Ensuring your mortgage is the right mortgage for you

Is now the best time to remortgage? With many people having opted for short term fixed or discounted rates, now may be the best time to assess your mortgage suitability. Quite often, the end of these rates can find yourself paying the lenders standard variable rate; often only 2-3%.

However, with falling property valuations, you need to ensure you will be able to access the best fixed rates when interest rates start to rise again. If you are stuck on a lenders high standard variable rate then you definitely need to look at your options.

In the current difficult economic circumstances, you need to look at the true value offered by your existing lender. Do they offer you all of their best rates when your special deal ends or when you want to jump off their variable rate? How do they treat existing customers? This is important for long-term value and thus affordability.

Many people do not realise that paying 2% per annum extra on a £200,000 25 year repayment mortgage can make a massive difference to their budget. The difference between 5% and 7% per annum means an increased payment of £247 per month – nearly £3,000 per year! How hard do you work for that?!?!

Lenders are currently releasing finds in limited tranches and often to Premier brokers only. So, you need to move and quickly. The remortgage process can comfortably be completed within 4 weeks with our help. You may be able to take advantage the fast track application process and the Automated Valuation Model. These valuations do not involve somebody entering your home but instead using IT statistical models to approximate the value of your property. If you have a large amount of equity in your property, then this is especially common.

With savings rates presently very disappointing, you may also wish to look at the use of a Flexible Offset mortgage. You can use your savings to provide your overall financial planning with a greater degree of tax efficiency and essentially provide your savings with a much larger ‘rate of return’.

Independent James' impartial advice and access to the whole of the market and many exclusive products, means that you can be sure your mortgage is the right mortgage for you.

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

Independent James are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority – ref: 459851. This covers residential mortgages, general insurance and pure protection. We typically charge a fee for our advice, payable upon completion dependent on complexity of advice but on average £300.