Should Mortgage Companies be forced to be more helpful?

snootybutnice

I have my mortgage with Platform (part of the Co-operative Bank). I'm trying to pay off my mortgage in the next 12-18 months but I find them singularly unhelpful when trying to work out the most cost-efficient way to do it. I ended up having to create an excel spreadsheet to help me work out the best way forward.

I think this is wrong. Everyone should have access to a website which helps to calculate different permutations for their mortgage, so they can make an informed decision on how best to reduce their mortgage more quickly and efficiently. Questions like...

• what happens if I paid £200 per month extra against my mortgage account each month 
• how many years do I reduce my mortgage term by if I pay the maximum 10% overpayment every year?
• is it cheaper to save a large lump sum eg £30K and pay it off in the last month of my fixed rate mortgage, just to avoid paying the 1% fine - or is it cheaper to overpay it early and get charged the 1% fine but end up saving more money in the long run because I'll save on loan interest? 

The banks aren't interested in giving you answers. Platform will let you ask for your balance FOC (half an hour waiting on the phone today) but only send 1 annual statement out every September and if you want another statement it's at a cost of £25.

Who agrees that there should be more help and assistance by the banks to help you work all of this out?


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Nov 2021 - Balance £98K

powerspowers

I think it depends on the lender. I’m with ybs and can check my balance online and they also have an OP calculator. I think I could answer your first two questions based on the tools my lender gives me but would need a bit of work for the 3rd (as I have multipart mortgage with fixed term deals) 

kaycastle

It might stem from the fact that the lender has to be quite careful about dishing out advice. And the fact the people you speak to on the phone aren't financial advisors.

I think there are calculators online that would answer a lot of these questions and for anyone really not savvy there are financial advisors.

Tbh I think most of those can be answered  by the MSE calculator which comes up in Google search quite high.

I use excel as I'm highly skilled there but I bet there are even excel templates. 

And then of course there is the fact that people can always start a diary here and ask the helpful people here all those questions