Porting mortgage - any point using a broker?

jertum

We've just had an offer accepted on a house, having only been in our current home for 3 years (which we've just sold, STC).

As we're still on a fixed rate for our current mortgage, we're considering staying with our current provider and porting to avoid paying a big early repayment charge (around £2k), but have been advised by the EA to go through a broker to get a better deal either way. We're not sure what to do here, as broker fees would be around £500 upfront and they'd obviously only be brokering an agreement with our curent provider and not shopping around, so it's hard to know if it's worthwhile using their services. On the other hand, we're nervous about going through the whole application process ourselves and messing it up - or getting a rubbish rate and paying way more than the £2k ERC in the long run. 

We're trying to keep upfront fees to a minimum as things are a bit tight at the moment. Having bought low and selling high, we've built up a decent amount of equity, but it would be frustrating having to use some of it towards an early repayment charge - especially as we're hoping to pay off some debts and have some money put aside for improvements to the new house. 

Anyone been in a similar position that might be able to advise?

Thanks

Thrugelmir

Easy enough to do your own leg work and ascertain what if anything your lender will potentially offer you. 

ACG

A port is a brand new application. You could still be declined by your current lender (albeit unlikely if no additional borrowing and you still fit criteria). 

Its unlikely it will be cheaper to do with a new lender if there is an ERC. This would have still been true 6 months ago and rates have gone up since then. 

Should you use a broker? Thats entirely up to you, they will do the leg work and be on hand. But if you do go with a broker, I am not convinced I would be using the agents broker (assuming they are a large national chain of agents). 

K_S

@jertum I would echo what ACG has said. Porting can sometimes (not always) be quite messy and very manual (I do porting only for my existing clients but 7 times out of 10 the process is a p-i-t-a) and I personally see value in getting it done through a broker simply because they will do all the legwork, and are more likely to put in the effort to get it right than the lender staff that you encounter. And you get the same rate anyways.

If you don't want to pay a fee (which is absolutely understandable), you could speak to some of the fee-free brokers recommended on the MSE guide here. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/best-mortgages-cashback/#step3

jertum

Thanks for your replies.

We have around £60k remaining on our mortgage and our new house is c. £200k (depending on survey etc.). We should have around £45k equity coming our way but our fees and taxes equate to about £10k, so our deposit can only be in the 10 -15% range...

We're with Nationwide and have a mortgage agreed in principle with them - don't suppose anyone has any experience of how complicated the porting process is with Nationwide? To further complicate things, my wife hasn't yet returned to work from maternity leave, so I'm guessing that'll require extra documentation / messing about. 

K_S

@jertum I haven't done a Nationwide port for a client recently, but from what I can remember it went fairly smoothly.

As long as your wife intends to go back to her job at a salary that meets affordability requirements, the requirements shouldn't be too onerous. But as you already have a DIP I assume that's already been checked.