Mortgage fixed rate comes to end next April - should I remortgage or pay it all off?

[dontmesswithmymoxie]

When my fixed rate comes to the end I will be 63 and I'll have about £17,000 left to pay. I could just about have saved that up if I really go for it as I already have a bit of money saved and I don't do holidays or expensive clothes etc.
OR I can remortgage and hope I don't get stung on a high interest rate .
But I hope to retire next year and I'd be able to pay off my mortgage then anyway.
I have capacity to pay off 10% of mortgage each year and I've done that each year so far but not this year, yet. I could pay 10% Dec this year and another 10% Jan 2023 and then pay off the remainder when I retire in June, say.

What would be the best thing to do?
Thank you.

You will only be able to get a 4 year mortgage to 67 probably

Can you afford to pay that much each month if you remortgage?

Hmm. Well, I'd need to work p/t to give myself wiggle room. I guess it would depend on what kind of rate I'd get if I didn't fix again. I'm expecting a jump from my current rate of 2.04% (which isn't even that low compared to some deals I've seen in the last couple of years).

Won't you just go onto your providers standard variable rate? This might not be much more expensive than a new fix. E.g. Nationwide is currently 3.99%. This would give you flexibility to overpay as much as you want for the rest of the term.

I came to say the same as Jellycat. Just let it change to standard variable rate and through what you can it as there will be no overpayment limits

I just checked the SVR is 2.75% which is not that much more - good news as not so much pressure to make big decisions.

That was throw obviously.

Yeah it shouldn't make a great deal of difference to you, the higher the loan amount the higher impact a % increase would have... shouldn't be too on £17k

Also you will avoid any fees that might be charged when taking out a new loan

Consider an offset. Then you can throw savings at it yet still have access to the savings if you need the money.

You can take a mortgage past age 70 with some lenders in some circumstances.

Will you be able to get a remortgage deal for £17k? I thought the minimum was around £25-30k? Plus fees might make it uneconomical.

To be honest, if the SVR is 2.75% I'd let it roll over onto that, and just overpay what you can without curtailing your lifestyle unnecessarily or working longer/more hours than you need to. The interest won't cost that much.

You say you might be able to retire and pay the mortgage off next year. Does that mean you have a lump sum to come? In that case, I'd pay off what I can without triggering early repayment charges and just get through it as and when. You might be able to scale down to retirement by dropping your hours gradually. It doesn't need to be a hard stop with work or your mortgage if you don't want to do that.

Plus you probably want to review your budget and give yourself more wriggle room to cope with rising food, energy, petrol etc costs.

Thanks all.
I don't think I can remortgage for that amount, now you mention it. I took out the mimimum mortgage of £30,000 with my provider.

I do have a lump sum on retirement.
And I've been adjusting my accounts pretty regularly to take account of the rising costs of everything; I round all figures up and pay yearly for things which incur a saving (like insurances etc).

This is all very useful; from what you all saying I think I'm doing what I can right now and I could actually pay off 10% at the end of this year without charges and may not need to pay it off in one go, if I don't want to.
I've dropped a day a week to get used to the reduced income so now on 30hrs. There would be scope to go back to work on a new, reduced hours contract if I wanted it.