Had my Santander mortgage a year now..

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

I am part way through a 5 year fix @ 4.99% with santander on a £104,400 mortgage. Ok we only had a 10% deposit but we were eager to get on the property ladder and be getting something at the end rather than paying someone else's mortgage. Was slightly gutted at the rate went down on the same mortgage not long after we bought - sods law. However the last laugh will be with us as we are overpaying and practically halving the term of the mortgage. This means they get less interest out of us and when our fix is up we should be on a healthy ltv to get a new fix.

Yes there may be people out there with better rates than you however everyone's circumstances are different, that's the way the cookie crumbles as they say. It's what you do with the information you are finding out that will make all the difference.

LittleBill

dimbo61 wrote: »

£500 a month would be a good start and an extra £6000 paid off the mortgage might get you into a better ltv when you come to remortgage.

Hi

I have been flicking through mortgages as i am planning to maybe opt for my first ever lone (yes i mean lone, as in alone) mortgage this year.

I am self-employed (3 years) .. and I have banked with Santander nearly 30 years so think they may be the best people to ask as my credit history is good and they have a record of my comings and goings as long as your arm.

I have a fair chunk of cash and am only planning to take out a small ltv percentage .. between 7 & 15% .. and overpay the mortgage significantly.

I have looked at the Santander mortgages with little or low fees, but a slightly higher intro' rate. As i am only borrowing a small sum, the difference is insignificant i feel and would rather pay less fees.

The ones i have looked at are fixed i think, but appear like they will need to be 'renewed' after two years when the intro offer ends .. Is that correct?

Also, as i will always be on 'dodgy ground' being self employed, i want to make myself look as good a proposition as possible ... Could anyone please tell me .. Will overpaying my mortgage in this initial period, make my chances of getting a better deal when i renew/remortgage better?

Thank you in advance

LittleMortgageBill

gd49

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa wrote: »

I am part way through a 5 year fix @ 4.99% with santander on a £104,400 mortgage. Ok we only had a 10% deposit but we were eager to get on the property ladder and be getting something at the end rather than paying someone else's mortgage. Was slightly gutted at the rate went down on the same mortgage not long after we bought - sods law. However the last laugh will be with us as we are overpaying and practically halving the term of the mortgage. This means they get less interest out of us and when our fix is up we should be on a healthy ltv to get a new fix.

Yes there may be people out there with better rates than you however everyone's circumstances are different, that's the way the cookie crumbles as they say. It's what you do with the information you are finding out that will make all the difference.

How did you get on with overpaying your mortgage?

We've just started a 5 year fix with Santander, I was hoping to overpay by £70 a month but the person I spoke to said we can't overpay by that small amount a month, we can either ring them everytime we want to overpay by a small amount, or can make unlimited over payments of £500 or more. We can obviously save the money then overpay every 7 months but it'll mean paying slightly more interest and I did think it'd be more straightforward than that! No risk of getting near the 10% overpayment limit.

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

gd49 wrote: »

How did you get on with overpaying your mortgage?

We've just started a 5 year fix with Santander, I was hoping to overpay by £70 a month but the person I spoke to said we can't overpay by that small amount a month, we can either ring them everytime we want to overpay by a small amount, or can make unlimited over payments of £500 or more. We can obviously save the money then overpay every 7 months but it'll mean paying slightly more interest and I did think it'd be more straightforward than that! No risk of getting near the 10% overpayment limit.

Hi gd49c we overpay by £400 a month. We go into branch and ask to make a capital overpayment. We then ask to reduce the term and keep the payments the same. We then get paper work confirming the payment and then another letter stating the new term. The last 2 months went a bit wrong as I made one too close to the direct debit date so my normal monthly payment didn't come out so I called to correct this and last month the lady at the branch did it wrong and reduced the monthly payments and kept the term the same. A quick call sorted it and the lady said that it we are welcome to call after each payment to check it has been applied correctly. Paper work also says you can do the overpayments online or over the phone.

Hope this helps?

Edit: also are you sure it's unlimited overpayments and not a limit of 10% of the remaining balance of the mortgage at the start of the year as there will be ERC's

gd49

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa wrote: »

Hi gd49c we overpay by £400 a month. We go into branch and ask to make a capital overpayment. We then ask to reduce the term and keep the payments the same. We then get paper work confirming the payment and then another letter stating the new term. The last 2 months went a bit wrong as I made one too close to the direct debit date so my normal monthly payment didn't come out so I called to correct this and last month the lady at the branch did it wrong and reduced the monthly payments and kept the term the same. A quick call sorted it and the lady said that it we are welcome to call after each payment to check it has been applied correctly. Paper work also says you can do the overpayments online or over the phone.

Hope this helps?

Edit: also are you sure it's unlimited overpayments and not a limit of 10% of the remaining balance of the mortgage at the start of the year as there will be ERC's

Thanks for your reply. I was hoping I could just set up a regular overpayment and forget about it but sounds like that's not possible, have set a recurring reminder on my phone to do it every few months instead.

Yeah we're limited to 10% overpayments for the first 5 years but the mortgage is so large there's no risk of hitting that!

Verix

Halifax just let me change my direct debit to encompass the overpayment. I naively thought that's what all lenders did?

gd49

Verix wrote: »

Halifax just let me change my direct debit to encompass the overpayment. I naively thought that's what all lenders did?

That's what I thought Santander would do but I was told that if we changed the direct debit it'd be treated as a new mortgage as it would change the term and we'd have to be assessed all over again. We arranged the mortgage through an adviser so I'm going to check with him later to see if this is true.

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

gd49 wrote: »

That's what I thought Santander would do but I was told that if we changed the direct debit it'd be treated as a new mortgage as it would change the term and we'd have to be assessed all over again. We arranged the mortgage through an adviser so I'm going to check with him later to see if this is true.

Would be useful if we could do that. All seem to have different methods - probably trying to make it so much of an inconvenience that you don't bother. I will look at the last lot of paperwork I had and see what ways you can.