Remortgages

Moving your mortgage to a new lender used to be unusual but is becoming more and more common as a new lender may offer a more competitive mortgage deal which can make a real difference to your monthly repayment. You need to ensure that you will not incur any early repayment penalties before moving your mortgage to a new deal or new lender.

When you first take out a mortgage you will usually enter into an introductory deal for the first few years of your mortgage. When this comes to an end, usually after between 2 and 5 years, you will probably be moved onto your lenders standard variable rate which will usually be higher than other rates available in the marketplace.

When you remortgage you need to consider all of the costs involved. Many lenders offer fee-free remortgage deals to attract you to them so that they cover the cost of any valuation and legal fees,  subject to certain conditions, but some don’t and you can be caught out by this. We take all of this into account when recommending a remortgage as there are times when you are better staying with your existing lender.

There are a number of reasons why you might be considering remortgaging such as;

• To get a better deal than your existing lender can offer
• To get a type of rate/mortgage that isn’t available with your existing lender eg 5 year fixed, offset, stepped
• To reduce your loan to value to improve the deals available to you, the less you borrow against the value of your home usually the better the interest rate
• To reduce or extend your mortgage term so that you can pay your mortgage off quicker or take it over longer to reduce the payments
• To consolidate other debts onto your mortgage to make them more affordable but be aware that this may cost you more in the long term
• To borrow more and release equity for another purpose eg to buy a second or holiday home or invest in a rental property
• Although the lending market has changed and controls are much stricter, there are still plenty of options available.

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.