Any way out of a fixed rate mortgage...

[scotal]

thebluebus said:

OP, can you change the term of the mortgage within the bounds of the current rate fix deal and not incur costs?

i.e. get them to change the term from 20 years to 30 years - could drop the repayments.

If he's already on I/o that won't make the blindest bit of difference.

[shouldbworking]

Moose. said:

I let the property out (mortgage company are aware of this) but I've not been able to let for a while now, so payments are tricky without the rental income. Not to mention I've been spending a LOT of money on training for a future career which means I have no savings any more. I should be able to keep going until then, but was just a bit annoyed at the lender's bluntness really.

So you fell for both the 'buy to let is an easy way to make a mint' and the 'train for a career in IT to print money' ads?

[Bing o]

shouldbworking said:

Moose. said:

I let the property out (mortgage company are aware of this) but I've not been able to let for a while now, so payments are tricky without the rental income. Not to mention I've been spending a LOT of money on training for a future career which means I have no savings any more. I should be able to keep going until then, but was just a bit annoyed at the lender's bluntness really.

So you fell for both the 'buy to let is an easy way to make a mint' and the 'train for a career in IT to print money' ads?

No, driving school I reckon....

[Mr POD]

Moose. said:

...without having to pay the release fee?

My current fixed rate deal doesn't expire until end of August and is fixed at 5.95% with a release fee of 3% (~£3000 as it stands). My mortgage lender's current standard variable is 4% which is substantially less! I've tried to negotiate with them but they will not move the mortgage onto another rate without me paying the fee, thus making it pointless changing. I've told them it's quite hard to make the payments at the moment (true!) but all they've said is don't default on your payments or else! Not exactly sympathetic

Any ideas folks or is struggling on until September the only option?

You might have tried an alternative approach. Which would be to tell them that You WILL be moving and are prepared to take the hit, unless they play ball.

No idea if that would work today, but I did it to reduce my fixed rate from 6.75% with one year left to go to 4.66 % over a 10 year fixed rate. (that was 6 years ago)

I am currently Looking carefully at the amount of savings we have which are getting hardly any interest and wondering if we should pay the whole mortgage off and take the hit.

[hornetrider]

shouldbworking said:

Moose. said:

I let the property out (mortgage company are aware of this) but I've not been able to let for a while now, so payments are tricky without the rental income. Not to mention I've been spending a LOT of money on training for a future career which means I have no savings any more. I should be able to keep going until then, but was just a bit annoyed at the lender's bluntness really.

So you fell for both the 'buy to let is an easy way to make a mint' and the 'train for a career in IT to print money' ads?

ZING!

[thebluebus]

scotal said:

thebluebus said:

OP, can you change the term of the mortgage within the bounds of the current rate fix deal and not incur costs?

i.e. get them to change the term from 20 years to 30 years - could drop the repayments.

If he's already on I/o that won't make the blindest bit of difference.

I missed that.

[Moose.]

shouldbworking said:

So you fell for both the 'buy to let is an easy way to make a mint' and the 'train for a career in IT to print money' ads?

Err, not at all! You are jumping to conclusions I'm afraid. You don't know me or my situation which I'm not going to discuss in detail here. Suffice to say, things haven't worked out as planned. I tried to sell the property last year, so I could be mortgage free and be able to take up a job paying half what I currently am, but the buyer pulled out just before the crash leaving me with no option but to let it out. It had been successfully let for 3 years (always at a rate about 2/3rds the mortgage, so it's never paid the mortgage each month!) but the current market isn't great and dropping the price hasn't helped.

Besides, I already work in "IT" and have no desire to continue to do so.

[chippy17]

Mr POD said:

Moose. said:

...without having to pay the release fee?

My current fixed rate deal doesn't expire until end of August and is fixed at 5.95% with a release fee of 3% (~£3000 as it stands). My mortgage lender's current standard variable is 4% which is substantially less! I've tried to negotiate with them but they will not move the mortgage onto another rate without me paying the fee, thus making it pointless changing. I've told them it's quite hard to make the payments at the moment (true!) but all they've said is don't default on your payments or else! Not exactly sympathetic

Any ideas folks or is struggling on until September the only option?

You might have tried an alternative approach. Which would be to tell them that You WILL be moving and are prepared to take the hit, unless they play ball.

No idea if that would work today, but I did it to reduce my fixed rate from 6.75% with one year left to go to 4.66 % over a 10 year fixed rate. (that was 6 years ago)

I am currently Looking carefully at the amount of savings we have which are getting hardly any interest and wondering if we should pay the whole mortgage off and take the hit.

I tried this approach with Abbey and got offered a 5% reduction!

[NoelWatson]

Moose. said:

shouldbworking said:

So you fell for both the 'buy to let is an easy way to make a mint' and the 'train for a career in IT to print money' ads?

Err, not at all! You are jumping to conclusions I'm afraid. You don't know me or my situation which I'm not going to discuss in detail here. Suffice to say, things haven't worked out as planned. I tried to sell the property last year, so I could be mortgage free and be able to take up a job paying half what I currently am, but the buyer pulled out just before the crash leaving me with no option but to let it out. It had been successfully let for 3 years (always at a rate about 2/3rds the mortgage, so it's never paid the mortgage each month!) but the current market isn't great and dropping the price hasn't helped.

Besides, I already work in "IT" and have no desire to continue to do so.

Moose. said:

leaving me with no option but to let it out

Were there no buyers at any price?

Moose. said:

current market isn't great and dropping the price hasn't helped

Are there no people willing to rent at any price?

[ln1234]

Moose. said:

...without having to pay the release fee?

My current fixed rate deal doesn't expire until end of August and is fixed at 5.95% with a release fee of 3% (~£3000 as it stands). My mortgage lender's current standard variable is 4% which is substantially less! I've tried to negotiate with them but they will not move the mortgage onto another rate without me paying the fee, thus making it pointless changing. I've told them it's quite hard to make the payments at the moment (true!) but all they've said is don't default on your payments or else! Not exactly sympathetic

Any ideas folks or is struggling on until September the only option?

Do your lenders know you're renting out the property? If so, who are they as a 4% buy to let mortgage is a bargain at the moment.

[mouseymousey]

Seight_Returns said:

You entered into a deal whereby you paid a premium to protect yourself against the risk of high interest rates. If rates were 10% you'd be quids in and they'd be losing money - if they came to you and asked you to renegotiate becuase they didn't like the deal you'd rightly tell them to get stuffed too.

What you're asking is akin to going into a betting shop and asking for your money back just because you backed the wrong horse.

Spot on.

[ipitythefool]

NoelWatson said:

Moose. said:

shouldbworking said:

So you fell for both the 'buy to let is an easy way to make a mint' and the 'train for a career in IT to print money' ads?

Err, not at all! You are jumping to conclusions I'm afraid. You don't know me or my situation which I'm not going to discuss in detail here. Suffice to say, things haven't worked out as planned. I tried to sell the property last year, so I could be mortgage free and be able to take up a job paying half what I currently am, but the buyer pulled out just before the crash leaving me with no option but to let it out. It had been successfully let for 3 years (always at a rate about 2/3rds the mortgage, so it's never paid the mortgage each month!) but the current market isn't great and dropping the price hasn't helped.

Besides, I already work in "IT" and have no desire to continue to do so.

Moose. said:

leaving me with no option but to let it out

Were there no buyers at any price?

Moose. said:

current market isn't great and dropping the price hasn't helped

Are there no people willing to rent at any price?

+1

(oh dear God, I just agreed with Noel 'the bear' Watson)

[liner33]

scotal said:

liner33 said:

Moose. said:

I let the property out (mortgage company are aware of this) but I've not been able to let for a while now, so payments are tricky without the rental income. Not to mention I've been spending a LOT of money on training for a future career which means I have no savings any more. I should be able to keep going until then, but was just a bit annoyed at the lender's bluntness really.

As a rate for a rented property thats not bad our is 7% on our rented properties

Are you tied in?

yes unfortunatly its not like we are losing money like the OP as our properties are rented its just a case of we arent making as much as we would like.

We also only have the mortgage for tax reasons we could pay it off if we needed to sell up , we have the capital invested elsewhere but thats done crap as well.