you should really consider changing your username

looks a good deal depending
on your own financial situation

mse have a useful tool to compare mortgages and it factors in the cost of the fee. It may be of help.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/compare-mortgage-rates

HSBC are tighter than others (such as Barclays) when it comes to affordability. Just a word of warning that many who think they can get this deal won't make it past the affordability checks.

Ask Google, it's your friend.

looks a good deal depending
on your own financial situation

mse have a useful tool to compare mortgages and it factors in the cost of the fee. It may be of help.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/compare-mortgage-rates

trust HSBC to reduce their rates first. now waiting on nationwide to follow suit, hopefully tomorrow

My 2 year deal ends next August, which was pretty good in the first place as I am an HSBC Advanced customer. A 5 year deal at this rate is tempting though. Hoping the low rates hold over the next few months. I assume I can renew 3 months before the precious deal expires?

With HSBC mortgages you can switch anytime - and if your an advanced customer nearly all the products I've seen are zero charge for erc and overpayments. I hit 60% Ltv last week

Useful to know, but I will hold back for now as the 2 year deal I currently have is actually really good. I'm job hunting at the moment too, so not sure how long I'll be able to hold on to the Advance account as I believe one of the rules for having such an account is to be depositing over £1750 a month in DD's to the account?

LTV is according the banks Survey i.e. What would they get in auction in other words 20-30K less than actual market value.

At the moment were on nationwides SBR @ 2.25% . I like the thought of no charges for over payments but we never seem to.

I take it 2.25 is not that great these days?

Just had a look on their website and they have a 2 year fixed rate at 1.09%, 749 booking fee for Advance customers who have existing mortgages with HSBC. I will be all over that once I find a job. I believe I currently pay 1.49%.

If only the valuers could be bothered to actually see the property they are valuing... it's usually done by postcode and basic house description, so you could have a palace or a crackhouse, same valuation.

And if you challenge the valuation you could easily end up being devalued even further because they don't like to be challenged.

Imagine how many billions extra the banks scam out of people due to low valuations meaning you can't get the best deal?

just taken this out. wife has Advance account so the booking fee is 'only' £750.

​the valuers are coming out on Thursday for me.... they actually made an appointment to view the house etc....

What's a mortgage?

Im on a lifetime tracker, we currently pay 1.99 above base rate, so we pay 1.99 I presume, 13 years left on a 15 year mortgage. Any advice guys, thats with hsbc

Which bank? most free valuation are drive by, unless you pay for it. We had Halifax do the same, house next door same size without extension sold for 30k more than our LTV.
We were told by bank and IFA banks usually count LTV based on open market sale, worst Auction value hence it would be always low.
Your case sounds as it should be.

Signed up for their fee free 1.99%, five year fix deal yesterday. It was the best deal for us.

Just signed up a 2yr 1.74 no fee Santander thought that was good?...

Literally just bought my first house this weekend. I suspect Im going to spend the next 2 years seeing better rates.

excellent! cheers!!

My parents are currently awaiting a decision from Halifax as to whether they will get one or not. The problem we have is that there was a default on my mum's credit file two years ago and obviously our options will be limited. They already asked for 15% deposit and decision should be made this week... What sort of APR do think they will offer ?

Also, what tips would you give to a first time buyers, like covers etc.

Signing your lives away before a brexit deal, that sounds like such a great idea!!!!

Halifax have 1.74% 2 year fix with a £999 fee
and 2.14% with no arrangement fee
as for covers if you pm me date of birth I will take a look

I wish buy-to-let rates were anywhere near this...

What's "Google"?

Changed from 2.75% to 1.79% with no fees from Barclays. 2 year fix, happy with that

Woolwich (part of Barclays I understand). It was a remortgage, I can't remember now as it was 3 years ago if we paid for the valuation - if we did it wasn't by choice but some remortgages you pay for the valuation I think? You certainly usually pay a fee anyway. We had bought for 172k a couple of years prior but had extended and refurbed it since then, perhaps that made the difference as from the road it wouldn't have looked much different yet we had spent about £50k on it rewire, replumb, move tiny bathroom upstairs to a bedroom and extend kitchen into old bathroom and an extension on back for replacement bedroom, bigger lounge and toilet/utility. As I say, we've a good handle on property prices round here and we suggested £230-235k top end to mortgage broker and valuation accepted that.

I know our previous remortgage (old house) was similar in that the valuation reflected the actual value pretty much. I know mortgage valuations tend to be cautious but I've not heard of a 30% markdown before!

** edit - I see you actually say £30k, but depends on house price... £30k off £200k is a lot, off £500k is more marginal.

yeah. 90 days before your fixed rate expires you'll receive a letter to let you know. as long as you reply within 14 days of the letter you'll get that rate which is on the letter , any later than that, you'll apply for whatever the rates are if they change.

Can't wait to get off my terrible 4.19% rate next November. Hope these low rates will still be available

What's HSBC stance with over payments? I moved from a 5 year fixed with RBS at a shocking 5.79% (first time buyer rape deal) to a First Direct 2 year fixed at 1.99%. This deal expires in May next year, First Direct have been amazing they actually valued my property £10,000 more than I stated it was worth. But best of all they do not charge for over payments you can make as many as you want, I tend to pay off lump sums of £1,000 and I'm on course to over pay £10,000 within the 2 year fixed rate period.

The HSBC 5 year fixed at 1.99% with no booking fee looks very inviting, but being stuck in a mortgage that long I would want to be able to over pay like I'm doing with FD without being charged for it.

​Have you investigated "Consent to let"? some mortgage company's give you permission to rent your property out under a standard mortgage deal.

I was with RBS and they let me do this (although I never did actually rent out the property) they send you a form to fill in and charged £100.00 amendment fees. You had to have your mortgage for at least 6 months before you could apply for the consent to let.
This was 5 years ago I did this so the rules may of changed since then.

When I took my first mortgage out the rate was around 17/18% I think if my memory serves me right(though house prices were obviously lower)...huge amount of stress in the early days (even missed out of some payments)...and now look at this offer....incredible and I know young folk nowadays need all the help possible to get on the housing ladder as prices are absurd...but if they can offer something like this for so long I would guess that rates are going to stay low for many more years to come!!

This was me 2 years ago. Silly me thought 3.39% at 5 years fixed was good. Nope.

​After thinking about it this morning, I actually came to that conclusion. I've done nothing but 2 year fixed deals since buying my house in 2009 and it was always likely that I would stick with that routine.

Decent deal, still way above the current base rate of 0.25%. Banks robbing gits..

You can get a tracker rate which is lower %, variable just like the SBR and with no penalties so you can change whenever you wanted and overpay as much as you like. Takes 5 mins to apply on line if you have internet banking with nationwide.

As an HSBC Premier customer, I like the look of this: Lifetime Tracker Premier Standard. It is currently at 1.74% with a booking fee of £749. Importantly, you can repay your mortgage at any time without incurring an ERC. Also, you can make lump sum payments to reduce the outstanding balance on your mortgage or make a larger monthly payment without incurring an ERC, (LTV is 60%).

IMO lifetracker is a better option.
Slightly cheaper too.

Yes thats a better one. Ive took that 2 weeks ago. Should be similar rate for advanced customers.

is HSBC good bank for a first time buyer?

Does anyone know what HSBCs' valuation/legal fees are on a remortgage?

Thanks for posting :smiley:

@nickypapos I rang today they cover level fees and valuations.

​Do you mean you can switch between HSBC mortgage products at any time? I fixed earlier this year but the rates are better now so would be interested in refixing. .

I've also just signed up for new term, staying with nationwide, just come off 3.49 fixed for 4 yrs, to a 2 yr tracker at 1.64. it's not like the BOE moves like the FTSE so there's actually a fair bit of 'security' in trackers in the current market, and has been for a few years. plus we need the no penalty for overpayments for a short while. this is a v good rate for those whose circumstances it meets :-)

Depends on your circumstances - if you want a high multiple forget HSBC. I was offered about 2.5x income initially when I remortgaged with them. It had to go to their underwriters to get this increased to the 2.8x I needed.

It was good! I can remember 15%. There may be better rates around but that makes no difference to the rate you got, It was/is good and you were happy with it. You still should be. Anyone who takes a fixed rate with the objective of saving money is a fool. None of us have any idea of how interest rates will fluctuate in the future. You are as likely to lose as to gain. The only reason for taking a fixed rate is for peace of mind. You know what you'll be paying every month and therefore can budget safely.

there are more generous lenders
if you need help give me a pm and I will have a look for you

I'm on 3.3% myself . I fixed for 5 years just before rates plummeted , I gambled and lost ! Should have listened to the wife lol

I threw everything at it and now I only owe £12k , not bad as it was over £100k 2.5 years ago

Rates are only going to go down? Really? If I had a mortgage I'd be taking a 10 year fix right now and stashing money away to overpay as much as possible to get rid of the debt and the risk as soon as possible.

Best tip would be to make sure your mortgage payment is no more than a quarter of your take home pay (after tax) and ideally on a term of no more than 15 years. That will make sure it's affordable for you and then overpay as much as you can to get rid of the debt as quickly as possible. Debt is risk so the sooner you can be debt free the better.

That's me out...Just in the process of a 95% loan of value for the next 30 years lol :smirk:

Ouch! I was in that place years ago. Loving how the stock markets are surging due to the devaluation of the pound sterling. Another 10% gain and i can cash in and own two mortgage free properties. A mixture of good luck and savvy planning.

​You can deposit £100 18 times I believe. That will make up the £1750.

check out brokers on quidco and top cashback. sometimes these HSBC deals have valuation and legal fees attached which offsets the benefits of the cheaper rate. Plus you'll wait weeks for an appointment and probably have your house down valued. Never deal with banks direct, they'll have you in for hours and all cavity's will be searched.

I was on around 5% with my first home and like a plank fixed for 10years - we moved house after about 4 years and ended up paying to ditch the mortgage as it was cheaper. But I purchased the house at a good time so although lost around £3-4k ditching the mortgage I made 20k profit on the house. The 5% was normal at the time however our real "mistake" was fixing for too long. However I had no idea about mortgages at that point and learn from my mistake. Moved into new house 2015 - fixed for 5yrs at 2.89%...you can get lower now but peace of mind was important initially whilst my debt is high. Its with Tesco Bank who allow 20% yearly overpayments. Been overpaying £300 every month cannot wait till it's paid off and that £800 fee will be in my pocket every month!

HSBC are tighter than others (such as Barclays) when it comes to affordability. Just a word of warning that many who think they can get this deal won't make it past the affordability checks.

Wish I could pay £90k off in 2.5 years. Any jobs going at your place? Lol

The answer is No. Try to look at Halifax

At my last remortgage with HSBC I valued the property at £145k which had been the value at the previous remortgage. HSBC disagreed and valued it at £167k. 22k more! I was very happy as it pushed me into the 60%LTV bracket

What is Google?

little tip for anyone considering remortgaging, sometimes paying the arrangement fee can be more beneficial (you can usually add to the balance of the mortgage without affecting LTV) than having it fee free. To work out wether it's worthwhile, simply subtract the monthly payment WITH the arrangement fee, from the payment WITHOUT the arrangement fee and then multiply this figure by the number of months in the fixed period. If the saving you are making in the fixed period is more than the arrangement fee then it's better to pay it! (EG £450-£435 = £15. £15 x 60 = £900 so NOT worth paying the fee in this instance)

I hope this marginally helps some people when making decisions, although I do respect that sometimes having a lower monthly payment is more important than the amount of interest/fees payable for the mortgager/s.

Please note this is not financial/mortgage advice. Try using a whole of market broker to help you when making financial decisions as long as they don't charge extortionate fees!!!!!!

True. It was my first purchase and i needed peace of mind as i don't like surprises. Now that i'm used to the whole mortgage thing, and have my finances were i want them, i'd love to switch to a better rate. However, the way things are going i may get an even better offer when i remortgage for the last time (that's the plan any how)

AL Rayan bank.

Just had mine done, Person came to value the house spent an hour looking around taking measurements, then valued it at 10k over what we paid 2 years ago.

Try not to be so cynical.

it may or may not be of interest to you but here's a story from another market:
the rates got lower and lower to a point of being negligible and yet the balloon popped as ther was no one else to buy at the new higher prices.
So the prices went down and many people are left paying off properties that are worth less than their mortgage, they are often asked for a car or another property as a collateral.
Even if they did sell the property for cash, they'd still have another 20-30% to pay off to the bank, in spite of the mortgage rate being low.
Be smart kids, pay off your mortgage as soon as you can or downscale, before the s hits the fan.

this is a great deal. I just got the 1.89% last week. but because of the problems that HSBC caused me the did away with all charges. getting a mortgage from HSBC is like finding the philosophers stone- "Only a person who wanted to find the [mortgage] - find it, but not use it - would be able to get it."

Literally just bought my first house this weekend. I suspect Im going to spend everyday forever seeing alternative/better deals....

​Sounds like nonsense. I've been with HSBC for 4 years and remortgaged multiple times as LTV moved down. I used to be on tracker so was able to remortgage without paying ERC, although had to pay any fees for the new mortgages. Last mortgage was fixed 2 year at 1.59% and just remortgaged to fixed 2 year at 0.99%. I tried to remortgage before the fix ended but I would have been charged ERC. Having said that, if you're within 90 days of your fixed period ending, you can take out a new mortgage that starts at the end of the fix period (i.e. Hold the rate for 3 months). Alternatively, you can just keep on applying every 30 days if you want to see if anything better comes along during those 90 days.

Mine finished last year, just started to relax now got one for my daughter who, like most, struggles to "get on the ladder"

HTF did you manage that? That's almost £3K a month.

Gambler, drug dealer, people smuggler, all of the above by any chance?

A mortgage is an overhead you get your tenants to pay for you on your investment portfolio.

I know a good Physio! Get her sorted in no time!

Meh, another awesome mortgage deal that leaves newer homeowners and first time buyers out in the cold. I won't vote cold because it's a good deal, but no heat from me either

Be careful about committing to such a long mortgage, if you think you're going to move house within the next 5 years or sell your property and going back to rental.

You can normally port your mortgage if buying another property, but then you're stuck with this lender.

Most fixed mortgages have early repayment fees, usually from 1-3% of the outstanding balance. Which could make them costly.

It's a product designed for people with equity. That equity typically gets built up over a period of home ownership which is why why it's not aimed at first time buyers.

Been looking to move home, and HSBC does have among the best rates out there. Shame they are mainly for the low LTV mortgagees and they are a bit strict compared to some on how much they're willing to lend you. :disappointed:

Remortgaged to a 2-year Tracker with Virgin Money in August. 0.94% above BOE = 1.44% at the time. A month later along comes the BOE rate drop to 0.25%. Took me down to 1.19%. Great timing, but really luck of the draw and demonstrates the upside of Trackers in the current climate where the next move by the BOE is though to be a further 0.25% reduction to 0% or no change (hence why offers like this one herein are available).

One thing to take into account is that a five year mortgage with a fee and remortgage costs is spread over 5 years, a 2 year one the costs are over two years. If you have a small mortgage that makes a huge difference.

For example on a £100k mortgage a £999 fee adds 0.5% to the effective mortgage rate. Let alone the valuation costs, legal costs and any application fee (£99 I think with Virgin money) that you will be paying in two years if you remortgage again.

With a five year fix, the mortgage costs are spread over the 5 year period, so adding less to the effective interest rate per year. Also if you suffer a drop in pay or (unlikely perhaps) a drop in your house price, you might not be able to get a good rate on a remortgage once the 2 year period is up and be stuck on a high SVR. There are pro's and con's with both approaches, I've also had to pay to get out of a fixed rate.

:confused::smile: thx made me chuckle :wink:

Agreed and good points. Like everything, each case has to be assessed on it's individual merits with some educated "forecasting"!

The latter point on getting a good deal next time round applies whether 2 years or 5 years.

Plus, often a downside to committing for the longer term is the ERC's tend to be higher - in the case of Virgin my tracker is 1% vs. 5% for the 5 year fixed! That's huge.

Finally, my Virgin tracker enables a shift to a Fixed rate product at any time if required with no ERC to pay.

Horses for courses and even after weighing up all the known facts, there is more than a small amount of guesswork regarding the variables.

Not anymore with GBP down so much, no such stimulus is needed as capital is getting cheaper by means of currency deprecation. probably a good time to get a fix now. In fact with GBP down, you will get actual inflation (in gbp terms at least), so BOE is more likely to increase rates rather than further decrease them.

​you are on the same deal as me. you can make overpayment without charge

I don't see much point in going for a 2 year deal at present. Rates are low, but who knows where they'll be in two years, as article 50 will have clicked in by then. Personally I think if you're looking to remortgage now the best bet is either a variable rate that allows you to jump ship or a very long fix, i.e. 10 years whilst rates are incredibly low.

Good job it is not advice because it is wrong.

The break even point depends on the monthly payments, along with rates, fees, amount borrowed and period of fix.
Using the difference in payments against fees gets the wrong answer.

The correct method is add the fees make the monthly payments the same and see what is left after the period of comparison.

Depends on your mortgage rate vs the potential investment. Without any further information it's impossible to answer sensibly.

Need your advice people...I am looking to take a mortgage out with Halifax. I am not sure if I should take the 2 or 5 years fixed. The 2 years fixed is £50 cheaper a month. My question is if I took the 2 year deal, after 2 years, would I be able to simple sign a new deal online/over the phone/in branch or would I need to provide up to date information like my income?

I was looking at a Barclays mortgage yesterdays the break even mortgage size on paying the fees(£999) was £35k
for many the range will be £100k-£150k but I have seen others well under £100k, £180k is very high

looking at the difference in payment over the life of the fix against the fees is again totally wrong way to compare as it gives the wrong answer, on a lower rate you pay off more capital which needs to be checked.

the simplest way to do the comparison is add the fees make the monthly payment the same and see what's left at the end.

next someone will be saying paying the fees rather than adding is better which is nonsense.

​You can change to a new deal with Halifax 3 months before your old Halifax deal ends.

When I did this in June 2015 I provided them with no information whatsoever, I simply logged into the website and it showed me a current value for my house and what deals were available.

This worked out very well for me as the value for my house came up as £20k more than it is actually worth so I was able to get a better rate.

Thank you fossman. I will need to speak to the mortgage advisor asap as I already signed the mortgage agreement and paid 60% of the deposit to my solicitor.

I though that also 2 years ago, but I am SO glad I did now! Do you think HSBC (or virtually all the others) hold that view and thus are happy to offer low ultra interest 5 & 10 fixed year rates, whilst the BOE base rate rises and rises through that period and thus miss out profits and even make a loss on some loans? Unlikely. Also, 10 years is an incredibly long time to stay on a fixed - I personally know of no one who can say with total confidence nothing will happen in the next 10 years which means they will never need to reexamine their mortgage needs. Getting out of a 10 year deal is very, very expensive.

As said, everytime we speak of mortgages, no one has a crystal ball and each situation should be assessed on it's own individual merits. "Horses for courses".

Hi, Thanks for reply. Yes I appreciate you need to being getting a better or equivalent return on the investment against any mortgage rate. But if so I'm more wondering about peoples views on doing it as opposed to just paying off the mortgage and being clear.

Could anyone else please confirm this information ??

I am HSBC advance customer with two years fixed rate. If I switch my mortgage eve to HSBC, I will still need to pay ERC.

we are about to sell and buy. the solicitor we have picked refuses to deal with HSBC mortgages saying they impose unnecessary charges.

could anyone suggest me; I am moving my remortgage application to HSBC now. but in the document they are asking for witness. should i need to get witness for remortgage..if yes who can do this? Thanks

Should have got bunk beds as a child, makes good ladder practice.

I'm looking for a 5 year deal and thinking of paying to get out of current deal which expires around the time of brexit. I don't really like the thought of looking for a mortgage around this time with all of the uncertainty.