will i be able to remortgage my house for school fees

[asdmumandteacher]

This is my plan as DS1(9) will prob not get 11plus. We are both teachers. Have about £100k equity (is that right word??) in the house. No debts/loans/credit cards. Good financial rating i would imagine. Can we say that we are going to remortgage for this?

[asdmumandteacher]

Would want to remortgage about £50k

[xserialshopper]

Hi. The normal high street banks/bs wont let you remortgage for school fees as far as I'm aware.

Why don't you ring them and ask?

[isgrassgreener]

We did but, did not tell them what the additional money was for, we were doing quite a lot of building work at the time, so took a lump sum and used some of it on school fees.

[Grumpalina]

Don't know if this will help but it may be worth talking to a financial advisor who speicalises in raising fees for private school.

I have a drop down loan ( I think that is what it's called). Basically it's a facility I can specifically use to pay school fees and if I use it I only pay the interest for the term of the loan (20 years in my case). The limit in my case is set at £20000. You have to take out a savings with it to ensure that you can pay off the balance at the end of the term (the one I have is £75 per month to garauntee (sp?) a lump sum of £20000 at the end of the 20 years. If you don't use the loan facility or only part of it the lump sum is yours to do with as you wish.

I pay a fixed amount of my salary into a savings account and apy the school fees monthly. I just have the laon facility as a back up if something unexpected comes up. Hope I've explained myself properly.

[Grumpalina]

Sorry wish I'd previewed this.

Corrections as follows:

savings facility

pay school fees termly not monthly

Also you can pay off what you've borrowed at anytime.

[asdmumandteacher]

thanks all. Am a bit scared to ask our mortgage provider in case they say no and we have our dream shattered. Must pluck up courage - also bit worried to do it now cos of the ol' financial climate an' all.

[LIZS]

You can increase the amount if you remortgage for whatever purpose, it doesn't have to be specified. However how much you might be able to get depends on current valuation, loan to value, earnings, credit rating etc as they would evaluate the risk against the potential value of the asset, probably quite cautiously atm.

[UnfortunatelyMurderedMe]

Did I read somewhere on mumsnet that you are in Kent?
A pass is just over 50%, is he getting that in the practice papers?

[asdmumandteacher]

haven't done any practice papers yet - he is working thru the bond (aged 9-10) books with a tutor..but he is unfortunately in 'remedial' group (late August - left handed - brother with severe SN - life has been difficult for him to date really)It would be nice but not holding my breath

[UnfortunatelyMurderedMe]

They standardise the test to take into account the younger children taking it. He might surprise you! Good Luck!

[asdmumandteacher]

Thanks but as i work in a GS i asked my pupils the other day who was born in August (28 kids) - NONE of them! they don't standardise it that much unfortunately...i have studied the year 7 stats
Thanks for good wishes tho

[squeakypop]

We have a chequebook with our mortgage, so have an agreed line of credit up to about 80% of the house's valuation (our actual mortgage is more like a third of the valuation).

When I wasn't working we occasionally wrote a cheque for the fees (two children in prep). Now that I am working, we seem to be keeping up, despite 3 children in senior schools.

The chequebook works well because you just borrow what you need at the time - you don't have to borrow ahead of needing it.

[SueW]

Why not ring a broker and ask if there are any good deals around following base rate cuts as you are looking to re-mortgage and get a line of credit.

We're like squeaky and we have a mortgage plus a flexible additional facility - all agree when we re-mortgaged a few years ago - which has a cheque book (although in practice we tend to just use online banking). We keep any additional funds we have in the flexible mortgage account to reduce the interest and tfr to current account as necessary. But when we've had bad times, we've drawn large amounts down.

[asdmumandteacher]

Can you tell me exactly who i need to phone please - a mortgage broker? Is the thing i need to get called a 'flexible additional facility'? Would like to get this sorted asap but worried obv about credit crunch stuff (economics not exactly my strong point!)

[squeakypop]

The easiest route would be to look at whoever you have your mortgage through.

[asdmumandteacher]

thanks guys

[morningpaper]

They don't care why you remortgage, as long as you can pay the loan back

You will need to have about 25-50% equity in the house I'd imagine but I am just plucking that figure wildly out of the air

Can you pay it back? 50k is quite a whack if you are both struggling for money

Interest rates might still go bonkers - could you pay it back if they hit 10%?

[morningpaper]

bear in mind that it is not just the extra money you will have to pay, but it is also the WORSE DEAL that you will most likely have, which is adding on average £150-200 (I think) per month compared to mortgages taken out 2 years ago

[morningpaper]

@ 5% 50k will cost 334 per month on top of your normal mortgage

plus arrangement fee (1k)

(would be 557 at 12%)

(no idea how much your fees would be, but it is worth bearing these figures in mind)

[asdmumandteacher]

thank you morning paper.Its our only option really.

[asdmumandteacher]

Am trying desperately to save - have managed about a years fees from last three years of saving

[morningpaper]

ok

just try not to be too bitter when you are still paying it back when he is 34

[morningpaper]

(how much are the fees?)

[asdmumandteacher]

about 12K a year

[squeakypop]

You don't need a loan for 50k up front though. I'm assuming that the OP can partially afford the fees, giving that she is able to save something now. It is then just the case of a top-up.