Mortgage advice- offset?

Imelda

Hi all,

My mother is just coming to the end of her fixed period with the Halifax, she has approximately £9,000 left to repay and we have worked out that will take her 2 years. She is 59 and so retirement is imminent.

I am not sure what the SVR is for the Halifax (its not obvious on the website and it keeps kicking me out so I can't really browse) and we have talked about the idea of offsetting some of my savings against her mortgage in the hope that she can pay it off more quickly. Looking at the Halifax website it seems they offer offset mortgages through Intelligent Finance.

A few questions:
1. Will they give my mum an offset mortgage for that amount?
2. What amount of savings would I have to "lend" to her in order to make it viable (ie she pays the lowest amount of interest possible)?
3. Will the Halifax charge for switching her mortgage?
4. Should I just pay her mortgage off and she pay me her usual payments?

Any advice?

smarmo

Imelda, no advice as not qualified to give but here's what I think.

First of all I think you are a wonderful daughter.

Second, I am a firm believer of the offset mortgage, although in my case I simply use it to save interest on my interest only mortgage.

I think they are almost sure to give your mum 9k for 10-15 years but probably no more than that.

Any amount makes it viable for saving interest and the Halifax could well charge but they really shouldn't as you are already with them.

...I favour option 4 as it's simple and you can set the repayment time to suit both your pockets but with the caveat that you agree to lower your interest rate as rates come down and your mum agrees to up her payments when rates go up.

S

sarkin

Option 4 all the way please

you will almost certainly incure fees to switch product and with such a small mortgage it will not be worth the hassle.