Any alternatives besides Northern Rock?

dwsjarcmcd

MortgageMamma wrote: »

You've got to be having a laugh?! If my local branch are anything to go by I'd rather take advice from a monkey

Can't speak for the rest of the UK though!

MM

I have to say I find this type of comment uttery distasteful and unhelpful

PBA

MortgageMamma wrote: »

You've got to be having a laugh?! If my local branch are anything to go by I'd rather take advice from a monkey

I didn't suggest that OP should take mortgage advice from them, merely that if he already had a product in mind then the best person to speak to would be someone who only dealt with that company's products.

kingkano

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Funnily enough, I was just reading a broker's recommendation note on NR - sad I know - which didn't like NR, as it happens. It mentioned that NR pay way more to intermediaries than other lenders, particularly for 10 year fixed mortgages.

It has to make you a bit cynical about the motives of any lender who recommends that specific NR product.

And it is definitely true that NR's fees are among the highest in the industry.

To be fair I picked the term. He said for the max loan we need 5yrs+ but I'd like a lower rate and more stability. But yes the 10yr does pay a much larger fee to the broker.

I'll go back to him after the w/e I expect as our plan is slightly changed from before and see what he says. Before then I'll go ask at Nationwide and see if they have any confidence.

Thanks for the advice peeps. :beer:

MarkyMarkD

I realised that you picked the term. But once you had picked the term, I'm not surprised that NR was his preferred recommendation as (I understand that) they are the one lender who pays an extra-large broker fee on 10 year fixed mortgages.

kingkano

At the moment if we need the higher borrowing (235) we'll probably go 5yr fix with NR and look to remortgage because our salaries are rising well. I'll still pose the question to Abbey/c&g see if they cant match the borrowing with a better overall deal.

If we can borrow less we'll start looking into Nationwide etc.

Thanks to everyone for their advice here.

dwight-van-man

Since you said you wanted flexibility, maybe it was the ability to make unlimited overpayments with the facility to draw these back out at the product rate that led the broker to recommend NR - or maybe it was the 0.7% plus £150 bonu proc fee.....

kingkano

lol its possible. we do like the fliexible features of it to be fair I just remembered there is £700 back so that makes the arrangement fee a little better to swallow. I might still ask him about the procu fee tho

MarkyMarkD

I don't see any reason not to ask the broker to rebate some of the extra-large fee, as he's not doing any more work just because it's a 10 year fix.

It's very fair of D-V-M to point out the flexibility on NR's fixed rates, which most lenders don't match. But don't pay extra (in the rate) for flexibility unless you really will use it.

kingkano

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I don't see any reason not to ask the broker to rebate some of the extra-large fee, as he's not doing any more work just because it's a 10 year fix.

It's very fair of D-V-M to point out the flexibility on NR's fixed rates, which most lenders don't match. But don't pay extra (in the rate) for flexibility unless you really will use it.

Its possible we will actually now I am number crunching more. We want to keep 15k from the sale for having a baby in 2yrs. I have just realised I can pump that straight into the new mortgage once its up, to save us ALOT on repayments, and then borrow back/underpay once we need the money back for its purpose.

DOes that sound like a perfectly reasonable thing to do?

MarkyMarkD

Yes, it does, if NR's flexibility allows you to draw down overpayments (and I don't honestly know if it does).

Why do you need £15k to have a baby? Do you mean because of loss of earnings, in which case underpaying (out of your previous overpayment of £15k) would make a lot of sense? Our baby certainly hasn't cost us £15k in absolute cash terms.