! Any other things I should be thinking about between these 2 different types of mortgage?
Cheers

Comments

  • It's probably relatively academic, but i'm sure the purists on here will say the tracker product to remove the possibility of the lender not matching any base rate move with their SVR movement.

    Historically there has been a history of SVR raising by more than the Base rate increase, but i'm fairly comfortable with either. Other features would probably be more important.

    Hope this helps

    SS
    I am a fee charging WoM Mortgage broker.
    I now no longer give information and opinion within the Mortgage boards, because a number of posters who, having approached me professionally, agreed my fee-which has been been made very clear at the outset, taken my advice (normally cancelling a [home visit] meeting at short notice) have then approached one of the fee-free brokers on here to arrange the very same deal I have advised.
    Whilst I totally concur with the ethos of "money saving"- abusing the goodwill of a professional who provides a quality service is taking it too far! :mad:
  • dave321
    dave321 Posts: 67 Forumite
    SS
    Thanks, makes sense.
    Dave
  • MarkyMarkD
    MarkyMarkD Posts: 9,913 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    The margin between SVR and base rate can decrease, as well as increase. With some lenders, base rate linked products increase (or decrease) their rates more quickly than SVR linked products, so if rates are going to rise it's possibly better to be SVR linked.

    I wouldn't personally get too excited about it - lenders cannot move their SVR ridiculously compared to base rate movements or they will lose too many customers.
  • dave321
    dave321 Posts: 67 Forumite
    Thanks Marky, that's what I thought but just looking for extra independant advice, many thanks
    Dave
  • TangentMan
    TangentMan Posts: 204 Forumite
    Whilst its true the market effectively limits outrageous changes in SVR compared to base, the banks / BSs are perfectly free to change SVR when and by how much they like.

    At the last base rate change downwards, not all lenders dropped their SVR by the full 0.25%.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 353.9K Banking & Borrowing
  • 254.3K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 455.2K Spending & Discounts
  • 246.9K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 603.5K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 178.3K Life & Family
  • 261.1K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.7K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.