remortgaging - baby on way!

rjh090384

hi

just lookiong some advice from you guys if possible.

we are currently in a fixed rate mortgage with additional borrowing totalling £110000 over 30 years. we are overpaying a bit and our total payments are £660 a month. this is fixed until february.

we have found out we have a baby on the way which we are very excited about but it does pose a few financial problems. with the current pyaments we are at the top amount we can pay as my wage is £11500 and my husband is not on great wages. when i go on maternity pay i will not be able to afford the current repayments never mind when the interest rate changes after our fixed rate finishes.

our plan was to sell up and downsize as property in our area has increased greatly in price. problem is now there is a slump and we cant get rid of our house.

so option 2 is stay and attempt to pay less on our mortgage payments!! we were thinking of extending our term but this makes very little difference. we then thought about going interest only just for a year to get ourselves sorted but i cant see any online comparisons for this! (maybe i looking in the wrong place).

basically we need to reduce the payments for say 6-12 months whilst i on maternity pay as when i got back to work i have full time childcare arranged for free.

any advice appreciated (we in northern ireland!)

djbd1973

rjh090384 wrote: »

hi

just lookiong some advice from you guys if possible.

we are currently in a fixed rate mortgage with additional borrowing totalling £110000 over 30 years. we are overpaying a bit and our total payments are £660 a month. this is fixed until february.

we have found out we have a baby on the way which we are very excited about but it does pose a few financial problems. with the current pyaments we are at the top amount we can pay as my wage is £11500 and my husband is not on great wages. when i go on maternity pay i will not be able to afford the current repayments never mind when the interest rate changes after our fixed rate finishes.

our plan was to sell up and downsize as property in our area has increased greatly in price. problem is now there is a slump and we cant get rid of our house.

so option 2 is stay and attempt to pay less on our mortgage payments!! we were thinking of extending our term but this makes very little difference. we then thought about going interest only just for a year to get ourselves sorted but i cant see any online comparisons for this! (maybe i looking in the wrong place).

basically we need to reduce the payments for say 6-12 months whilst i on maternity pay as when i got back to work i have full time childcare arranged for free.

any advice appreciated (we in northern ireland!)

Hi,

no one on here can give advice; only suggestions. I personally can't think of much more other than sitting with a decent IFA and sourcing the best mortgage deal that suits your situation. Would either of you consider part time employment outside of your current work?

At times I have taken on a second job to get extra cash in the past from being a cleaner to teaching at weekends. It meant I was away from the home for those hours but the money was needed at crucial times.

[Deleted User]

I agree, you need to speak to a fee free Financial Advisor. I would look at all the options before selling up, you could do some babysitting while you are at home with the baby, or do some dog walking (with baby), or even qualify as childminder and start a new career.

rjh090384

thanks for your advice. dj i am having an absolute nightmare being pregnant at the mo pukey and no energy at all!! i coudlnt manage a second job. my hubby is a retail manager and works very strange hours so finding a job to fit around this would be next to impossible. we dont mind moving at all we live far away from family so welcome the chance to move closer to them and if we sell even 10 below asking price new mortgage would be 75000 as opposed to 110000 we just cant get the place sold at the mo. van i am traing as a dental nurse at the minute (new career) and loving it! wouldnt change it for the world. got an appointment on friday with independant financial dude.

MortgageMamma

perhaps you could switch your mortgage onto interest only as a temporary measure that should reduce the payments somewhat, or, you could potentially remortgage onto another product in time for feb and extend the term of the mortgage, keeping on a repayment basis, that could reduce monthly payments.
there are other ways you can save money too, have all your insurances reviewed to ensure you have cheapest cover/value for money, tart your credit cards onto 0% if you have them etc etc.

jedimonkey

im in the same boat with baby due mid-nov. we got married last december, so this time last year we switched to interest only mortgage to give us extra cash.... after the wedding we simply made overpayments to the mortgage as NR tried to apply a fee for switching back to repayment. we are still interest only, but overpaying the full amount pretending its full pepayment again!

pollyanna24

Something I would consider when/if this happens to us, is to go for a payment holiday. I know this is probably not a good idea as the interest just keeps going up, but it's an option that our mortgage allows us to do, so long as the mortgage is less than 80% of the value of the house at the end of the payment holiday.

djbd1973

Don't forget to look into the extra money that you government will give you to support the birth of the child, and to make sure that you are in a position to claim everything that you are entitled to.

rjh090384

mortage mamma, being in ni our insurance and other savings are fairly limited but i am a born bargain hunter! both our car insurances are the cheapest found and the same with house insurance etc. credit cards are pimped to the max though we have not that much left on them and are hoping to have them paid off by the time baby comes (less than £1000 left on them). our internet is free and our phones on the best tarriff for us. we literally have saved every penny we can!! we are overpaying our mortage at the mo and will continue to do this. we are definately considering interest only for a samll period of time. dj i wil ldefinately look into teh government benefits as i only earn 11500 and hub gets 16000

djbd1973

rjh090384 wrote: »

dj i wil ldefinately look into teh government benefits as i only earn 11500 and hub gets 16000

Here is a good website to help you look into all the help that should be available financially:

http://www.entitledto.co.uk/

Good luck

rjh090384

thanks but that doesnt work for nothern ireland