Remortgaging questions

[JacqueslePeacock]

I am currently on a fairly expensive mortgage package so would like to switch to a lower rate deal, but have a few questions that i hope someone can answer for me!

Are there any benefits to switching to a better deal with my current mortgage divider, versus moving to a different lender altogether? If I do stick with my current lender, would I still need to have the house re-valued? I only bought the house 2 years ago if that makes any difference. And is there anything else I should be aware of if I switch mortgage package? I.e. are there any disadvantages?

Thank you v much anyone who can help with these.

I went through a financial advisor. He found me a mortgage deal much better than I was on. The new lender did a drive past valuation. You need to find out when your current deal finishes and any early redemption payments you may need to pay.

I don't have any early redemption payments and I'm not tied in to a set number of years (very flexible deal) so I could easily remortgage. My concern is more that I don't have lot of spare cash at the moment for revaluation fees, application fees etc, so if these could be avoided that would be great!

It depends on your lender. Some lenders do good deals for people remortgaging, so it's best to ring them and ask what they could do. Then have a look at some comparison sites and see what deals other lenders can offer and what fees they charge. You usually have the option to ad the fees onto the mortgage, but that will mean you have to pay interest on them for the term of the loan

We've just re-mortgaged with our current lender ? we took out the mortgage 3 years ago. The advantage of going through our current lender was that we did it on line (and received £100 for doing that) and it was literally done with a click of the mouse. We did have to pay a product fee of £900 but we just clicked the drop down menu which said add it to the mortgage (I know we end up paying more in the long run) but our monthly repayments dropped by £100 per month. It was effective immediately. We didn't have to pay a mortgage valuation fee or provide all the documentation required for a mortgage application assessment / demonstrate we could meet the affordability criteria of another lender.

I did also go through L&C to see if they could find me a better deal ? they did find one that would be £10 a month cheaper, but we'd have had to have paid for a valuation and paid an application fee / product fee that was non-refundable (if for any reason the valuation came back lower than we anticipated, or with me having changed firms 6 months ago, they refused the application etc). Obviously if they'd have found us a deal that was say £50 cheaper or more, we might have used them, but the deal we were eligible for from our current lender, and the ease with which we could swap, made us choose to stay with the same lender.

Thanks for all the advice. Current lender has advised they would just do a drive-by revaluation which would cost us only £65, so hardly bank breaking. The trouble is, there are some much better deals with other companies - but I'm nervous that we'd have to pay legal fees to get searches etc all done again. Whereas application fees could be added on to mortgage, I'm guessing legal fees can't!

We only moved two years ago. Do we really have to get all the conveyancing done all over again if we want to switch?

Its not the conveyancing that you need to get done again (thats the legal work associated with buying your house, including searches etc). None of that needs to be done again.

A remortgage simply means that the mortgage is redeemed with one lender (who lets the Land Registry know that they don't hold the charge etc anymore) and a new mortgage is taken out with another lender.

There will be a small amount of solicitor costs involved in this (but lots of banks / building societies will pay for this as part of their remortgage offers) but you do have to pay this upfront. It would usually only be £100-£200. SImilarly, if you will have to pay for a new valuation (rather than the lender offering to do this) this will probably be upfront too.
Those are the costs that are normally avoided if you stay with the same lender.

Just work out the real cost - if you're saving say £300 by staying with the same lender, but you're saying £100 a month for 2 years by switching to another lender, would be silly not to stay where you are.

Most lenders do free legals with a re mortgage, and some do a free valuation as well. Every lender is different though, so you might be better off seeing a broker.