A couple’s home is their Castle(ford)

BristolMatty · 13 December 2020 at 8:14PM

Sorry for the pun in the title, it will make sense shortly.

Myself (35M) and my wife (37F) have just purchased a new build house (Castleford by Kier Living) for £440,000. Large mortgage of £350,000 at 1.54% over 33 years (until wife is 70).

Both currently working full time, but wife is 25 weeks pregnant with our first, after several years of trying and a successful round of IVF.

As costs have gone up with the new house, and will go up further with the baby on the way, as well as a drop in income for my wife, we are not going into this with plans of overpaying thousands, just chipping away when we can.

Wife is supportive but I tend to look after the money day to day and just agree big decisions with her.

Please feel free to join us on this long slow journey which I’m sure will have plenty of ups and downs.

BristolMatty · 13 December 2020 at 8:22PM

So mortgage to start with was actually £350,999 as it included the product fee, so first overpayment made last week to clear this (always planned).

Our mortgage is with NatWest, and if I’m honest their app isn’t as good for mortgages as our previous provider. Harder to make overpayments, balance takes a few days to update, and I can’t see the interest going on daily.

First payment took a week or so to show up, but it’s there now. Also seemed to be some rule around payments over £1,000 altering your monthly installment, is that correct?

We moved in at end of November, so mortgage payment bot taken until January. Was expecting this payment to be higher than usual, but their letter says the same amount for first payment and regular payments afterwards - odd!

Anyway we had the money for a December payment in our budget, so further overpayment of £999 made on Thursday - still waiting for this to show up.

This is likely to be the last big overpayment, expect £50’s here and there from now on!

South_coast · 13 December 2020 at 9:08PM

Welcome and good luck! I'm with NatWest too, and yes that's correct about £1000 payments automatically recalculating the monthly payment. I've never used the app, I just transfer from my own internet banking via faster payments - although they're taking about 8 days to be applied at the moment (normally slightly faster than that!)

Bargainhunter30 · 13 December 2020 at 9:24PM

Welcome! Had the same when we remortgaged and ended up missing a mortgage payment.

BristolMatty · 13 December 2020 at 9:34PM

South_coast said:

Welcome and good luck! I'm with NatWest too, and yes that's correct about £1000 payments automatically recalculating the monthly payment. I've never used the app, I just transfer from my own internet banking via faster payments - although they're taking about 8 days to be applied at the moment (normally slightly faster than that!)

Thank you. The app just takes you to a website to make a card payment. With old provider it updated your balance automatically overnight.

Also seems odd you can overpay £999 twice and that’s fine, but £1,001 and they reduce your monthly payments!

BristolMatty · 13 December 2020 at 9:34PM

Bargainhunter30 said:

Welcome! Had the same when we remortgaged and ended up missing a mortgage payment.

Thank you!

Bargainhunter30 · 13 December 2020 at 9:42PM

I think several mortgage providers have that rule! Pay over 1k and it reduces monthly payment and under 1k reduces term. I'm with nationwide and you get to choose the option you want when you make an OP, maybe call Natwest and ask.

BristolMatty · 13 December 2020 at 9:48PM

Bargainhunter30 said:

I think several mortgage providers have that rule! Pay over 1k and it reduces monthly payment and under 1k reduces term. I'm with nationwide and you get to choose the option you want when you make an OP, maybe call Natwest and ask.

Yes I was with nationwide previously, and always took it off the term. Thanks, might give them a call! Or might just keep doing payments below £999 just to avoid the hassle!