is it really this easy?! renewing halifax mortgage

bossdog

We just got a letter about our fixed rate being up at the end of the month, the new interest rate and new monthly payment. At the bottom it had a link to their online switch service which I have now had a look at and it says we can switch to a new deal which will save almost £100 a month, no fees, all done online in 10 mins. Is this possible, this seems far too easy?! Have I missed something?

libf

Customer retention products don't require any additional checks/charges.

If the rate they're offering is a good deal compared to competitors in consideration of the hassle of a remortgage then go for it. Although if you may be close to change LTV bands then it may be worth requesting a valuation or re-valuing based on area price growth, depending on what Halifax do in that situation.

bjt42

We switched product online with Halifax this way last month, it was painless.

- Checked current valuation, we were close to an LTV threshold
- Made an overpayment via Faster Payments
- Next day checked the LTV again, it had been updated to reflect the overpayment
- Submitted request to switch product
- Docs were prepared within a few days, logged back in and signed electronically
- New product & payment started at the beginning of the month

Halifax lets you do this up to 3 months before the end of your current deal, so if the new interest rate is lower you can save 2 or 3 months difference compared to remortgaging with another provider.

bossdog

That's great, thank you!! They say the LTV is 69% which I'm guessing means we are in a new LTV band? It's a fairly small mortgage at £89k so weren't too fussed about remortgaging because
the fees are so high, this is a perfect solution.Thank you for your reply, very happy bunny here!

gentlewoman

No you haven't missed anything, it's easy to switch to a new deal online.

(Well actually maybe you did miss something... their rates for existing customers just went up slightly I believe, and you could have switched 2 months ago. They let customers switch 3 months in advance of the date when fix rate ends).