First direct: end of fixed rate/execution only?

timehastoldme

Hi, forgive me if this ends up being long winded.

We bought out house five years ago, value £130,000 mortgage £110,000, we have just over £100k outstanding, houses similar to ours are now selling for £170k on this street.

At the time we were in well paid jobs, since then my husband has switched to a new job that he loves as well as part time post graduate study, so earns less. We self fund the study, and the last of the fees are paid now so that's bloody nice.

I quit my stressful part time job, to try a less stressful stop gap job to becoming self employed. That is just starting off and business is building slowly but surely and by Christmas I think my earnings will be on a par with my old job. We earn enough to cover all of our outgoings and live modestly. If you put that into a mortgage calculator though, computer would definitely say no.

We are now at the end of our fix, the letter we have gives just picking a product and calling up to ask for it as an option. Will this involve all new checks or is this just an existing customer product switch?

I know the LTV on a straight product switch is less good, but it's a lot better than the standard variable rate.

Anyone with experience able to shed some light on this for us?

AnotherJoe

Is there an online option to renew?

zagubov

As they're a telephone bank they may want to talk you through everything and update their financial info about your situation. It's not, as far as I know, enough of an online bank that you can switch to a new product online.

It would be smart to look around, e.g. with the main forum's mortgage calculator , to find cheap alternatives, so that you have other options you can discuss with them.

We went through a remortgage/ product switch with them, and we felt under the microscope as, like you, we had reduced our work and earnings.

After a lot of grumbling they did cut us a good deal, but we were glad we'd mentioned (casually, not threateningly) that we were looking around and could quote better deals from elsewhere.

It was worth it in the end as they have better deals as retention products than they advertise for new customers.

timehastoldme

No online options, so we have to do the call. Thanks for the tip @zagubov will definitely have some stats to hand

zagubov

Prepare for the interview by taking photos of recent payslips, P60s, bank & credit card statements for the last 3-6 months. Not just your FD accounts.