First time renewal and a stack of changes !

Paulpen

Hi guys and girls - long time reader shirt time poster here with a renewal due at the end of June !

Nearly 5 years ago now we got our first house and have spent the time since then renovating it and paying the fixed mortgage. Also my wages have increased slightly and the mrs has slightly too.

The house has also gone up in value too (purchased for £205k and now valued at £260-270k)

All seems simple I hear you say -  well we also had a baby in November !

Current situation is that im now on furlow with my employer adding the extra 20% but I think im about £150pm down as cant make bonus if im not at work and the mrs has taken the year off from Nov 2019 to Nov 2020 as maternity so shes only recieving the standard £98ish per week along with a child tax payment of £18ish per week.

Basically im starting to stress about it now as we earn abit more on paper, owe a little less against the house and the house is worth more so LTV is better but we also have significantly less income until November and now have a dependant.

Im not sure what boat this puts us in really as we must look high risk on paper for the next 8 months ?.

I read abit about porting the mortgage so our details dont change but is that not like fronting with car insurance and will we get much of a better deal than we currently have doing that ?

Thrugelmir

You don't need to remortgage. Your existing lender will offer you a range of products to chose from. Around 3 months before your current product expires go online to your provider and see what's on offer. There'll be no affordability check. 
Armed with that information you can weighup whether remortgaging to a new lender is an option. This will require a full application and affordability checks etc. 
Absolutely no need to stress yourself over this. You will have options. 

[Deleted User]

Paulpen said:

Im not sure what boat this puts us in really 

It seems to put you in the confused boat.

You're not moving house so can't port the mortgage, and a mortgage is nothing like an unlawful car insurance policy.

You can choose from your existing lender's options, or remortgaging elsewhere. 

Paulpen

I suppose the trouble is that ive never had to do this before so dont really know how it works but I do know I dont want to hit the SVR as im on 3.99% as it is !

Thrugelmir - how do they usually go about contacting you or do I look online and chase them as 3 months would be the end of March. I think that ive assumed you have to remortgage and go though all the checks eachtime but that seems not to be the case ?

Zx81 - correct boat !

I was under the impression that porting was staying with the same lender (Woolwich via Barclays) but changing the payment, interest and term

HampshireH

Not sure about your lender but mine (Virgin) wrote to me in March for my end of product 1st june.

But I can see my offers online by putting in my mortgage account number into their existing customer offers page.

I imagine your lender have something similar. It was practically a click button exercise. Very straight forward.

Thrugelmir

Here's where to log on.

https://www.barclays.co.uk/mortgages/existing-customer-centre/

Paulpen

Hampshire H - maybe its all caught up in easter and lockdown and will be here soon

Thrugelmir - ill have a look and see whats about

In a situation like this should I be seeing a broker (like when we purchased) or is there not alot they can do in my situation ?

andyf1980

If it was me I'd be using a whole of market broker to see what my options were. We remortgaged for the fist time last year and it made it much easier.

Paulpen

Managed to get online - the deals are all there so I need to work out what best fits my needs and the best cost over the term etc

Will try and get hold of a broker as 5 years ago he made it seem so easy but I was also a bit wet so may not have got the best deal !

[Deleted User]

Paulpen - you are really overthinking this ( probs due to lockdown !) 
About 3 months before your current product ends, you’ll be able to look at whats on offer with your CURRENT PROVIDER as a “product swap” tap a few buttons online and the new rate is yours
no phone calls, no credit searches, no new affordability checks 
Thats it really 
Try not to worry yourself - it be alright 

[Deleted User]

You necessarily DO NOT NEED A BROKER !! 

If you try and swap to another bank all your fears WILL COME TRUE ! Because they will re score and look at your current circumstances 
If you just want to product swap it takes about 5 mins max !! 

But if you think you COULD remortgage to another bank and pass all the new possibly more stringent tests go for it too !! AND GO TO A BROKER lol