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General => General discussion => Topic started by: bobbarley on 03 October 2012, 07:36
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I'm currently weighing up fixed vs tracker mortgages for a first time buy. Given the state of the countries economics I'm leaning towards a tracker as I don't feel interest rates are going to rise for several years.
However I'm just curious to know what mortgage deals others are on? And why you decided on a particular type. Please no arguing or flaming about this over that, or about gold wtf?! I'd like this thread not to be removed :smiley:
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Also intrested, trouble is I live in a 3 bed with the fiancé, and been saving for a mortgage!
But I can't downsise! So will be another 3 bed!
:lipsrsealed: scarey at 22 next week :grin:
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Nigel, we are going through the process of buying our first house and decided with a 5 year fix. Even though we thought the rates wouldn't change much, if they did we could be in trouble. So every month we know exactly what we will pay for the next five years.
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I fix my rates every 3 years pretty much. 5 years is quite long.
As above I like to know exactly what is going out each month.
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I'm in my ninth year of ownership and when i first started i fixed for 5 years so i knew exactly what was going out each month, i then fixed for a further 3 years although i really wish i hadn't as it ended up costing me a lot with the low variable rate coming in quite early on in the term! :sick: i'm now on variable rate and am saving about £130 month on fixed, it's difficult to advise really without knowing the specifics, ie difference in monthly payments compared to you disposable income, having said that as your starting out it's always best to know where you are each month for that feeling of security!
Sorry i've been absolutelyno help but good luck with it mate! :wink:
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Started off with a 3 year fixed deal which then reverted to variable rate which has saved me about £100 per month due to the current rates
Need to start looking around but I can't see interest rates going up any time soon so I'll stick with what I got for the moment.......
I'd fix for 2-3 years as that will give you time to settle in and give you peace of mind that you know exactly how much your mortgage is per month so you can budget accordingly :smiley:
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Tracker here including an overpayment, so if the rate creeps up it can be managed by reducing the overpayment.
Low rate of the tracker with the stability of a fixed!
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SVR @ 2.0% above base.
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I've not long got myself my first house.
I have a 3 year fixed rate from the woolich. It's an 80% LTV on 93k and I pay £478 a month.
Good to know what exactly is going out every month. Helpful too knowing that when I'm spending chunks doing up the house.
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Fixed for two years, after much debate on here a couple of months ago.
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It all confuses the hell outta me!
Thank god im renting atm!
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Fixed for 5 years. Brought just over a month ago.
Rates will only go up from where they are now, so it makes sense to me to fix for the foreseeable future.
I think I heard on the news this morning that Santander are putting SVR rates up 0.5% from end of this month.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19812294
Depends on your circumstances really, can you absorb a rate increase on a SVR or do you need the security on a fixed rate. Either way, make sure it is capital repayment NOT interest only.
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Well we've received a decision in principle from Halifax, no idea what sort of mortgage as the other half is sorting it out. She works for them, so she is going to get staff rates on her portion of the mortgage (first 30k), then normal rate for the rest.
Need to wait to see what the under writers say now!
Should save us a bundle though, the monthly repayments are £210 less than what we're paying in rent at the moment!
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Bought just over a year ago, tried 3 advisors and settled with one. I opted for a 2year fixed with 10% deposit, which I will be renewing next year around May/June.
Next year will prob fix for another 4/5 depending on deals/offers then move onto next property.
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Nigel, we are going through the process of buying our first house and decided with a 5 year fix. Even though we thought the rates wouldn't change much, if they did we could be in trouble. So every month we know exactly what we will pay for the next five years.
we had the same but come of it now as it ended. so were on a tracker but it is nice know how much it will be every month
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Tracker here including an overpayment, so if the rate creeps up it can be managed by reducing the overpayment.
Low rate of the tracker with the stability of a fixed!
This is ideal, providing the market doesn't go really mental. We're on a 5 year fixed (just coming up to end of 3rd year). Was great as you know exactly where you are each month monetarily, but I'm convinced we could be saving money by moving to a tracker.... Just costs to much too change at the moment.
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Just spoke to the mortgage adviser earlier. The deal has been accepted and he's forwarding me confirmation which we can use as proof we have the mortgage in place.
It's a 2 year fixed rate mortgage. My girlfriend works for Halifax, so we get 4x her salary at staff rate, BoE base rate + 0 :cool: The rest is at their standard rate, which is reasonable.
It works out extremely cheap, £225 less than we're paying to rent. I can't believe it to be honest.
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Excellent stuff mate. I'm currently on a 3 year fixed, got a year to go. Just started over paying it by £100 which should bring it down by 8 years!
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Off to put down our reservation fee this evening :cool:
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Off to put down our reservation fee this evening :cool:
Good stuff :smiley:
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nicely done Nige, i got all this to come :rolleyes:
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Thanks Chuff, we went and paid it earlier. Took another look around the house and noticed lots of little things we will be getting the builders to tweak before we move in, nothing major.
Next, solicitor! :lipsrsealed:
Btw, I checked and I can get fibre optic broadband, thank god! Mmmm 40mbps :cool:
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I bought (first time) back in 2008 I think it was. Everyone we spoke to tried to push us into a fixed rate deal but I knew better, it was obvious to me that rates were going to plummet and wow did they. Thank god I ignored them and went for a tracker. I knew it would work out well for me but I'm amazed at how well and for how long! Saved SO much money.
However, if I were to be starting a new mortgage now I wouldn't be so sure. I'd probably be looking for a decent fixed rate at this time.
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I moved into my first house a couple of months ago. I'm on a Tracker mortgage and was going to over pay monthly but instead opted for a shorter term.
Current repayment is well over £800, so will be fixing should the interest rates go up too much.
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Well I put down my £200 reservation fee on Friday, appointed a solicitor today. Off to see the mortgage advisor on Saturday to get paperwork sorted on a few things, going well so far. We had no choice but to give notice on our rented accommodation today, so there's no going back now.
We get the house or we're homeless :grin:
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That's a brave move! Is it a months notice?
Ask your solicitor how swift your mortgage company are working currently. They should know, as they may have dealt with them before.
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We've got to hand the keys in on 26th November. Contracts have to be exchanged on the house by 2nd November, so it's a fairly safe calculated risk. If the house deal falls through we'll have 3 weeks to find a new rental.
We originally needed to give 2 months notice, we don't remember spotting it in the lease when we signed it. Got them to do it when our lease expires though instead.
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Hope it's a straight forward transaction then, unlike ours :angry:
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What happened mate?
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It took me 3 months to move in AFTER the solicitors did their bit.
I'm on a tracker with 102k left to go... If it goes up by even 2%, I'm going to be f**ked :grin:
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Got the solicitors care pack today and am COMPLETELY confused.
Their quoting for things never mentioned before, and they are charging more than I was told they did. Straight onto the phone to them tomorrow to sort it out!
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Got the solicitors care pack today and am COMPLETELY confused.
Their quoting for things never mentioned before, and they are charging more than I was told they did. Straight onto the phone to them tomorrow to sort it out!
Drop Linzi a message on FB mate and she can explain a few things :wink:
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Is this on the Firstbuy scheme?
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No they would't approve us, the government said we could afford the house outright, so wouldn't help us. The builders are doing us a NewBuy scheme instead and footing the full 20%.
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Documents prepped and going back to the solicitor tomorrow, all moving along nicely thus far. The solicitor said meeting the exchange date of 2nd November won't be a problem.
Fingers are currently very crossed!
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I hate solicitors. That is all.
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I hate solicitors. That is all.
Whats happened?? :huh:
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They sent over some paperwork and haven't given us any indication of where we need to sign, or what the process is for completing it. They were eager to invoice us for the remainder of their fees though, I've yet to see where any of the cash has gone in terms of helping us out though.
They've also invoiced us over £1,000 more for the deposit than we arranged to pay with the mortgage lender.
I tried to ring the solicitor to sort it out and her SON answered the phone, said she'd ring me back. No return call.
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I hate solicitors. That is all.
Solicitors are work of the devil. 4 months and still waiting :rolleyes:
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Why the long delay?
Heard back from Halifax today, survey was fine, no issues whatsoever. They're writing to my solicitor next week to instruct that the mortgage is go :cool:
Returning the contract and paying the deposit as well :smiley:
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My solicitor received the mortgage offer from Halifax today, so it's all go! I've just paid my deposit and also returned the contract, so exchange is complete as best as I can tell. Just to arrange a completion date now :cool:
Overall been quite impressed with Halifax. Their offer was competitive, they've also been very quick at sorting everything out. Definitely recommend them :afro:
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Getting closer by the day Nige! Bet you can't wait!
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Exchange won't happen until all your searches are back, contracts checked, fixtures and fittings agreed upon, and deeds released. Then there is another round of signing when you'll exchange, normally 3-6days before completion, when you'll get the keys. It's a long old process.
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fixed for 2-3 years with ZERO arrangement fees :whistle:
seems a 120k deposit s a good thing :laugh: :grin:
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I've signed the first round of contracts and all the searches are complete. They asked me today when we'd like to move in. Doing an inspection with the site manager next week to go over the properly, any faults we want putting right etc. Then we have to give them a week to sort them. Aiming for 16th November, they've hinted they'd like us to complete sooner, but I said no. I can't justify the extra weeks mortgage payment when we're still living in our rented flat.
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none mines all paid off and I'm only in my 30's :cool:
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Just spent a small fortune in Wickes on all sorts of bits and bobs! At least there were 25% off all the tiles :smiley:
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fixed for 2-3 years with ZERO arrangement fees :whistle:
seems a 120k deposit s a good thing :laugh: :grin:
One of the advantages of being older. :laugh: 4 more payments and my house will be all mine. The trouble is, we would like to move to something with land and buildings, but that would mean having to borrow all over again. :sad:
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Getting the keys the day after tomorrow :cool:
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Good stuff
Ours has dragged on so much we need to renew out mortgage offer very soon which means we save about £30 a month as the rates have dropped a bit.
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Completed today and got the keys this evening. It nearly didn't happen though, Halifax REALLY let us down. I got a phone call from the solicitor this morning telling me that Halifax had not sent enough money. Turns out they had neglected to send the £650 first time buyers cashback amount, which we were using to pay the solicitor fees.
We tried ringing Halifax but our mortgage advisor had seemingly fallen off the face of the planet. His mobile was off and the local Halifax branch said he was at a different branch. I rung that branch and was told he was at the first branch. No one was willing to do anything to help us.
Long story short we had to scrap together £650 using a mixture of the dregs of our savings and both of our overdrafts. We now have just £8.30 left to our names, but got enough money to complete on the house. Finally got hold of the advisor in the afternoon when it would have been too late to do anything. He said that he told them to send the extra £650, so doesn't know what went wrong.
Goes without saying a serious formal complaint is working it's way to Halifax on Monday.
So the third happiest day of my life is also probably turned out to be the worst. So happy to have the house, but feel our mortgage provider have really let us down on the one day we needed them the most.
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Saw your pic on Faceache, looks nice!
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Solicitor shouldnt have let it get that far :whistle: they should have had the money in place yesterday
Id be writing TWO complaint letters
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To be honest I'd get the cash back and leave it. Otherwise it may taint your enjoyment of the new place.
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Completed today and got the keys this evening. It nearly didn't happen though, Halifax REALLY let us down. I got a phone call from the solicitor this morning telling me that Halifax had not sent enough money. Turns out they had neglected to send the £650 first time buyers cashback amount, which we were using to pay the solicitor fees.
We tried ringing Halifax but our mortgage advisor had seemingly fallen off the face of the planet. His mobile was off and the local Halifax branch said he was at a different branch. I rung that branch and was told he was at the first branch. No one was willing to do anything to help us.
Long story short we had to scrap together £650 using a mixture of the dregs of our savings and both of our overdrafts. We now have just £8.30 left to our names, but got enough money to complete on the house. Finally got hold of the advisor in the afternoon when it would have been too late to do anything. He said that he told them to send the extra £650, so doesn't know what went wrong.
Goes without saying a serious formal complaint is working it's way to Halifax on Monday.
So the third happiest day of my life is also probably turned out to be the worst. So happy to have the house, but feel our mortgage provider have really let us down on the one day we needed them the most.
As someone who once had a mortgage from Halifax I'd advise you read the small print in your application. You might find that the cashback was meant to be paid after completion as it was in my case. Best to check before you complain and get a letter back stating that it's in their terms blah blah blah. Been there done that, got the t-shirt.
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They told it that it was being sent at the same time as it had to go to the solicitor, not to our own bank account. Getting the other half to chase them up again tomorrow as I've a million and one other things to be getting on with.
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Congrats on the completion, a few weeks from now and all the troubles will be forgotten and you'll be enjoying your new life in your new home, enjoy :cool:
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After all the tiling and "little jobs" the other half has for me :D