If you need to remortgage, try going direct!
Discussion
Hi all.
As we are a military family we move around quite a bit.
We own a house which we lived in, and bought with a residential mortgage and a 2 year fixed deal.
We were then posted elsewhere. The house is let to a nice older couple and we live down south now.
Once the 2 year deal was up the mortgage went up almost 20%, as we expected.
We had arranged this mortgage through a broker and when we contacted him he said there was nothing he could do to help us.
IE - we were going to have to continue on the variable rate we were on.
I contacted my mortgage company directly and spent almost and hour and a half on the phone!
So, as a result of that telephone call, I am about to start on a new 5 year fixed.
It's a BTL mortgage, at 2.59%, £1k fee (saves around £1150 over the term).
The important bit being we will be paying just £150 a month more than our variable rate we had reverted to, which will save us £25k in interest and now be paid off in 14 years, rather than the 22 and half years we had left.
Moral of the story, don't just take your brokers word for it. No matter how good their reputation is, contact the bank directly and see what can be done.
Almost pointless post, but it's been a slow Sunday...!
As we are a military family we move around quite a bit.
We own a house which we lived in, and bought with a residential mortgage and a 2 year fixed deal.
We were then posted elsewhere. The house is let to a nice older couple and we live down south now.
Once the 2 year deal was up the mortgage went up almost 20%, as we expected.
We had arranged this mortgage through a broker and when we contacted him he said there was nothing he could do to help us.
IE - we were going to have to continue on the variable rate we were on.
I contacted my mortgage company directly and spent almost and hour and a half on the phone!
So, as a result of that telephone call, I am about to start on a new 5 year fixed.
It's a BTL mortgage, at 2.59%, £1k fee (saves around £1150 over the term).
The important bit being we will be paying just £150 a month more than our variable rate we had reverted to, which will save us £25k in interest and now be paid off in 14 years, rather than the 22 and half years we had left.
Moral of the story, don't just take your brokers word for it. No matter how good their reputation is, contact the bank directly and see what can be done.
Almost pointless post, but it's been a slow Sunday...!
CharlesdeGaulle said:
It sounds like you have a decent deal that you're happy with, but Halifax will allow service personnel to remain on a residential mortgage despite letting their home. As you have an employment requirement to move, Halifax will treat you differently. Has worked very well for me for some time now.
Well when we first moved out we went on a permission to let retaining our residential mortgage, but it's pretty clear there isn't much chance of us going back in the short to medium term (if ever) and CBS have a 3 year limit on their military permission to let.They also don't put the usual 1% extra on the interest if you're military, which is jolly decent of them.
I've found them really good to deal with from day one.
Edited by TheLordJohn on Sunday 30th April 19:35
Countdown said:
Apologies for being thick..... that sounds like extra work for the broker without any extra pay/commission?
I wasn't going to reply, but couldn't resist.If I was a broker, and it wasn't going to make me money, I'd still feel a moral obligation to not f
k somebody over to the tune of £25k and 8 years by showing no effort/willing to help them out. Especially as they'd paid me already to get the mortgage in the first instance and I'd told them that one payment covers all future work for that mortgage.
Brokers get paid; they get paid by their customers, the banks or both.
They aren't doing it for free, that's for sure.
All in all, left pretty disappointed from almost the minute I'd paid the fee...
He won't become aware he could have saved me 8 years and some money if he hadn't bothered making the call to find out...
I wasn't opposed to paying a fee, again, if necessary. But that's beside the point.
My point is he looked at the information I had given him on the application form and said he couldn't do anything to help.
I didn't do anything special. All I did was contact the same company he got the mortgage with for us. I'm sure he could have managed a phone call.
Obviously thought he knew better/couldn't be arsed.
I also am not suggesting he had a moral obligation. I am stating that if i was in his position I would have a moral obligation.
Not to mention the financial gain which would no doubt come of it, as alluded to in my previous response you've quoted.
I wasn't opposed to paying a fee, again, if necessary. But that's beside the point.
My point is he looked at the information I had given him on the application form and said he couldn't do anything to help.
I didn't do anything special. All I did was contact the same company he got the mortgage with for us. I'm sure he could have managed a phone call.
Obviously thought he knew better/couldn't be arsed.
I also am not suggesting he had a moral obligation. I am stating that if i was in his position I would have a moral obligation.
Not to mention the financial gain which would no doubt come of it, as alluded to in my previous response you've quoted.
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