Remortgage increasing term

Londoncheesecake

Hi
I have a specific question in relation to Santander mortgages and the ease of increasing the term before remortgaging with them to try and lower our monthly costs (going to hike up £500 a month .. we live edge of London)

I spoke with someone via telephone at Santander today and they couldn’t be specific as to whether there would be an affordability check on a term change request in fact he said sometimes there is sometimes there isn’t? Which seems abit weird to me…

We have concerns of failing affordability (close call) as wages a little less than previous applicantion.
We currently hold two separate mortgage loans with them which expire Jun/July with the larger loan at a 20 year term and a smaller loan at 33 year term. 

We are hoping to make them both 33 years.
Any insight would be much appreciated as we are unsure whether to accept a deal and then ask for a change in July  or just apply now for a change now and risk losing current deals whilst we do so. 

Hope that makes sense! 

dimbo61

Speak to your lender now and if the computer say NO then shop around

ACG

I dont use Santander often so not best placed to answer, but you could just start the process. 
If you fail affordability or whatever checks they do, you could always argue that if you are failing affordability on 33 years, how do they expect you to pay it over 25...

Ultimately the sooner your put the request/application in, the sooner you know the outcome. 

Londoncheesecake

Thanks for your responses it has pushed me to call them directly today and ask.

I was told there are 3 stages to go through to increase the mortgage term (to reduce monthly payments) and accept a new deal.
I have spoken to two people (first two stages)  they said all was okay following a soft search on affordability/credit. we were then asked to submit one recent wage slip each which I have done.
We now have a call arranged this Friday to speak somebody from the mortgage team to discuss further/deals.
Hoping we have passed the affordability section? and this last bit is just choosing the deal? Or is this just the beginning!!!

When I asked if I would need to have any further information ready the mortgage advisor said all I would need is a payment card to pay the  £75 admin fee for completing process if I go through with the deal.
It’s been very smooth so far hope the computer does not say No at the very end!!!

Has anybody had any similar experiences? 

TheJP

How many years are you adding to the term and is the difference significant? When i looked at extending the term on my re-mortgage adding 2 years made no difference really.

Londoncheesecake

Hi The JP it’s making a significant change of nearly £400 a month for us actually.
 It means our mortgage increase will be £180 a month rather than over £550 a month if we kept the term the same and moved to another competitive fixed.
We have a large mortgage compared to most I guess because of the area we live in.
We will hopefully get our answer next week. Apparently Santander are changing their criteria for assessing affordability for circumstances like this. As essentially the payments are lower than the offers we are currently receiving for just changing deal only with no criteria.

Londoncheesecake

Just to add we are extending by 13 years so that’s probably why!  

born_again

Have you tried for a execution-only mortgage with them, where you just switch to a new fixed rate?

https://mortgagedeals.santander.co.uk/customer-retentions-ui/home

Just swapped our 5 year fix rate that is ending in July for a new 5 year & it is only £5 a month more, but it is only a £38K balance left.

Londoncheesecake

Update: we have been accepted for an increased term on a 2 year tracker. 

It was all in all a very simple process, we just have to sign the paperwork and hope that the Bank of England rates behave!