Remortgaging and planning for a baby

Voucherqueen26

Hi all, 
Can anyone offer some advice. We have been on a 5 year fixed mortgage which is ending in March 2026. We have been discussing trying for a baby in the new year but I had a sudden thought about the fact that we will remortgage in March and I'm wondering if potentially being pregnant at the time of renewal will affect our offer. Is it best to wait until the remortgage is completed in March before trying or will it be okay? This will be our first time going through the remortgaging process so not sure what to expect. Obviously I'm aware that we don't know how things will work out even if we will be lucky enough to fall pregnant quickly or not but would appreciate any advice if anyone has been in a similar position. All I can find online is being on mat leave whilst remortgaging but obviously this won't be the case for us.

Hoenir

For clarification. Are you intending to remortgage to a new lender or remain with your existing one. There's often confusion with the terminology. 

Mark_d

I guess it might depend on what your employer will pay you for during maternity leave and how long you're expecting to be off work.
Are you certainly going to remortgage in March 2026?  From my experience with Nationwide, Halifax and First Direct...your current mortgage lender might be able to arrange the booking of a good mortgage rate for you.  It's like a remortgage but it's seamless because it's just a new rate rather than a new mortgage - so you don't need to deal with solicitors or mortgage deeds.

Voucherqueen26

Hoenir said:

For clarification. Are you intending to remortgage to a new lender or remain with your existing one. There's often confusion with the terminology. 

We're not sure yet, it depends on who has the best deal. We'll be looking around September time and see what works best for us financially. If our current lender has a good deal then we would stay as we have been happy with them but obviously if it's cheaper elsewhere we would move to a new lender. All I know is that our fix rate ends in March so I'm guessing we will just automatically move onto a standard tariff with our existing lender if we don't remortgage to a new deal? We we're first time buyers when we signed up 5 years ago so like I say is the first time having to revisit our mortgage after not having the think about it for 5 years haha!

Voucherqueen26

Mark_d said:

I guess it might depend on what your employer will pay you for during maternity leave and how long you're expecting to be off work.
Are you certainly going to remortgage in March 2026?  From my experience with Nationwide, Halifax and First Direct...your current mortgage lender might be able to arrange the booking of a good mortgage rate for you.  It's like a remortgage but it's seamless because it's just a new rate rather than a new mortgage - so you don't need to deal with solicitors or mortgage deeds.

That's interesting, I'm guessing it's my lack of understanding of the process as I thought it would be like going through a brand new mortgage again. If we stay with current provider which is Nationwide, would it almost be like an automatic approval? I was thinking of booking an appointment with a mortgage advisor at the bank first to discuss our options first. My thought process is that we would've had to just deal with it if our fixed rate wasn't ending soon so would we have even thought about the mortgage I don't know! I've tried to figure out mat leave pay but it's so hard to work out, I do get a slight enhanced package at work and I think that's on top of SMP 

Voucherqueen26

I would be hoping to have 9 months off on mat leave and then add on annual leave to the end so that I would be back on full pay and my husband is on a good wage. 

nakiwala123

So, as mentioned above, the terminology can be confusing. If you don't want to borrow anymore, and aren't changing any of the other terms of your mortgage, you can just SWITCH with your current lender if their retention rates are competitive. They don't do credit checks or affordability checks for this. When we switched with Nationwide, I remember it being a really quick click through and took just minutes. 

However, if you are moving to another lender, or changing the terms of your current mortgage, that becomes a REMORTGAGE, which triggers all the checks. 

With regards to trying for baby/maternity leave, it depends where you are in the process. My bank didnt seem to be bothered by it. Only declaring existing children, not pregnancies. But I believe they might want a letter from your work if you are on maternity leave to confirm that you will be returning.

Mark_d

Voucherqueen26 said:

Mark_d said:

I guess it might depend on what your employer will pay you for during maternity leave and how long you're expecting to be off work.
Are you certainly going to remortgage in March 2026?  From my experience with Nationwide, Halifax and First Direct...your current mortgage lender might be able to arrange the booking of a good mortgage rate for you.  It's like a remortgage but it's seamless because it's just a new rate rather than a new mortgage - so you don't need to deal with solicitors or mortgage deeds.

That's interesting, I'm guessing it's my lack of understanding of the process as I thought it would be like going through a brand new mortgage again. If we stay with current provider which is Nationwide, would it almost be like an automatic approval? I was thinking of booking an appointment with a mortgage advisor at the bank first to discuss our options first. My thought process is that we would've had to just deal with it if our fixed rate wasn't ending soon so would we have even thought about the mortgage I don't know! I've tried to figure out mat leave pay but it's so hard to work out, I do get a slight enhanced package at work and I think that's on top of SMP 

As you get near the end of your fixed rate, Nationwide should write to you.
You should then look on the internet what your best remortgage options are and what Nationwide offer to remortgage customers.  It's likely that Nationwide's deals are amongst the best.
You'd then have a call with Nationwide.  You'd agree to the new deal and pay the booking fee (if applicable to the product) and that's that.  You don't have all the credit checks and other paperwork.  It's really very simple.

Hoenir

 But I believe they might want a letter from your work if you are on maternity leave to confirm that you will be returning.

Employees give notice as to whether they intend to return or not. The employer has no input. 

Voucherqueen26

nakiwala123 said:

So, as mentioned above, the terminology can be confusing. If you don't want to borrow anymore, and aren't changing any of the other terms of your mortgage, you can just SWITCH with your current lender if their retention rates are competitive. They don't do credit checks or affordability checks for this. When we switched with Nationwide, I remember it being a really quick click through and took just minutes. 

However, if you are moving to another lender, or changing the terms of your current mortgage, that becomes a REMORTGAGE, which triggers all the checks. 

With regards to trying for baby/maternity leave, it depends where you are in the process. My bank didnt seem to be bothered by it. Only declaring existing children, not pregnancies. But I believe they might want a letter from your work if you are on maternity leave to confirm that you will be returning.

Thank you for explaining! Yes we would hope to switch if this was the best deal but would remortgage if it wasn't. So all in all it wouldn't be a reason to necessarily put our plans on hold would you say?

Voucherqueen26

Mark_d said:

Voucherqueen26 said:

Mark_d said:

I guess it might depend on what your employer will pay you for during maternity leave and how long you're expecting to be off work.
Are you certainly going to remortgage in March 2026?  From my experience with Nationwide, Halifax and First Direct...your current mortgage lender might be able to arrange the booking of a good mortgage rate for you.  It's like a remortgage but it's seamless because it's just a new rate rather than a new mortgage - so you don't need to deal with solicitors or mortgage deeds.

That's interesting, I'm guessing it's my lack of understanding of the process as I thought it would be like going through a brand new mortgage again. If we stay with current provider which is Nationwide, would it almost be like an automatic approval? I was thinking of booking an appointment with a mortgage advisor at the bank first to discuss our options first. My thought process is that we would've had to just deal with it if our fixed rate wasn't ending soon so would we have even thought about the mortgage I don't know! I've tried to figure out mat leave pay but it's so hard to work out, I do get a slight enhanced package at work and I think that's on top of SMP 

As you get near the end of your fixed rate, Nationwide should write to you.
You should then look on the internet what your best remortgage options are and what Nationwide offer to remortgage customers.  It's likely that Nationwide's deals are amongst the best.
You'd then have a call with Nationwide.  You'd agree to the new deal and pay the booking fee (if applicable to the product) and that's that.  You don't have all the credit checks and other paperwork.  It's really very simple.

Thank you for your help! I'm hoping we can just stay with Nationwide as I have been happy with them and the process as first time buyers with them 5 years ago. So hopefully this will be the best option for us. I was just concerned and put it in the same box as 'dont sign up for any finances when trying to get a mortgage' advice and wasn't sure if we should wait until that's sorted but like you say I suppose we would need to see what the situation is closer to the time and the interests rates etc might even affect our affordability for a child anyway so I suppose it goes hand in hand really