Remortgage and credit score advice

Saria

Hi lovely people of MSE!


I have some questions in regards to remortgaging, as our current mortgage deal will end in September (and as we were first time buyers, we are still somewhat new to all this). So I'm hoping I can get some help here!

As I said our deal will expire in September, so when should we start looking for a new deal? And what would be the best way to do this? To get our current mortgage, we used a mortgage broker, but I'm wondering if it is something we can do ourselves (and save some money in the process).

I've had a look on some comparison sites, but they of course all ask for a valuation of the house. Would I just use what we paid for it (December 2016), or can we get it valued somehow? Are places like Zoopla a good way to get this done or are there better ways?

I have also had a look at our credit scores, and for some reason mine is all over the place: it's quite low on Clearscore, but then good on Noddle (not sure about Experian as I just signed up there and it showed a really high score). I'm wondering how I can improve it? I recently transferred my credit card balance from Lloyds to Barclays to get a 0% deal, which now means I have an unused credit card with Lloyds. Should I cancel this or leave it as I've had it longer?

As for the credit card debt I have with Barclays, is it an issue if I keep paying this off monthly, or should I pay it all off in one go before we try to remortgage? Not sure how this affects our chances?

We also have another credit card with Halifax that is only used abroad (no debt on there) and then my partner also has a credit card (all paid off too). So it's just the one card we're paying off, but I have quite a high credit card allowance/limit to my name now. :S

Sorry for the long post! Any advice on remortgaging and credit scores will be greatly appreciated!

foxy-stoat

I can advise about credit scores - they do not matter in the eyes of the lender.

So just on remortgaging;

Look for a new deal a month before your deal ends, I would speak to your current lender. They can give you a valuation based on index linking. If you think the rate is too much then use your broker.

If you can afford to clear the card debt then do so, but if its on a zero % deal it may be best to leave it and keep the cash in savings/premium bonds etc.

If you need high credit card limits then leave them, if you dont need or able to afford to pay back that level of debt then you can just reduce them down.

Saria

Thanks for the advice both of you! Really appreciate it! :T


I've requested my credit limit to be lowered on my Barclays and my Lloyds card, as I never needed such a high limit anyway. Hopefully that will help.

I could pay off the debt on my Barclays card (it's £1900 and I have that available in my Lloyds current account), but I wanted to keep that money in my current account to gain some monthly interest, while paying off the debt with monthly payments (as it's 0%). So not sure what would be best to do there...

In regards to a no fee mortgage broker, I recently signed up with Habito. Are these online companies any good to deal with? It looked quite interesting! I'll have a look around on comparison sites too, but it is difficult to know what to put in as a valuation, especially as we refurbished a lot in this house and that's not reflected in desktop valuations sadly.

I also contacted my current lender a while ago, but they weren't massively helpful!
We can switch after our payment at the start of September, but they couldn't tell me how much would be left exactly on our mortgage balance by they time our deal ends. So I have to sort of estimate what it will be myself. And they won't give me a new rate until 14 weeks before the end date. So it might be time to switch to someone better haha.