remortgage HELP

naturegirl_2

I am not very good with money but what I have I try and keep hold of. I am self employed (self Cert) had a 3 year fixed rate mortgage which finishes end of this month. Its for £57,204 I want to borrow 8 to 10,000 more for house improvements. I bought the house for £70,000 houses in the road now worth £150,000. My mortgage provider Bank of Scotland has offered 3year flexible at 5.65% £434 month (with the £10,000 extra or 2year fixed rate 5.99% at £450 per month. At present I'm paying £403 month at 6.65%.
I'm looking for a 2 or 3 year agreement not sure to take risk of Flexible, Tracker ? or Fixed. Any advice NOW would be of great help. I've been on line and now am getting phone calls from brokers wanting to call to my house which I dont feel very confident about. :

Dan29

There's a very good mortgage advisor who posts here - this is his website.

That fixed rate doesn't have any early repayment charges beyond the two years does it? The good thing is that it's not much more that the variable rate, although not many people expect interest rates to go up much more over the next few years - although of course no one knows for sure. I guess it just comes down to whether you're prepared to potentially pay a bit extra for the certainty of a fixed rate ... only you know that

MarkyMarkD

2 year fixed for 5.99% is RUBBISH.

2 year flexible rate is OK, but do you need flexibility? Probably not - in which case it's a waste of money.

You can get 2 year discount for 4.44% with £395 fee or 4.24% with £695 fee from A&L and Savills respectively.

Abbey also do a 4.44% tracker but I can't remember the fee. Pretty similar to the A&L one.

naturegirl_2

Hi MarkyMarkD
The flexible rate was for 3 years not 2.
What concerns me is that I cannot work out if a low rate with fees is more cost effective than a higher rate with no fees. This is where my understanding goes haywire.

Dan29

to dan A thanks for info I have email the advisor and hope to hear from him soon. There was no mention of any early repayment charges but then again I never asked !

It's worth checking that there are no charges after the fixed period (for example you can get two-year fixed rates where you would have to pay penalties for the first five years if you wanted to change to a different mortgage). These days I don't think you should ever take a mortgage with penalties beyond the fixed rate period, otherwise you could be stuck on the variable rate which could be expensive.

Anyway, Colin should be able to help and he's not at all scary

payless

some competive rates mentioned above , I generally won't comment on specific products on this open board- to avoid any misunderstanding as to whether its a formal recommendation / promotion ( which it is not)

Being regulated in this field I feel its a its a no-no for me , but other advisers/ people in the industry may feel differently ( at their own risk!) .

I know don't what limitations apply to what private individuals are allowed to write


that said, remember that some of the most competitive rates are not always the most suitable, especially when considering ( smaller) remortgages, worth also looking at deals with assistance towards swap fees.

payless

Anyway, Colin should be able to help and he's not at all scary

cheers Dan

Fairdo_2

Payless

You've got a fan there! I can understand why.

I agree with Payless on the disclosure front as a professional adviser, we have had so much change in regulation from 1st November that it seems the whole industry is finding it's feet again.

Looks like that is why there are not so many responses flying around at the moment from the regular contributers!

I myself, forgot my own password. Thanks for sorting that out webmaster!

Naturegirl, you did make a point in your post about it originally being set up on a Self Cert basis. Is that relevant now, or do you have enough history built up to be able to prove sufficient income now?

Again, I dare not state specific products in case it being construed as an advert or promotion.

It is also important to compare like for like, therefore, comparing a 2 year Fix with a 3 year Fix is probably unfair on the 3 year rate.

The person you deal with would need to gain a full background of what your goals and objectives are, along with the obvious points of income and expenditure.

I am sure payless would be able to gather this information and come up with a recommendation for you, along with a justification for that recommendation.

Good luck

naturegirl_2

Thanks Dan A I am calling Colin tomorrow.
To Fairdo, As I mentioned I'm not good with the old maths, Book Keeping Whats that!!! I keep all the reciepts etc count it all up look at the cheque book and paying in book right it all down add it up and send the results to the Tax Man. So unless I go back to the boxes and write out all those details and answering your question No I dont have account books. What next ! apart from get organised that is.

naturegirl_2

I'm still crunching numbers here, time is running out !!!. I've seen some pretty good rates which could save me money but the fees attached to them actually seem to counteract any initial savings. Bringing me back to square one. One even wanted money if I didn't use their Insurance company? Why would they do that?

Troggy_2

Guys,

I received a quote from London and Country which is a Tracker mortgate, 0.21 below the BOE Base rate i.e. currently 4.54 (The mortgage provider is BM Solutions, this deal is offered by Charcoal but with a heafty fee)

L & C offer - No fees, legal free, refunded evaluation

I always though the best deals are available online but this is definitely not the case. L & C are providing some of the best deals.

So please talk to L & C before you makeup your mind.

Thanks again to this site and Martin.

Call L & C at 01225 341 210

Regds