Help! Scared about remortgaging!

[clarkey82]

Hi, my husband and I bought our first house in Jan 2014 using the help to buy scheme. The mortgage is a fixed 2 year term on a very high percentage (nearly 6%) so we're very much looking forward to jan 2016 when we can remortgage and get a lower rate.

My question is, when we come to remortgage, if we stay with the Halifax will they just give us the new hopefully cheaper and more affordable mortgage or will we have to go through the new harder checks and stress tests?

We've taken on a fair bit of credit card debt (all manageable) setting up the house and i'm worried that we won't pass what ever checks they now have in place. Am I being stupid? I'm scared the bank will say "sorry we can't help you" and then I don't know what happens. Apologies if this all sounds a bit mental.

If you want to remortgage they are likely to put you through the process again. But it isn't the end of the world. If you don't remortgage you'll just stay on your current product (albeit on their standard variable rate).

Thanks Prepperpig, so no matter what happens we should go on to a lower rate. Thanks, that's put my mind at ease.

We are on the same scheme but with rbs. When it was time to remortgage we shopped around and then asked rbs for their remortgage rate and found them to be the cheapest. They done it all over the phone then popped something in the post for us to sign. It was so simple (presumably because it was with the same bank). And the rate dropped loads.

That Spidergirl is exactly what I wanted to hear. I was hoping that if I stay with Halifax then the remortgage should be fairly painless.
Thanks.

Are you remortgaging or just getting a new deal? are you going to borrow any more money

Our fixed rate came to an end earlier this year and like you it was almost 6% previously. They just called and asked what our house would be worth in todays market, when I told them they said it reduced my LTV rate to around 80% so I qualified for a better rate - think it's 3.8% fixed for 5 years.

We are considering selling our flat but not for the next few months at least and maybe I to next year. If we remortgage now to get a lower rate, will it be a problem if we then put the flat up for sale. I mean, do we need to keep the new remortgage for a fixed amount of time?

dementedma, we've just remortgaged and we were quite clear that we want to sell soon. We remortgaged because we've done a LOT of work to the house and increased its value by around 25%. We wanted to release some equity to finish off the jobs in order to sell. They were perfectly happy to do this.

It is worth shopping around. We found out that we were eligible for preferential rates on a mortgage with our bank because of the type of account we have and how long we've had it. This is an account we opened after buying our current house in 2010 so we weren't eligible originally. We've saved ourselves a great deal of money and reduced our mortgage term significantly. We did have to go through the whole palaver of credit checks and hours of questions but it was worth it.

Hi DragonMamma, yes like you we've done loads to the house and conservatively expect the LTV to be in the 80% bracket now. We're not asking for any more money, just to go on to a better rate. Hopefully it should be pretty straight forward and stress free.

We have a mortgage with Halifaxand went onto a new deal when our current mortgage ended if you go online there is a form to fill in with mortgage number and dob I think ours gave us the option of 2 fixes one short term and one longer you select a product and then they just sent the forms to sign really easy

Thanks TreTops, we're with the Halifax too so hopefully that will be our experience when we come to remortgage. Thanks a lot for everyone's responses.

Yep, same here with Halifax - phone to ask options, chose one and they sent the form to be signed. No questions other than that. I was worried too as had just had a baby and thought they might have a problem with drop in income.

OP whenever I've remortgaged or a fixed term has come to an end I've stayed with the same provider. I know for changing rate they didn't credit check and just put us on to a lower rate (could've got slightly lower elsewhere but didn't think my crefit rating would be robust enough).

When I actually remortgaged to pay for building work, I had to send bank statements and payslips off so they did check but I think were more lenient than a brand new provider might have been.

We have remortgaged quite a few times, last time (with Nationwide) it was simply getting a different deal - we weren't arguing that the price had gone up and weren't borrowing more and it was done in a 2 minute conversation over the phone.

This time, we wanted to argue that the house value had increased so we'd move down a bracket for the LTV (and get a better rate). It may vary between lenders but with Nationwide, it was only the materials that were considered for structural improvements, not labour, not the new kitchen or new bathroom we'd installed (not structural). So they wouldn't increase the value at all. I didn't want the faff of going to a new lender soI asked if we could pay for a valuer to come to the property (because I knew we'd increased the value) and they said no.

Had to go with a different lender and they valued it at £75,000 more than Nationwide were willing to value it at, simply because a valuer came out to look at it. Been a faff but our mortgage rate is now 1.49%!

1.49% oh my god that would save us about £500 a month!

That's why its worth shopping around. It was like pulling teeth going with a new lender and all the questions they asked / the documents we had to provide (so it does depend on what position you're in) but it was so worth it for us. We have taken quite a chunk of equity out of the house to pay for an extension and our mortgage payment is about £20 more than it was before!

We used a broker from London & Country after a recommendation on here - they are all of market and they don't charge for their advice (if you do proceed with their suggestion, they are paid a commission from the lender). They will do a preliminary check with you about your circumstances and see what the best deal is for you. If you don't go with them, there is no charge (last time as I said we stayed with Nationwide) but this time we went with their advice (still no charge to us) but they'll get a commission payment from the lender. Worth a try?

Unless you've got some substantial equity (15%+, or gettign loan down to 60% LTV) in the house then it might not be worth your while.

I doubt you will have achieved this by 2016. In fact, (if I remember correctly that HTB was for new homes) you might be still in negative equity, new homes tend to take a 20% drop when they are resold as they are no longer new!

Missed the date. Yes, you we be subject to MMR.

Again, depending on your income, other debt and family i(.e childcare costs) circumstances you might find it much harder to get the same mortgage.

Who did you get a 1.49% mortgage deal from and when?

here it was the Post Office but like I said we went through L&C and I think there are some mortgages that are available to brokers that are not available to the public.

hereandtherex, no you don't remember correctly. The HTB scheme was for any first time buyer and any home (or at least it was when we bought ours). Ours is Victorian Terrace we had it valued last night and has gone up enough in the year to get us into the 80% LTV bracket.

Hi, just to update you all. Our fixed term mortgage comes to an end in November. I spoke to the Halifax and they said we'd just automatically drop on to the standard variable rate at 3.99% (far better than the 5.59% on the help to buy scheme) I was ok with that but saw much better offers from a proper remortgage. Luckily, if you're happy to change plan without having a meeting you can just do it online, no affordability checks and no meetings. You just enter your details in to the Halifax mortgage swapper and it gives you new options. We chose another 2 year fixed rate at 2.49% saving us over £300!!! a month. So in the end it was easy. If you're happy to stay with your current provider you should be able to choose a new mortgage without much fuss.