Blinded by figs for remortgage - can anyone help?

IClaudius

We currently owe 103,000 and are on a 2 yr fixed rate with Britannia which is over 21.6 years and are paying £606 a month.

This ends in May and we have been quoted to stay with them the 4 below

2 yr Tracker: BofE plus 0.40 = 5.65% - £695 per month repayment over two years, £499 admin fee
no penalty after that

2 yr tracker: BofE plus 0.75 = 6% - £709 per month over two years, no penalty after that, no admin

2yr fixed : 5.94% , £499 admin, £709 per month over 2 yrs, no penalty

2yr fixed : 6.29% , no admin, £727 per month over 2 yrs, no penalty.

We then rang L&C who said that they were the best deals they could find..but then we went to the FSA website and saw tons of lower rates.

The thing is, we sell phones for a living, ask us about phones and we're your people now figures, percentages, trackers...God it's like Latin!!

Our combined income is £66k and the house value is £350k.
we haven't had a valuation done in the last 7 years as we've always remortgaged with Britannia so I know that'll be a cost too.

Could anyone please help us and give us some advice.
We've downloaded Martin's guide but are really struggling.
We're pref looking for something that won't tie us in for longer than 2 years.

homer_j_3

To be fair, there are a lot of considerations and options open to you. If you are happy where you are living then you may want to consider a longer termed product - i.e a 3 or a 5 year deal?

You need to sit down and work out what the costs are for exiting the mortgage and going elsewhere.

You then need to decide on what product you want - do you want fixed or tracker? Do you understand the difference? A fixed is like you telling me that no matter how much I hammer my mobile, I will pay only £35 a month where on the tracker my bill can vary each month depending on certain factors.

If you can afford and cope with the varying amount and have enough disposable in come to cope with the potential changes in rates, a tracker may well be suitable for you. Its all about preferences and your attitude to risk.

When you have decided what type of product you want and how long you want the product for, you can then start gathering a list of deals together.

Are you looking for cheapest deal overall, lowest fees or lowest monthly repayments?

You then have to filter the deals you have found to meet this criteria and then pull out the one that fits closest to your requirements.
Clearly, there is a lot of work involved but it is possible to source a deal for yourself but if you are time starved then getting a good broker (who can access all lenders available to a broker) to look and do it for you may be a good idea.

Britannia are not available to brokers but if you take details of what you have been offered, they will have a look for you. They may send you away to go to the britannia but if you were to understand that maybe a 5 yr fixed/tracker is a better deal for you because you do not intend to move and are fed up of going through this cycle ever few years, then the britannia may not offer you this option and you may have to go elsewhere.

You need to be clear what exactly you want out of your mortgage and having a decent chat with a broker of a company where their clients are than and not just another customer - you may find that you are actually getting advice rather than talking to an order taker.

Another way to look at it is like - you get a customer who wants a phone with a 5mp camera and bluetooth and a customer who doesn't know what they want - who will get the most from you in terms of getting the best mobile suited to them?

chappers

over the two years the second option is the cheapest, providing there is no change in interest rates, you need to work out the overall cost over the two years to find out which is the best deal remember to take into account any fees over the period too and also remember that trackers will change with interest rates, but then again monthly repayments may be more important to you. Its a complicated business sorting out aremortgage and you are probably better off speaking to a fee free whole of market broker.

dimbo61

just to confuse you even more have you considered offset mortgages !!
may well suit you if self employed ?? as you can save your TAX money and emergency fund of say 9/12 months of income for the quite periods of your buisness. I have saved a lot of interest since I took one out 3 years ago.
If you have lots of money going in and out of your account each month
it could help you clear your mortgage quicker !! GOOD LUCK

IClaudius

Thanks to you all!!! Dimbo61, we're not self employed just work together but we will look at these types of mortgages too,
we rang london and County and to be honest they were shocking, took 20 mins to tell us they couldn't beat the Britannia rate and and didn't seem bothered really about doing a thorough needs analysis. We're thinking of ringing back and speaking to a manager now.
Will have a proper read through all your posts tonight and try and digest them. Am off now to sell some phones:rotfl:

homer_j_3

L&C seem to be good for those who seem to know what they want. I think the issues you have with using any large company is that the service really is dependent on the individual that you get. There will be some good advisers there and there will be some bad advisers there.

I understand that L&C recruit a lot of new blood into the industry

http://www.lcplc.co.uk/three_col_1.aspx?id=12:35510&id=10:22017&id=10:21994

When you start out in the job of mortgage advice, they are more likely to order take rather than give advice, which from the sounds of it, advice is what you need. Hence why I said, you need to understand what you want before going to them.

If you can find a more experienced broker, who is not an employee number in some soul-less organisation, you will find that they will take probably 1hr to get all the information from you and explain everything that you need to know. 20 minutes is not long enough, unless you could confidently answer the questions without needing explanation and knowing exactly what you wanted.

L&C have done what all inexperienced brokers do and worked out if anything can beat what is being offered rather than actually understand if what has been offered is suitable for your needs.