Abbey Mortgage Decision Making question.

taliwillow

Hello,
I am not sure if this is a really stupid question but I will ask anyway. My mortgage is currently with Abbey. My fixed rate ends in 18 months. I have just finished maternity leave and potentially have the option to work part time. My concern is that I am not going to be able to remortgage in 18 months time due to my lower salary. Our joint income when we applied for this mortgage was £43500. If I am working in the part time job our joint income will be somewhere between £33500 and £35500. Our mortgage is for £150k and we are on interest only so it will still be £150k in 18 months. I know that the value of our house is something else that could cause us problems but as I can't do anything about that I am focusing on trying to get us in a position where we should be able to remortgage.
I have been told that if you stay with your current lender and don't increase your mortage then they don't always get you to reapply, they just transfer your deal. Is this correct? I have noticed Abbey are currently offering a current account for mortgage customers that seems to be a good deal and I was considering changing to them from Halifax due to the overdraft charges that Halifax have just brought in. I rarely go into my overdraft but still don't want the risk of the silly charges. I was wondering, if I changed my main bank account to Abbey and then tried to remortgage with them, could the fact that they can see from my bank account that my income has decreased work against me, or would it work in my favour that they can see that despite the decrease in my income we have still not defaulted therefore we are a good risk?
Do my questions even make sense? (Sorry I am so tired and really should be sleeping now but am worrying about the prospect of losing the house).

Does anyone work for Abbey and know what their procedures are?

Thanks

Taliwillow

herbiesjp

If you are staying with Abbey, and not increasing the mortgage balance, you should be fine.

You are not re-mortgaging, you are looking for a product switch/transfer at the end of your current deal.

So the process should be as simple as calling them and asking what deals they can offer you.

Those deals will also depend on the property value, but choosing the deal is straightforward.

taliwillow

Thanks so much for that reply. That really does take a weight off my mind. So I am assuming that it also means that if I feel Abbey would be the better current account then go for it, but if not then stick with the Halifax as it doesn't do me any favours being with Abbey? Does this also mean I won't have any legal fees to pay? I suppose if Abbey don't have the best product for us at the time we could shop around and try to get an idea of whether or not we could get the mortgage on my salary but if not then just transfer product with the Abbey?

Thanks again.

herbiesjp

Ian answer to the three questions:
1) Yes
2) Yes
3) Yes