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Mortgage advice

We are with yorkshire Building Society with our mortage.
We just switched products in June when our last mortage ran out, no questions asked.

This worked out cheaper than any other lender as well for 2 reasons

1 - they didn't charge any admin fees etc.
2 - they have for some reason valued our house based on the average price of the area which means I get a better LTV because we live in an expensive area in a small house.
Our house has increased in value in 2 years from 155k to (IIRC) ~180k

God knows why they use this method but I'm certainly not complaining. :D
 
MassiveJim said:
We are with yorkshire Building Society with our mortage.
We just switched products in June when our last mortage ran out, no questions asked.

This worked out cheaper than any other lender as well for 2 reasons

1 - they didn't charge any admin fees etc.
2 - they have for some reason valued our house based on the average price of the area which means I get a better LTV because we live in an expensive area in a small house.
Our house has increased in value in 2 years from 155k to (IIRC) ~180k

God knows why they use this method but I'm certainly not complaining. :D
Click to expand...

Actually I had the same, they re-valued my property on a "guideline" basis, an estimate of what the current worth is. I went from £153k to £177k so a similar rise.

Also didn't pay any fees.

Also did it in June.

Are you me? what is this? :D
 
My my. I am much the same. I switched with YBS, also in June, with no fees, and also an increase from £250k to £278k, thus a jump in LTV band. Like you guys, I'm not complaining at that.

BUT, it did completely eradicate any competition. I may or may not have been able to get a better rate with another lender on this LTV, but I couldn't imagine getting an independent survey done that would be as generous.

I did move from an offset mortgage to a normal fixed rate though, as I found actual banking with the YBS a right PITA with no debit cards, and limited daily withdrawals (even in branch), and online bank transfers ALWAYS taking overnight, and not able to withdraw money abroad. Their mortgages ARE among the best out their, but their banking is woeful.
 
Sadly rates are on the rise; earlier this year you could get 10 year fixes at 2.89% with fees under £1k but when I looked the other day the best I could find was 3.24% with ~£1.5k fee.

For me a 10 year fix is the way to go but probably not looking to take out a mortgage until next year when rates will probably be even higher. Also keeping an eye on relative rates in case a big enough differential emerges against 5 year fix.
 
5 year fix for me is around 2.34% with 10 year being 3.14% or so. I don't think the extra % or so is worth it over a 5 year fix at today's rate.
 
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MassiveJim said:
We are with yorkshire Building Society with our mortage.
We just switched products in June when our last mortage ran out, no questions asked.

This worked out cheaper than any other lender as well for 2 reasons

1 - they didn't charge any admin fees etc.
2 - they have for some reason valued our house based on the average price of the area which means I get a better LTV because we live in an expensive area in a small house.
Our house has increased in value in 2 years from 155k to (IIRC) ~180k

God knows why they use this method but I'm certainly not complaining. :D
Click to expand...

HSBC did this to us also. Annoyingly with were something like 71% and to pay the extra to get under 70% wouldn't have been worth it so didn't bother. This was just before Christmas and I fixed it for 5years then.
 
Found 2 x 10 year mortgages with my current lender Nationwide. Can anyone tell me what the difference will be between these as one has a fee and the other doesn't. We're not bothered about paying less per month as we normally overpay every month now.

aJys3RNh.jpg.webp

Our mortgage is currently £120k and we want to change it to 15 years.
 
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So in simple terms for option 2 you'd pay £5.80 extra a month over the first 120 months of the mortgage = £696. Then by my calculations the outstanding balance at the end of the fixed period would be £207 higher.

Effectively this means that option 2 is slightly better in that the mortgage costs £999 less to take out but only £903 more to service meaning you are £96 better off. It also has a lower up-front cost which depending on how wealthy you are may or may not be of significance i.e. you may be able to make more effective use of that cash elsewhere such as paying down other debts or shrewd investments.
 
zom247 said:
Found 2 x 10 year mortgages with my current lender Nationwide. Can anyone tell me what the difference will be between these as one has a fee and the other doesn't. We're not bothered about paying less per month as we normally overpay every month now.

aJys3RNh.jpg.webp

Our mortgage is currently £120k and we want to change it to 15 years.
Click to expand...

Nationwide were unable to change my deal period without re-evaluating everything, they even had to lower the term based on my overpayments. Worth bearing in mind they might not be able to change your deal period.

Also have you considered 5 years? 10 years is around 0.8% higher interest rate. It will give you absolute certainty on payments for 10 years which is nice. For me though 5 years at 2.34% is £416 p/m. 10 years at 3.14% is £443.

If you go 5 years you could overpay by the difference, which will probably be bigger for you than it is for me. 5 years seems like a pretty decent "sweet spot" right now.
 
Eulogy said:
Actually I had the same, they re-valued my property on a "guideline" basis, an estimate of what the current worth is. I went from £153k to £177k so a similar rise.

Also didn't pay any fees.

Also did it in June.

Are you me? what is this? :D
Click to expand...

Did you fix for 2 years ?
If so then I think I might actually be you :D


Worth mentioning that at the LTV we achieved a new customer would have got a better deal but as always they always offer the best deals to entice new customers in and screw the loyal customers over :(
 
I went for a 2 year tracker deal, I am planning to fix soon though (they said several times that I can re-fix whenever I want, not tied in for 2 years).

Will put that to the test though :P
 
I've got myself a mortgage in principle and made an offer on what seems to be the perfect house, but he wants 2k more. Which I can't stretch to as I'm already above the amount I was hoping to spend :(
 
I've had an offer accepted for a house. My mortgage will be with Halifax. Would I be better off finding my own solicitor/surveyor rather than using Halifaxs own?
 
As far as I'm aware, you have to use their surveyor. Well, you don't really use their surveyor at all unless you choose to have a home buyer or structural survey done. A valuation survey is performed on behalf of the lender, you just pay it.

In my experience, Colleys (the surveyors they use) are bad. They cancelled the survey on the day it was meant to be performed, delaying things by a week. I also had to chase them to get my hoe buyer survey. It took me calling and specifically asking for it for it to be given to me. Why it wasn't sent as soon as it was available is anyone's guess. It contained several spelling and editing errors.
 
Can anybody recommend a good solicitor that doesn't cost a bomb? I've been searching the web and most of the ones I looked at, have bad reviews.
 
Soulja said:
Can anybody recommend a good solicitor that doesn't cost a bomb? I've been searching the web and most of the ones I looked at, have bad reviews.
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My 2p - if you want to drive down costs then definitely go online, but if you want an easy ride, go for a local solicitor where you can drop docs off and see face to face if required.
 
I think it depends on whether you're looking for a smooth, swift conveyancer or a genuine solicitor's service - if you just want to transact or whether you want the experience to look through the detail if it is a purchase with potentially anything out of the ordinary.

If I was buying a £300,000 property that'll end up costing £600,000+ with mortgage interest then I'd probably go for the latter and have a slower more thorough approach. For that reason I prefer local. They are more likely to have transacted properties in the area, even your own one if it is old, and have local experience that can be valuable.
 
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