First mortgage about to end - tracker or fixed? Damn those pesky fees!

micken

3stripe wrote: »

Been looking back at past base rates at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/rates/baserate.pdf, it's interesting. Some scary looking numbers, glad I was just a kid in 91/92!

I'd just moved into my current house in 1990 and yes it was an interesting time.

I'm currently at the end of a deal that has lasted for six years and at sees me at 0.12% below BoE rate. I've got the HSBC Life Time Tracker at BoE + 0.48% agreement in front of me now ready to complete the paperwork.

Having gone through it in detail it does have the following plus points:

- unlimited monthly and lump sum overpayment
- no repayment fee
- no standard valuation fee to pay (JF77 & £155 on amount borrowed, I can't see that on their website?)
- you're not tied in (3stripe)
- possibly others, I've not finished the paperwork yet

Minus points?

- cost £599 + £30
- time taken to process, depends, can we get some feedback?

I've not had the phone delays that others have experienced.

At the moment it's the best deal I can find considering the climate and whilst I'm not a betting person I think there's a fair chance that the 5% BoE rate may hold as an average for a few years. Possibly dipping later this year and in 2009. A lower fixed rate might have attracted me, but I'm wary of the 5 year possibilities.

Within that time it's easy to move rates on this deal.

Just my own slant on this but looks like the way I'm likely to go. Hope this helps.

Mick

TartanWarrior

The HSBC offers are ending soon.

First Direct who are owned by HSBC have had to take their ofset off the market while the HSBC offers are on, but they have permission to start it again after the offers by HSBC end.

It's 4.9% with 2 fees off £299.

3stripe

Hey Mick, thanks for taking the time to write a long response. I'm ok with the £599 if there is no exit fee (Wish I had checked the exit fee on my first mortgage, won't make that mistake again :-).

I'm gonna give HSBC a ring tomorrow I think...

If I can find a really good 2 year fixed elsewhere with a low fee I'll take it, I just trawled through loads of illustrations on Charcol and London County which through up crazy 2% of loan fees though.

TartanWarrior, so how do I know that the HSBC deal is nearly finished, is there a definite cut off date already?

I only have 8 weeks so it might be a struggle to push through a First Direct application judging by some of the reports on here.

3stripe

Oh, the HSBC 5 year fixed at 5.39% for £999 isn't bad either actually, just saw that.

I am hoping to go abroad or do some travelling sometime soon, the security in that kind of deal could be very reassuring.

Hmmmmm... (puts on thinking hat and strokes beard).

micken

3stripe wrote: »

Hey Mick, thanks for taking the time to write a long response. I'm ok with the £599 if there is no exit fee (Wish I had checked the exit fee on my first mortgage, won't make that mistake again :-)

lol

I paid a big exit fee in the early 90's as part of the learning process.
You live and learn and then you live!

Good luck with your phone calls. FD seem to have a long backlog, although I have no idea how long the HSBC application will take to be processed.

3stripe

Yeah. I just filled in the full form which they claim to respond to within 48 hours... I think I'll try and phone as well, will let you know what happens.

3stripe

I'm starting to think HSBC have got the best deals...

If I stump up £1,199 to match my current rate I could save a decent amount it looks like:

HSBC Tracker 5.48% £599 fee £16,703 total over 2 years if rates didn't change (lol)
HSBC 2yr Match 4.84% £1,199 fee £16,319 total over 2 years
HSBC Fixed 2yr 5.83% £499 fee £17,203 total over 2 years
HSBC Fixed 2yr 5.43% £999 fee £17,007 total over 2 years
HSBC Fixed 5yr 5.73% £499 fee £17,011 total over 2 years (approx equivalent)

And the 5yr could be good too, I would probably save about 4 solid weeks of time spent researching on the net

tinkerbell84

TartanWarrior wrote: »

The HSBC offers are ending soon.

First Direct who are owned by HSBC have had to take their ofset off the market while the HSBC offers are on, but they have permission to start it again after the offers by HSBC end.

It's 4.9% with 2 fees off £299.

where is that deal and how do you know about it?

nathanhill69

TartanWarrior wrote: »

The HSBC offers are ending soon.

First Direct who are owned by HSBC have had to take their ofset off the market while the HSBC offers are on, but they have permission to start it again after the offers by HSBC end.

It's 4.9% with 2 fees off £299.

It's not very clear where you have sourced this deal from - certainly not First Directs current portfolio of mortgage products and unlikely to be one of their near future offers.

TBH are you sure you haven't made a mistake on this quoted 4.9% interest rate. Also, as far as I know FD's decision not to offer their mortgage products to non-customers has nothing to do with HSBC's current offerings (I don't think they have to "wait for permission" from HSBC) but more to do with them being swamped with applications that they were struggling to process.

3stripe

@ Mick, so I'm guessing you are comfortably enough paid to absorb the impact of a big hike in rates then?

Was there any point in the previous 6 years that things got difficult?