Remortgaging Advice

• Remortgage with Just Mortgage Brokers
• An introduction to Remortgaging
• Remortgage Calculator
• Useful Information 
  • What are the benefits of remortgaging?
  • How do I remortgage?
  • What are the costs of remortgaging?
  • Can I get a 95% remortgage?
  • Can I remortgage a Shared Ownership property?
  • Can I remortgage a Buy-to-Let property?
  • Can I remortgage an interest-only mortgage?
• When can I remortgage?
• How to get the right mortgage deals
  • Have a thorough knowledge of the market
  • Check your credit score
  • Provide a large deposit
• Best remortgage tracker rates
• What are the best remortgage fixed rates?
• Can I get a fee free remortgage?
• Who are the best remortgage lenders?
• What is a product transfer?
• Benefits of using a mortgage broker for my remortgage
• Further Remortgaging information
• Remortgaging FAQs

There are a number of benefits in remortgaging. You can remortgage your property in order to secure a better rate than your current deal which in turn can save you money each month. When remortgaging you can also benefit from reducing your overall term which can sometimes save you thousands of pounds over the course of your mortgage. If there is enough equity in your property, you can also remortgage your property to release some of this and use the surplus money for home improvements or consolidating debts. There may be other personal reasons to release some of the equity locked up in your property. Releasing the equity by remortgaging can cost you less per month, then taking out shorter term unsecured loans. This can be very useful when trying to budget on a day to day basis.

Strictly speaking, you can remortgage from one lender to another at any time. However, there can be factors which, while technically not preventing you from remortgaging, can make it financially unwise to do so. One of the main barriers to remortgaging can be the existence of early repayment charges on your existing mortgage deal.

Many mortgage products offered in the past few years have effectively had “tie-in” periods. Usually, the tie-in is just for the duration of the mortgage deal, whether that’s two, three or five years. Other products may have a tie-in period that extends beyond the actual product term, although this is rarer. In either case, repaying your mortgage within the defined period will result in an early repayment charge being applied.

Early repayment charges can amount to thousands of pounds – often they are calculated as a percentage of the mortgage balance. When considering a remortgage, early repayment charges and other fees must be taken into account. The fundamental question is: will the amount you will save in interest by transferring to a new mortgage with a different lender outweigh the amount you will have to pay in early repayment charges and other fees associated with closing your existing mortgage and taking out a new one?

If there is an ideal time to remortgage, it is when your introductory deal comes to an end. Some lenders may offer to transfer you onto a new deal to try to keep your business, but if not then there is a danger that your mortgage will revert to the lender’s Standard Variable Rate (SVR). SVRs tend to be quite a bit higher than other products on the mortgage market, so you could experience a sharp hike in both interest rate and your monthly payments.

Remortgaging can cost very little from the outset as most lenders compete against each other to win your business. It is quite common for lenders to offer Free Mortgage Valuations and a Free Legal Package to carry out the conveyancing. That said some lenders may not offer any benefit and both the cost of the Mortgage Valuation and Legal Costs will have to be paid by you. This is on top of any mortgage lenders arrangement fees and Mortgage Broker fees that may become payable. Other costs to look out for are any early repayment charges to your current lender and any nominal fees that may be charged for closing down your current mortgage. When our Mortgage Advisers assess your circumstances, they will take into account all of the fees mentioned ensuring that remortgaging is the best option for you.

Getting yourself the most favourable remortgage deal for your circumstances could end up saving you thousands of pounds over the duration of the loan, so it’s understandable you’ll want to make sure the deal you get will work well for you in the long term. Getting the best deal can mean different things according to your situation, but a few general basic tips to follow to help you get access to the most advantageous deals would be:

• Have a thorough knowledge of the market

It’s worth taking time to research what the various mainstream lenders are able to offer for a remortgage, as well as checking what your current lender might be able to provide. This way, you’ll get a good idea of a benchmark figure for the rates available, as well as other factors like the introductory period and associated fees. Don’t forget to factor in possible early repayment costs on your current mortgage, and remember that there are specialist lenders who only deal through intermediaries and do not post their rates online.

• Check your credit score

One sure way to make sure there’ll be no issues when trying to access the best deals is to take a look at your own credit rating before you start applying. This way, you can spot any bad credit issues on your records, and take all possible measures to remedy the situation, put right any incorrect entries and try to repair your credit rating as much as possible ahead of any checks by lenders.

• Provide a large deposit

Having a larger than average deposit, or a sizable amount of equity already in your property, will always help you to access the most favourable deals for a remortgage, whichever lender you go to. The added security to the lender will mean you are less of a perceived risk.

A word of warning: if you’re searching through comparison sites with ‘best buy’ lists that make it easy to click through to a lender and get a remortgage offer, be careful of making multiple applications.

In the end, the ‘best’ mortgage deal for you will be the right one to suit your individual circumstances and one that most closely matches your financial aims at the least cost over the duration of the loan. This might not necessarily be the remortgage product with the lowest headline interest rate.

Here at Just Mortgage Brokers we receive many enquiries asking if a remortgage can be arranged up to 95% of a residential property value.  Whilst it’s true that in the market as a whole the maximum most lenders will permit a remortgage to is 85% of the value, there are some that will lend up to 90% and indeed, as at the time of writing, some that will consider up to 95% loan to value.  Certain criteria will still be applicable such as the lenders assessment of the borrower’s affordability and also if the remortgage includes any element of capital raising eg. if any is being used for debt consolidation this may reduce the overall loan to value a lender will permit.  Different limits will also apply if the property is a buy to let.

You can remortgage a shared ownership property in exactly the same way as a conventional mortgage. The only difference being that shared ownership mortgages are only available via selected lenders.

Our expert Mortgage Advisers can help you find the right shared ownership remortgage deal based on your individual circumstance.

Remortgaging a Buy to Let property works in the same way as when you purchase a property using a Buy to Let Mortgage. Lenders will assess the current monthly rent that can be achieved on the open market, along with your personal circumstance, property value and available equity in the property.

Our Mortgage advisers can assess all of this for you and give a very good indication of if you can either save on your monthly repayments or if you can release some of the equity locked into the property.

An Interest Only mortgage can be remortgaged onto a new deal. However, you must be able to adhere to some strict criteria as these types of mortgages are deemed as higher risk lending by the regulator. Typically, lenders will consider an Interest Only remortgage for those who have good levels of income, loan to values of 75% or less, a significant amount of equity, as well as minimum property values above certain parameters. To check if you qualify for an Interest Only remortgage it is advisable that you get in touch with one of our Interest Only specialist Mortgage Advisers who will be able guide you further.

One of the main reasons for remortgaging is to make sure you are on the best interest rate possible, and this is especially true of tracker rate mortgages. Tracker rates are typically a little higher than fixed rates, but then you are able to take advantage of any fluctuations in the prevailing rate that the product is pegged against – be that the Bank of England base rate or the LIBOR rate – with a drop in the rate potentially representing a saving of hundreds, if not thousands of pounds over the life of the mortgage. Obviously, the reverse is also true if the prevailing rate increases.

In the highly competitive and constantly shifting mortgages market, the most attractive deals can appear and disappear overnight, with no notice. It takes a thorough knowledge of the mortgage industry, strong relationships with lenders (both mainstream and specialist) and a finger on the pulse when it comes to the direction of trends to know who to approach and what the best deals will be.

The best remortgage tracker rates are not always available on the open market as some lenders will only offer their best and most exclusive remortgage rates via mortgage brokers like us. Specialist lenders all have varying criteria when it comes to accepting applications, and we at Just Mortgage Brokers are familiar with them all.

Get in touch with an expert adviser today to see if you are eligible for some of the best remortgage tracker rates available. With access to 12,000 mortgage products across 90+ lenders, we can obtain many deals 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.

Finding the best fixed rates on remortgage deals will take a little research, and may involve looking into products on offer from specialist mortgage lenders who do not advertise their rates on the high street or online. The best remortgage rate for you will also depend on what other aspects of the mortgage deal will be important in your circumstances, you might be only able to get an attractive interest rate for a relatively short period of time, after which it will revert to the Bank of England base rate. This might work in your favour if you only need the mortgage to run for a shorter time period, but could cost you money if you will be repaying over many years.

It’s also worth looking at other fees around the remortgage offer, especially if it comes with an attractive rate of interest. You might find that any savings is offset by a higher arrangement fee, or that you will incur a costly fee if you choose to repay the mortgage early. All in all, it pays to look closely at the details of a deal, especially if it has a low fixed rate of interest, and make accurate calculations to determine if it will work for you – and if in fact the ‘best’ fixed rate might be a fractionally higher one based on other factors around the mortgage.

No two applicants’ circumstances are exactly the same. Our expert mortgage advisers will look at your case on an individual basis and source the most appropriate product to suit you. They will take into account your current and future needs, and help you decide whether you need a shorter term 2 or 3-year fixed rate, or a slightly longer term for the fixed rate of 5 years or more.

Be aware that the mortgages market is very dynamic and competitive, so the most favourable remortgage fixed rate deals can come and go in an instant. It is always advisable to speak to us early on in your plans to be in with a chance of efficiently securing one of these competitively priced remortgage deals for you.

When deciding which mortgage deal is best to remortgage onto, it is worth noting that there are plenty of products that are completely fee-free. These products will typically have the Mortgage Valuation and Legal Package included free of charge, as well as no arrangement fee. Some products will also offer a small amount of Cash Back to offset any closing down fees you may incur with your current lender when ending your original mortgage.

However, you should be aware that just because a mortgage is billed as ‘fee free’, or comes with other incentives, this doesn’t always mean it will be the most favourable deal, or the most suitable product for you. As with all business transactions, costs or services offered for free at one point are often made up for in other aspects of the deal or product. For example, you might only be able to get a shorter introductory term on the initial deal, or need to supply a larger deposit, pay a slightly higher interest rate or find there are other fees or charges for other things.

The exact pros and cons of any mortgage deal can be quite intricate at times, and the balance you want to strike with your remortgage package will be down to your individual circumstances and priorities. A fee free remortgage will make sense if the savings are not completely negated by the amount you will pay on the new interest rate over the lifetime of the new deal, or if you have to pay a high early repayment fee if you choose to switch to another mortgage product again at a later date. These calculations can get quite complex and it’s easy to omit one or two factors that you wish you’d known about earlier, which is why it is always worth speaking to one of our in-house remortgage expert advisers to get sound guidance as to which remortgage product will be the right one for you.

Finding the best remortgage lender very much comes down to who is offering the most appropriate scheme that meets your needs at the time you look to apply. Although there are numerous lenders available and new challenger banks entering the market, they all have their own individual criteria to assess who they are happy to lend to. With this in mind the best remortgage lender for you may not be the same as the next borrower and indeed may not even be available to them based on their circumstances and/or requirements. The word “best” although widely used, can be misleading in this context. In our opinion, the most important factor when deciding on the best remortgage lender is actually finding the most appropriate scheme for your individual situation.

A product transfer is a technical term used to describe the process of changing the rate with your current mortgage provider usually upon or nearing the expiry of your current deal. There are many pros and cons of remaining with your current lender with the main benefit being, that if simply making a like for like change i.e. not borrowing any additional funds, no additional underwriting or affordability checks will likely be necessary making the process relatively simple. However, although many lenders are now much more productive with their customer retention, remaining with your current lender may not be right for you if they are not offering you the most appropriate or best value product when compared to the market as a whole. Here at Just Mortgage Brokers we will consider your current lenders offers and also take all other aspects such as costs etc into consideration when making our recommendations thus ensuring you can feel confident that the route you decide upon is the most appropriate.

The surest way of getting the most suitable remortgage deal for your needs is to seek advice from expert professional advisers, such as our team here at Just Mortgage Brokers. Being unlimited mortgage brokers, we are able to draw on information from across the UK market and at any point in time will be able to match you up with the right lender according to your current aims, needs and circumstances.

Key to our research will be understanding exactly what your circumstances are and what you want to achieve with your remortgage. How long have you been paying off your current mortgage, and how has your financial situation changed since you first took it out? Do you want to simply get a better interest rate, or shorten the duration of your mortgage? Or are you looking to free up equity in the property to use for alterations and improvements, or to maybe consolidate various debts into one more manageable loan?

All these questions and more will be important in establishing where a broker will need to look to find the best remortgage deal, and what advice they will be able to give to you, to make sure you are making the right decisions in the long term.

Rates change almost daily and new deals can become available before you know about it. An expert mortgage broker will have their finger on the pulse of the market and will know exactly which lender to contact to get the right mortgage for your needs. With access to around 12,000 products from over 90 lenders – and strong relationships with lenders across the board – we have access to deals that are not advertised on the high street, often on an exclusive basis, and are confident we will be able to successfully source the most beneficiary remortgage for you.