Getting a mortgage is scary!

[Deadbydaylight]

I know I'm being unreasonable, in a way, but it's scary getting a mortgage.

I've got all of our finances down in an excel spreadsheet, to the penny basically. I know what we can and can't afford. Really, I've taken a mortgage for us that is a lot lower than what we can afford, it's almost £100 less than we pay on rent.

But with the fiasco the lender gave us today by not telling us in advance what forms we needed to have just stressed me out. We got it sorted during the call, but they knew we are first time buyers, they could have told us we needed that form and got no apology either. Just got 'oh you should have been told'. Plus the information we asked for was different from every person we've spoken to with this lender. Really need to stick to one lot of information, rather than confuse people by changing it daily.

Then came the sales tactics of 'you need to pay a fee to get lower interest' and 'you need this payment scheme to over you in death or illness'. And I got brushed off when I said that it sounded like ppi. I took neither option as we are covered insurance wise in the event of death through work so fine then. And if we do need it, I'm sure I can find something cheaper than £64 a month.

I'm happy we have got it now and it's basically in the hands of the lenders and solicitors now to proceed. We have done our parts as far as I'm aware but god they make it stressful. And scary, I mean it's a lot of money and I'm trusting these people to handle it, which hasn't gone well so far. We had recently switched account to them for a joint account and they somehow did that wrong too.

Just hoping it all gets processed fine and we get our house at the end of April. And now to find a fridge and washing machine.

I had 2.95% on the mortgage. 95% LTV. Went through broker and she was great. Found us a massive cashback £700 so really saved considerable amount of money. Dealt with everything for us.That was2 years ago.
I've just got newfix for 5 years with the same provider at 2.3%. Could probably get tiny bit better somewhere else, but it wasn't worth the hassle for me as I just switched deals with no need for additional paperwork. Just few clicks on their website.

You will see how it will go when your fix will be ending. Maybe your 0rovider will offer a good deal or you can use the broker to move elsewhere.

Congrats btw. And good luck!

You can work out the cheapest deals with comparison sites.

Sometimes it is cheaper over a few years to pay the arrangement fee if you can afford it upfront. You need to do the maths.

*3.95 not 2.95. Bloody wish 😂

My husband works in a bank so we got a staff mortgage which is a good deal but they insisted we used their solicitor who was awful. We were first time buyers buying a vacant house with no chain and it took nearly 6 months. At one point he went on a long vacation without telling us so nothing was happening for weeks.

It definitely wasn't cheaper in the long run with the fee, the stupid woman we had even said so, but still kept pushing it. That's a great sales tactic, tell the client this will cost you more, but you want it anyway for no reason at all.

A lot of mortgages have high fees so they can offer lower rates and get to the top of the best buy tables. Obviously it depends on the size of your mortgage, the length of the deal and the rate available without a fee whether it is worth paying one.

Going through a broker isn't always best as some lenders only deal direct. The deal we got direct from HSBC was far better than anything available from a broker, and they didn't even offer what we asked for anyway.

Basically you have to assume that every lender, broker, insurance company etc is trying to rip you off and do your own research. Moneysavingexpert is good for anything money wise - if there's a better deal, or hidden catch they will provide the information.

But yes it is stressful. When we got our first mortgage, it gave cashback and money was very tight so we needed the cashback to pay off the credit card bill that had been run up paying some normal costs on a credit card so we had enough for the deposit.

But because it was a joint mortgage, and they sent us a cheque for the cashback in joint names, only we didn't have a joint account, so we had to open one, and then they lost the application and then it was Christmas and everything was shut, and I remember ringing the bank in tears because we had no money, a credit card that was up to it's limit and this useless cheque for just over £1k that would have made everything right, and the process of turning it into money just seemed to stall at every turn. Oh and DP got unexpectedly made redundant the day after we moved in and of course all that accident sickness and unemployment cover we had just taken out wouldn't pay out because there was a 30 day waiting period.

This was in the mid 90s and the amounts seem so trivial now - our house cost £32k and our deposit was £1600 but we only just saved that and didn't really have the extra few hundred quid on top for fees - that's why it all seemed such a big deal at the time.

I remember the night before we completed on our house I went for a drive with my best friend and basically had a meltdown and said let’s run away ha!

The idea of committing to 40 years of the same old just put the fear of god in me. I never told my DH.

Actually thinking about it now almost 5 years on and the fact we’ve basically just paid off interest in that time is bringing back that ‘run’ impulse! I feel you, OP! It is scary.