View Full Version : mortgages
Morning - seems when leaving my young lady alone last sunday she decided to browse the internet and apart from the usual holiday/handbags browsing she does she had a look at some places for us to live (news to me)
So due to the way the world works i now have to pay a bank a lot of money every month :) anyone have any advice for a rookie first time buyer i have noticed that estate agents keep calling me trying to sell me a mortgage from them - my young lady also works for HSBC but it seems no discount comes out of that (tight gits) so if anyone knows anything useful or even feels like giving me a huge amount of cash id be very grateful :)
*i may have to start a paypal donation thing :) *
Go and see an independent financial adviser and whatever you do, try to avoid doing any business with HSBC (unless you want to spend your life on the phone to an incompetent indian call centre)
homealone
20-10-2004, 10:50
My lad is going to HSBC today to apply for a mortgage - so if you have any dosh left over from your fund raising, i'm sure he would be grateful for any contributions. :)
<edit> just saw what Bifta wrote - lol - it won't be my problem ;)
Once upon a time I'd have recommended a site like www.charcolonline.co.uk (http://www.charcolonline.co.uk/) but it has acquired a reputation recently for not clearly showing all the charges associated with the mortgages it offers ...
Nevertheless, what I found useful was to go through the mortgage picker on that site, trying a few variations on mortgage amount and repayment term, and you will soon get to see which mortgage provider names keep popping up again and again in the list of recommended products.
Then, simply go to the individual websites of those mortgage providers and have a go at the mortgage calculators they have there.
If you fancy some face to face contact, remember that many Independent Financial Advisers or Mortgage Advisers charge you a fee (others get by on commission from the lender), and if you go into a bank or building society the adviser will almost certainly be 'tied' and only able to advise on that bank's own products.
EDIT
A particularly useful feature of the Charcol site is the ability to view the cost of a product over a period of time - say one ot two years, if there's an initial discount, or even the entire term of the loan if you think you might keep it that long.
It is very well worth your while to keep 'total cost' in mind - as a rule of thumb, the better the initial discount, the greater the longer term costs will be. And don't forget to add the costs of all your fees for solicitors, surveys &c. into your considerations!
a few people have recommened northen rock - (i think thats the name)
seems to be a bit of a minefield, to think all of this fuss and money just so she can spend all her time going to IKEA..
I've got my mortgage with Northern Rock and I've found them alright. The only problem I had (which, it has to be said, was fairly big) was when we pulled out of the first house we put an offer on.
Basically, on the first house, there was a problem with the survey which we couldn't afford to sort out. As a result, we pulled out of that one and put an offer on another (the house we ultimately bought). Obviously, we had the survey done, but it then took months to get the second survey through - put it this way, I complained 4 times, rang them at least twice a day and, in the end, they finally faxed me ................. somebody elses survey report! Another couple of weeks later, I finally got hold of the report.
Fortunately (depending on your point of view), the person we bought the house off had a couple of delays as well and, to be fair, I've not heard of anybody else having problems with Northern Rock (I even recommended them to my brother), so it's worth at least getting a quote from them.
etccarmageddon
20-10-2004, 11:29
Morning - seems when leaving my young lady alone last sunday she decided to browse the internet and apart from the usual holiday/handbags browsing she does she had a look at some places for us to live (news to me)
So due to the way the world works i now have to pay a bank a lot of money every month :) anyone have any advice for a rookie first time buyer i have noticed that estate agents keep calling me trying to sell me a mortgage from them - my young lady also works for HSBC but it seems no discount comes out of that (tight gits) so if anyone knows anything useful or even feels like giving me a huge amount of cash id be very grateful :)
*i may have to start a paypal donation thing :) *
what are you looking for - I'd suggest getting a fixed rate. make sure you find one where you can overpay.
www.nationwide.co.uk do good fixed rates at the moment.
www.moneysupermarket.com will help you search.
when you find one you're thinking of going for... put the details on here and we'll comment on it!
look out for hidden charges - ie. 'reservation' fees etc - mine had a fee of £290 but no valuation fees.
dont get a mortgage via an estate agent. shop around the net for one.
SMHarman
20-10-2004, 11:34
A handy place
http://www.thisismoney.com/undated/ff954.html
You need to think about whether you want a fixed rate > certainly of outgoings, floating or cap/collar > certainty within range.
Most now are more tied to base rate fluctuations, so they cannot hold off on rate falls and process rate rises quickly.
Then repayment (guaranteed to repay the capital) or interest only + an investment product(4:30 @newmarket).
Abbey were doing some good deals 15 m ago when I remortgaged, but have not looked since then.
what are you looking for - I'd suggest getting a fixed rate. make sure you find one where you can overpay.
www.nationwide.co.uk (http://www.nationwide.co.uk/) do good fixed rates at the moment.
www.moneysupermarket.com (http://www.moneysupermarket.com/) will help you search.
when you find one you're thinking of going for... put the details on here and we'll comment on it!
look out for hidden charges - ie. 'reservation' fees etc - mine had a fee of £290 but no valuation fees.
dont get a mortgage via an estate agent. shop around the net for one.
I wouldn't recommend a fixed rate at this time, as we are at, or near, the top of the current economic cycle of Base Rates. You will in all likelihood fix yourself with a rate that will prevent you from getting the benefit of interest rates which are likely to go down again before the next three years are out.
I would go for a discount Base Rate Tracker over two years (three if you can get it), then remortgage to avoid the full repayment rate at the end of that period and if rates are on the slide at that point, consider a fixed rate then.
I've just got myself a rather nice two year discount tracker from the Royal Bank of Scotland, which I am especially pleased with as I had a limited choice of lenders (I'm buying a timber house!).
MovedGoalPosts
20-10-2004, 11:35
Number of things to think of. Do you want a repayment mortgage, i.e. yo pay off all interest monthly together with a small part of the load so the total debt reduces each month, or an interest only loan where the debt stays the same and you just pay interest each month. With the latter you need some other investment vehicle that pays of the loan at the end of the mortgage, i.e. a pension plan (you can currently take 25% of your accumulated pension as a lump sum) or endowment, but neither pensions or endowments have performed so well in the last few years so that maybe is a tricky route, and over the term as a whole you will pay a lot more in interest as the debt doesn't reduce.
Do you want fixed rate mortgage, cashback, or variable rate. When the mortgage rate changes, will that immediately affect how much you repay, or do you only see the change once a year when the mortgage company notifies you of next years amounts. Maybe great if rates increase, but you don't get immediate benefits when the rate drops. If you have a special intorductory deal, how long will you be tied to that company before you can remortgage?
If you have extra money, can you make additional repayments to reduce the debt. Conversely, can you take a payment holiday.
How is interest calculated, daily, monthly?
What about accounts which offset your income and savings against your mortgage interest?
When you do find the property you want, don't forget to budget for stamp duty, conveyancing (solicitors) fees, surveyors fees, removal costs, mortgage application fees etc.
Cheaper mortage rates are often available when you have more equity in the property, i.e. if the value is £100,00 0, you can deposit £20,000 then the rate will be less than if you can only deposit £5,000. When you have little equity you may have to pay an additional mortage indemnity fee.
Unless the property is really low value, and you know its in good order, don't rely on the mortagage valuation report as a survey. That's only there to tell the mortage company there is adeuate security for the loan. You will want a more detailed survey, perhaps a Homebuyer report, to tell you if there are works on the horizon that could cost you dosh.
Mr_love_monkey
20-10-2004, 11:38
You need to think long and hard about what you can afford if things come to the worst - at the moment what the interest rates will do is anyones guess, and anyone that tells you that they know they will do x - is only guessing.
Certainly the rates look like they are going to carry on going up, so you need to bear this in mind.
Fixed rates seem like a good idea, but you also need to think about what happens after - you'll get a good(ish) rate now, for, for example 2 years, and then depending on your mortgage you find that after the 2 years, you are tied in for a further 12/18 months on whatever their standard variable rate is - it's possible that 2 years down the line you could find what you need to pay is a lot more than you originally thought you would.
If you have a lot of cash lying around, then it may be worth looking at one of these combined accounts - where anything in your account is taken off your mortgage... but they're usually variable rates, so be careful.
Essentially what you'll have to do is sit down and work it all out - see what it's going to cost you over the next 5 years - and factor in what you think the worst is that could happen with the interest rates - i.e. imagine if they keep increasing by .25% every 3 months..
But do shop around, there are still some very good deals out there
Certainly the rates look like they are going to carry on going up, so you need to bear this in mind.
I really don't agree with this. Remember that the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee is not, directly, charged with keeping house prices under control. Its remit is to keep inflation within the Government's target range and to ensure stable economic growth.
House prices have been making the headlines as a reason for interest rate rises, but this is because the MPC sees the danger of a knock-on effect for the wider economy if housing becomes unaffordable. There are, however, other concerns they must take into account. Manufacturing growth has slowed alarmingly in recent months due to the combined effect of interest rate rises and high fuel prices. Further interest rate rises at this point would risk serious harm to this important sector of the economy. Let's also not forget that house sales have fallen flat in the last eight weeks which suggests that the Base Rate rise is now sufficient to keep a lid on house price inflation.
Rates have been at 4.75% for three months now and the widely made prediction of '5% by the end of the year' is looking pretty accurate. It is extremely unlikely that we would see two consecutive rises in November and December, taking the Base Rate to 5.25%. A growing number of economists now believe that 5% is as high as the Base Rate will go in this cycle and the trend over the next few years will be a gradual fall.
MovedGoalPosts
20-10-2004, 12:01
Yep house prices may still be rising in the North, but in the South East many areas are starting to see sharp price falls. Undoubtedly the market has cooled. Indeed the RICS latest survey suggests prices are now, on average accross the country falling at their fastest for 9 years. Bear this in mind if buying now, especially if you have limited funds for a deposit. You want to avoid a potential negative equity situation (you owe more than the property is worth).
Interest rates are still at good overall low rates. It may be that eventually the Bank of England might increase the rate again, but at the moment, inflation (apart from oil) is under control, house price inflation is coming under control, so the likelihood of big changes is IMO minimal.
im in the SE - from talking to a friend of mine whos an estate agent he says people are getting paniky and taking silly offers on their property as they think they prices will bomb - but they are fine ..
im tempted to wait to see if they do go down and also would be nice to save a few more 1000 - but i know as soon as i do make the leap and buy something the price will fall ... its hard work being a first time buyer especially as i need to buy somthing that i can resell in a few years and make a profit ..
MovedGoalPosts
20-10-2004, 12:16
<snip>its hard work being a first time buyer especially as i need to buy somthing that i can resell in a few years and make a profit ..
Ah now that's the crux of the problem. Over the last 20-30 years we have got used to the idea that owning your house is a good way to make money. In the medium to long term that can be true, but in the short term it doesn't hold up well. During the late 1980s property price rises were rampant, yet by the early 1990s there were some massive falls. Prices again didn't really start to increase until mid 90s and whilst they took off again near to millenium, we again saw some "correction" in the early 2000s especially in the South East where prices have been a bit more volatile than the upwards only rises of the North.
Whilst home owning is undoubedly a good long term investment, don't look at it as a sure fire thing. There's no such thing in this world.
Consider also that to make money you have to realise the capital. Thus you have to sell and not wish to buy again in the same area. It's all relative. Bear in mind too, that moving house costs a lot of money with estate agency, solicitors, etc. so just to maintain a status quo the property price has to increase a lot to cover those costs.
Thanks for the advice all ..many things to consider.
im in the SE - from talking to a friend of mine whos an estate agent he says people are getting paniky and taking silly offers on their property as they think they prices will bomb - but they are fine ..
im tempted to wait to see if they do go down and also would be nice to save a few more 1000 - but i know as soon as i do make the leap and buy something the price will fall ... its hard work being a first time buyer especially as i need to buy somthing that i can resell in a few years and make a profit ..Yep, that's consistent with my current experience. My estate agent is of the opinion that my house is fairly priced, but he says there are just enough people around who are prepared to market their house at a stupidly low price, or to accept a low offer, that it is having the effect of dragging everything down. What we really need now is a couple more months of static Base Rates and for the Daily Mail and Express to get bored with running hysterical 'House price crash!' headlines and start reporting real news again.
gary_580
20-10-2004, 12:44
Nationwide are the best for a decent rate be it fixed or dicscounted for 2,3 or 5 yrs and with a reasonable amout of flexibility. Other do offer slightly lower rates but with little of no flexibility
Depending on how you view these then "The One Account" is good too. http://www.oneaccount.co.uk/ can save you a heck of a lot of money as your deposits are counted against your debt to reduce the interest you pay. However you dont earn interest on yours savings, but this would have been at a lower rate than your borrowings plus you would have been taxed on it too.
etccarmageddon
20-10-2004, 12:48
the main issue appears to be bad press not interest rates! if anything is bringing the market to a standstill then as Mr T says, it's the Daily Express and others in the media making headlines for non stories.
the market is flat at the moment - you can see that by the number of houses which are still on the market from the summer and another indicator is seeing the house change estate agencies or become dual agency.
When I looked around a few houses last week, it was obvious to me that prices are still silly and the market is flat, I'm expecting either some positive news causing people to come back into the market OR eventually those people who've been up for sale for months to realise they need to lower their prices.
I want to drop my price to be more in line with what people are willing to pay but I cant do this until the prices of the places I want to move to come down to a realistic level.
I suspect there's a lot of first time buyers who are 'waiting to see' rather then plunge into the market. These people are going to hold off for 6 months to a year... this could cause a general price drop or crash.
The people who suffer the most during a price crash are those who have bought just for investment purposes - ie. buy to let.
etccarmageddon
20-10-2004, 12:56
look at the stats... average male earnings is £28k
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=285
and wages are going up at around 5-6% per year... so house prices have shot up so much over the past few years that first time buyers are priced out.
mortgage of 3.5 times salary on 28k = £98k - what kind of house can you get for that!
logic suggests that house prices will have to follow wages - eventually!
I've seen a chart at an estate agents that says the predicted change in house prices is for a slight decline (outside London and other "hot spots" which may see a bigger fall), but no major crash like after the '80s boom.
I'm just about to buy a house and I'm looking mostly at base-rate trackers because it seems very unlikely that interest rates will rise much more.
I've been going to a couple of estate agents who have independant advisors who can search the entire market for whichever product is best for me and that's what I'd suggest for anyone else too.
look at the stats... average male earnings is £28k
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=285
How did you get hold of my salary details ;)
etccarmageddon
20-10-2004, 13:14
I've seen a chart at an estate agents that says the predicted change in house prices is for a slight decline (outside London and other "hot spots" which may see a bigger fall), but no major crash like after the '80s boom.
I wouldnt trust anything an estate agent puts out re house price predictions!
Go and see an independent financial adviser and whatever you do, try to avoid doing any business with HSBC (unless you want to spend your life on the phone to an incompetent indian call centre)
Personally I would do as Bifta recommended, and I'm sure Bexy (as another ex-bank clerk) would agree, Independent financial advice is the ONLY way to go and they can be worth their weight in gold!.
Also be aware that they will check all your finances over (its the law) from insurance to pensions, mortgage, and life assurance.
Try and get one that doesn't charge you a fee, that way you don't feel like it's an expensive paper exercises.
HTH
:)
MovedGoalPosts
20-10-2004, 14:40
Whatever an estate agent says should be taken with a pinch of salt. That's not putting estate agents down, it's more an analysis of their role in the housing market. The estate agent's job is to sell houses, nothing else. Everything else they do will be to promote themselves as the best in the area, so they have more property available to sell. If they don't sell they don't have an income. Thus they will try to talk up the market (appearing to do so responsibly by use of nice graphics and so on), just to get vendors and purchasers through the door. Remember that ultimately they are acting for the vendor, not the purchaser, so the principle of buyer beware holds very true.
I have always thought that given that principle of the estate agent acting for the seller, is it not a potential conflict of interest for the estate agent to be trying to flog the purchaser mortages through their tame in house adviser? Even worse the estate agent mortage adviser will probably be hoping for commission on the mortgage deal, and any other spin offs. Add to that the fact that by selling a few mortgages, the estate agency with surveyors often gets a referreal of mortage valuation work, simply because the mortage company wants to reward them for the number of leads generated.
Do your own research on house prices. The national media are always trying to sell papers with sensationalist headlines. Read between the lines. National meda stories will be based on national averaged statistics for price changes. The local market can be very different. I would say that, despite claims of rampant inflation, the market near me has been more or less static now for at least 18 months, and most definitely now is falling.
The only thing that has sustained the market in the last few years has been the buy to let investor. They replaced the first time buyers priced out of the market. Now there are so many properties available to let, and with price inflation nonexistent, rents have dropped so they not only don't get rises in prices, but don't cover their costs with rent. The buy to let investor is now pulling out, and inevitably, if there is nobody wanting to purchase, yet sellers must sell, the rules of supply and demand mean prices will drop. It may be a soft landing, or a hard fall. That is impossible for anyone to realistically forecast, although with still reasonable mortage rates, there will probably be bargain hunters ready to step in whenever the price corrections start to bite.
As a buyer, do your own research, dont rely on opinions (including mine), unless you know the facts on which they are based.
SMHarman
20-10-2004, 15:21
look at the stats... average male earnings is £28k
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=285
and wages are going up at around 5-6% per year... so house prices have shot up so much over the past few years that first time buyers are priced out.
mortgage of 3.5 times salary on 28k = £98k - what kind of house can you get for that!
logic suggests that house prices will have to follow wages - eventually!
Not quite true, affordability of mortgages has gone up in recent years.
The long term average interest rate in this country is arount 10% (i believe).
So on a £200,00 0 property you would be paying interest of £20,000 a year or £1666 a month (plus repayments / repayment vehicle).
Unaffordable to your average 28,000 a year buyer.
But current interest rates are around 5%, so now that same house is costing the buyer 830 a month, much more affordable.
House prices have gone up as mortgages have gone down and the ability to service higher debt has materialised.
But this is of no benefit to anyone (except gordon brown in death taxes and stamp duty) and the banks, whilst the servicing of these loans is affordable, as salaries have not kept up repayment is more difficult and the size of mortgages and the cost of moving (especially stamp duty) means the housing market stagnates through inactivity at all levels.
We thought about moving 2.5 years ago, instead we spent £50k on extending our current property and refitting the bathrooms and kitchen. This only worked out at about 25k more expensive than moving (basically the fit out costs) and we would have had to spend those in a new property anyway. It's not just first time buyers that are effectivly stuck, psychologically I don't want a £500,00 0 mortgage, even if I can supposedly afford it, and in buying a bigger house, this supposed 150k profit on my current house gets absorbed into the 250k price increase of the house I want to buy. In my mind thats 100k cost.
Madness.
etccarmageddon
20-10-2004, 15:35
psychologically I don't want a £500,00 0 mortgage, even if I can supposedly afford it....
I hope that's a misprint and you mean £500,00 0 house! otherwise you're on a lot of money!
Morning - seems when leaving my young lady alone last sunday she decided to browse the internet and apart from the usual holiday/handbags browsing she does she had a look at some places for us to live (news to me)
So due to the way the world works i now have to pay a bank a lot of money every month :) anyone have any advice for a rookie first time buyer i have noticed that estate agents keep calling me trying to sell me a mortgage from them - my young lady also works for HSBC but it seems no discount comes out of that (tight gits) so if anyone knows anything useful or even feels like giving me a huge amount of cash id be very grateful :)
*i may have to start a paypal donation thing :) *
Yep, Unlike many other lenders HSBC do not do any discounted mortgages. However beware beacuse discounts can have serious strings attached such as a lock on to how many years before you can move the mortgage without a penalty. In return for no discount HSBC generally offer a lower rate of interest. I have just been though this with HSBC and they offer a rate just 1% over Bank rate while my current lender is over 2% above Bank rate. That means a lot on £100K. However, unfortunately Because initially I had a discount with the current lender I find that I am locked into using that lender until July next year unless I pay £3300 penalty. That means the current lender has locked me to their account for 6 years! :mad:
Yep, Unlike many other lenders HSBC do not do any discounted mortgages. However beware beacuse discounts can have serious strings attached such as a lock on to how many years before you can move the mortgage without a penalty. In return for no discount HSBC generally offer a lower rate of interest. I have just been though this with HSBC and they offer a rate just 1% over Bank rate while my current lender is over 2% above Bank rate. That means a lot on £100K. However, unfortunately Because initially I had a discount with the current lender I find that I am locked into using that lender until July next year unless I pay £3300 penalty. That means the current lender has locked me to their account for 6 years! :mad:Yep, it always pays to check out the tie-in period, as you must take this into account in any meaningful calculation of the 'total cost' of the loan. Banks often more than get back what they 'lost' by giving you a discount by forcing you to pay a usurious rate of interest afterwards.
Me, I have never taken out any mortgage that had a tie-in of any kind. This means that you seldom get as good a discount in the first place, but can take your business elsewhere at any time. This was important for me as I moved to Hemel Hempstead fully intending to move back north at some point sooner rather than later.
I am about to break my own 'rule' on this, by taking a 2-year discount tracker that will tie me in for the duration of the discount. I'm less worried by this as now I'm 'escaping' Hemel, thoughts of upping and moving are less pressing for me!
SMHarman
20-10-2004, 16:21
I hope that's a misprint and you mean £500,00 0 house! otherwise you're on a lot of money!
Yep, a misprint, my current 4 bed house in Hertford is worth around £330,00 0,but because I bought it 6 years ago and then took the extra mortgage for the extension, there is a fair bit of equity, so my current mortgage is quite low in comparison to what you see first time buyers needing to take out. To stay in the area I live in and move to a house in a better part of town and a little bigger, realistically price would be £500,00 0 (with the mortgage to go with it), which would be unaffordable, even though I do earn more that the £28k in post 6.
Yep, a misprint, my current 4 bed house in Hertford is worth around £330,00 0,but because I bought it 6 years ago and then took the extra mortgage for the extension, there is a fair bit of equity, so my current mortgage is quite low in comparison to what you see first time buyers needing to take out. To stay in the area I live in and move to a house in a better part of town and a little bigger, realistically price would be £500,00 0 (with the mortgage to go with it), which would be unaffordable, even though I do earn more that the £28k in post 6.
I'm getting the benefit of having owned a house in the southeast for five years and moving back to Scotland, where price rises are still strong in places but have some way to go to catch up. This is just as well, because I needed a fairly hefty chunk of equity to fund my new purchase (hopefully completing next month): as it's a timber house, the mortgage lender was only prepared to consider a relatively low loan/value ratio. As it happens, we're borrowing about 65% of the valuation, but our own equity in the property is even higher than that because the current market value of the house is about 25% higher again than the basic mortgage value. The mortgage lender decides whether to lend the money and calculates the LTV ratio based on the mortgage valuation, not what price the house achieves in the open market.
The disparity between market and mortgage valuations can, it seems, be quite stark in Scotland where the effect of the house buying system is to bid upwards from the initial asking price rather than downwards as in England & Wales. In my case it's more pronounced because the surveyor worked out his valuation, then discounted it by about £10,000 to allow for the house being timber rather than brick built. I don't think this is fair personally, but sadly in the UK there is a lack of understanding about timber houses that surveryors in places like North America and Scandinavia must laugh themselves silly over.
SMHarman
20-10-2004, 16:35
<snip>
I am about to break my own 'rule' on this, by taking a 2-year discount tracker that will tie me in for the duration of the discount. I'm less worried by this as now I'm 'escaping' Hemel, thoughts of upping and moving are less pressing for me!
I think it is the hangover tie ins that are less equitable. The tie in for the duration of the discount, which if it is a discount you are less likely to move anyway will mean you are unlikly to be better off. Also realistically you will not remortgage more often than bi-anually as it is such a hassle.
Yep, it always pays to check out the tie-in period, as you must take this into account in any meaningful calculation of the 'total cost' of the loan. Banks often more than get back what they 'lost' by giving you a discount by forcing you to pay a usurious rate of interest afterwards.
Me, I have never taken out any mortgage that had a tie-in of any kind. This means that you seldom get as good a discount in the first place, but can take your business elsewhere at any time. This was important for me as I moved to Hemel Hempstead fully intending to move back north at some point sooner rather than later.
I am about to break my own 'rule' on this, by taking a 2-year discount tracker that will tie me in for the duration of the discount. I'm less worried by this as now I'm 'escaping' Hemel, thoughts of upping and moving are less pressing for me!
Unfortunately (because I am not finance-oriented and tend to be trusting) I did not realise 5 years ago that there was a long tie-in when my financial advisor said that moving from the Nationwide to A&L would save me around £180 per month on my interest-only mortgage. True I did make that saving and did put the saving into PEPs/ ISAs - which if all goes well in a year or so may even have a value equal to the money I invested! We all know what happened to the stock market a few years ago. Now it would be good to jump from A&L to a fixed (lower) rate because I am on a pension ie effectively a fixed income. Also, one of the endowments that support the mortage is predicted to have a shortfall of £18K from the £60K payout. I can cover that with other means but for peace of mind (my wife's) my plan was to use other savings to reduce the capital sum as I changed from A&L to another lender - so that the shortfall becomes irrelevant. True I will lose the interest on the amount used to reduce the capital - but I will compensate by using the saving on the monthly interest to top up our cash ISAs.
Well - all that was the PLAN, until I found that I am tied to the A&L until next July !!!
vBulletin® v3.8.11, Copyright ©2000-2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.