Mortgage Calculators - What do you want?

sonastin

duckyfuzz wrote: »

I guess what I'm most interested in right now is finding out:

Do you think that most people who use mortgage calculators would be interested in having them hooked up to real mortgage products or are they happy enough just dealing in hypothetical numbers/rates etc?

While it would be nice to have "real" products in there, the calculator is still only going to be dealing in hypotheticals because it can't tell you if you will be accepted for that product.

While I take on board Hammyman's point about rates changing daily they don't tend to move that far that fast. Typical rates (e.g. 4% fixed for 2 years for LTV below 70%) would probably give a good enough indication. You could then include something in the background to check what products are actually available and whether the "typical" variations reflect what is still available in the marketplace.

GMS

duckyfuzz wrote: »

I guess what I'm most interested in right now is finding out:

Do you think that most people who use mortgage calculators would be interested in having them hooked up to real mortgage products or are they happy enough just dealing in hypothetical numbers/rates etc?

Quoting on specific products would be giving advice for which you would need to be authorised.

Once a broker recommends a specific product a Key Facts Illustration (KFI) is provided to the customer.

Not quite sure what you are looking to achieve with this but to me it seems like you are wanting to provide too much information up front.

Myrtle0204

I was recently trying to decide between a fixed rate or a tracker and struggled as some else said to find a calculator which would tell me how much I would owe (in current conditions) in 2,3 ,4 5 years etc. I was trying to work out roughly what my LTV would be at various stages.

A lower LTV would obviously give a better choice of products.

My thinking been that we could do the tracker for a couple of years until our LTV improved and then look into the different products for fixed etc.

I know interest rates etc will change in that time period but it would be useful to have a rough idea.

Cheers

tyllwyd

duckyfuzz wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.

If you wouldn't mind taking a little more time out of your day, I'd be very interested to hear what it was you were trying to find out with an amortization schedule or what you we're using it for? When you say 'the best one', do you think you could flesh that out just a little? What was it about it that made it the best? Clarity of information, easy of use, detail, advanced features? I'd really appreciate just a few words on that.

The reason I wanted an amortization schedule was because we remortgaged with a 10 year fixed rate and a 15 year term. We wanted to see how the capital and interest was repayed, to find out what the capital outstanding would be at the end of the 10 years, because obviously at that point we would either go back onto the standard variable rate, or might decide to re-mortgage or whatever.

The schedule I found was easy to set up, and gave a nice clean looking printout with columns for capital, interest and remaining balance for every month up to the end of the mortgage. I look at it now and again to see where we are, and it is quite useful now that we are thinking of moving, because I can get a feeling for what our mortgage would be if we decided to redeem it at a certain point in the future.

If I wanted another feature, it would probably be the ability to enter in an overpayment, and recalculate the schedule to take that into account.

Hope that helps! I'm not sure how many people would want that much detail about their mortgage, but for me it does help put it into perspective.

getmore4less

tyllwyd wrote: »

I'd like a calculator which can also give a clear simple mortgage amortization schedule - I've found a few on the internet but most are in dollars (which is not a huge problem but annoying!). The best one I found was on a website that seems to have disappeared now.

http://www.whatsthecost.com/mortgage.aspx
It does what you want.

I can do most of the thing I want with this one or using a few and moving number about between them I can do this and there are a few on her that can as well

BUT

The main reason that there are not many smart calculators about is that so few people actual care or have a clue how mortgage works to know how to use one that is is not commercialy viable to spend a lot of time on them

Even the MSE ultimate calculator has some serious flaws and to correct them would overcomplicate the situation so much that most people would not understand. Probably also need a lot of development time to get right and would not increase foot fall to the page.

The main feature that people need is the ability to do Like for like comparisons of 2 deals on 2 rates with different fees and see which is best over the short term if fixed and follow on rate till end of term.

Easy enough to do with the above and the only thing missing is a graph.

duckyfuzz

GMS wrote: »

Quoting on specific products would be giving advice for which you would need to be authorised.

Once a broker recommends a specific product a Key Facts Illustration (KFI) is provided to the customer.

Not quite sure what you are looking to achieve with this but to me it seems like you are wanting to provide too much information up front.

I see. Well I'm certainly not authorised so I better not do that!

The reason I'm asking is that I envision a lot of people turning up at any mortgage calculator and starting to fill out the boxes. Then they get to the 'interest rate' box and they haven't a clue what to put in there because they haven't studies current mortgage rates.

So what I'd like to do is provide them with a number in the box already and tell them 'this is the average mortgage interest rate' at the moment.

Would I need authorization to do that? If not, where can I pull my averages from so that they are accurate and up to date?

PasturesNew

tyllwyd wrote: »

I'd like a calculator which can also give a clear simple mortgage amortization schedule - I've found a few on the internet but most are in dollars (which is not a huge problem but annoying!). The best one I found was on a website that seems to have disappeared now.

http://www.tigertom.co.uk/ttcalc/mortgage.php

Choice of currencies.
Complete amortization.

GMS

duckyfuzz wrote: »

I see. Well I'm certainly not authorised so I better not do that!

The reason I'm asking is that I envision a lot of people turning up at any mortgage calculator and starting to fill out the boxes. Then they get to the 'interest rate' box and they haven't a clue what to put in there because they haven't studies current mortgage rates.

So what I'd like to do is provide them with a number in the box already and tell them 'this is the average mortgage interest rate' at the moment.

Would I need authorization to do that? If not, where can I pull my averages from so that they are accurate and up to date?

Personally I would not want to quote an average or typical rate. Danger is you may find somebody who would not fit for the 'typical' rate.

Brokers would not provide an illustration at for instance 4% for somebody who would qualify for only a 7% rate.

Without proper fact finds and research it is not possible to narrow down a rate and product.

Personally I would allow the client to input the rate, which is what happens now with calculators. This means no advice or implications are given.