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Calculating Mortgage APRs

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Hi folks,
I can't get my head around how mortgage APRs are calculated. I know what they represent - the interest + mandatory fees but I can't figure out the maths behind them. Can some one explain?

Do quoted APRs apply to the entire mortgage or just the length of the advertised deal?

e.g.
HSBS 2 year fixed standard with 90% LTV (it's on their site but apparently I'm not allowed to post links :p )

That's a 2 year fixed mortgage@4.49% with a £599 booking fee. Then reverts to 3.94% SVR.

APR is given as 4.2% - how???

Comments

  • Thrugelmir
    Thrugelmir Posts: 89,546 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    nau01179 wrote: »

    APR is given as 4.2% - how???

    On the basis that the interest rates as quoted remain the same over a 25 year period.
  • HappyMJ
    HappyMJ Posts: 21,115 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Interest calculated daily and charged monthly will create some compound interest. If the monthly interest is 0.3287% per month then after a year a £100,000 loan assuming no payments were made would become £104,017. The other part might be interest on the booking fee or the booking fee itself. I wouldn't try and calculate it exactly...just look at the fees and the interest rate to compare to other products.
    :footie:
    :p Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) :p Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. :p
  • nau01179
    nau01179 Posts: 11 Forumite
    edited 28 February 2012 at 8:55PM
    So all APR values assume a 25 year mortgage?

    That helps but I still can't see where 4.2% comes from. Can you show me the exact maths?

    It also raises the question - what's the point? Surely a better figure to give would be the APR for the term of the deal - this would be more representative of what most people will pay.

    Also unless I've missed something - the APR will be affected by the size of the mortgage - e.g. if 2 people take this same deal over the same term
    one with a £20k mortgage and the other with a £200k. The APR for the 20K mortgage is going to be worse as the fee is a much higher percentage of the overall mortgage...
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