Norwich & Peterborough's calculator giving odd results

jamiewakeham

Hi there

Looking to move house soon, and playing with various calculators to see what we can borrow. We'll have about £170k deposit, and are looking at a house worth £382k, so borrowing £212k.

The Nationwide's calculator quotes, for its two-year fix at 1.84%, on a 20 year term, a repayment of £1056/month. All good, and that matches what MSE's calculator says.

But when I went to the Norwich&Peterborough, attracted by their cheap fixes, their calculator gives a completely different monthly repayment. On a two-year 1.89% fix, borrowing £212k of £384k, it tells me the monthly repayment will be £879. How can this be so different?

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious...

By the way, am I right in thinking N&P are rather 'picky' lenders and Nationwide a bit more forgiving? We have a couple of possible issues (one is that my wife, who is the major earner at the moment, is 50, so a 20 year term carries her to the age of 70; another is that I went freelance two years ago and am only just building my income up) so perhaps N&P wouldn't take us regardless?

Thanks
Jamie

CLAPTON

jamiewakeham wrote: »

Hi there

Looking to move house soon, and playing with various calculators to see what we can borrow. We'll have about £170k deposit, and are looking at a house worth £382k, so borrowing £212k.

The Nationwide's calculator quotes, for its two-year fix at 1.84%, on a 20 year term, a repayment of £1056/month. All good, and that matches what MSE's calculator says.

But when I went to the Norwich&Peterborough, attracted by their cheap fixes, their calculator gives a completely different monthly repayment. On a two-year 1.89% fix, borrowing £212k of £384k, it tells me the monthly repayment will be £879. How can this be so different?

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious...

By the way, am I right in thinking N&P are rather 'picky' lenders and Nationwide a bit more forgiving? We have a couple of possible issues (one is that my wife, who is the major earner at the moment, is 50, so a 20 year term carries her to the age of 70; another is that I went freelance two years ago and am only just building my income up) so perhaps N&P wouldn't take us regardless?

Thanks
Jamie

maybe you put in 25 years to the N&P calculator

GMS

Has the term been input correctly on the N&P one?

jamiewakeham

Nope: "Please note that this calculator is intended as a guide only and is based on a 20 year term."

I can't understand it.

jamiewakeham

Wait... if I punch the same numbers but with a 25 year term into MSE's calculator, it gives me £879.

N&P have put the wrong mortgage term into their own bloody calculator, haven't they?

Imma_Number

I've just tried it with your figures (382K & 212K) and it's showing me £1052.51 so I guess they've fixed it.

jamiewakeham

Now I'm starting to wonder if I'm doing somethng very stupid. I've just gone back and tried again, in a new browser, and I still get £879.11. Imma, you mean you went to http://www.nandp.co.uk/mortgages/help-me-choose and got £1052?

There's no option to alter the term in their calculator; it claims it's doing it against a 20 year loan.

Imma_Number

Yup. I put in 0 children, 1 adult, no existing N&P mortgage earning 50K and nothing in the other boxes (all lies of course ). Then 382000 and 212000 on the sliders.

I can only suggest that you try refreshing the page with Ctrl+F5, clearing your browser cache or trying a different browser that hasn't loaded that page yet to see if you get different results.

jamiewakeham

...and copying you, putting in 40 years old (as I guessed this is what you might have told it) I get £1052 as well.

So why on earth, when I change nothing except the age to 50, does it give a different result? You don't get magically cheaper mortgages when you pass your half-century, do you?

I guess this must just be a bug in the calculator. But thank you for helping!

Imma_Number

There's a bug in their calculation: (help-me-choose page source lines 725-733)

//Work out the maximum loan term for this customer
var maxLoanTerm;
if (75 - cusAge >= 35) {
    maxLoanTerm = 35;
}
else {
    maxLoanTerm = 75 - cusAge;
    loanTerm = maxLoanTerm;
}

Where if you are older than 40 (ie 75 - cusAge is less than 35) it sets the loanTerm to the difference between your age & 75 changing it from the 20 set higher up in the code.

jamiewakeham

Makes perfect sense. I'm so glad I'm not going mad!