Coming to the end of our fixed rate period?

johannis

Hello all,
We bought our current house four years ago and because we had to stretch when we bought it we took out a fixed rate mortgage with santander at 3.99%.
Up until quite recently i didn't feel the need to rush into any new fixed rate for a while, but now it seems that rates are more likely to rise than at any point in the last four years.
Whlie things are slightly better financially than they were then, we would struggle to cope with a significant rise in our repayments.
What is the general feeling out there, is it best to fix again or hang on for a while?

dimbo61

If you need the security of a fix why not look on the Santander website for new offers for existing customers!

http://www.santander.co.uk/uk/mortgages/existing-mortgage-customers-changing-deals

johannis

Just a quick thanks,
explored various options with Santander and in the process or sorting this out.
There are probably cheaper options, but this has worked out pretty well.
thanks for the advice dimbo!

johannis

Sorry to raise this all again, but we've hit a bit of a snag.
we started the process of re-fixing with santander and were looking at a saving of about £65 a month, great.
Then we thought about some of the work that needed doing to the house and rather than waiting we decided to explore paying what we currently pay and extending the mortgage.
the first conversation i had with them suggested we could borrow an extra 12k and be paying roughly what we pay now.
having gone through an affordability calculator with them they have suddenly turned us down flat? this leaves us now paying £50 extra a month because our fixed term has ended.
I'm assuming we have been turned down because we are both paying down 0% credit cards and i don't necessarily question their decision but do not really understand why a series of conversations with Santander encouraged us to ask when all along we declared the cards?
Anyway, what now? are we still able to fix? should we look at re-mortgaging elsewhere? or are we likely to be turned down everywhere.
We get so little time to spend on this that i feel annoyed at how long Santander strung us along and feel we are likely to make a poor decision in haste now we are paying something like £115 more than we might have been!

amnblog

Have a broker sort this out for you.

A switch should be possible without affordability coming in to the equation and you can raise the extra £12K elsewhere.

johannis

When you say broker do you mean financial advisor? we had one who originally sorted our mortgage when we bought the house.

amnblog

Then why was he/she not back in touch with your renewal date coming up Johnannis?

Yes, I mean a mortgage broker (mortgage specialist), or financial adviser (invesments and some mortgages).