Remortgage Advice
Remortgaging has become increasingly popular among the people we deal with, as a way to either use a new mortgage with better terms to pay off an existing mortgage, or to swiftly raise capital to use for a variety of outcomes. Either way, it’s an opportunity for you to review your borrowing requirements and put yourself in a better financial position.
Do you qualify?
What we cover in this guide
- Remortgage with The Mortgage Centres
- Read our Remortgaging Guide
- Try our Mortgage Affordability calculator
- The Benefits of Remortgaging
- When can I Remortgage?
- Should I Remortgage?
- When you shouldn’t Remortgage
- How do I Remortgage?
- Can I get a 95% Remortgage??
- Costs of Remortgaging
- Remortgage interest rates
- Product Transfers
You might want to remortgage for a number of reasons – to consolidate existing short-term debts, reduce the size of future mortgage repayments, make home improvements to increase house value, finance another property purchase, fund a new business, or simply to make a special one-off acquisition. Whatever you are trying to achieve, as specialist advisors, we will be able to find the right deal. Read on to find out more.
Remortgage with The Mortgage Centres
As specialist mortgage brokers, we have many years of experience in helping people to remortgage properties for a wide variety of reasons. We have access to the whole market to find you the best remortgage deal, and with over 11,000 mortgages from over 90 lenders to choose from – including exclusive deals you won’t find on the high street – we’ll find exactly the right product for your needs.
One of our specialist mortgage brokers will take a good look at your situation to first establish that remortgaging is the best financial option for you, before running through the whole process and giving you the best advice to suit your individual circumstances and requirements.
Fill out our quick and easy Mortgage Affordability calculator below. We only require a few details to see how much you may be able to borrow.
NO CREDIT CHECKS!
Remortgaging for something specific? Have a look at our services.
If you’re looking into a mortgage, our various calculators will help guide you to see what you could be entitled to borrow and what might suit your needs best.
It’s easy to speak with one of our friendly advisers – we can be flexible to your needs and available outside of office hours if necessary.
The benefits of Remortgaging
Remortgaging can carry many benefits for those seeking to place themselves in a better financial position in terms of their overall commitments, or to obtain the cash they need to improve their circumstances.
You can remortgage your property to:
- Secure a better interest rate than you currently enjoy on your existing mortgage, and therefore reduce your monthly repayments.
- Reduce the term of your mortgage and therefore save yourself potentially thousands of pounds over the course of the loan.
- Release some of the property’s value, if there is enough equity in the property, and use the surplus to consolidate debts or make home improvements.
- Raise cash to use for a variety of other personal reasons – perhaps starting a business, helping family, buying another property or making a major purchase – again, if there is enough equity in the property.
Releasing equity in a property by remortgaging can be a much cheaper way to raise cash than a personal loan facility and will help you to stay on top of your budgets in the long run. Get in touch with us to see how one of our advisors could help.
When can I Remortgage?
Technically, you should be able to remortgage – i.e. replace your current mortgage with one from another lender – at any time. However, you should look out for factors that, while not preventing you from remortgaging, will make doing so a potentially unwise decision.
One of these factors will be early repayment charges. Especially during the last few years, many lenders will have specified a tie-in period to their mortgage deal of perhaps two, three or five years – usually coinciding with their introductory offer on the deal or even longer in some rare cases. During this time, they may impose a charge in the case of early repayment, to make up for the loss of interest earnings.
Often calculated according to a percentage of the mortgage balance, early repayment fees can add up to thousands of pounds, and you must take these, and other possible fees, into account when looking at the overall costs of remortgaging. You need to make sure that every financial decision you take produces a result in your favour, and if the costs of remortgaging outweigh the savings from a deal with a different lender, then you may be best advised to reconsider.
In purely practical terms, the best time to remortgage is when the introductory term on your current mortgage comes to an end. At this point, most deals will revert to the lender’s Standard Variable Rate (STR), which could be significantly higher than the favourable rate you had enjoyed up to that point, resulting in a sudden increase in your monthly repayments.
Should I Remortgage?
Looking at a new mortgage to replace your current arrangement is much like considering your first mortgage – there are several factors to take into consideration that will vary according to your circumstances, and whether remortgaging is the best idea for you will depend on how they all stack up.
Firstly: how much do you want to borrow? If you are simply replacing one mortgage with another, then this will be the balance outstanding on your current mortgage. However, many property owners use remortgaging to borrow more (especially if the value of the property has increased) to raise money for home improvements, a major purchase like a car, or one of many other reasons.
Next, what will be the term of the new mortgage? Will it last up to the same point as your current mortgage, or will you look for a shorter or longer period? And what will be the term of the product, or introductory period? Deals are usually set for 2, 3 or 5 years, or occasionally 10 years for longer-term plans. You’ll also need to consider the product type, i.e. fixed rate, tracker rate or a discount deal.
When looking at a remortgage product, most people will focus on the interest rate. While this is obviously important, as it plays a major part in the cost of the mortgage over time, you do need to consider the other peripheral factors around the mortgage as well. For instance, will the new mortgage carry high arrangement fees, or will you have to pay a large early repayment fee on your current mortgage? Will the new mortgage require a repayment fee if you want to switch again when the term of the deal comes to an end, or do you want to risk tying yourself in for a long term? And finally, will you have the flexibility in the new mortgage to make overpayments or early part-repayments from time to time without a penalty?
When you shouldn't Remortgage
When you look at all the circumstances around your current mortgage deal, you may conclude that now is not the right time to remortgage, or that it may simply not be financially viable. Typically, you will be tied into a mortgage for a set time period of between 2 and 5 years, during which time you will be obliged to pay early repayment charges if you choose to move to another lender. This sum could amount to several thousand pounds.
You might also want to reconsider remortgaging if the size of your loan is not large enough to result in a financial benefit by switching. Sometimes the new lender’s arrangement fees and other set-up costs will outweigh the savings made in interest payments by switching products, and a new mortgage could cost you more in the long run.
How do I Remortgage?
The remortgaging process is in many ways very similar to that of obtaining a standard mortgage when you buy a house, but in a few regards, it is a little simpler.
As you would expect, your property will need to be valued, and you will need a solicitor to handle the transfer of deeds and also to ensure all contracts are as they should be. However, it’s now quite common for the lender to offer these as part of their overall service in a ‘fee-free’ remortgage deal.
Your application will be submitted to the lender as usual and, as it is for a standard mortgage, they will make their own assessments and checks as to the affordability of the loan, and your creditworthiness – involving a credit record check with one or more of the main credit reference agencies in the UK.
Once your application is approved and you receive your mortgage offer, if all legalities are deemed to be in order your existing mortgage will be paid off by the lender and your new mortgage will start. The whole process of remortgaging does not take a set amount of time and varies from lender to lender; subject to any complications, it could take on average between 4 to 8 weeks to complete.
Can I get a 95% Remortgage?
One of the most common queries we get at The Mortgage Centres is whether a borrower can get a remortgage of up to 95% of the value of their property. Typically, most lenders will be willing to lend up to 90% of the property value, but, as ever, this is an inexact science, and you will find some lenders who will only allow an 85% loan-to-value ratio, while others will be willing to go to 95%, depending on your wider circumstances.
Lenders will always apply their own criteria when it comes to how much they are willing to lend, checking the loan’s affordability in comparison to your income and assessing your financial commitments. For example, if the loan contains an element of capital-raising to consolidate existing debts, this may affect the loan-to-value they are willing to offer. Also, if your property is a Buy-to-Let, then different limits will apply.
Check with our team to find out what limits might apply to you, or if your application is likely to be uncomplicated.
Costs of Remortgaging
The costs of remortgaging can in some cases be quite minimal, as this is a competitive market with a range of lenders all keen to attract your business. You’ll find that many products come with a range of offers, such as free mortgage valuations and a free legal package to cover the conveyancing, but this will not be true in all cases.
Some lenders will require you to cover your valuation and legal costs, perhaps in exchange for a better interest rate. In the long term, if you can afford the up-front charges, this might work out better for you. You may also need to pay mortgage arrangement fees and broker’s fees on top of this, as well as an early repayment fee, if applicable, and any admin fee for closing your current mortgage account.
Our mortgage advisors will be aware of all costs associated with the mortgage products under consideration and will take them into account when discerning which remortgage deal will be the best for you.
Fee free Remortgages
An important factor to consider when looking at a remortgage is the number of products on the market that are offered completely free of fees. With these deals, you will not have to pay any arrangement fees, and the lender will cover the costs for valuation and legal work. You may also find some products offering a small amount of cash back to cover any admin charges from your current lender for closing down your existing mortgage.
However, it’s worth remembering that a fees-free package might not always be the best product for you in the long term. Talk to one of our mortgage advisors to find out what could be the best deal to suit your circumstances.
Remortgage Mortgage Rates
You can spend a lot of time researching mortgage rates online, using comparison websites and lender’s own product listings, and also studying best-buy charts in an effort to narrow down the best mortgage interest rates for a remortgage, but still never find the best deal for your circumstances. This is because there are numerous specialist mortgage lenders who do not advertise online or appear on the high street, who offer competitive rates, but only consider business through established intermediaries such as independent brokers like ourselves.
At The Mortgage Centres, our professional brokers are able to search across the whole of the UK market, with access to exclusive deals not found through public channels, to find the right remortgage product for you.
Remortgage Fixed Rates
One of our experienced advisors will be able to look at every aspect of your situation – your current and future needs – and provide you with an unbiased recommendation for the most suitable remortgage deal to meet your requirements. It might be that you would be best going with a shorter-term 2 or 3-year fixed-rate deal, or that you need a longer term fixed-rate plan lasting 5 years or more.
As whole-market brokers, we have access to many mortgage deals and lenders that you won’t see on the high street, often on an exclusive basis. Whatever your needs, we are best placed to move fast to efficiently secure the best deal for you.
Remortgage Tracker Rates
As before, the options available to you will depend on your individual circumstances, but the best tracker rate mortgages are very rarely available on the open market. Instead, they are offered by specialist lenders who will only work through trusted brokers and intermediaries such as ourselves at The Mortgage Centres, and who will have varying criteria when it comes to accepting an application.
In the highly competitive and regularly shifting mortgages market, the best deals may appear and disappear quickly. It takes a thorough knowledge of the industry and strong relationships with lenders to know who to approach and what the best deals will be.
Our expert advisors will be able to let you know if you are eligible for a tracker remortgage with the best rates available, and what terms you should be able to expect. Get in touch today for free initial advice.
Product Transfers
The term Product Transfer is applied in the industry to the process whereby your mortgage remains with your current lender, but the result is a change in your interest rate. This usually happens when you are nearing the end – or at the end – of the deal period, before the scheme reverts to the lender’s Standard Variable Rate.
Instead of remortgaging with another lender, it can be advantageous to remain with your current provider, if they are willing to offer you a better deal to retain your business. The main benefit is that if you are simply switching product, and not borrowing any additional funds, then the lender will not need to make affordability checks, nor carry out any additional underwriting, making the process very simple.
However, while it is a competitive market, and many lenders are more flexible and proactive in trying to retain customers, staying with your current provider may still not be the best course of action, and you could find the most suitable deal for your circumstances with another provider. At The Mortgage Centres, we are constantly in touch with shifts in the market and new products becoming available. We will take into account any offer your current provider is willing to make and weigh it against other suitable products on the market, together with any costs or fees involved when we make our recommendations to you, so you can be confident you are getting the whole picture and can make an informed decision.