Stop mortgage worries today (Source: daily express)
Its a completely normal and natural thing to worry about money. 99.9% of people have worried about money at one time or another and we see it as our duty to try and alleviate financial worries as much as possible. Right now, the most common stresses stemming from the economic downturn that we as a country are feeling are mortgage worries, utility bill worries, and food bills.
By speaking to a mortgage advisor like Oportfolio, we can help tackle all three of these issues. Killing the metaphorical three birds with one. Because getting your mortgage worries sorted will have a significant impact on the other two. One thing we have noticed and honestly been baffled by in the last 12 months or so is the amount of people who are currently on the wrong mortgage deal, paying above and beyond what they could be paying…and don’t even know it most of the time! The most common culprit for this is people who have either arranged their own mortgage through a bank or have a sub-par mortgage advisor who has not been keeping an eye on their mortgage.
In these cases, these people have come to the end of their fixed mortgage deal without knowing and have automatically moved onto the lender’s standard variable rate. This in a nutshell is a standard rate that the lender offers outside of their competitive products. This rate goes up and down based on the bank of England’s base rate so could change unexpectedly and significantly. To give you an idea of how high lenders SVRs could be, Santander’s standard variable rate is currently at 5.99%. With interest rates expected to rise from the Bank of England again this month, this rate will go above 6%. That means that the thousands of people across the UK sitting on the SVR will be paying over 6% interest on their mortgage per month!
If you speak to a mortgage advisor, they will take a thorough look at your current finances and your mortgage and simply move you back onto a lower and more competitive fixed rate, saving you money so that you have more to cover other essential living costs.
For people not currently on the SVR, it is still so important to go through a financial well-being check with a mortgage advisor. You may think that your current deal is fine or that you can’t get anything better in the market but that is not necessarily the case. With interest rates rising rapidly for the time being at least, its important to plan your mortgage out for the future.
If your fixed rate ends within the next 6-12 months, it means that you will shortly need to look at remortgaging. if you wait right up until the last minute to remortgage, you might be stuck with very high interest rates. By speaking to an advisor nice and early, they can secure you a still relatively low rate that will keep you secure and keep your costs down for another 2 or 5 years. Then, when rates do inevitably go back down, your advisor will be able to remortgage you again back on to a low rate. How’s that for getting rid of mortgage worries?
Earlier this week, benefit broker MetLife released some figures on their site regarding exactly this. They carried out a UK wide survey and they have found that out of the people they interviewed, 48% of them expressed worries about how they would manage mortgage payments if the cost of living keeps on increasing. Out of the people they surveyed, 42% also said that they didn’t have ANY savings to fall back on if their income didn’t cover their mortgage costs.
Now really is the time to act and speak with a professional about your mortgage. Because getting on top of mortgage worries will help you get on top of other financial worries too. Call our friendly and helpful mortgage specialists today to go through a free financial wellness check today.
