easiest and quickest way to reduce mortgage balance during remortgage process?

latecomer

Back with another set of questions - and a bit of a rant sorry.
See bottom for abbreviated list of questions.

We are trying to complete the transfer as soon as possible after the end of our fixed rate period (and hence outwith the ERC period :j )

We are going to complete our remortgage early in feb and as part of this are reducing the balance by approx 25% by using our savings. Thought this would be simple but the lender appointed solictors want us to go to their offices in person with passports and bank statements to comply with the money laundering regs.
This isn't particularly feasible given where they are based, nor do I have any wish to give up a day of my time to do this. They have said we could get our banks to certify the funds and then fax all this too them prior to the transfer of funds but obviously thats at the discretion of our bank. It all seems like a bit of a faff.

So instead we thought we would make a large overpayment to our existing lender the day after the ERC finishes and then redeem the day or two after that. They (Britannia) cant/wont take a payment by card, it has to be by bank transfer or cheque. Trouble with this is that our main bank limits fast payments to £10k per day so its going to take several days to move it.
However I believe Santander will allow up to £100k per day and my wife has an account that we can use so this appears to be the best plan although I'm wondering whether there is any risk of the payment for a large amount being blocked due to it being an irregular occurrence on that account.

Presuming this is successful then we only need to deal with the redemption itself. The solicitors say that normally they would request a redemption figure on the day we specify and then once its received 5-7 days later they would complete the transaction. We have already requested a redemption statement for our preferred day so we know that the figure can be requested for a future date but the solicitors dont seem interested in doing this.....


Short version:

1. whats the simplest way to reduce the capital balance during a remortgage
2. are Santander likely to block a large transfer if its not a normal occurrence on that account
3. Should the solicitor be able to request a redemption figure for a future date
4. Is it really that unusual to remortgage and reduce capital at the same time?
5. Are we just being petty about trying to reduce costs ?

And if you got this far into my ranting - Thanks :beer:

kingstreet

latecomer wrote: »

the lender appointed solictors want us to go to their offices in person with passports and bank statements to comply with the money laundering regs.
This isn't particularly feasible given where they are based, nor do I have any wish to give up a day of my time to do this

Would they accept this being done at a solicitors near you, perhaps one which is CQS accredited, or on Yorkshire's panel?

The redemption figure obtained by a solicitor has a particular date attached to it, but also has a daily rate which can be applied for anything upto a week after, IIRC.

latecomer

kingstreet wrote: »

Would they accept this being done at a solicitors near you, perhaps one which is CQS accredited, or on Yorkshire's panel?

possibly but I suspect this would delay matters by a small amount

The redemption figure obtained by a solicitor has a particular date attached to it, but also has a daily rate which can be applied for anything upto a week after, IIRC.

Thats exactly what we have received and hence I dont understand why they request this in advance of the date and hence know the exact amount on day we want to complete on.

michaels

Santander transfers - you need to first make a small transfer (be careful re the ERP) and then assuming that goes without a hitch they then let you make larger ones whereas if you go for a biggie straight off it will get reffered for security approval and thus delayed. Is the limit 100k or 25K, I don't think I have ever done more than 20k at a time with them.

latecomer

Thanks - does it need a small transfer to the same destination account or will any account do?

The Santander site says its daily limit is £100k which is far more than we need so that shouldn't be a problem.

Trying_to_be_good

When I needed to transfer a large sum (to a new offset rather than the actual mortgage account) I thought it was well worth the £25-ish charge for a CHAPS transfer rather than rely on a succession of normal bank faster payments transfers - might be worth looking into?

latecomer

I realise its only £25 but having been painfully attached to my fixed rate over the last 5 years, I'm set on remortaging for the lower possible cost even if it does take some fiddling around.

Hence why a standard fast payment would be nice if I can do it.

Thrugelmir

latecomer wrote: »

Thats exactly what we have received and hence I dont understand why they request this in advance of the date and hence know the exact amount on day we want to complete on.

There's no guarantee that completion will take place on this date. So contingency needs to be in place.

Nor that something might change the settlement balance in the intervening period.

latecomer

I understand that competion may not happen on the exact date sepcified but given that the daily interest charge is approx £23, a couple of days either way will make little difference to the main figure.

Thrugelmir

latecomer wrote: »

I understand that competion may not happen on the exact date sepcified but given that the daily interest charge is approx £23, a couple of days either way will make little difference to the main figure.

The appointed solicitor is also working for the lender not just you. So will obtain the required information directly from the lender. To ensure that the instruction is completed correctly and follows due process.

michaels

latecomer wrote: »

Thanks - does it need a small transfer to the same destination account or will any account do?

The Santander site says its daily limit is £100k which is far more than we need so that shouldn't be a problem.

Any new recipient you need to make the small transfer first. Obviously this is only based on personal experience (of both transactions going to security and transactions getting through), they might treat you differently or you might even just fall in to a small sample who get specific large transactions checked.