Help, Interest Rate annoying the hell out of me!

lea76

Currently have a mortgage with kensington, we took it out in dec 03, so we are no longer tied to them, when we started payments where £458 now interest rate is 10.9% and paying £728:mad: we have had ccj's in 2001 and mostly all are paid off, we missed dec 06, jan 07 and feb 07 payments due to unemployment which we have now paid off and not missed any payments since march 07. Does anybody know if we are likely to be able to get a mortgage with a better lender, esp as it says in news its harder to be accepted at the moment.

House is worth £135,000
Mortgage £72,000

husband is self employed from last april and not got a full years accounts yet, earnings should be £20k for year.

I think credit rating may have improved cos we both got a capital one credit card last year and we have made all payments on time to try and improve rating.

Many thanks

dunstonh

Does anybody know if we are likely to be able to get a mortgage with a better lender, esp as it says in news its harder to be accepted at the moment.

Your history is poor I'm afraid and your husband is self employed with limited income history.

earnings should be £20k for year.

Is that net profit or turnover?

Your proposition to a lender is not great. If you can confirm if that £20k estimate is turnover or net profit it may help the mortgage advisers offer an opinion.

lea76

Thanks for the reply

That should be his profit for the year

Conrad

Lea, there should be quite a few options open to you.

Be wary of 'independant' brokers that just recommend the usual crowd of sub prime lenders such as Preferred mortgages, I Group, First National, Mortgages plc, Future, Platform and so on.

A truly independant broker will offer you quotes from the many old fashioned Building Societies that have moved into the sub prime arena.

If you can apply once 12 months have elapsed since the last mortgage arrear, you should get better rates. Watch out for sharks who sell insurance.

homer_j_3

look out for the sharks who sell insurance.

Still not changed Conrad.... Good advice on insurance would have ensured that they may have covered their mortgage payments through the time of unemployment.

Conrad

Why is in 20 years in Mortgages almost no claim on unemployment cover actually met the claimants expectations?

Open your eyes, think for yourself, go check the claims records on these things.
Absolute classic is where Mr non saver is made redundant and as a result all his direct debits bouce. When he claims on the insurance he is glibly informed the polciy was not live at the time of claim!

Far better people are given advice to save thier money for rainy days rather than fund the Beemers slimy insurance sales men drive

homer_j_3

So you are telling me that correctly advised products should be avoided at all costs?

I can look at plenty of claims records for protection policies and be comfortable with what I am advising on. It seems to me Conrad that you do not sell insurance, so therefore being the great knowing professional that you are must be correct eh!

To be fair, knowing the sales practices of the employer you spent time greasing up the corporate ladder, I am fully understanding why you feel that all advisers are sales people.

I think you should throw caution to what you say as protection has its place and so do saving accounts. £50 in an isa that will not pay 1 months mortgage payment until you have saved for a year or £50 in a protection policy that if correctly sold could pay their mortgage for years and years and provide £000's of benefit for the client if they suffer a specified critical illness and/or die.

As long as you get your broker fee, you are alright I guess, I am just not sure your clients will be - do you advise them to seek protection advice at all?

lea76

Hi

thanks for the reply Conrad and Dunston. I will wait til march and start looking around do you know of any building societies I should try or do i need to go through a broker?

I know its bad to miss 3 months mortgage payments and we will suffer the consequence on future borrowing BUT I will not take out an insurance policy. About 9 years ago we had a loan and mortgage insured and both me and husband lost our jobs within a month - BOTH policies would not pay out until we had been out of work for 3 months, luckily we was only out of work for about 6 weeks!!

Lea

homer_j_3

Lea

It is a shame that your perception of protection products has been decided by the fact that you were sold a product that was clearly incorrect for you.

Your credit history would indicate to me that you have probably dealt with the kind of vultures that Conrad has labelled on all advisers that dare try and offer their clients suitable protection for their home, health and incomes.

Redundancy cover is the bottom of the pile for me when looking at protection as the client is often back in work before they are able to claim and therefore having a rainy day fund is probably the best protection solution for redundancy.

If you had been off work ill for 12 months and you had no income protection through a Permanent Health Insurance policy, How would you pay for your mortgage and lifestyle?

If your husband was to be off work due to having a specified critical illness, how would you afford the mortgage and lifestyle and medical costs and costs of getting medical treatment speedily so you can recover more speedily.

If one of you were to die - how would you continue to pay the mortgage etc..

All I am saying is that not all insurances are the same and your experience is telling you that all insurances are the same when they are not. I just hope if you are not going to listen to me and look at ensuring you have adequate protection, you will look to follow Conrads advice and make sure you get a helathy savings fund together, 12 months combined wages should at least buy you a bit of time should you ever be unlucky enough to need it.

lea76

Hi homer,

Thanks for the advice, actually when you put it like that I suppose we do need something in place. We have life insurance so mortgage is paid in full if one of us dies, I have only ever thought about redundancy and not considered critical illness, I may actually look into this. Hubby is self employed but recently had an operation and we have only been getting income support of £92 a week which doesnt even cover the bills never mind food or mortgage, however we had savings to cover us this time, but if we didnt maybe a policy would have paid out?

Thanks for actually pointing this out to me as I am sure at some stage in our lives we are probably likely to develop some kind of illness!:eek:

thanks Lea

chappers

There are policies and there are policies cheap policies have long run in periods more expensive ones don't . We always think insurance is expensive until we claim and its only then that you find out how good or necessary your policy is.
My Mum had been working freelance for two companies almost exclusively, for 4 years and then suddenly one of the companies sold up and she had no work from them, and had to rely on the money from the other company, one day she said she was struggling with her bills and was thinking of giving up among other things her PHI, I told her that we would pay that for her and boy was I glad we did as last year she had a heartattack, they have been paying out for nearly 18 months now and she has a similar income as when she had the two clients.
The policy was £96 a month I think but boy is she glad we kept it up for her, I think this on top of being registered disabled through aback problem will be the end of her working life and so this policy will pay for her for the next three years until her pensions kick in.
Get yourself a good brokere and take his advice depending on your circumstances and employment status you will need different types of cover.

As I too am self employed there is no way now that I will ever lapse my PHI .