Porting our lifetime tracker mortgage?

[MortPort]

We are about to move house and we have the option of porting across our current lifetime tracker mortgage, but I really can't get my head around whether it would be a good thing to do or not.

We have 1.69% above BoE base rate, for the lifetime of the mortgage, with unlimited over payments. So currently our interest rate is 2.44%.

Looking at current deals, it seem like even the current tracker mortgages have a time limit on them, so lifetime trackers seem to not really exist any more.

If we change deal, we are thinking of a 5 year fixed, it looks like interest rates are between 1.94% and 2.14% - but they then go to about 3.96% after (not sure if this is a tracker or set amount?).

Short term, the new fixed deal may be better, but our ported deal may be better longer term?

And then what about potential Brexit effects and a raise in interest rates?

I'm going around in circles, so any advice would be much appreciated!

What a fixed deal changes to after the end of the fixed term is irrelevant, because you go out and get another fixed deal at that point.

Interest rates aren't going down any time soon - they're going up for sure, we just don't know when and by how much. So the usual trade-off between a tracker and a fixed rate is that a tracker is supposed to be cheaper now, whereas a fixed rate has you paying more but having the certainty over what you're paying.

There used to be lifetime trackers of 0.5%-1% above base, which were attractive. But there's very little point having a tracker that costs MORE than a fixed rate product! "Lifetime" sounds good, but I can't see what's attractive about a lifetime of paying more

Rates will not rise much after Brexit (of any variety)
Lifetime trackers that you do not have to renegotiate every time the cheap fix ends
(let alone the £999 arrangement fees which destroy YEARS of rate discount)
are what I always had and I never had reason to complain.

It will very much depend on your personal circumstances and size of the mortgage add to whether it is worthwhile porting it over or getting a new fixed deal. You'll have to do some sums to work out what may be cheaper but bear in mind possible interest rate rises.

DH and I also have a lifetime tracker and love the flexibility of unlimited overpayments. However, we are in what we think is our forever home as it's big enough to grow into even if we end up having a couple of kids and is in a desirable area. Our mortgage is small thankfully and if we continue to overpay the way we are then we'll pay it off 13 years early. We worked out that if we moved to a new fixed rate deal, because we'd have to pay the arrangement/ product fees which seem to start at £999 a new mortgage would work out more expensive for us so we're sticking with our tracker which has a slightly higher interest rate than other deals out there.

Lifetime tracker of 1.69% above base rate seems fab to me. Buying a new fixed rate every 2-5 years is expensive. I was once tied into a fixed rate which was more than SVR and I couldn’t get out of it without a hefty penalty.

What about a longer fix? There are 10 year ones now which wouldn’t be much more than your current rate. I wouldn’t say your tracker is brilliant. I had a 0.3% one that I had to give up when I moved (could have ported but was borrowing lots more and current lender’s rate was rubbish). I was v sad to let that rate go!

Its the fees on them that cripple
if the rate is only marginally different for a couple of years but the fee is £999 you are better off with a higher rate and no fee ....

I’m in the same position, thinking of moving on a life time tracker of .99% above the BoE rate without any fees if we pay it off early

I have a £250K mortgage on a 5 year fix. A 0.1% difference in the rate was all that was needed to justify a £999 product fee, and the actual difference was a fair bit more! Anyone else's mileage may obviously vary based on their particular circumstances.

I was once tied into a fixed rate which was more than SVR

Sure, but that's obviously not going to happen to someone fixing their rate today. When interest rates rise again, then we'll have to once again consider the possibility of them falling while locked into a fix. Right now, it's just a case of they'll rise, or they won't.

Thanks all. Think we've decided to go for the 5 year fixed!