One Account?

kaywantsapug

I've heard alot of people saying the one account is great, they are years ahead with their mortgage payments, its really helped blah blah blah.

I've just been on the website but it sounds too good to be true.

I would really like to buy my own home. I earn £18720 a year before tax. Me and my ex partner (childrens dad) are planning on getting back together in 2011 but he was made redundant 2 years ago and hasn't been able to find work. So if he does find work we would be going for a mortgage together.

The property I like is £99950 but could possibly get this for less as it needs a bit of work doing. I have £6000 deposit.

What do I need to do? And is the one account worth going for?

Thanks!

Senior_Paper_Monitor

Lets assume that you pull a deal for £90K, and you have £6K deposit (and don't need to meet any expenses like solicitors, application/valuation, applications fees, brokers fees and can move in for free - all unlikely) - that is a mortgage of £84K ...

That is loan to value of 93.3%, therefore not going to happen (on any mortgage - let alone the 'one account' which is limited to 75% LTV).

Let us assume that you have no debts, credits cards and/or loans which would reduce your income for the purpose of calculating affordability ...

You require to borrow 4.4 x income and have (if I understand your posting correctly) at least 2 dependants - that is not going to happen on your income level.



Any plan needs to be based on you both being back in acceptable employment - and having increased your available deposit considerably.

getmore4less

The One Account is one of the worst accounts of its kind there are better options with other lenders.

wymondham

I'd just like to redress the balance - we used the One Account to get rid of our mortgage, and did it in 3 years after getting rid of the endowment and putting all our savings into it. There are others with better rates, but I would not have changed a thing purely due to the way it works.....

getmore4less

wymondham wrote: »

I'd just like to redress the balance - we used the One Account to get rid of our mortgage, and did it in 3 years after getting rid of the endowment and putting all our savings into it. There are others with better rates, but I would not have changed a thing purely due to the way it works.....

But it works the same as any offset so you save money by getting the cheaper products

Gorgeous_George

The most important thing is the interest rate. You want one as low as possible but watch out for 'arrangement' fees.

The LTV needs to be improved. You'll need about £2K for legal fees, surveys etc.., so you should be looking to double your savings to £12K before getting your hopes up too much.

If you are both working you should be able to achieve your dreams. I really hope you get the home of your choice.

GG

HappyMJ

kaywantsapug wrote: »

The property I like is £99950 but could possibly get this for less as it needs a bit of work doing. I have £6000 deposit.

What do I need to do? And is the one account worth going for?

Thanks!

You would need to find another £20,000. I have a one account. I do like it but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It requires a lot of commitment to get the balance down and the rates are higher than other products at 3.75%. Do not believe the calculator on the website the same results can be obtained with any mortgage.

wymondham

getmore4less wrote: »

But it works the same as any offset so you save money by getting the cheaper products

when we got it the fee's associated with it were a fraction of the others.....

Chinkle

The OneAccount was one of the first, but is no longer one of the best offset accounts. Having said that, offset is not for everyone either. It benefits those who have a good deal of savings to set aside against a mortgage which you do not have. In fact as others have pointed out you will struggle to find any kind of mortgage with the deposit you have currently and the amount you want to borrow.

Go see a broker, get some figures and then you'll have a target to work towards in terms of financing a decent deposit - work hard on this in 2011 and review again next later year. The good thing is house prices aren't going anywhere at present.

jamesd

wymondham is right about the benefits at the time wymondham used it. The others are right about it now being an expensive product compared to all the others that now offer the same features. First Direct is one of the more competitive alternatives. It doesn't do the loan to value that you currently need either.

HappyMJ, why not remortgage elsewhere to get a lower rate? £99 from FD is a pretty inexpensive fee. Operates with money in the current and savings account offsetting the interest on the mortgage account. You can also pay off the mortgage account and draw on it later if you want to for some reason.

Umski

HappyMJ wrote: »

You would need to find another £20,000. I have a one account. I do like it but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It requires a lot of commitment to get the balance down and the rates are higher than other products at 3.75%. Do not believe the calculator on the website the same results can be obtained with any mortgage.

Agree with this - only reason I'm not changing is that the balance is close to zero so with fees etc, it isn't worth bothering to change at present. However, if I wanted to move house I would probably go First Direct as they offer much better rates and the account works in a similar way. Also bearing in mind the One Account/RBS rates debacle when the BoE rates were coming down a couple of years ago and the rate on the account wasn't. I can't see them holding back on increasing the rate when they start going up again :mad: