remortgage vs new mortgage rate?

thehairybuilder

We`ll be looking for a mortgage of approx £115k early next year so I`ve been keeping a keen eye on rates which unfortunately look as if will be higher by than .
But I`ve also noticed that most remortgage deals seem to have better rates than new mortgages .
For example if we fancy a fixed rate the best currently on offer (at a quick glance so don`t shoot me down if I`m wrong) is Northern Rock at 5.19% whereas if we were remortgaging we could have a far more attractive rate of 4.19% from Direct Line for 2 years with no redemption after the 2 years is up. . . . .
Am I missing something here or should we opt for a variable then change after a few months . . . . ?

payless

think you are missing something... all things being equal the rates for remortgage are likely to be same (if not a tad higher) as for purchase business.. there's the odd exception from time to time.. but taking your DL example surely that deal is available for both new purcahses and remortgages ( not sayings its the best or not)

cattie

I think you'll find, plenty of posts on this board complaining that better rates are offered to new borrower's than those who are remortgaging by many lenders.

My lender is Halifax, who only offer the lowest rates to new borrowers.

payless

cattie wrote:

I think you'll find, plenty of posts on this board complaining that better rates are offered to new borrower's than those who are remortgaging by many lenders.

My lender is Halifax, who only offer the lowest rates to new borrowers.

Think hairy is talking about new business eitherway .. remortgage Vs purchase wheras your issue with halifax relates to "renewal or loyalty " rates

MarkyMarkD

Yes, payless is right. You CANNOT remortgage with your existing lender - all you can do is switch to an "existing borrower" product. Remortgage means CHANGE LENDER.

And many lenders offer worse rates to existing borrowers, but there are exceptions including Nationwide, A&L and others which don't immediately spring to mind.

TangentMan

well you can remortgage with your current lender, but it is normally if you ahve a non-portable mortgage or you want to do something that can't be done with a product change but it is normally something obscure.

However i think in this instance remortgage refers to "new customer to the lender".

There are several lenders that endeavour to give the same rates to existing customers as well as new ones. Woolwich are one and famously so are Nationwide. I am sure there are others too.