Mortgage joy - astonishingly boring but might be useful...

[snowleopard]

... if you are renegotiating your mortgage. Apologies if everyone knows this but I didn't and it has saved us money.

Our fixed rate ran out recently and we had to set up a new mortgage - when I phoned the bank about it I was offered some new rates which meant we would be paying an extra £100-150 per month (as interest rates have gone up).

I rang off in horror to discuss with DP - but when I phoned back, I got a different person and when I explained we wanted to pay less per month, she said if we had 50% or less Loan-to-Value, we could get a special rate. ie if the mortgage amount borrowed is half the house's value, or less - eg your house is worth £200K, but your mortgage is for £100K or less.

Now it was nowhere near 50% when we bought it a few years ago, but because house values have shot up, I was amazed to find that the house value is now more than twice our mortgage. And so we got a special rate that means we aren't paying any more per month, despite interest rate rises.

Didn't even have to get the house valued - they had software that worked it out. Bank is RBOS, but others probably have similar deals and it's worth asking about, especially as the first woman I spoke to kept quiet about it.

What I think mortgage lenders do snowleopard is to offer you something first hoping you'll take it. Then when you ring back and start negotiating you usually end up with a better deal.

Thanks for that, will definately look into it.

Sadly, I don't find this sort of thing boring at all!

Yes I know. The first one insisted there were no better offers for me and did not mention this at all. So obviously another tip is is to take your time and sound horrified and make noises about going elsewhere, then ring back later. But knowing about these deals may also help.

i tried this with my old mortgage lender when our fixed rate deal ended. nothing would move them. i said, "but this is ridiculous, i don't want the trouble of moving lender and surely you don't want to lose a customer???" but no joy. it seemed bonkers to me.

Its usually the retention team that can make the better offers

bossykate, it was the same with me with the first woman I spoke to. I said come on, I know you can offer me a better deal than this, I don't want to have to change lenders, we are good customers and have never defaulted or caused a problem. She said (in quite a snooty way I thought) "Don't you think everyone says that to me - there's nothing I can do, these are the deals available". So I rang off saying I needed to research other lenders (which at the time I did intend to). So maybe when I phoned back there was a note on my file saying "About to do a runner - RETAIN AT ALL COSTS"

Either way, I hope this gets someone a better deal...

Persistence is the name of the game

Last time we had to remortgage, our bank contacted us a couple of months in advance, offering us a deal that was much better than that being offered to new customers, and with no acceptance fee or booking fee or whatever. We did have a look around on the market as well, but couldn't do better.
Good old Co-op! Hoping they do the same thing next year...

Snowleopard - was your mortgage originally with RBOS, and you rang to renegotiate?

Yes - after they'd sent me a reminder letter with an "example rate" quoted in it that was pretty scary.