First Direct mortgage rates cut and cheaper fees

Gorgeous_George

AIP - Agreement In Principle

GG

mantamark

Bear in mind aswell its not just £99, you will need a valuation, either £99 or £160, and if there are any legal fees these will need paid aswell.

Still a bucket load cheaper than the rest of them though.

maggiemayhem

As far as I am aware (though I will be double checking this my self on Tuesday) the legal fees will be paid if you use their solicitors, even in Northern Ireland ( Which I think was not the case until recently).

sebtomato

maggiemayhem wrote: »

As far as I am aware (though I will be double checking this my self on Tuesday) the legal fees will be paid if you use their solicitors, even in Northern Ireland ( Which I think was not the case until recently).

You pay FD arrangement fees (£99, when the money is drawn out), and the agreed valuation fees (when the valuation is done), but nothing else.

The legal fees are for your solicitor to go through the purchase, and not related to the mortgage only.

chrisst170

sebtomato wrote: »

You pay FD arrangement fees (£99, when the money is drawn out), and the agreed valuation fees (when the valuation is done), but nothing else.

The legal fees are for your solicitor to go through the purchase, and not related to the mortgage only.

I spoke to FD yesterday and had to book an appointment with a mortgage advisor as they are so busy at the moment.

The person I spoke to when booking the appointment was able to give me some information and when I asked about legal fees she said that you don't need a solicitor in England if you are just remortgaging and not changing the deeds at all... I was suprised by this. Is this true or did she just mean that there is a legal process to go through but FD pay for them?

Cheers,

Chris

maggiemayhem

I am re-mortgaging as well but living in Northern Ireland.

Checking this with the mortgage advisor when you speak to him/her but my understanding is :
The only costs to pay are the arrangement and valuation fees (and exit fee when leaving the deal). There may be some legal work involved but as long as I use their solicitors it won't be charged to me.

maggiemayhem

sebtomato - what questions did they ask you and what bits of information should I have ready for them? Did they give you any information in relation to processing your application (e.g timescales, etc)?

ijrussell

Brilliant - thanks for posting. In the process of switching over and had picked the £999 Offset tracker to get the lower rate. Just rang and new paperwork is being sent out in the next few days.

Not often you get to save 900 quid with a simple phone call.

sebtomato

maggiemayhem wrote: »

sebtomato - what questions did they ask you and what bits of information should I have ready for them? Did they give you any information in relation to processing your application (e.g timescales, etc)?

When I applied on the phone, they asked questions for about 30 minutes:

• Gross base income
• Current employer, employment duration, address
• Current address, duration
• Current bank, account details, duration
• Did I understand the difference between capital repayment or interest only
• How would I fund the capital repayment for an interest only mortgage, at the end of the term
• Do I know how much I would need to put aside per month for capital repayment (in case of an interest only mortgage)
• Type of property to buy, price, deposit, leasehold/freehold (but not the address)
• If I had life insurance to repay the mortgage
• If I had building insurance or needed them to quote for it
• Type of survey requested and their cost
• etc

At the end of the call, they had to wait for about one minute for the system to give an approval.

When the paperwork arrived, with an agreement in principles (subject to information provided being correct), I had to provide the same type of details (most pre-populated) on about 5 pages of forms, address of property to buy, details for the seller/estate agent, my solicitor details, payment details for the survey etc.

I had to provide 3 months of bank statements, 3 months of payslips plus the latest P60 (originals only).

Regarding timescales, they said 5 weeks maximum from the time the application is received.

fraser

house valuation is £270, Homebuyers £655, Building structural survey is £880

i plummed for the 2.29% plus BOE, tempted by the offset again but won't have much to offset this time around. I am existing customer and redeemed by previous offset fixed in March this year, I was a bit narked by having to pay a redemption fee, but we had found a buyer and wanted a sale so went for it.

I had tried to negotiate a discount on the redemption fee from last mortgage at that time, they could not do anything so offered £300 off the arrangement fee if I came back to FD. This time around they would not waive the £99 fee or discount the valuation fee - fair enough really as have avoided £900 by the cut in the fees.

Overall I found FD very good, only thing was my conveyancer for my sale said he found them very stroppy to deal with. HTH