Mountainlioness' diary: the MFi3 journey

Trying_to_be_good

Mountainlioness

Good to see you back - one of the things on my 'to do' list today was to see if you had an update, so that was a coincidence!

I had three mortgage accounts with Nationwide that they didn't put togetehr (1 house move and a divorce so needed to buy out ex). When I moved the next time I moved to NatWest (worst decision ever) so the mortgages were automatically consolidated into a single account.

You should be able to remortgage into a single account, at a single rate, with a single term and make your life a bit easier! If you don't need the scope to pay £500 off each mortgage, I would think this is the best way to go. But don't do it if you have any early repayment fees, or if it makes the rate go up higher than it would be on any of the mortgages.

Can you lay out exactly what the deals are, e.g.

Account 1 - BoE +0.34% £30k ends xxx 08
Account 2 - BoE +0.34% £15k ends xxx 08
Account 3 - BoE -0.13% £78k ends xxx

Then I think I can get my head around it a bit easier!?!?

mountainlioness

Hey TTBG :hello:

Thanks for the welcome back!

I did go and enquire about bringing the accounts together on remortgage but apparently you always have to have the original mortgage as a separate entity - you can "consolidate" the two further advances, but unfortunately in our case it's the original and one of the FAs that come up for renewal together...

Anyway, here's the sitch:

Mortgage 1 (core) Balance: £77414 @ 5.12% Deal expires: 31st Aug 08 Repayment: Aug 2030 Penalty for early exit at end 2007:£523

Mortgage 2 (FA 1) Balance: £43904 @ 5.59% Deal expires: 30th Sep 08 Repayment: Jan 2028 Penalty for early exit at end 2007: £340

Mortgage 3 (FA 2) Balance: £132849 @ 5.36% Deal expires: 30th June 2009 Repayment: Nov 2030 Penalty for early exit at end 2007: £2006

FA 2 has been the main target of our overpayments, hence the earlier repayment date...

I know we're unlikely to get these kind of deals at the moment but am wondering if the field will be looking even less appealing later in the year... the other issue is whether we stay with Nationwide long enough to at least line up the deals so if we do want to move lenders in the future, we're not paying massive exit fees...

So whaddaya reckon?

taka

This probably won't be much help but I think you can pay just 1 fee for reserving your money with Nationwide as core and FA1 mortgage fixed rates are up within a 3 month window. Oh and I think you can book your funds 3 months before your rate is up and not pay an early exit fee. Hope that helps!

mountainlioness

Thanks Taka - will definitely do that if we stick with Nationwide... I'll book an appointment in June as I might as well see what's on the table from them before making up my mind. Am just hoping there are a few more options that the website suggests!

setmefree2

Welcome Back:D and good luck with the mortgage hunt;)

mountainlioness

cheers SMF

BTW, those are amazing stats you got there - well done!!

mountainlioness

Hey all -

Totally knackered after 4 hours driving today to a dull conference

Am beginning to think we should just ride this one out with Nationwide and re-mortgage when the market's recovered... DH pointed out we'd be making the classic mistake of "selling" in a low market... I'm going to keep my options open of course and an eye on the market but probably worth waiting to see what they offer and sitting tight til our big mortgage comes up for renewal next year. £2k is a lot of penalty to make back, and that's assuming there aren't any fees on the new product...

I get a small payrise this month and again in May (I know, am really lucky), so hopefully that will help absorb the almost guaranteed increase in monthly payments.

Trying_to_be_good

Hi ML

I'd be tempted to go onto Nationwide's BMR on the first two to align the mortgages - or maybe if you talk to them they'll let you set up the latter two togeether at an earlier date. It's much easier to get your head around it if the deals all end at the same time, at least! NW's loyalty product sems quite competitive in the current market, particularly if you have 75% loan-to-value.

mountainlioness

We've just discovered HSBC's +0.38 tracker - we "did the math" (world's most irritating phrase?!) and actully switching all 3 products (paying redemption fees on one) is cheaper than all our other options even if BOE rates stay the same (and mah-oosively cheaper when we looked at one, two and three base rate cuts)

As there's no tie-in and unlimited overpayments we thought it was a good move - especially given by the time we actually switch we're likely to have already benefitted from one cut.

Been quite difficult getting hold of ppl at HSBC now - they seem to be totally inundated. It is probably one of the lowest trackers on the market though, and they're also doing a 4.99% fix (not worth it for us but tempting for some I can imagine...)

Anyway, hopefully we'll be sorted soon

(interesting that Martin's article on fixed vs discount rates assumes a situation where you pay extra for the security of fixing - when we were looking at Nationwide' offers it was the other way round, which a cynic would interpret as an indication of where they think interest rates are going!)

setmefree2

Well Done:j