Mortgage confusion

[NumberTrain]

Evening,

I've tried googling but between two small children and night shifts (and frankly just wanting to bury my head in the sand) I'm not getting very far. I'm hoping someone is feeling sympathetic and has experience in renewing a mortgage when they've had significant changes in employment.

We moved to our house in July 2020 and ported the mortgage. Our fixed rate is now coming to an end and the variable rate is currently £300 more a month than the previous payment- I can work extra to make this money but would rather spend more time with the kids or spend it on something nice!

My husband was made redundant shortly after moving here and I have left the NHS as it's become unbearable. We have both started working in considerably better paid roles and can demonstrate the full year's income.

However he is the director of a business he started and is a contractor. I am an agency worker so zero hours. I'm worried that if I approach the bank to remortgage they will look on our job security as unfavorable even with a full year's income.

Anyone with any words of wisdom? What's the worst? Just being left on a variable rate or refusing to fund us at all?

If you switch rates with the same bank (as opposed to remortgage with a different bank), you usually don't have to go through the whole mortgage application and supply income details. Assuming that you don't want to borrow more money or change your mortgage term.

Speak to a mortgage broker but it's usually fairly simple to switch to a fixed rate if your staying with the same provider. We've just done ours they asked to see three wage slips and what outgoings we had ( didn't want to see bank statements or anything) oh was going to go self employed before we switched and he said it wouldn't make a difference so you should be fine. Id Defiantly switch rates. 300 pound is a lot!

Yes, PP are correct. A remortgage is switching to a new lender/bank and will need you to resubmit all wage slips etc. If you just stay with the bank/building society you’re with and go from variable to fixed, it’s not a remortgage it’s just called a product switch and doesn’t take anything into account again such as credit scoring, affordability etc. So just stick with the lender you’re with and switch products and you’ll be fine.

I just transferred our mortgage to a new product with the existing lender. It was done online in about 10 minutes and no new credit checks

@BlackLambAndGreyFalcon

If you switch rates with the same bank (as opposed to remortgage with a different bank), you usually don't have to go through the whole mortgage application and supply income details. Assuming that you don't want to borrow more money or change your mortgage term.

This.

When our mortgage fixed rate came to an end last time my DP had had a bad couple of years trading and I'd just gone self employed so we didn't want the hassle of trying to find a new mortgage. Our current provider just switched us on to a different deal without going through the affordability checks.

Speak to your current provider and see what other deals they have at the moment.

Rates are likely to go up soon I think, so getting another fixed rate for a longer period would be recommended. Just make sure it's portable again, just in case.

You don't need a broker. Stay with same lender and do a product switch. Takes minutes. It's only a remortgage if you change lender

Thank you all so much! This is a big reassurance

@user1471462701

I just transferred our mortgage to a new product with the existing lender. It was done online in about 10 minutes and no new credit checks

Am about to switch mine which ends 31/12 - was going to do it a month ago within the allowed window but busy at work and now rates have increased

I just took on a new fixed rate with my existing lender and they didn't ask me anything at all - in fact it was all done online based on their (generous and I assume automated) guesstimate of how much my flat had increased in value since I bought it.