Basic remortgage questions

Angry_Bear

I bought my first house with my partner almost 2 years ago (some of you might remember me asking question then :wave:) and am coming up to the end of my fix.

We're currently in the situation where our credit histories are pristine, our income comfortably covers the mortgage, we don't have any big expenses and our LTV is pretty good. So we're optimistic that we should be able to have our pick of available mortgages and for once the questions aren't of the "which mortgage should I choose" variety .

Which brings me to the questions:

1. When you remortgage, do you still have to pay valuation costs? Anything else (other than "arrangment fees")?
2. I assume you don't need solicitors and searches for a remortgage - is this right?
3. We should be able to get a better rate than our current one, but are hoping to keep the payments the same (effectively reducing the term of the mortgage). When the interest rates rise, if we want to readjust the term is this looked upon badly (when we remortgage again in future)? Would we be better making ad-hoc overpayments?
4. We might want to pay a little extra off the amount needed when we remortgage, to bring our LTV under the next threshold, but don't want to get penalised for overpaying our current mortgage. How does this work - do we just pay it at the point of drawdown on the "new" mortgage?

Thanks for any help

Thrugelmir

Your choices are to drop onto the SVR as specified in your current mortgage product or switch to another product with your existing lender.

Remortgaging to another lender may well involve costs to do so. Mortgage redemption fees, solicitors fees and valuation fees.

Also factor in any product fees that may be charged.

Wh05apk

Angry_Bear wrote: »

Which brings me to the questions:

1. When you remortgage, do you still have to pay valuation costs? Anything else (other than "arrangment fees")?

Most Lenders will offer "fees free" packages with free valuations and legals, normally worth taking unless your mortgage is particularly large, when you may do better taking a lower rate, and paying the fees yourself.

1. I assume you don't need solicitors and searches for a remortgage - is this right?

Solicitors will be required

1. We should be able to get a better rate than our current one, but are hoping to keep the payments the same (effectively reducing the term of the mortgage). When the interest rates rise, if we want to readjust the term is this looked upon badly (when we remortgage again in future)? Would we be better making ad-hoc overpayments?

The mortgage effectively starts again each time you remortgage, so you can amend the term as required, subject to meeting the new lenders criteria

1. We might want to pay a little extra off the amount needed when we remortgage, to bring our LTV under the next threshold, but don't want to get penalised for overpaying our current mortgage. How does this work - do we just pay it at the point of drawdown on the "new" mortgage?

Correct.


Thanks for any help

See comments above

Angry_Bear

Thanks!
It's weird, there's a lot of "what to do if you're a FTB" info out there, but it seems to be assumed that you know what you're doing by the time you get to remortgage .

Thrugelmir

Angry_Bear wrote: »

Thanks!
It's weird, there's a lot of "what to do if you're a FTB" info out there, but it seems to be assumed that you know what you're doing by the time you get to remortgage .

Ask and learn.........:beer:

Yorkie1

Don't forget that staying with your current lender is not a remortgage - it's a product transfer. A remortgage is when you change lenders.

Angry_Bear

Yorkie1 wrote: »

Don't forget that staying with your current lender is not a remortgage - it's a product transfer. A remortgage is when you change lenders.

Useful info to know!

As it happens, I doubt I will stay with my current lender - our circumstances weren't quite so good when we took out the mortgage with them and we should be able to get a much better rate elsewhere.