Pre approved morgage offer from Barclays

houndour

I've received a pre-approved mortgage offer from Barclays under my name, but it means myself and my husband can get a joint mortgage under it.

I went to see the mortgage advisor yesterday to see what the catch was and there appears to be none except of course we need to be able to afford the monthly repayments.

Looking at the interest rates for Barclays, they don't seem to be that bad. For example:

Quick Quote for a 5 Yr Fixed Rate 5.29% (4YC) (Repayment) mortgage.

These details are for an advance of £130,000 payable over 35 years 0 months.

Monthly repayments: £680.33 per month for the first 63 months
£711.69 per month thereafter

This would be more than affordable for us.

Is there anything else I should know? Should I still be going to an IFA to see what other mortgages are out there?

Right now, I feel seeing a IFA is a waste of time as we've tried to get quotes before and when they base it on salaries we've been offered in the region of £60k to £90k, which simply isn't enough to buy a house.

A bit of our financial history:
I, myself am in a good position financially. I have a student loan, but the repayments are approx £60 a month.

Husband on the other hand has a 7k personal loan and a 13k personal loan. Totalling about £300 a month payments.
He also has 2 credit cards, one on a low interest for life offer (£2800) and the other which we are relatively quickly reducing and hope to clear in less than 6 months £1600.

With all these debts it seems its affected our mortgage offers a fair bit as they take it off your salary. It's not like we can't afford the mortgage repayments - we're paying £800 a month rent now.

AndrewSmith

It is standard for Barclays personal banking customers to have a pre-approved mortgage facility with them.

It is based on the conduct of your account and the levels of income going through it etc.

houndour

So should I ignore it and look elsewhere then?

herbiesjp

houndour wrote:

So should I ignore it and look elsewhere then?

You would always shop aorund and see if there is anything better, otherwise how would you know if you had got a good deal?

AndrewSmith

houndour wrote:

So should I ignore it and look elsewhere then?

Not at all, use it as a comparison against anything else that you are offered.

houndour

Do we find a house and put an offer on before we speak to a broker/IFA?

herbiesjp

houndour wrote:

Do we find a house and put an offer on before we speak to a broker/IFA?

I would suggest doing it the other way around.

Speak to a whole of market mortgage adviser, and let them come upi with the mortgage/purchase rpice level you could look at with other lenders.


Once you have this information, you will be able to go and view properties with the confidence of knowing exactly what your buying power is.

AndrewSmith

houndour wrote:

Do we find a house and put an offer on before we speak to a broker/IFA?

I would make the comparison and speak to a broker first, then you have a rough indication of what sort of figures you are looking at.

What you don't want to do is make an offer based on what Barclays are saying they will lend, only to find out that there are far better rates out there but other lenders will not lend as much possibly.

Do your homework first, it will also put you in a better position when coming to make the offer.

houndour

Thanks to you both. You've been very helpful.