01908 597655It’s been an eventful few weeks in the mortgage world, with Rishi Sunak’s announcement of the Budget 2021, mortgage rates on the rise and inflation increases all dominating the financial press.
So, what does all this mean for our Mortgage Light customers? We’re here to explain all. [Read more…]
Most mortgages these days are standard capital and interest repayment mortgages, also known as ‘repayment mortgages’. This means that each month you repay all of the interest charged on your borrowing for the month, plus a small amount of the capital that you originally borrowed.
Over the term of your loan, you will eventually repay all of the capital you borrowed via your monthly repayments so that your loan is fully paid off. The interest that you pay each month is effectively the fee you pay to your lender in return for borrowing the capital from them. It is how lenders make their profit. [Read more…]
If you are in employment and have a mortgage, it’s probably safe to say that you rely on your monthly wage to meet your mortgage repayments and keep the roof over your head. So, what happens to your mortgage if you lose your job and therefore your income?
Losing your job can be a real shock that can turn your finances upside down. If you do find yourself in this situation and you are worried about how you can continue to pay your mortgage, there are temporary solutions out there to help you get by. [Read more…]
A mortgage payment holiday is when you temporarily stop or reduce your monthly mortgage repayments in order to obtain some short-term financial relief. Not all mortgages offer the option of a mortgage payment holiday. It generally depends on your mortgage product’s terms and conditions as to whether they will be available to you.
You may request a mortgage payment holiday from your mortgage lender to help you with short-term or unexpected changes to your financial situation. This could be due to changes to your employment such as redundancy, maternity or paternity leave. Perhaps your finances are stretched due to large unexpected costs such as major house repairs.
Once you begin looking for a mortgage, you’ll come to realise that there are many different types of mortgages out there on the market. It can quickly become confusing. However, there are essentially two main types of mortgages: fixed-rate and variable-rate mortgages.
In this guide, we are going to explain how each of these mortgage types work. We will also cover other common types of mortgage and some specialist mortgages that you may come across.
When you move house, you may have the option of taking your current mortgage deal with you to your new property, known as mortgage porting. If you choose not to take up this option, or it isn’t available to you, then you will need to repay your existing mortgage deal from the sale proceeds of your house and take out a new mortgage to help you buy your next property. You can do this with either your existing lender or with a new one.
It’s important to note that mortgage porting only applies where you currently have some sort of special mortgage deal. This could be a fixed interest, tracker or discounted rate facility with your existing lender. It does not apply where you have a standard variable rate facility.
Going through a divorce or legal separation can be a very difficult and stressful process, even if the separation is amicable between both parties. Untangling personal finances and separating joint assets fairly can be tricky and is often far from straightforward, particularly if you own significant assets such as the matrimonial home. This can be even more difficult and contentious where there are dependent children involved in the relationship. The decision on how to deal with the family home will, in most cases, have an impact on these children in many ways.
Unfortunately, 42% of marriages end in divorce, however one consequence of this statistic is that mortgage lenders are familiar with these types of situations. There are generally options available to you when it comes to refinancing an existing joint mortgage on the family home or getting a new mortgage facility to buy a new home.
If you have a standard repayment mortgage, you may be able to reduce your monthly payments by extending your mortgage term. Your mortgage term is the length of time that you have agreed to fully repay your mortgage within. The term will have been agreed with you at the time you originally took your mortgage out, or last remortgaged it.
For a long time, a 25-year mortgage term was the standard go-to option. In recent years, however, as the size of the average mortgage has increased, there has been a move towards longer repayment terms in an attempt to make the higher borrowing needed to buy a property more affordable. In fact, data suggests that the number of first-time buyers opting for a mortgage term of between 35 and 40 years has doubled over the past decade.
So, how does extending your mortgage term affect your payments, and is it something you should consider?
As a homeowner, it’s generally your mortgage that helps to keep the roof over your head. If, however, you are unfortunate enough to miss a repayment on your mortgage, your lender will initially report this to a credit reference agency as a ‘delinquency’.
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A fixed-rate mortgage is a mortgage product where the fixed interest rate is guaranteed to stay the same for an agreed fixed period. It pretty much does what it says on the tin! Unlike with a variable rate style mortgage, you’ll know exactly how much you’ll need to repay each month during the agreed fixed period. [Read more…]