How to find the best mortage

dont_use_vistaprint

Im looking to borrow 100K over 19 years on a 210K purchase so 52% LTV. I want to option to overpay and looking for a fixed rate for 2 or 3 years and not concerned out early repayment. Other than that I'm flexible - Fee or no fee, cashback or no cashback - just looking for the single most competitve deal on that criteria. Or even adjust and borrow slighly less if it means a better LTV brings a slighly better deal.

I dont see how the MSE search helps as when you sort by different criteria, it ranks them differently and isnt clear about cashback - it says "upto" and isnt clear whether or not its included in the total assessment.

Also when you fo through a full application you have to answer spcifically to get the same deal e.g tell them how much a month I want to pay rather than tell them the deal I have found and want. This always leads to slighly different rate so are the companies using different deals to whats on here ? 

The advisers always advise paying a fee otherwise its added to the mortgage and interest calculated for the term. Obviously this only applies to the term you keep the mortage - 2-3 years in this case, but is this true - if you can you should always pay a fee ?

Some of the 2 year deals have  a fix for around 24-27 months, and are valid 3-4 months , bu with conveyancing taking 3-4 months right now, when is the best time to get the mortgage offer and initiate the survey ? Is it literally on the critical path and needs doing asap

Thanks

ACG

Which advisers advise paying a fee? On a £100k mortgage its almost always better to pay a higher rate and no fee. 
On a £100k mortgage the difference in overall cost between the top 10 deals is likely to be minimal. You probably cant go too far wrong, I think you are probably over thinking things. 

It might even be worth using a broker as you have a lot of questions that are quite basic questions - thats not a dig by the way. What I mean is that it seems your experience in this is limited and there are questions which are harder to answer than when to initiate the survey. 
Using a broker comes with other benefits, you may find they can save you money in other places (such as with solicitors) and you have a point of contact who you can ask about anything and everything. 

- The basic valuation is instructed by the lender - they decide when. If you want a more thorough report, you can do that yourself or through the lender. 
- Your mortgage will take around 2-4 months from application to completion. The offer is valid for 6 months from time of offer (except barclays which is 6 months from application). The deal period is 2 years (give or take), most lenders have a set end date, so you may find you get slightly under or over 24 months. 
- Most mortgages allow you to overpay by up to 10% of the balance per year, if you need more than that then you may find you end up paying a higher rate as you are reducing your pool of lenders. 

getmore4less

Any adviser that says pay the fee up front it saves you money avoid(unless that is the only option for that deal).

What you do is borrow less(by the fee amount) and add the fee so end up in the same place 

In many  cases if you don't complete you don't pay and if you paid up front not always refundable.

Also watch out for those that use the add the payments and fee over the fixed  term to rank the deals that can get the wrong answers.

Once into the <60% LTV sometimes it is the soft features that are more important than a few  £here or there.

Decent retention deals so you can switch early and easy is worth a few  £ especially if switching regular like every 2 years

Also look at those with better retentions with some of those you are better doing a track and switch to fix once set up  rather than fixing 

Fee no fee breakeven for some lenders you need to check as their break evens are under £100k  especially on the 5y fixes.

Those nationwide FTB rates its around  £50k

Take the FD 2y fix 1.24% £490 fee £100k over 19 years,  their no fee is 1.49% only just breakeven by ~£20 

amount	rate	payment	owing
£100,490.00	1.24%	£503.88	£90,774.18
£100,000.00	1.49%	£503.88	£90,755.67

take the same deal over 30years and the no fee is cheaper

amount	rate	payment	owing
£100,490.00	1.24%	£344.64	£94,641.58
£100,000.00	1.49%	£344.64	£94,632.38

on FD 5year rates of 1.39% and 1.64% breakeven is under £50k for any term over 15years

K_S

@dont_use_vistaprint As ACG said, at 100k borrowing at <60% LTV, no-fee options are likely to be cheaper than the equivalent fee-charging ones on a total cost basis. It's a very competitive space so there's unlikely to be a huge difference in cost across (say) the top handful of lenders.

Afaik, the MSE mortgage finder does incorporate the cashback correctly in their total cost, however I'm sure there will be a few exceptions as it's a general comparison and unlikely to incorporate the cashback criteria for every single lender. You want to sort by "MSE total cost assessment" as that'll give you a general idea of how the products compare on cost.

dont_use_vistaprint

getmore4less said:

Any adviser that says pay the fee up front it saves you money avoid(unless that is the only option for that deal).

What you do is borrow less(by the fee amount) and add the fee so end up in the same place 

In many  cases if you don't complete you don't pay and if you paid up front not always refundable.

Also watch out for those that use the add the payments and fee over the fixed  term to rank the deals that can get the wrong answers.

Once into the <60% LTV sometimes it is the soft features that are more important than a few  £here or there.

Decent retention deals so you can switch early and easy is worth a few  £ especially if switching regular like every 2 years

Also look at those with better retentions with some of those you are better doing a track and switch to fix once set up  rather than fixing 

Fee no fee breakeven for some lenders you need to check as their break evens are under £100k  especially on the 5y fixes.

Those nationwide FTB rates its around  £50k

Take the FD 2y fix 1.24% £490 fee £100k over 19 years,  their no fee is 1.49% only just breakeven by ~£20 

amount	rate	payment	owing
£100,490.00	1.24%	£503.88	£90,774.18
£100,000.00	1.49%	£503.88	£90,755.67

take the same deal over 30years and the no fee is cheaper

amount	rate	payment	owing
£100,490.00	1.24%	£344.64	£94,641.58
£100,000.00	1.49%	£344.64	£94,632.38

on FD 5year rates of 1.39% and 1.64% breakeven is under £50k for any term over 15years

Hi

This was the advice of a bank, doing the full application over the telehone, all recorded and extrelemly compliant to the sales rules. They offered different products some with and some without fee and stated that by taking a fee you are reducing interest over the term of the mortgage and so saving money, so always best to pay the fee if you can. Is this factually incorrect ? If so they are mis-selling and need calling out, happy to name them its a well known bank

getmore4less

dont_use_vistaprint said:

getmore4less said:

Any adviser that says pay the fee up front it saves you money avoid(unless that is the only option for that deal).

What you do is borrow less(by the fee amount) and add the fee so end up in the same place 

In many  cases if you don't complete you don't pay and if you paid up front not always refundable.

Also watch out for those that use the add the payments and fee over the fixed  term to rank the deals that can get the wrong answers.

Once into the <60% LTV sometimes it is the soft features that are more important than a few  £here or there.

Decent retention deals so you can switch early and easy is worth a few  £ especially if switching regular like every 2 years

Also look at those with better retentions with some of those you are better doing a track and switch to fix once set up  rather than fixing 

Fee no fee breakeven for some lenders you need to check as their break evens are under £100k  especially on the 5y fixes.

Those nationwide FTB rates its around  £50k

Take the FD 2y fix 1.24% £490 fee £100k over 19 years,  their no fee is 1.49% only just breakeven by ~£20 

amount	rate	payment	owing
£100,490.00	1.24%	£503.88	£90,774.18
£100,000.00	1.49%	£503.88	£90,755.67

take the same deal over 30years and the no fee is cheaper

amount	rate	payment	owing
£100,490.00	1.24%	£344.64	£94,641.58
£100,000.00	1.49%	£344.64	£94,632.38

on FD 5year rates of 1.39% and 1.64% breakeven is under £50k for any term over 15years

Hi

This was the advice of a bank, doing the full application over the telehone, all recorded and extrelemly compliant to the sales rules. They offered different products some with and some without fee and stated that by taking a fee you are reducing interest over the term of the mortgage and so saving money, so always best to pay the fee if you can. Is this factually incorrect ? If so they are mis-selling and need calling out, happy to name them its a well known bank

Cannot be ALWAYS true because it depends on the amount borrowed and the actual payments(not the one based on full term)

for the FD example 1.39% £490 fee 1.64% £0 fee 
0.25% rate difference the breakeven changes with term/payment)

term	size needed
5	£77,937.26
10	£52,653.45
15	£47,504.20
20	£45,291.57
25	£44,063.13
30	£43,283.23
IO	£40,600.67