I'd like to re-mortgage..save £££ don't know of I can

BillyMorgan009

Hi forumers,

I've been reading the re-mortgaging guide and am still unsure whether I have any options at all. A bit of background...
My wife & I first time buyers got our mortgage of £120,000 in December 2007, this was a %100 LTV mortgage from Scottish Widows Bank. Our 2 year fixed rate came to an end roughly this time last year and our repayments went down from £730 to £530 (ish) we still however pay £730 each month in an attempt to get it down quicker.
Now then...whilst I don't think we are in negative equity it is almost certain that we %5 or less of the property...is there a way of checking this more exactly? Can you ask your mortagage company for a valuation? Our mortgage rate is Scottish wids svr for our mortgage is %4.99 which, given the adverts I see for mortgages seems awfully high...am I in any position to negotiate a better deal with Scottish Widows? Or indeed is there any possibilities of re-mortgaging?

Any advice welcome

Happy Christmas money savers :-)

Ben

BadgerFace_2

If you bought in 2007 on a 100% mortgage, I'd be amazed if you weren't in negative equity...but I don't know the ins and outs of your local housing market.

With regards to the mortgage, even if you own 10% of the property, I doubt you'll beat 4.99%, as it's a very high LTV. If you owned 5%, I think the rates you'd be looking at would be ~6.5%.

BadgerFace_2

Oh, with reagrds to valuation, use this-

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi/default.asp?calculate=true

It's very crude, but will give you an 'idea'.

dwsjarcmcd

I suspect that if you had a 100% loan at the end of 2007, the chances of the property being worth much more than that now are slim, particularly if it is a new build flat.

Was you original loan capital & interest or interest only?

If the former, then you will have 2 years repayments (bearing in mind that in the early years it is mostly interest but there are calculators for this type of thing) to deduct and an additional £200 per month as overpayments. If the later, then only the overpayments can be considered.

You can ask anyone (qualified surveyor, not an Estate Agent) for a valuation but not all lenders will accept them and you may just have to write this off, once you know the answer. I think that a 95% loan is the very best you can expect.

If so, this greatly limits your options both with Scottish Widows and elsewhere. The adverts you see are for sub 65% LTV, which you are not going to get.

4.99% is not a bad rate and to be honest I think you will waste your time and money trying to beat it. Continue to overpay as much as possible.

David

CloudCuckooLand

4.99% would not be bad if it was a fixed rate. 4.99% is dangerous ground for a variable product, though. If rates go back to 5%, like pre-recession, you'll be paying 9.99%...

If BoE discussion of rate rises in the press recently is preparing the ground for New Year rates rises, you may need to fix soon.

With your likely negative equity, you need to find some funds to overpay and be ready to find another product if you can get under 90% LTV.