Are you all ok with your mortgages?

[Whyisitallsostressfulhey]

Just having a bit of a panic.
The bank keep sending emails showing us stimulated payment needed for the next three months etc and it just seems to be climbing and climbing. So far it’s just over €200 extra per month we’re paying, but the rate at which it’s climbing is scaring me.
I don’t know enough to be honest about it all, but does anyone know the predictions? Will it keep going up and up by this amount and for how long?
How are people managing?
We live abroad, so it’s probably a bit different, but started to jump up around November. What with barely getting the same amount in weekly shop these days and petrol and everything going up, feeling really anxious.

Can't you fix the mortgage?

Can you fix the mortgage? Ours is fixed for the next six years (we took a 10 year fix so knew costs till it was paid off and kids were at university)

Are you on a variable rate? We are on a fix. We have 3 more years to go, and by the time it ends we will have paid well over half what we originally borrowed. We are under 40 so if we need to take another 25 years to pay the rest at higher interest rates we can.

We are high earners though and also are big on saving/being careful with money. We never overstretched, atm the mortgage is about 1.3 x joint income.

Yes, because we fixed as soon as physically possible back in the summer, so 6 months before our deal ended. It went up about £40, but that’s ok. Our mortgage is quite small though, less than £100k and LTV around 25%. A lucky set of circumstances.

@SweetSakura aha another 10 year fixer. So few of us....

I’ve spoken to Dh about us asking them if we can do fixed rate and he seems to think they’re not doing them anymore or never could or something, seems weird 🤷🏻‍♀️Unless just our bank
Does anyone know how it’s forecasted to go? The ones not lucky enough to be on fixed mortgages

Forecast to come down from later this year but won’t go as low as it has been.

Can you extend your mortgage term?

We had to renew in October, it’s a real struggle with the rising costs of everything else 😬

My fixed term runs out in June maybe. AM I in trouble?

Did you post recently - mortgage on a property in Portugal, through Santander?
Whether that’s you or not, with a variable rate tied to the Euribor, I don’t think most people on MN will be following the ECB’s plans on press about them. So you might either get no real answer, or an incorrect answer if someone is basing their answer on the U.K. government and the U.K. BoE.
Similarly it’s hard to challenge whether your husband is right about fixed rates. But - why not just look at the bank’s website or speak to a local broker yourself to understand fixed rate options in your country?

Your DH isn’t correct - most banks definitely still offer fixes! Call them and ask them. Read Money Saving Expert and shop around with different banks/building societies- you don’t have to stay with the same one.

I’m nervous because our fix is due to end in May - we could only get a two year fix when we took out the mortgage, and our interest rate was fairly high as we had a low deposit. It wouldn’t surprise me if we end up anyway between 5-7% because of where the base rate is. If that happens we’ll be alright, but there’ll be no spare cash.

Euribor is tipped to continue to rise throughout 2023. OP doesn’t have a U.K. mortgage.

@Testina Yes that was me, I remember you, thank you 😊
Our bank has been quite vague about things but we’ve just put in some documents as they’ve put out that they may be able to help some of their clients..not sure entirely how much they’d be able to get off or what they will do, but I’m thinking it might be unlikely as we may not qualify wages wise (tends to be for very low paid generally) we’re ok but not if it keeps going up and up!
I can see patterns in the sense we seem to be a few months after the U.K. when things start changing here

Even in the UK the predictions are base rate will increase to around 4.6% before it stabilises. It won't likely start to fall until end of 2023 IF inflation does come down by half.

Deff still worth fixing for 2/5 yrs at this time if possible.

@Testina Sorry, I’m crap, so rising and rising, highest in June then slightly lower by the end of the year? Then what, do you think, how long are we in this for?

I'm 24 and I was looking to buy back just before Lizz Truss announced all of the increases. My Agreement in principle went from 3.3% and 4.2x to 8.6% and 3x which makes it impossible to buy in my east midlands area even on my wage of over £35,000. I did view and consider putting an offer on one then everything went to utter sh*t. I'm praying things get somewhat better, I've been slowly saving and I'm now 50/50 about whether once I finish my part time masters I stay in the UK or move abroad which will impact whether I should buy or not. If the mortgage offers dropped by at least 2 percent and I could buy at at least 3.5x my wage I would consider it, I'm in limbo at the minute living with family as I don't want to commit to a rental and be stuck for a year renting when it could change but I also don't want to impede on family for too long or just move to another house share. I have friends that live both in florida and in aus that have said I would earn substantially more abroad and just wait another year or two and move but I'm unsure.

Fixed mine back in October for February...increase of £95 per month.

Frustrating as had the interest rate stayed the same I was going to remortgage over a shorter period so it was paid off by the time I'm 60.

Still appreciate that I'm in a better position than many atm.

I thought it might be the same person!
People often don’t realise that mortgage products vary a lot across Europe. The U.K. market moved hugely into fixed rates (but often only to about 5 years) well before the current issues, and has long since been a market of remortgaging and chopping and changing! Whereas my French colleagues are used to a full term fix that they never change!

I just read an article about the Spanish market having a huge shift to fixed in recent years (well after UK!) but again - lifetime fix far more common there than here I think. And of course, a big Spanish provider is Santander.

Do you have independent free mortgage advisers in Portugal as we do here? (Free at point of use -they make their money if you go with them). If you feel your bank is being vague, they may be clearer for you.

Mine runs out in June too and I am currently in the process of reserving a new rate which you can do 6 months before. I would speak to a mortgage broker if I was you to see what is available and prepare in advance.

Only you can answer that! Have you looked at what the new rate would be (at the moment - it won’t be less in June) and whether you can afford it?

Do you know that you can secure a new rate before your current one ends? I would be doing your research - tomorrow!

I’m jealous of those on ten year fixes. Our very low fix ends in May and we will be hit with a $1700 (AUD) monthly increase even with refinancing. Fixed rate offers in Australia are very high at the moment so I think we will go variable and wait for rates to go back down.

Yes and No.

Ours is going to go up and we don’t have the money for it, but things get easier for us in 19 months when DD goes to school as our childcare costs decrease hugely. We basically will have about 16 months of absolute hell to limp through from
when we have new fixed rate until end of nursery. The increase in the mortgage is roughly the same as our nursery bill. So once we don’t pay for nursery we can afford the increase.

So I am confident we will survive it as it has an end point but it is not going to be pretty. We are luckier than most though as at least we have that change coming.

I foresee a grim decade, then life will get easier again. It’s always cyclical.

My fixed mortgage ended last month. However over the summer I sorted another fixed rate for 5 years which started this week. An increase of about £43 pounds. Have 7 years left and about £50,000 to pay. Realise how lucky I was to get this deal.

@Baconand A decade 😳