Intelligent, sentient being with dumb question about mortgages

[eekamoose]

Our discounted mortage is coming to an end soon and our mortgage advisor has advised us to switch to another lender. Fair enough. We did this two years ago, too.

But we'd far rather stay with our current lender. Wouldn't they prefer to keep us (good customers, 65% equity in the property, mortgage currently less than 3 x salary etc) than for us to move to another lender?

I don't understand the requirement to move all the time to get the offers designed for new customers? Are the banks just relying on people not bothering or being able to move when the discounted rate ends?

Can anyone explain it to me? Anyone stayed with their current lender and persuaded them to allow them to stay on the discounted rate?

P.S. Have been here two years, recent name changer.

My mum got a better mortgage with her exising lender (britannia) but she was on standard variable up to then, and she still had to pay the arrangement fee even though it was the same provider.

Halifax would review our mortgage regularly and once out of any tie-in period I could go onto a better deal if there was one. Would only have paid arrangement fee for fixed rate.

Ring your mortgage provider and ask them what they might be able to offer you once your existing deal comes to an end.

Okay. The reasons people move are:

(1) New providers often discount and give you a better deal
(2) Financial advisors often get a fee for introducing you to the new company.

But you are right, if you are happy, what I would do is shop around, get a few quotes and ask your current provider to match them. If they will, fantastic.

You are in a strong position so you should be able to negotiate. Obviously bear in mind the additional costs of a new mortgage (valuation fees, surveys etc if required, legal costs, mortgage advisor fees) before you make a decision.

Having just gone through the whole changing lender thing to get a new fixed rate mortgage after our 2 yr fix ended - I totally understand your reluctance to change lenders - it is a pain in the bum and no mistake.

Unfortunately our current lender could not offer us a good deal and were blatently uninterested in giving it any real thought - I had a very frustrating 'Computer says no!' conversation with them.

You may as well face it the deals banks offer are to attract new custom and there seems to be a real lack of commitment to good customer services for existing clients (judging by the amount of time I have been spending on hold recently!!!).

I am happy with the new rate I have found and it is fixed for 5yrs so I don't have to think about it again for a while. The fees were £600 so not horrendous - you have to be careful that the high fees charged for some of the lowest fixed rates are not going to outweigh the benefit of the lower rate (iyswim).

The banks are in this to make money not friends and at the moment I think it is wise to consider changing banks if your own lender cannot come up with a good deal for you. There are lots of good comparison sites and financial advisor's out there to help.

God luck.

Bigmouth - we had the same situation with Abbey, having been with them for 15 years and always paid the mortgage in advance, and a chunk off it as well, they would not give me a decent fix and could not have cared less when they lost the business. It doesn't make sense to me, as we have a very comfortable income; we'd never missed a mortgage payment; had equity in the house and a good credit record. Their loss, basically...I won't be using them again for anything.

Eek...sometimes they will, sometimes they won't, but you may have to move your mortgage to get a decent rate. We did, and are very happy with a good 5.09 fix for 5 years. PITA sorting it, as we live abroad, but it got done.

Ah yes, Abbey. I have a credit card with them. It has a £1 credit balance. I have enjoyed many a long year of getting a nil balance statement. Boy, those postage charges mount up don't they.
For me that's the icing on the top of never using them again for anything.

I've found that they have no interest whatsoever in trying to match other banks' rates. A real pain for us since we have an offsetting mortgage linked to our current account and all of our savings accounts and so switching means switching banks! Its odd how they don't value the existing customers and outrageous that they don't at least heavily discount the arrangement fee if you take out another product with them.