Advice on Remortgaging under new system

dander

Hello, I'm due to remortgage next year when my current fix ends - it's not imminent enough to be talking to brokers yet, but soon enough for me to be thinking about it :-)

I've no experience of this new mortgage system and on googling I've had up all sorts of news stories from when it started talking about people having to do three hour interviews and god knows what to get mortgages now, so can anyone tell me what I need to expect and how much preparation I need to do for when I apply.

Under the old system I should have been pretty much an instant no quibble acceptance - 20% LTV, less than 2xSalary, 15 year term finishing well before retirement, no major debts, no missed payments etc. I'm also seriously considering taking a ten year fix, so not sure how much they'd worry about "stress test" on that?

So do I still need to expect lengthy interviews and justifying every expense on my bank statements? Should I consider this to the detail of always doing my food shopping on debit card rather than cash to make it clear what I spend? Should I clear my credit card completely before applying (currently have about £1000 on a 0% rate so wasn't planning to rush to pay it back, but I could if need be)? I also have a work share saving scheme that I pay into as well as my pension, so the amount that makes it to the bank account is minus about 14% of what I actually earn - all accounted for on the payslip of course, but will that cause any issues?

Any detail on the nitty gritty of what I need to prepare for would be hugely appreciated.

Icequeen99

I have just done a buy to let and bought a new residential property on a 90% mortgage. Two mortgages and expected all sorts of questions.

I went through London and country brokers - all I got asked for was a month pay slip each. L&C asked me some brief income/expenditure questions but that was it.

I was really shocked after all of the stories I had heard.

IQ

kingstreet

Are you remortgaging, or asking your current lender for a customer retention product?

Either way, different lenders do things differently, so there is no "fits-all" answer to your questions.

Perhaps appointing a broker to advise you would be the most sensible route for you to take...

dander

That's good news, Icequeen, thanks. I'd probably be going through London and County too because they've arranged my last two mortgages, so it sounds as though it could actually be as simple as it used to be :-)

dander

kingstreet wrote: »

Are you remortgaging, or asking your current lender for a customer retention product?

Either way, different lenders do things differently, so there is no "fits-all" answer to your questions.

Perhaps appointing a broker to advise you would be the most sensible route for you to take...

As I said in my first post - this isn't soon enough to get brokers involved. I'm just talking about getting myself prepared for when it happens - and I said remortgaging in both the title and the post so I can't see where any confusion would be there!

kingstreet

You'd be astonished by the number of people who post on here about a remortgage when they actually mean a customer retention product, but you're obviously clear on what you want, so as you were.