It's Free to Speak to an Advisor, 7 days, 8am - 10pm

Removing a Name From a Mortgage in Bristol

Specialist Mortgage Scenario in Bristol

Through our experience as a mortgage broker in Bristol, we have encountered cases where customers are looking to remove someone else’s name from a mortgage. We usually find this option is used in a situation where the customer is going through divorce or separation.

If you are in this situation, sorting out any financial commitments you have linked to them should be at the forefront of your mind, to prevent any issues down the line. This can be something people leave last.

This can consequently make the process more tricky and cause a lot more stress and time which is why you should do this ahead. You can get ahead of this by getting in touch with a mortgage broker in Bristol.

The Downside to Not Removing Your Name

There can be issues with leaving your name tied to someone else which can be an issue for you in the long run because of a number of reasons.

The first point is your name is still tied, you will still be chased for missed mortgage payments, regardless of if you live there or not. With this, you are in a situation where when you are in it, you are legal until removed.

Furthermore, your credit score will also be affected by the financial association. In the case the other person’s credit score drops, yours will as well. If you were looking to take out a mortgage of your own, in your own name, you would be finding yourself in a complex process.

Along with this, it will impact your affordability, because the mortgage lender will look at this as a large financial outgoing. Due to this, you will not be able to borrow as much for your property purchase.

You could also be faced with higher Stamp Duty tax implications as you will be buying a new property whilst technically owning one already. This can result in a quite costly deal.

With all these points in mind, it is good to remove your name from someone else’s mortgage as soon as you possibly can.

How to Remove a Name From a Mortgage

In the circumstance where you will be taking on the property and full responsibility for mortgage payments, the first thing you need to do is see ig you are eligible or not for a remortgage onto a new as a sole name applicant.

Contacting your mortgage lender/building society or speaking with a mortgage broker in Bristol will help you determine this.

Before you remove someone else’s name from a mortgage, it is key that you both agree on whether you or the other party will be getting the property. If you don’t come to an agreement with this, it could be a costly outcome with paying court costs to come to a decision.

Seeking specialist mortgage advice in Bristol can be beneficial in the case of a divorce or separation. A dedicated mortgage advisor in Bristol can help you through your mortgage process.

Need help removing a name from a mortgage?

In the situation where you need help removing someone else’s name from your mortgage, get in touch with a specialist mortgage broker to assist you with getting a remortgage in Bristol.

Our team are available 7 days a week to provide expert mortgage advice in Bristol and give you the helping hand you need throughout your remortgage journey. Book your free remortgage review today and we will see how we can help.

Can You Remortgage Early in Bristol?

Typically speaking if you are a homeowner and you do not wish to sell your home (and you are also on a fixed period), you will most likely look to remortgage in Bristol around 3 months before your initial fixed period is set to conclude.

Whilst this is technically before it does actually end, it is not considered remortgaging early, as your remortgage process will usually take that length of time to complete. It’s not like you are getting everything finalised that same day!

Though this is commonplace for many, there are some that may want to remortgage in Bristol a little earlier than this, perhaps 6 months or so before that deal is due to come to its end, which is also acceptable.

So, can I remortgage early in Bristol? Well yes, you are able to do this. There is nothing to legally stop you from taking out a remortgage. That being said, you shouldn’t always necessarily remortgage, especially without remortgage advice in Bristol.

Types of Remortgage in Bristol

You will generally have a choice of 3 different mortgage types when the time comes to remortgage in Bristol. The most popular of these is a fixed rate mortgage, with the others being discount rate mortgages and tracker mortgages.

Tracker mortgages will follow along with the Bank of England base rate. This means if their base rate is low, interest rates are low. If it’s high, interest is high. They are not fixed because of the way they work, though you can sometimes get “collared” rates, meaning they don’t go below a specific figure.

Discount rate mortgages are a version of the variable rate mortgage. They will generally be offered to you by your mortgage lender, as a discount of the standard variable rate mortgage that they already offer.

Fixed-rate mortgages are no doubt the most popular of these options. They allow you to fix in to a specific interest rate that exists at the time, for however many years you want to fix in for (typically 2-5 years).

Whilst the interest rates could go down and leave you with more to pay than you would otherwise need to, you are more likely to benefit from a fixed-rate, as rates will most likely go up.

Why would I remortgage early in Bristol?

Homeowners may wish to take out a remortgage in Bristol for all kinds of reasons. This can be to remortgage onto a better rate, to fund some of your home improvements, to consolidate some debts and more.

This is something you are able to do before your mortgage deal is due to come to an end, so why would your remortgage early in Bristol?

For a Better Deal

Though you are able to remortgage in Bristol and move onto a better rate when your deal is set to finish, there may be times when you wish to do this at an earlier time.

For example, if you were on a set deal that meant you had to pay a higher rate of interest than you could be able to get, you might want to remortgage early.

Doing so will most likely mean early repayment charges, but your savings you make on this might actually outweigh those additional costs.

To Protect Against Interest Rate Rises

The way that the market usually is, this is something that you are more likely to encounter as a homeowner in Bristol.

It is fairly straightforward to just take out a remortgage in Bristol once your fixed period ends, fixing in again for whatever the current interest rate is, but at that point, perhaps 2-5 years in, it may have risen much higher than what you were last on.

In a market where interest rates could go up further, you may feel it best to remortgage in Bristol much earlier, maybe a year before, pay the early repayment charge and settle for an interest rate that, whilst higher than it was, could be much more in a years time. That may make the costs worth it.

Some may even wish to look at taking out a debt consolidation remortgage in Bristol, putting all of their unsecured debt into a much more manageable monthly mortgage payment.

This will no doubt mean that you pay much more money overall, but could allow you to have more disposable income for bills and other things that you need additional funds for.

You should think carefully before securing other debts against your home. By adding your unsecured debts to your mortgage, which is secured on your home, you are potentially putting your home at risk if you cannot make the required repayments.

Although the total monthly cost of servicing your debt may have reduced, the total cost of repayment may still have risen as the term of your mortgage is longer than it may have taken to repay the debts originally.

Why would I want to avoid remortgaging early in Bristol?

Again, as touched upon before, there are reasons why you may not wish to remortgage early in Bristol. This is typically due to the early repayment charges you most likely have to pay for this, with the costs varying depending on how much of your fixed-term is left.

A general rule of thumb is that you can expect to pay much less if you are closer to the end of your mortgages’ fixed period. Of course when it comes to tracker mortgages, there isn’t a fixed-period as such, but there will likely be an introductory period which can present a fee.

These costs tend to be quite expensive, which is why the majority of people will look to avoid them. That being said, it may still be worthwhile if you are able to save money over time.

It would always be recommended that you speak with your mortgage lender prior to making any decisions, to make sure you are completely aware of any early repayment charges that could occur if you were to leave early.

Should I remortgage early in Bristol?

Really all it comes down to your choice. If you feel like you will benefit in the long run by doing this, then by all means make a start on your process. Make sure you are always aware of the costs involved and speak with a trusted mortgage professional to make sure it is right for you.

Why Mortgage Protection Insurance is useful to Have in Bristol

Having the Right Insurance in Place

Mortgage Protection Insurance helps to encompass different kinds of cover. This cover is here to limit your financial stress, and help your loved ones from any unexpected circumstances that may occur and leave you financially unstable to keep up mortgage repayments. Here we have a video for you from Malcolm to discuss the significance of having the correct insurance in place for your situation.

There are variations of Insurance to choose from when it comes to protecting you and your family. Here our dedicated specialist mortgage advisors in Bristol can compare different providers to determine the best policy for your circumstances. The following insurance policies that they might be able to offer you are:

For more information, speak with one of our experienced Protection Advisors in Bristol today. Our team will always be available 7 days a week. Give us a call or email when you are ready to talk, we are happy to try to answer all of your questions

Life Insurance Cover

Life insurance is an insurance policy that minimises your loved ones’ financial impact in the event you or another joint policyholder pass away. Our Mortgage Advisors in Bristol can run through all the different life covers accessible to you and advise the most suitable plan for you.

Critical Illness Insurance

Critical illness cover is an insurance policy that covers serious illnesses detailed within a policy. Typically, these will include Stroke, heart attack, certain types and stages of cancer, and more.

Some illnesses will not be covered, for example, certain types of cancers. And you are unlikely to be covered for pre-existing health issues you knew you had before taking out the Insurance. As mentioned, the specific illnesses covered and not covered will be detailed in your policy.

The most important thing is that the benefit gets paid if you fall victim to one of several specified critical illnesses and pays out whatever the long-term prognosis of that illness. The type of conditions covered vary from company to company; that’s why this type of Insurance cannot be solely price-driven, and seeking advice is always advised.

In practice, many businesses will offer Life and Critical Illness cover as a combined policy and would usually payout on the “first event,” namely whatever happens first – either death or a severe illness.

Income Protection

Whereas Life and Critical Illness cover pay out a lump sum, Income Protection pays out a monthly sum intended to replace your wages if you are unfit to work. In contrast to the Critical Illness cover, there are no limitations on the illnesses or injuries covered, the only factor being whether they make you unfit to work.

There are, however, restrictions on how much you can cover and how quickly benefits would start to get paid. Such As Life and Critical Illness cover, these policies are underwritten based on your health and lifestyle when you apply.

You can combine Life Insurance, Critical Insurance and Income Protection into what’s called a menu plan. The providers give you a discount each time you add a benefit in, which can be a cost-effective way of taking cover.

With a Menu Plan, you can mix and match a range of cover and benefits to tailor a plan that suits your needs and budgets. We strongly advise all our customers should the worst happen, least you have covered yourself and your family, to find out more speak to one of our mortgage Advisors in Bristol today.

Family Income Benefit

The least common mortgage protection policies can often be helpful, especially for young households. These plans can be applied to Life and/or Critical Illness Cover.

However, in contrast to the traditional forms of policy, rather than paying out a lump sum, the cover would pay an annual or monthly income for the remainder of the plan’s term. Consequently, it can replace the primary worker’s payment for several years, dependent upon a particular client’s circumstances. This would usually be written on a level or basis or an index-linked basis designed to keep up with inflation.

Why Use a Mortgage Broker in Bristol?

Aiming to Take Your Stress Away

One of the primary factors in why home movers & first time buyers in Bristol use a Mortgage Broker in Bristol, is to help the process of buying a home go as quickly and as smoothly as it can go. For many, the home buying process can be a very stressful experience and for our customers, it’s a comforting relief to know they have got someone on their side to deal with the hard parts, with availability to answer any questions they may have.

Your dedicated Mortgage Advisor will work incredibly hard to try and ensure that you obtain the cheapest or at least most favourable mortgage outcome for your personal needs. This level of dedication and passion for our work applies no matter the mortgage type. Whether you’re making your first purchase, a second purchase or you wish to Remortgage, we put everything we have into our service, to ensure our customers have the best outcome available to them.

When Should I Get Mortgage Advice in Bristol?

If you’re looking at taking out mortgage advice when buying a home, we would personally recommend talking to a Mortgage Advisor in Bristol as early on in the process as you can. Your trusted member of the Moneyman team will be able to help you work out roughly how much you’ll be able to pay per month, as well as how much you may be able to borrow.

Different lenders each have different criteria, so speaking to an expert in the field, with a wealth of knowledge surrounding these criteria, will be of a great benefit to you. If you know what you are able afford well in advance of making an application, it may help you avoid any potential future disappointment. 

Communication and responsiveness are also a large part of what we do. We aim to ensure all of our customers are kept informed about the progress of their mortgage application by email, so you are fully aware of what is going on and where the process is headed next. If something ever goes wrong or you have any questions, we are always available at the end of the telephone, ready to help you out in any way we can.

Free From Estate Agents, Banks or Building Societies

A trusted and loyal Mortgage Broker will work for the customer and not the Lender. This is something that is important to remember throughout your process. Our team are firmly in your corner, sometimes having to

A Guide to Remortgages in Bristol: Top Reasons to Consider

Remortgage Broker in Bristol

You’ll likely have both your highs and your lows throughout your mortgage process, but when all is said and done, it will all result in one of the following outcomes: either a possible future home for your family, a property that will shift you along the property ladder or a purchase you can use as an investment to boost your income.

No matter which route you find yourself going down, you will eventually start getting near the end of your mortgage term. Some look to sell their home and move into a new property. Others maybe look to sell parts of their property portfolio with an aim to look at other areas to invest in.

More popular than these though, is taking up the route of a remortgage in Bristol.

What is a Remortgage?

Before anything else, let’s take a look at what a remortgage is. A remortgage is where you use the loan that you gain from a new mortgage to pay off your existing mortgage. There are lots of different options that are available to customers when taking out a remortgage, with these options varying in scale of importance.

In utilising the experience of our director and twenty year mortgage expert, the “Moneyman” Malcolm Davidson (host of our YouTube channel MoneymanTV), we have compiled a helpful remortgage guide, reflecting on all of the options that may be available towards the end of your mortgage term.

Remortgage For Better Interest Rates

In the case of most mortgages, the deal that you are initially set up on will last somewhere around two to five years, featuring low fixed rates or rates that are possibly discounted. Depending on your personal situation, you may even be placed on a tracker mortgage, which is a mortgage type that will follow the Bank of England’s base rate.

Once your term has ended, the chances are that you will be moving onto the lenders Standard Variable Rate (you may see this shortened to SVR). To explain what this is; an SVR is a mortgage with an interest rate that can potentially change, depending simply on what the lender is looking to charge you.

This does not work the same as a tracker mortgage as it will not be following the base rate of the Bank of England. Because of this, these types of mortgages usually cost a much larger amount to take, leaving many to just prefer looking at remortgaging for better rates, something that would hopefully save you a lot of money in the long term.

Remortgage For Home Improvements

Once you have reached the point of being 2-5 years into occupying your home, you may feel like something is off and it needs to change. You may need to create an extra room or improve upon the size of your living space for your kids or personal belongings.

Some people would like to build a new kitchen or office. We actually hear of customers looking to build some kind of loft conversion. Instead of just packing up and moving home, lot’s of homeowners instead opt to remortgage as a means of releasing equity to fund these new projects.

Of course, obtaining planning permission and funding or managing your own project does sound big and scary, lots of homeowners would argue it’s a lot less stressful and more rewarding than it would be to just sell your home, and find somewhere else to live.

In the future this may prove to be quite beneficial to you as an investment. This is because creating more space and having good quality craftsmanship has a chance to increase the value of your home, which in term would come in very handy for if you do look to sell your home in the future.

Remortgage for Changes to Your Term

In a lot of cases, homeowners may just want to remortgage in Bristol for a better mortgage term, either by reducing the length of the term they are on at the current moment in time or by switching to a different product that is a bit more flexible.

By reducing the length of your term, you will not be paying back your mortgage for as long, so you aren’t completely stuck there, but this does mean that your monthly mortgage repayments could be higher than anticipated. The longer your term, the lower your monthly payments will be.

Many homeowners take preference to more flexible mortgage terms when they take out a remortgage. There happens to be a few positives with this route that homeowners prefer. Some of these include having the chance to overpay, meaning you may be able to pay your mortgage off a lot quicker, as well as being able to carry the same mortgage and rates over to another property, if that ever becomes a need for you down the line.

Though a flexible mortgage sounds like it’s the most ideal situation to be in as a homeowner, they are usually found as tracker mortgages. As mentioned earlier on, tracker mortgages follow the Bank of England base rate, meaning one month your payments could change both positively and negatively, depending on the current level of interest rates. Some homeowners feel like this mortgage type is a little too unreliable.

Remortgage to Release Equity

Every homeowner will have some form of equity existing within their home. Equity is worked out by calculating the difference between what you still have left to pay on the mortgage and how much the property is currently worth.

Further onto another previously mentioned topic of discussion, this can be used for home improvements, however there are still so many different options people can take.

Some will use the equity in their home to cover any necessary long-term care costs, to provide themselves with an income boost, to treat themselves to a much needed holiday, to pay off an interest-only mortgage or to have some spare cash laying around to do whatever they’d like with.

We often find that with a buy-to-let in Bristol, landlords will use a remortgage to release equity as a means of covering their deposit for buying any future property portfolio additions.

If you are over the age of 55 and have a property that is valued around at least £70,000, it may be worth looking at your options for Equity Release in Bristol. Speak to a professional later life mortgage advisor to learn more about this.

Remortgage to Consolidate Debt

Another topic relating to the aforementioned topic of equity release, is utilising the existing equity in the property to pay off any unsecured debts that may have been building up in your name over time.

Though it sounds like a fairly straightforward concept, debt consolidation not only bases the amount on how much you’re owed and the value of the property, but also the current status of your credit score and history. This unfortunately means that if your score is bad (which is likely to be the case if you’re needing to consolidate debts), the lender may limit how much they are willing to let you borrow.

In addition to this, in order to pay off your previous mortgage and your debts, you will need to borrow a much higher amount than the mortgage amount you’re already paying off. This will likely cost more than you wanted it to. Though not an ideal situation, at least you can rest assured that if you find yourself in hot water, a mortgage broker in Bristol may be able to lend a hand.

If you have a particularly damaged credit rating, there are still options out there that you can take, though these tend to be quite challenging and require very specialist remortgage advice in Bristol to lend both their knowledge and care, before proceeding with your mortgage process. Even with our help, there’s never a guarantee you’ll be successful.

You should always look to gain mortgage advice prior to consolidating any debts and secure any debts against your home.

Experienced Mortgage Advisors in Bristol – Get in Touch

If you are on your way towards the end of your current mortgage term and are wondering what kind of remortgaging options you may have, please do get in touch with one of our fast and friendly mortgage advisors in Bristol.

A dedicated and experienced member of our mortgage advice team will be available to discuss your circumstances and future goals, helping you create a strong plan of the next steps you would like to take in your home owning and mortgage journey. When dealing with remortgages, we always aim to make the process simpler and quicker than it went the first time around.

How to Sell your Home Quickly in Bristol

Moving Home Mortgage Advice in Bristol for Home Movers

So you are looking at moving home in Bristol and you want to take another step up the property ladder, however, before you take the leap, you need to think about getting your existing home put up onto the market and sold.

When you have finally sold your current home, the equity in it (the amount at which you sell for minus your current mortgage balance) will be used for your deposit for your next purchase. You can top up this total as much as you want from savings or a family gift.

A seller will always have a minimum asking price for their property, however, most of the time they are willing to hear out other offers. The way that a home is marketed and presented will play a big factor in terms of how easily it sells. So, from a buyer and sellers viewpoint, you’re going to need to do some research about moving home. Let’s start with how to how to sell your home quickly:

Sell Your Home Quickly in Bristol

Asking Price

When choosing your asking price, you need to pick a price that is reasonable for the local area. Don’t start it at an unreasonable price; just because the estate agent has told you the property’s highest potential sale price doesn’t mean that it will get sold at that price.

Within the first couple of weeks of your listing, you want to attract as much attention off potential buyers as you can. If you are struggling to gain interest in your property, it is probably because your asking price is too high.

If you have already found a home that you are interested in making an offer on but you are still living within your current house, you will need to try and get a quick sale. That’s exactly why a fair asking price is a great way to start your home moving journey.

How Does it Look From the Outside

We have been working as a mortgage broker in Bristol for over 20 years now, and when we look at a property, one of the first things that we see is how the property looks from the outside. Making your home look appealing from the outside is your best way to engage buyers. Remember, this is your first impression, so you need to be aware of how your home looks from the outside.

Sometimes, it’s as simple as having a freshly jet-washed drive and a neatly cut front lawn. This shows that you really look after your home and you want people to be impressed by it. This may also get people to think that the interior of your home will also provide that “feel-good factor”.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. So, to improve your chances of selling your home quickly, you should try and make your house have a great “kerbside appeal”.

How Does it Look From the Inside

Before you open your house up for viewings, you need to do the one thing that everyone hates… Tidying! In order for the viewer to feel welcome and comfortable inside your home, you need to make sure that your house is clean and tidy.

Remove any clutter that is lying around, especially from the front of the property. When your viewer walks in, you want them to feel like the place has been looked after. This could be from making sure that your doorbell works to buying a new doormat.

Once your hallway has been sorted, you need to go around your house room by room. You should pay extra attention to your kitchen and bathroom as these are some of the most important parts of a house. Cupboards and wardrobes should be neatly stacked and free of clutter. If you are a smoker sometimes the smell of smoke can linger, so it may be an idea to give the house a good airing before your potential buyer arrives. Remove anything that you think has a smokey smell about it.

All interior doors should be painted and their brass fixtures should be checked and polished to ensure that they can open and close smoothly.

Make sure that each room is well lit too, make sure to open all curtains and blinds in darker rooms. Your home should feel nice and warm but not too hot. All lightbulbs should be tested before the viewing to see if they are working. Despite what people claim about “baking bread” smells, this is corny and old-fashioned, ensure there are no cooking smells lingering whatsoever.

Let Them Feel at Home

It could be hard, but you will need to try and avoid having your children or pets getting in the way whilst your viewers are walking around your house. You want them to feel as relaxed as possible.

Another good way to help them feel at home is to put out some family pictures or paintings to decorate the house a little bit. It’s just another friendly reminder that this is a family home.

You should also let them explore on their own, don’t crowd them too much as they will want to discuss between themselves too.

Make it Spotless

As mentioned before, your kitchen and bathroom should be completely spotless. Anything that isn’t in daily use should be put away. Your towels should be neatly stacked away and not left on hooks of the floor.

Make sure that you double-check everything too, your whole house needs to be cleaned from top to bottom. Make sure clothes are not lying around and the bedrooms have been dusted etc.

You should think about washing your curtains, blinds, wiping your walls and cleaning your floors and windows. All repairs should be up to date too and clean bedding on the beds. Windows should be sparkling clean inside and out.

Investing in carpets for smaller rooms can be an inexpensive way of impressing your viewer. Carpets make rooms welcoming and can show your viewer that the house is well looked after.

Make Space

People who are selling their home often don’t realise that having empty space is sometimes good. This is because it allows your potential buyer to personalise their home a bit more. For example, an empty wall in a bedroom could actually benefit you, the buyer now knows that they will be able to do whatever they want to it.

Anything that you are storing outside of cupboards should be put away or thrown away if not needed. This can save you a job anyway for when you move! Make lots of room on your kitchen worktops too and ensure that there are no pots lying about.

The Garden

A garden can be the deciding factor for many property viewers as it’s normally the last thing that the viewer sees. You need to make sure that there is no rubbish left outside or things clattered about. It’s important not to pile everything into your shed as more often than not, the viewer will request to see inside it.

Ensure that your fences have all of their slats properly in place and are freshly painted or creosoted. People love seeing colourful gardens, so even flowers could do the trick. Anything to liven up your garden could really help your out. Removing weeds and dead flowers, cutting the grass, removing grass clippings are all must-dos.

Be Yourself

People buy from people and your viewer also has a first impression on you so remember to be welcoming, honest and most importantly yourself. They are just one set of potential buyers at the end of the day, there will be plenty more.

Here’s a tip from us, create a balanced view on every problem that you have encountered with the house, for example, if you had a problem with a leak, say how you easily fixed it and that it’s very unlikely to happen in the future again.

Estate agents will want to earn their commission by talking to the property viewers as much as possible, however, you need to remember that no one knows as much about the house as you do, so don’t be afraid to jump in and tell them more.

Contact a Mortgage Broker in Bristol Today

Finally, remember the emotions attached to buying a home, as you could very well be selling to a first time buyer in Bristol. If you have a family it helps to accentuate it has been a happy home for you, this is sure to rub off on the viewers if they are thinking of raising a family also.

The Different Types of Mortgages Explained in Bristol

Mortgage Advice in Bristol for Different Situations

When you start out looking for a mortgage first time buyers in Bristol and home movers will soon realise that there are lots of different options available. Below you will see a list of the most popular types of mortgages available on the market and hopefully.  If you have any questions regarding any of the below mortgage options, then please do not hesitate to contact us.

What is a fixed rate mortgage?

A fixed-rate mortgage means that your mortgage payments are going to stay the same for a set period of time. You can set the length of which you want to fix your payments for, typically this being 2, 3 or 5 years or longer. No matter what happens to inflation, interest rates or the economy you know that your mortgage payment, usually your biggest outgoing, will not change.

What is a tracker mortgage?

A tracker mortgage means that your interest rate will track the Bank of England’s base rate. So in other words, the lender that you are with does not actually set the rate themselves. You will be paying a percentage above the Bank of England base rate. In an example, if the base rate is 1% and you are tracking at 1% above base rate, that means you will be paying a rate of 2%.

What is a repayment mortgage?

When you take out a repayment mortgage this means that each month you are paying capital and interest combined. So as long as you keep your payments going for the full length of the mortgage term, the mortgage balance is guaranteed to be paid off at the end and the property becomes yours.

This is the most risk-free way to pay your capital back to the lender, in the early years it is mainly the interest that you are paying and your balance will reduce very slowly especially if you have taken out a 25, 30 or 35-year term. This situation switches in the last ten years or so of your mortgage, where your payments are paying off more capital than interest and the balance will come down much faster.

What is an interest only mortgage?

Whilst many buy to let mortgages in Bristol are set up on an interest-only basis, it is much more difficult to get a residential property on an interest-only basis.

It is much less likely for lenders to offer an interest-only product now.  However, there are certain circumstances where this can be an option. These include downsizing when you are older or have other investments that you will use to pay the capital back. Lenders are very strict when it comes to offering these products now and the loan to values is a lot lower than back in the day.

What is an offset mortgage?

With an offset mortgage, the lender will set you up a savings account to go alongside your mortgage account. How this works is that let’s say you have a mortgage balance of £100,000 and £20,000 is deposited into your savings account, you only pay interest on the difference, so in this case, £80,000. This can be a very efficient way of managing your money, especially if you are a higher rate taxpayer.

How to Improve your Credit Score in Bristol

Especially for first time buyers in Bristol the higher your credit score, the more chance you have of your mortgage application will be accepted. No one is guaranteed to get a mortgage though, and Lenders have their internal scoring systems. 

Each Lender has developed its system of scoring over the years. Do not worry if you fail with one Lender. Other mortgage lenders may be more forgiving. It is your Mortgage Advisor’s job to match you to the right Lender, hopefully, the first time, but this is not an exact science. Both you and your Mortgage Advisor want the same thing, which is that you end up with the best deal available to you. 

There are several different credit reference agencies in the UK, including Experian and Equifax. It is a good idea to check as many of these agencies as possible to get a rounded picture of your credit score. Also, one of the agencies may be holding incorrect data. Checking with several agencies will help you identify any such discrepancies. We personally would recommend the use of Check My File as this brings these varying scores under one platform for you to look at.

Try it FREE for 30 days, then £14.99 a month – cancel online anytime.

Avoid Unnecessary Credit Searches

Multiple credit searches can harm your score. Be careful when using price comparison websites which are significant culprits of credit searching on individuals. If you know you want to apply for a mortgage soon, it is wise to avoid using for any other credit. While having some confidence and paying it back is a good thing for your score, in the long run, Lenders do not like to see you increasing your borrowings just before making a mortgage application. 

Check You Are on the Voter’s Roll

Being on the electoral roll adds many points onto your score. It indicates stability and Lenders like that. Ensure your name gets spelled correctly and that it’s your current address is registered, not an old one. If not logged, it is easy to do so online. 

Do not Run Close to Your Maximum Limit 

If you max out your card each month that will reduce your score. Using a credit card and paying off the balance in full each month is preferable. However, this indicates that you are good at managing your money. Worst of all would be exceeding an agreed card limit or overdraft. Lenders want to know that you take your finances seriously. 

Check Your Address History

Quite often it can appear that you are living in two places at the same time on your credit report. In any case, this occurs because you may have forgotten to tell one of your credit providers that you have moved to a new house. Check all addresses gets spelt correctly. If you have lived in a flat, this can be tricky as the flat/apartment number can get formatted in different ways. 

Close Any Unused Credit Accounts

You should contact the providers of store/credit cards you no longer use and get the account closed. In the short term, this can harm your score briefly as the credit reference cannot tell if it’s you are closing the account down or the provider. In any case, this is also a good thing to do to reduce your chance of falling victim for fraud should you not notice you have lost a card you do not use regularly. 

If you have a family member or ex-partner connected to you, then this could be affecting your score. You will not be able to get the financial association removed if the account is still live though. To remove one of these links, you should contact the credit reference agencies and make a request.

Many consumers feel that credit scoring is an unfair way of Lenders assessing applications. Lenders feel differently as it is much cheaper for them to operate this way.

Send an up to date copy of your credit report to your Mortgage Advisor upfront, and you will increase your chances of being accepted the first time. The more your Advisor knows about your finances, the better. Also, there are still some smaller Lenders out there that do not credit score. These Lenders do it the old-fashioned manual way, although they will always have specific rules about the number of defaults and CCJs they will allow. 

Bristolmoneyman.com & Bristolmoneyman are trading styles of UK Moneyman Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

UK Moneyman Limited is Registered in England, No. 6789312 | Registered Address: 10 Consort Court, Hull, HU9 1PU.

Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

We are entered on the Financial Services Register No. 627742 at www.register.fca.org.uk

Equity Release Council Logo Solla Later Life Logo
Facebook Image X Image Instagram Image YouTube Image LinkedIn Image SpotifyImage TikTok Image

Speak to an Advisor – It’s free!
7 Days a Week, 8am – 10pm

Speak to an Advisor - It's Free Enquire Online 0117 440 4704
We use cookies to enhance your customer experience. More detailsGot It