I feel like the confused.com guy!

maf20

I am ever so grateful for all the good advice that comes through this site. However, I'm finding it very difficult to heed some of the adivce and make 'the right' decision. If anyone can help, our situation in the main is thus:

Mortgage term remaining: 20.5 years
Amount: 82k
Provider: HSBC
Rate: 5.5 variable tracker (no tie ins)
Joint take home per month: 3k
regularly save: £100 per month
current savings: 2k
Highish outgoings: an additional £650 to the norm (private nursery)


Totally open to ongoing great advice, but just struggling slightly with some options:

One Account
Offset
discounted
etc,....

Any advice would be really appreciated

Thanks

boy_3

I think it's discount mortgage written all over it.
Your saving needs to be above 25K+ to make offset/One account work(roughly 1/3rd of 82K) for you. Also, since you only save £100 (that's low on a 3K salary?!) a month, you are not looking to do massive overpayments. So, a discount mortgage which allows 10% overpayment(8200 per year in your case) should suit you just fine. Make sure there is no tie-ups after the discount period.

maf20

Thanks, forgot to add (and have done now). We have high outgoings (private nursery fees)

Thanks again

MortgageMamma

Hi Maf


KNow what you mean about the nursery fee's mine set me back 250 a week not to mentioned after school club fee's. What are you looking for ina mortgage? Do you want the security of fixed payments as well as the ability to offset? Are you happy on the variable rate you have now? Have you approached HSBC to see what deal they can switch you onto?

maf20

I guess I'm just after a good deal (shock I know!).

Very middle of the road stuff. Not really into risking heavily increased monthly payments. I've looked at some mortgages that say they can reduce our monthly payments by 200 quid, but obviously after looking into it, the mortgage became extortionate after a few years. I've looked at the one account and it says it can reduce our mortgage by around 6 or 7 years. Looks attractive, but I guess it's not that simple, it never is!

In the main, willing to change mortgage if it will save us a little on monthly payments, but, am more than willing to consider early repayment if it works out. What do you think about what 'boy' advises (previous post)

Tried HSBC, they were willing to give me 5.19, but wanted to charge me 595 booking fee for the privilige!

MortgageMamma

I see where you are coming from, saving money is a good thing but you need to drill down to the true costs/savings, which is found by comparing what you have now, to what hsbc offers, plus any other suitable products and their fee's included. Your best option would be to instruct a fee;s free whole of market broker to do this comparison for you, as we have far superior software and inbuilt knowledge than what moneysupermarket.com or similar can offer you, and a lot of it depends on your loan to value (amount you wish to borrow in relation to your property valuation). I personally would ignore the post from boy, as I don;'t think he is qualified to give advice or he would have asked more questions, even if his heart/words are in the right place!

Joe_Bloggs

maf20 has also posted here. The pertinent facts emerged, all good apart from the current HSBC mortgage. If anyone is unsure of what to do and has unanswered questions then this is the site to ask them. If everyone goes instantly to a broker then we learn nothing from the great and the good who are prepared to offer their answers for nothing in return.
J_B.

MortgageMamma

Joe_Bloggs wrote:

maf20 has also posted here. The pertinent facts emerged, all good apart from the current HSBC mortgage. If anyone is unsure of what to do and has unanswered questions then this is the site to ask them. If everyone goes instantly to a broker then we learn nothing from the great and the good who are prepared to offer their answers for nothing in return.
J_B.

One of the reasons why I have suggested the OP goes to a broker is that some of the questions that need to be asked to give suitable advice are far too personal in nature to be discussed openly on an internet forum.

I have been giving my advice on here freely for some time now, and am happy to answer any questions when asked, either publicly or via a PM, but one cannot make a mortgage recommendation on a public forum with so few facts without being deemed completely stupid, incompetent or desperate (or all three).

For those, including yourself, who seem to find it fitting to attempt to undermine a broker for suggesting the OP seek professional advice, perhaps you might want to consider how it would feel to be asked to post your most private details on a forum regularly viewed by 1000's of people. A security issue?

Joe_Bloggs

@MortgageMama
I consider you one of the great and the good and I thankyou for your considerable efforts. If everyone on this forum said' see a fees free broker' before any questions or potential solutions were aired, then where would we be ? Perhaps the stock phrase should involve figuring out in your own mind key priorities before seeking a fees free, whole of market broker. Perhaps some of the advice offered by brokers should involve questions that make the original poster think how they got to where they are in the first place. They don't have to answer in graphic detail.
In the end they may know more about the process and more about what they want and what they don't want. Thus they can make better make use of expert advice having considered their circumstances and choices.
J_B.

MortgageMamma

Joe_Bloggs wrote:

@MortgageMama
I consider you one of the great and the good and I thankyou for your considerable efforts. If everyone on this forum said' see a fees free broker' before any questions or potential solutions were aired, then where would we be ? Perhaps the stock phrase should involve figuring out in your own mind key priorities before seeking a fees free, whole of market broker. Perhaps some of the advice offered by brokers should involve questions that make the original poster think how they got to where they are in the first place. They don't have to answer in graphic detail.
In the end they may know more about the process and more about what they want and what they don't want. Thus they can make better make use of expert advice having considered their circumstances and choices.
J_B.

I appreciate and respect what you are saying and I see some sense in it too, but my skills are as a broker not a counsellor (god help the clients if I was I would talk them to death!) Perhaps you should look for a job in financial psychology - I'm sure there are plenty of people messed up because of their levels of debt, I wonder if there is any such thing as financial psychology or would that come under debt counselling? who knows - if you can do it then do it, its good somebody else has their heart in the right place!

Joe_Bloggs

Financial psychology is fully exploited in the media adverts. There are close to 60 classifications of 'household types' according to Experian. It must make it even harder to explain the financial sense in a mortgage or similar situation when you are facing an ad campaign costing tens of millions. On the other hand I got a leaflet/flyer from Intelligent finance that mentioned that upto one third of borrowers could benefit from an offset mortgage !. That is not going to make a snazzy advert as it will upset two thirds of those who look into it.

The FSA acknowledge a role to educate the public in financial matters. Since you understand finance why not consider what people have difficulty in understanding and help them to understand more on this forum. This is in general terms rather than specifics. By considering the point of view of others, by asking questions of them, you can gain insight in to the way we all think. There is potential in encouraging others to think for themselves and express the way they see things.

J_B.