Mortgage advise

danadanny

Hi all,

our 3 years fixed mortgage will be ending on Apr 2010.

1. When should we start looking for a new deal (assuming it is wiser to remortgage)? Our property is valued at £159,000. Loan outstanding will be £147,000. We are willing to contribute between £3,000 (to £5,000) to lower the loan amount to £144,000.

Current lender: Standard Life
Interest rate: 5.87%
SVR: 5.34%


2. On a separate but related issue, my 0% balance transfer with Virgin Money will also be ending on Apr 2010. If I were to apply for a new credit card now (to transfer my balance), will this affect the credit rating for my new mortgage?



Kindly advise
Danadanny

_Andy_

Hi

Can I just ask what the property value is being based on? i.e. has it actually been valued recently?

danadanny

No, the price is based on the original value although zoopla estimated the value to be about £189,000. I've been told the zoopla is fairly accurate but I'm not that optimistic, hence £159,000.

_Andy_ wrote: »

Hi

Can I just ask what the property value is being based on? i.e. has it actually been valued recently?

Thrugelmir

Your credit card debt will picked up on any credit check. So no hiding from this, disclosure is unavoidable.

Yout LTV is over 90%. So won't be a great deal of options open to you for remortgaging.

Find some ways of paying down your mortgage debt. Not saying it will be easy, but times ahead aren't going to get better for a while.

opinions4u

danadanny wrote: »

1. When should we start looking for a new deal (assuming it is wiser to remortgage)? Our property is valued at £159,000. Loan outstanding will be £147,000. We are willing to contribute between £3,000 (to £5,000) to lower the loan amount to £144,000.

Current lender: Standard Life
Interest rate: 5.87%
SVR: 5.34%

Early January is when I'd be looking for the new deal. I admire your common sense approach to valuation. Realism can avoid disappointment. I would, however, tell lenders that Zoopla say £189k, but be prepared to move to a more expensive product if the valuation comes in lower.

2. On a separate but related issue, my 0% balance transfer with Virgin Money will also be ending on Apr 2010. If I were to apply for a new credit card now (to transfer my balance), will this affect the credit rating for my new mortgage?

The debt and any related search will show. I wouldn't worry too much about 1 search though. Unless it's part of a more significant number.

Wutang_2

Another punchbag moment

CPS

Dont forget Barclays have taken over the Standard Life Mortgage Book, with the takeover scheduled for Jan 2010. That could affect your decision as Barcalys may offer you a better Fixed Rate than SL. Also Barclays SVR is 4.99% (I think) so that might be your new SVR, who knows. Im in the same boat on the SL SVR with little equity. Im waiting to speak to Barlcays once they takeover and see what my options are

Thrugelmir

CPS wrote: »

Dont forget Barclays have taken over the Standard Life Mortgage Book, with the takeover scheduled for Jan 2010. That could affect your decision as Barcalys may offer you a better Fixed Rate than SL. Also Barclays SVR is 4.99% (I think) so that might be your new SVR, who knows. Im in the same boat on the SL SVR with little equity. Im waiting to speak to Barlcays once they takeover and see what my options are

Barclays have taken over the mortgage book, and will run it down over time. Don't expect any immediate changes. Barclays will transfer remortgages onto its own books under its own lending criteria interest rates and T&C's. With little equity Barclays we will be happy to keep you on SL's SVR rate, they have no incentive to do otherwise.

danadanny

Am I being to sensible? My next door neighbour is valued at £278K. Both properties are extremely similar, ie same council tax band, same number of rooms, similar size. Not much work was done on the property as it is a buy-to-let.

I am tempted to report the value as £200,000 although its not reflected on zoopla. :rotfl: What I don't understand is why there is such a huge difference in the valuation. Any ideas?


The credit card limit is £4500 and the outstanding amount is £1400.

opinions4u wrote: »

Early January is when I'd be looking for the new deal. I admire your common sense approach to valuation. Realism can avoid disappointment. I would, however, tell lenders that Zoopla say £189k, but be prepared to move to a more expensive product if the valuation comes in lower.

The debt and any related search will show. I wouldn't worry too much about 1 search though. Unless it's part of a more significant number.

curtisjames_2

Hi,
I am in a similar position, ie, potentially little equity, current mortgage ending Apr 2010.
I got in touch with a broker and during the information gathering session, he managed to convince me to put silly valuation on my property. The LTV = 53% whereas in reality, I'll be lucky if I can get LTV=90%.

He came back with the following quote:

Type: Tracker
Period: 2 years
Loan period: 32 years
Interest rate: 2.49% + base rate (0.5%)


Common sense tells me that I'll not get this rate when the surveyor drops by.

What should I do next?

_Andy_

Don't touch the broker with a bargepole - what a foolish suggestion from him.
No way on earth a valuer is going to agree to that. Wasting your time, lender's time, valuers time, possibly your own money.
Your broker hasn't got a clue.