Where do I start, fixed rate mortgage ends in a few months

[Choirsinger7]

Am a bit clueless about financial matters, we currently have a 5 year fixed mortgage which ends in April, paying around 1k per month mortgage payments. I think I need to ring my mortgage provider and ask what they can do for me, but shall I also find a financial/ mortgage advisor who can shop around for me too? I have heard that you can lock yourself into a new mortgage rate now and then walk away from it later if you find a better deal, is that right? Any guidance gratefully received, assume I have a low level of understanding of this area! Many thanks #clueless

Call your existing provider to see what they can offer, also try a broker who has access to all of the market - London & country don't (well didn't 3 years ago) charge a fee.

The good news is that forward rates are dropping

What rate are you currently on and how much do you owe?

I’m currently on 1.99%. Not actually sure how much we owe, will check.

I'm with natwest and I just log in to my online mortgage account and can select a new deal, these get sent to you 3 months before your current one expires. I can leave penalty free if I find better elsewhere. Your mortgage rate is about to increase a lot. Base rate has rocketed

Talk to a broker, ask a friend for recommendations. And your current lender.
Your monthly payments will approx almost double. Do an online mortgage calculator to see so you can prepare yourself. You can bring down the monthly payments by extending the term. While short term more affordable you end up paying more overall. A broker can guide you to choose what's best for your circumstances.

We owe about 170k.

Eeeek, doesn’t sound too great. Will call existing provider in the morning.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/best-buys/

Existing providers are very rarely good value. Mine wanted to replace a 1.75% rate with 8% rate. Of course when I found a 4% online they offered to match it but I was too fed up to stay

I do have a friend who is a FA, maybe I can ask her as well.

Anyone know about locking in good mortgage deals early, although I think IR should be going down a bit so may not be worth it?

Contact London and country. They’re great and free. they’ll get you the best deals.

How many years have you got left?

We used London & Country. Google them. Totally sorted us out. It's definitely going up for you but they will give you good advice.

I don't know why people use brokers it's easy to find good deals yourself. Money saving expert is the best place to look

Also your exciting provider may provide a good deal. We have never found anywhere better then Nationwide for us (everyone is different due to different circumstances).

We dropped off our fixed rate last March onto a discounted tracker. We first bought when rates where 5%, so never expected them to stay so low anyway. We managed to be on 0.5% at one point which seemed slightly ridiculous.

Martin Lewis is as always very good on this.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/remortgage-guide/

You can get an offer of a rate - often valid for 6 months then yes pull out if rates drop.

Plug your details into a rate change calculator, just using average 2 year/5 year rates to see the likely difference. I'd do this for you but need to know how long you have left on your current mortgage. I've always found brokers useful and it's free so why not? You can change to a lower rate if one becomes available (between now and your remortgage). I'd advise pretending it has already happened and get into the habit of moving whatever the difference is elsewhere each month so you get used to it. You can then use this to overpay.

I guess it depends, ours offered much better rates than anyone else (we did a lot of comparisons and spoke to a lot of them), and as it was as easy as a few clicks always worth checking or even phoning and trying to see what they can offer first.

As far as I can tell an average (repayment) mortgage is around 4.5-5.0% at the moment (will depend on ltv etc). So if you find something starting with 3 you've done well.

Echo everyone who says London and country, they’ve been great for us too.

And yes, that’s right - our remortgage is completing next week but we did the application back in August because it locks in a rate and guards against further increases. But as it happens, rates have dropped a lot since then and we were able to transfer directly onto a cheaper product without having to do another full application.

OP I think you need to prepare yourself for a large increase in your mortgage each month. If you're under 2 percent now rates are currently between 4.5 percent to 5 percent depending on how much equity you currently have in your house. It's called your loan to value rate. Anything under 4 percent and you are doing really well but it will still mean a big increase for you. I'd look for a good broker who does not charge a fee and covers all mortgages. I hope you can afford the increase.

We’re currently on 1.9 and are paying just over £1k a month and have calculated that when our rate ends if we end up on 4.5% ish it will go up to £1500. It’s a big increase and it’s not even as bad as it could have been a few months ago, when I was plugging in rates of 6-7% into my budget spreadsheets because they were even higher back then. However I’ve just seen you said you owe £170k, whereas we owe £270k, so if you’re paying the same as us each month then you must have a shorter term on your mortgage. You could consider extending the term to lessen the monthly repayments if you think you’re going to struggle with the increase.

Also agree with L&C - free and very good.

You should be able to login and see what offer you will get from your current provider, to compare.

Lots of talk about them coming down further again before April so try and get one that you can cancel before go-live if better rates come along.

We are in the same boat, five year fix ends in April although we owe less. We are waiting as I think there will be better rates in April than now. We use a broker who is free to us and gets his money from the provider. He always finds us a better deal than we can source ourselves and he does all the paperwork.

That seems to be an ongoing theme for any provider including insurance.

Last year mine wanted to increase my annual premium from £280 to £750. I found somewhere for £300 which was cheapest ballpark area I could find.

Rang to cancel and they suddenly could do it at same price.

But no way was I cancelling the policy I'd just set up to go with someone who tried to increase my premium by £450 on the off chance I'd forget to cancel and just continue.

The base rate is predicted to come down quite a bit this year so you may well get a better rate in a few months. I certainly wouldn't lock into a deal where I had to pay any fees upfront