Remortgage or remain on A&L SVR

Jhoney_2

EricTheKing7 wrote: »

I have recently come to the end of a 5 year fix with A&L (Santander) and am paying the SVR of 4.99%. I'm reasonably happy with this as it gives me the flexibility to make overpayments or reduce my payments. Originally our mortgage was meant to end in June 2020 but after a couple of sizable overpayments and keeping our payments the same -£550 - we are likely to finish paying in just over 2 years from now. It's only a small mortgage now, approx £14000, £2000 of which is interest only. I know I could mortgage to a better deal but is it worth the effort for £10 a month with so little time left to pay? I have no other debts to consider, so my mortgage is my only real debt. I just wondered if I was missing anything obvious in the way of options, I like the flexibility of the svr but I like the idea of saving a bit on my monthly outgoings also. I wood appreciate any advice or alternatives that I haven't thought about.

Is that rate for A&L customers? Santander rate is apparently 4.74? If it's because you always overpay etc, you may find your situation better than you think. I happened to look at their site yesterday - perhaps they can bring it down on that basis.

Thrugelmir

Joe_Bloggs wrote: »

I would say that paying 4.99% SVR interest is a signal from the lender to go borrow from somebody elsewhere.

A&L has been a closed mortgage book for some time now. Santander will want to run this down and close it as soon as they are able to.

EricTheKing7

Joe bloggs, I no longer have the endowment. We cashed it in last year. It was supposed to cover 40k by June 2020 but was on target for only 32k(ish). We'd already taken steps to reduce our exposure to 22k and when it reached that late last year we decided to cut our losses and cash in - Standard life homeplan. I was happy to continue with the gamble, hoping for a reasonable final bonus but my wife wanted the piece of mind to have it paid off - we kept 2k for a summer holiday so that's why we still have a small amount of IO.
Jhoney, yes Santander are holding us to the original A&L svr as it was in our original deal. They've shown no real interest in getting me off it when I've spoken to them previously and im sure they'd be happier if I stayed on it.
I must ring them again to see what they can offer me and I will post the details.

Thrugelmir

EricTheKing7 wrote: »

They've shown no real interest in getting me off it when I've spoken to them previously and im sure they'd be happier if I stayed on it.

As they are different legal entities. The transfer would amount to a remortgage. All round, both to them and to you. The costs involved simply don't warrant a remortgage.

EricTheKing7

Thanks Thrugelmir, I think that has been my gut feeling all along - the benefits don't outweigh the effort, and I like flexibility of overpaying on MY terms. It just hurts a little knowing that I'm paying 4.99% when there are so many better rates out there, but then I should count my blessings that I have a relatively small balance to worry about. I think I will just keep overpaying, try to put a bit aside for more overpayments and we could be mortgage free within 2 years - happy days!