Mortgages

you are not committed to it, think we had 2-3 deals over 6 months and were watching the MPC dates and we knew there were 3 to look at the last one still had 2 weeks until the actual reportage date so enough time to save us the cost a decent bottle of wine a month.

you can go interest only for 6 months under the mortgage charter if things are tight and it can be instigated the day after your new deal starts.
I’m not a fan of interest only and ‘kicking the can down the road’ but we are selling my flat early next year and sticking the proceeds on our home mortgage so not reducing the capital for 6 months is of little consequence.

That's good to know as is the not tied down thing. Might be worth investigating depending how work is. Agree on kicking can down the road but this quarter has been a shit show. Starting to claw back a lump of cash but don't want to see it frittered away without further lumps incoming ideally.

Yes, if you have another way to pay the debt off.

The two situations I've heard them working well are:

1. BTL (where you still net a decent return/are in it for the income)
   
2. Where you're adding a lot of value and will downsize.
   

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68618436

so I would expect to see products reflect that statement next few days. would still lock a product in fairly soon and then watch what happens.

Yeah that’s what I figured. Or want to live in a place you technically can’t afford to buy.

Yes as long as the rate is the same as repayment option.

Yeah. Glad I’m not missing anything.

Our 2 year fix ends on the 1st august. Have to stick with current lender because reasons. Talk of things going from 5.2 something down to 4-/+ from the 1st. How to navigate?

Presuming if we suck up a variable rate for one month we can immediately switch to a fixed as soon as rates go down?

Wise? We can prob take the hit for a month assuming clients continue to pay on time.

I used to go to variable, overpay with no restriction and then after a month or two lock in the new deal. Back when I was doing it though rates weren't really changing.

It’s a gamble and you know exactly the stake (one month at SVR) it’s all guesswork but the drop if it comes is not going to be by a huge amount but the mortgage rates will hopefully drop more in anticipation of further small drops at the following meetings to set rates.
We have a meeting with broker next week but imagine he’s not going to lock anything in until after the MPC meeting.

Have you done the maths? If you go one year deal now does it actually save you more than a month on SVR then for arguments sake a 1/4 percent drop on your mortgage rate?
Have you used your mortgage charter card yet? You could go 6 months interest free if you need some breathing space with whatever deal you get.

Haven't used the charter interest free thing yet. Though I remember you mentioning it now. Not sure current provider will offer a one year only deal. Might investigate but conscious of being quite tied to current provider and not wishing to upset apple cart too much to reveal minimal incomes.

We're prob not in a position to overpay a meaningful amount. Got a good chunk at the moment so could do SVR for a month but trying to do some improvement stuff with the bulk of it.

Might not be the most efficient use of the money but if we're going to be living here for at least 5 more years we'll want to enjoy it as best we can.