as with F-Blocker we remortgaged about a year ago but to HSBC. Got a lifetime tracker at base plus 0.99% so currently 1.49%. We too are overpaying like mad, might as well as savings rates are so low. Also can overpay lump sums all you like and no early repayment charges. Best decision we ever made !! Should be mortgage free in about four years max.
I'm in the process of buying at the moment with my girlfriend. We got our mortgage through the Leeds BS (who I had my previous mortgage with). We'll be on 2year fixed rate at just over 5.5% and we had a 15% deposit. There were so few mortgage products that it came down to accepting 1 of 2 we were offered. If you want a decent product you have to have a minimum of 20% to get a good deal, and even then you'll be interrogated to within an inch of your life! The banks now want to know EVERYTHING about you.
Five year fixed best you can do is 4.99 or 4.75 at Leeds, but that's if you take out their building insurance; all of them are pretty much 60-75% LTV.
The only question is... Can you live with the pressure of fixed rates going up to 6-7%? Liam Halligan of the Telegraph has been banging on about big rises in inflation for about a year now; it'll pretty much make the field ripe for his 'solutions'. I don't believe that, but he's right on one thing when inflation moves it'll move quickly, good luck to those people who think they're agile enough to catch a good fixed rate.
Mortgage rates don't have a direct co-relation with the base rate, it's affected by how much it costs the bank to access finance and the risk of the mortgage. Cheap finance is not available from Japan anymore, so why should a bank make a financial investment via a mortgage for 1% when they can make ten's of % in investment banking? Sure people can say they have a moral duty, but they had a moral duty not to extend cheap finance to those who couldn't afford it. Unfortunately they did and now house prices are ridiculously over inflated.
there are trackers out there starting at around 2.8% , i've seen some deals with only a 90% deposit, see YBS, fixed 2 years @ around 5.8 and 5 years 6.8% banks are shafting us BIG TIME !
Only thing is with the tracker the rate is going one way and that's , when no one knows but a good indicator will be when the rate of inflation , if this goes up then the BOE base rate will follow.
Comments
Yorkshire bank
Mansfield Building society
Leeds BS
Halifax
Skipton BS
Newcastle BS
Clydesdale bank!!!! FFS
When did anybody north of Watford have a pot to pi55 in! ;-)
The only question is... Can you live with the pressure of fixed rates going up to 6-7%? Liam Halligan of the Telegraph has been banging on about big rises in inflation for about a year now; it'll pretty much make the field ripe for his 'solutions'. I don't believe that, but he's right on one thing when inflation moves it'll move quickly, good luck to those people who think they're agile enough to catch a good fixed rate.
Mortgage rates don't have a direct co-relation with the base rate, it's affected by how much it costs the bank to access finance and the risk of the mortgage. Cheap finance is not available from Japan anymore, so why should a bank make a financial investment via a mortgage for 1% when they can make ten's of % in investment banking? Sure people can say they have a moral duty, but they had a moral duty not to extend cheap finance to those who couldn't afford it. Unfortunately they did and now house prices are ridiculously over inflated.
Only thing is with the tracker the rate is going one way and that's , when no one knows but a good indicator will be when the rate of inflation , if this goes up then the BOE base rate will follow.