How many of you switch mortgages?

I tend to stick with the same place (nationwide) but renew my deal when ending for example my last deal ended in october (initial 5 year fix rate) which dropped me onto their svr of 3.99% which was quite high so I locked myself into a 4 year deal at 2.54% saving nearly 100 quid a month. In 4 years ill just see what deals they've got on, im not planning on moving as the house ive got has everything I want and need so locking in for a while at low rates is good for me
 
Freakbro said:
With the way the interest rates fell and the deals that were on when I took out my fixed rate, I have let mine drop to SVR since ~2010

The deal was 1.99% above base as I bet they didn't expect base to drop to 0.5% :p

Though when switching you have to do the full calculation. People get so caught up with the low interest rate, they don't factor in the charges - which can be as much as £1 - 1.5k! :eek:

So once you add those in, the lowest % rate isn't always the cheapest over the fixed term.
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Bingo, there acan be hefty charges for swapping so the difference really have to be worth it, most people don't bother working out the math.
 
Every 2 years and never failed to get a better deal each time. Mrs just doing the paperwork now on a 2 year fixed which I can't remember if it's 1.69 or 1.89% and no fees.
 
we have just renew'd ours with santander we got a 7 year fixed at 2.79% repayment we all ways get a new deal when the fixed rate one finishes
 
I've got to switch for the first time in September. We've got the help2buy equity loan so I'm quite interested in seeing what we can get (current deal is quite high due to the need to go for a deal which paid our stamp and the fact that the new scheme mortgages were just bedding in).

I think we can probably save £100 p/m on a five year fix, even more if we went with a shorter term.
 
We used to but not any more. We have an offset mortgage with the savings equal to the mortgage so our mortgage is interest free. It doesn't matter what the interest rates are any more, so there is no need to switch.
 
dowie said:
No, you were just a bit clueless about mortgages.
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Indeed, dimple you just didn't understand the market, you have always been able to switch products as often as you liked. Did you really think that back then it was impossible to clear a mortgage account? :p
 
Jez said:
Indeed, dimple you just didn't understand the market, you have always been able to switch products as often as you liked. Did you really think that back then it was impossible to clear a mortgage account? :p
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'back then' the banks had very punitive charges for anyone attempting to do so, with early repayment punishments that didn't expire during the length of the policy.
 
dowie said:
No, you were just a bit clueless about mortgages.
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I'm afraid it's you who is clueless about how it happened in the old days.
We could only change if we sold the house.
We've been discussing this today at work and all the older people agreed with me and my daughter who also works in a bank dealing with mortgages also confirms that is how it worked in the olden days.
I bet you can't even remember when you only paid British Gas for gas, MEB for electric and BT for your phones.

And like Hikari said above, if you signed for 25 years it had to last for 25 years even if you could pay it off quicker.
You young uns don't know how good you've got it now.
 
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Given that the concept was alien to you until very recently I think clueless is appropriate.

You were able to fix for longer periods sure, and if you want to pay off a fixed rate deal early you'll tend to face charges. Part of the reason fixed rate deals for longer terms aren't sold any more is because consumers who fixed at high rates years ago then got rather upset when rates dropped. Interest only mortgages also existed back then with or without endowments, given there is no capital repayment within the mortgage itself an early repayment isn't generally an issue. You mention paying off yours in 2000... that want too long ago... remortgaging was available to you unless you were locked into some silly deal.
 
dowie said:
Given that the concept was alien to you until very recently I think clueless is appropriate.
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Since I paid off my mortgage when you was still a child why would I need to know all these years later?
There was no need to insult & ridicule the fact that 15 years on things have now changed and people my age also didn't have this choice decades ago.
At least 4 of my elderly co-workers didn't know this now happened (who also paid off their mortgage decades ago) and the only one who did has got a child who has just switched mortgages.
 
If anyone is after a mortgage I can wholeheartedly recommend "Sarnie" over at pistonheads. He seems to be the pistonheads go to guy for mortgages. I'm currently going through a non standard purchase and he seems to make the process so much easier.
 
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