Fantom

My fixed period ends 30/9. Currently at 5.3% and my mortgage company have offered me either 6.29% or 6.99% but with the product fees there is only £24 difference between them.
Anyone know of any better deals?

Thanks
Steve

john banks

I'm not a mortgage broker, but if you asked one or were performing searches you'd also need to know some or all of the following at least:

Present LTV
Rental income
Credit status

... and about the mortage itself:
Fixed or variable, duration of the deal, penalties

I just looked at the thread because I'm nosey, hope I'm not telling you how to suck eggs.

Fantom

Oops!
Currently owe £103k
Property is worth £140-150k
Rental income is £595 per month
Credit status is impeccable of course

It will cost me £175 to leave the current mortgage after 30/9.
I'm looking for a fixed deal 2-3 years but not sure if there is a better option?

john banks

I would search the various mortgage search sites (yourmortgage, fool, moneysupermarket, moneysavingexpert - not sure if they do BTL), and then ask a broker like London & Country - if they do BTL (used them before for owner-occupier mortgage searches/applications - they came up with the same one I found but were going to do the leg work at no cost to me compared to going to the lender direct). You could also ask fastbloke off here who is in that line of work I gather.

You've got a nice LTV, rental will cover the likely interest, whilst BTL finance has got harder it sounds like a strong position. I'd therefore expect you should expect to get the deals listed in the best buy tables for BTL - oh some of the (even trashy) papers do list BTL best buys as well, they can alert you to deals you might not have come across.

So I'd search out my own best deal first then ask a broker if they can do better, offering them the business if they can.

ChrisB

FWIW, I got sent this link last night

Jimpreza

Why are some banks slashing rates with the 'credit crunch'? I thought banks were putting rates up

PaulC72

i think they are trying to help revive the situation themselves now most of their own subprime losses are out, some have now got money from shareholders and they cannot sit dormant forever they need to make money or at least turn some around.

fast bloke

See the thread I commented on in January, explaining why July/August would see the beginning of the end of the mortgage drought.

Fantom - for most decent BTL deals the rental income has to be 125% of the monthly I/O payment. You don't quite meet those criteria, so you will be looking at 4 or 5 lender who will use income to suplement the figures. UCB, TMB and Leeds usually compete for market share in this area, but don't expect to beat a fee free 6.9 by much. What is your current lenders SVR? It may be better to pay a bit more on SVR (with ne redemption charges) for a few months until the market stabilises

Fantom

I'm with The Chelsea and their SVR is 7.24%.
Just looked at Skipton though and they are offering 6.45% variable rate with no arrangement fee. Guess I could switch to them and then look again 6 months down the line?
I need to be able to make overpayments without penalties though. Looking to pay off around £500 a month extra

Fantom

Just found UK mortgages home: mortgage calculator, rates & lenders list which seems like a good site

fast bloke

You sure that Skipton deal is for buy to let? --The cheapest BTL deal I can see from them is 7.25% - The 6.45 deal is residential and has a completion fee of 899 and 3% early redemption fee

al4x1

If they have money to lend then now is a pretty profitable time for them to do so as long as the customer can afford it. Rates have gone pretty high and now their business depends on lending without new business they cannot grow hence the likes of Barclays and Nationwide dropping rates to attract people. They will know they can pick the better customers with high LTV and take minimal risk. As for Buy to let mortgages I don't think Barclays / Woolwich are competitive on them but its always worth the ask especially if you have an account with them, i've a mortgage with them on a lifetime tracker at .24 above base with no fees and no cancellation fees attached so gives me flexibility. Mine is based on a theoretical 60% LTV if rates drop I will shop about when my LTV gets to 50% (I'm renovating the house so it will go up) otherwise i'm happy to sit still with no chance of this problem people have hit with fixed term rates ending and dropping them in it with high fees and termination fees if they want to move about

Fantom

You are probably right. I keep forgetting about it being BTL