Owning your own home

Never paid a mortgage broker anything, I assume our IFA got commission from the lender.

I opt for long term (~5 years) fixed deals so we know exactly what we'll need to pay and don't have to worry about whether we're on the right deal or not. Sometimes it works out, sometimes we end up paying more, but I'm quite risk averse and the lack of fluctuation suits me.

At the recent renewal time the current lender (Santander) came forward with a offer to get out of the existing fixed deal 3 months early to move to another 5 year fixed at 2.89%. The single fee for this was less than the difference in interest payments for those 3 months so it was an obvious choice. It was also done in one 20 minute phone call with no need for valuations/etc. I couldn't match 2.89% anywhere else (especially as ours is interest only[1]) so I was practically biting their hands off.

When it came to this offer the IFA was happy to look through all of the figures and say that he couldn't beat it and advised us to go with it, even though he didn't earn a penny from doing so.

1. We make appropriate overpayments to treat it just like a repayment mortgage but have the flexibility of stopping (the overpayments) if we need to and then making up for the missed capital repayment when we're flush again. (It helps that we no longer have nursery fees to pay!)