Northern Rock End of Mortgaged Deal (Merged Threads)

MarkyMarkD

People who signed up for "help with costs" only have themselves to blame. The term of the "help with costs" clawback was longer than the term of the fix/discount, so there was always a likelihood it would have to be repaid.

It's not a con. It's no worse than having an interest free loan of £1,000 for a couple of years.

KF185

Hi,

I am looking for some advice please. Like a lot of others on here my fixed rate deal of 5.99% on my Northern Rock Together mortgage ends 1/9/08. If I remortgage before 1/5/09 I also need to pay back the £1000 Help with Costs payment I received when I took out the mortgage (not that I am complaining about it though).

The figures involved are:

Mortgage balance: £50613
Together loan: £15844
Total £66457

When I bought it my flat was valued at £58,000. I am not sure what the value would be now but the flat upstairs sold about 6 months ago for £100,000 (I am in Scotland in case that makes a difference).

I was thinking of just sitting tight until nearer 1/5/09 and then going to see a mortgage advisor as it seems too soon to do anything at the moment. Not sure if this is the way to go or not though.

If anyone has any words of wisdom I would be very grateful (a problem shared and all that).

ger_ryan22

We finish our 2 year fixed with NR in Oct 09 but I'm acting now. We've planned to put at least £500 a month in to a high interest savings account and then with that deposit hopefully 'buy' ourselves out of the dread that is NR! Is this a good choice or are there alternatives?

Thanks' y'all!

kingkano

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

People who signed up for "help with costs" only have themselves to blame. The term of the "help with costs" clawback was longer than the term of the fix/discount, so there was always a likelihood it would have to be repaid.

It's not a con. It's no worse than having an interest free loan of £1,000 for a couple of years.

Not always. I got a 5yr fixed rate from them with HWC. The HWC stated I'd have to pay it back if I moved from them within 3.5yrs. Clearly I'd have more to worry about than that if I moved before then!!! So it was a no brainer for us.

I have to say our mortgage advisor did quite clearly point out the terms of the HWC and that because we were getting a longer fixed rate it wouldn't matter about the tie-in. But it's not a con and perhaps it will motivate people to read their contracts a bit more in future?

MarkyMarkD

Yes, I knew about the 5 year thing. But for most short-term fixed deals, the HWC was effectively an over-hanging penalty and should have been steered clear of.

jamesd

kf185, no reason to do anything until you're within three months of your current deal ending. When that happens you can get a new valuation and much lower loan to value even when including all of the borrowing in the new mortgage.

There is one case where you might want to act, that's if the reduced loan to value gets you a significantly better rate. One low enough to make up for losing the 1,000 help with costs payment looks unlikely.

neverdespairgirl

ger_ryan22 wrote: »

We finish our 2 year fixed with NR in Oct 09 but I'm acting now. We've planned to put at least £500 a month in to a high interest savings account and then with that deposit hopefully 'buy' ourselves out of the dread that is NR! Is this a good choice or are there alternatives?

Thanks' y'all!

You might want to save in an ISA instead (tax free!)

KF185

Thanks jamesd for your reply. It’s good to get the opinion of someone who knows what they are talking about.

I got my Northern Rock ‘sorry we cannot offer you a new deal at this time’ letter yesterday which says they estimate that my monthly repayment will go up from £445 (5.99%) to £507 (just under their base rate they say) which is fine.

1 think I will stick with it until 1/5/09 so I don’t have to repay the £1000 HWC and nearer that time go and see a mortgage advisor.

Thanks again.

zipman23

This HWC thing is on my mortgage too. My 2yr 5.89% NR fixed mortgage runs out at the end of Jan 09 but the HWC thing was for 3.5yrs! Granted, its only £500 to pay back but it always seems alot if you didn't have that money in the first place. Our mortgage was for 95% with a 5% unsecured loan on top which was for about 10k.

I received my L&C remortgage guide the other day and sent off the sheet inside. Got a phonecall within practically 24hrs with a pretty good offer. The rate, I think, is something like 6.38% fixed for 5 years but its only for 90%LTV meaning we either find the remainder of the money ourselves through a loan...hoping my loan % with NR won't go up - which I'm guessing it will or I leave the loan with NR if it doesn't go up (or go up by much).

I think my previous mortgage "advisor" saw us coming and took advantage of us in a way because we weren't clued up. Now I'm sligtly better at it, I know what to look for!

Weemac

Evening all!! Just a quick question. Our tracker mortgage with NR finishes Jan09 and as we are on a DMP i dont think we will be able to get another mortgage easily from another company. As our mortgage will change onto the standard variable rate, could anyone tell me what this is at the moment so I can try and see if our monthly payment will jump by a lot. Thanks