Nationwide Flexclusive

lucie_1985

The two year fixed period of my mortgage deal with Nationwide is coming to an end at the end of August. There's quite a good deal on a 3 year tracker which is only for flex account holders which you have to have been for 3 months to get the deal. Am I being incredibly bright or very dense by thinking I can pay in the required £750/month from savings to qualify, direct debit a portion of that back to savings and use a portion to overpay the mortgage each month?! Savings would be with Barclays so not an internal transfer.

lucie_1985

Basically my plan is this…:

1. Open a Nationwide Flex account – once open for 3 months and paying in £750 gives access to exclusive mortgage rates and gives free travel insurance
2. You open a regular savings ISA (2.01% interest rate)
3. We set up a standing order from the Barclays e-saver of £800/month
4. We set up a standing order from the Flex account to overpay the mortgage by £250/month i.e. the saving from an alternative mortgage rate plus a bit
5. We set up a standing order of £500/month into your regular savings ISA from the Flex account, therefore leaving £50 each month so it’s not fully cleared out.

The flexclusive mortgage (only for flex account holders) would be a tracker for 3 years in which time I don’t anticipate the base rate to rise, or at least not by much – even with a 0.5% rise we would still save. It also prevents us from being locked in for 5 years as my worry is that at the end of 3 years, or likely 2 we will qualify for 60% LTV. This way we can sit back and do nothing and if the rates do rise in that time we simply reduce or eliminate the overpayment so we don’t feel any hit.

The 3 year tracker is 1.79%, the 5 year fixed is 2.44%.

Thoughts?

The point being that it recycles the £17k we have in the Barclays e-saver with the rubbish rate and then for the work in the home we extract money from the most efficient account to/interest free credit card and save on the interest in an account until the 0% term finishes.


^the e-mail I just sent my DH which probably explains it slightly better!

amnblog

What if you do all this and they pull the deal in July?

lucie_1985

Life's a risk, what if I don't do it and they don't?

kingstreet

Have you looked to see if this product is available to existing borrowers?

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/mortgages/existing-customer-switching/mortgage-rates#tab:Searchforamortgage

lucie_1985

It's not, only flex account holders

kingstreet

So it's on the list of products available to existing Nationwide borrowers wanting to switch to a new deal at the end of their current one and not limited to those who are FTBs or moving home?

lucie_1985

That is correct, I would assume that the flexclusive banner around it means you need to be both an existing customer and also a flex account holder

stator

I think you're wrong. If you open a Flex Direct account you don't need to have it for 3 months.

To get access to our range of Flexclusive offers you must either:

1. Hold a FlexOne account and be aged 18 or over, or hold a FlexAccount with a Visa debit card (not cash card or cash card+) and have:
   1. Been paying in £750+ a month for the last 3 months (excluding internal transfers);
      or
   2. Completed an account switch to us (from a non-Nationwide account) using our Current Account Switch Team in the last 4 months; or
2. Hold a FlexDirect or FlexPlus account

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/mortgages/service/terms-and-conditions#tab:twistyitem1

kingstreet

There are two four year fixed and a three year tracker product on the list with a Flexclusive banner, so it looks like they can be used for your purpose.

lucie_1985

Stator, how can you have been paying in £750/month for 3 months if you haven't had it for three months?!