Lenders for your ups and downs
Clifford German explains the attractions of flexible payment mortgages
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Your support makes all the difference.Fixed rate mortgage offers might start disappearing, to be replaced by a new and more expensive range as lenders run out of cash secured at summertime rates. But flexible mortgages seem certain to become more popular in future.
Borrowing on flexible mortgages is usually at variable rates, which will go up and down with the general level of interest rates in the economy.
The real flexibility however comes from the ability to vary the amounts and/or the timing of repayments independently of the current rates of interest. As the table compiled by data providers MoneyFacts shows, around a dozen lenders offer various kinds of flexible mortgages.
Borrowers whose earnings fluctuate from month to month - a category which includes contract workers as well as the outright self-employed - can pay what they can afford, and employees who get an annual bonus can use it to pay down debts instead of financing a seasonal spending spree.
Women who need a career break to bring up children can also take advantage of a flexible mortgage to reduce payments in line with reduced earnings and catch up again when they return to work. Anyone still worried about the risk of a rerun of the property slump plunging them into negative equity has the automatic option of accelerating monthly payments in good times to build up a cushion of equity in case the bad times return.
But it is important to choose the right lenders for your circumstances. Most - but not quite all - will allow overpayments; most also allow borrowers to reduce monthly payments for a while, as their financial circumstances change, and some allow interest and/or capital repayment holidays, provided the initial loan has been reduced sufficiently to create some leeway.
Some lenders, including Bank of Scotland, and the Market Harborough, Tipton & Coseley and Stroud & Swindon building societies, also allow borrowers to use the mortgage account as a kind of bank and draw cheques on the account to pay for home improvements, or indeed any other purpose. Most specify a minimum withdrawal of pounds 500, but there are no restrictions on the use the money is put to, as long as the account has built up enough credit to cover the additional borrowings.
The increase itself is not eligible for Miras even if it is within the pounds 30,000 limit eligible for tax relief. But the flexible mortgage is still a very cheap source of credit, well below the cost of a conventional personal loan, or even cash borrowed on gold cards or the new premium current account planned by NatWest Bank.
Flexible mortgages can be combined with an endowment policy, a pension or PEP, but repayment mortgages will automatically create the headroom needed to re-borrow money when required. With endowment, PEP or pension policies which only repay the loan as a lump sum at the very end of the term, it is necessary to make overpayments first, to create the necessary headroom.
The main drawback to flexible mortgages at present is the cost of the underlying loan. Clydesdale Bank offers some fixed-rate flexible mortgages, and First National BS and Mortgage Trust combine flexible mortgages with up-front discounts, although they limit additional borrowing to a bare pounds 50. But the vast majority of flexible mortgages charge a standard variable rate, with no scope for discounted rates, and rely on the flexible repayment facility to keep borrowers loyal.
Only Stroud & Swindon and Tipton & Coseley offer incentives, in the form of cashbacks rather than discounts, and these are repayable if borrowers do not stay for a set minimum time after they have taken the incentive.
rFirstMortgage, one of the mortgage by phone traders, has opened what it calls the first "mortgage supermarket", offering its own mortgages plus the products of 15 other lenders on its panel. It is becoming increasingly difficult for a single lender to be competitive across the whole range of mortgage options, says chief executive Nick Deutsch.
The range is also targeted at busy borrowers who do not want to shop around and will be attracted by a wide choice from a single source. Regulated insurance products are not supplied so an offer can be made in 15-20 minutes, against the 90-120 minutes a full fact-find may take.
Current offers include fixed rates from 1.95 per cent for a year, 4.35 per cent for two years, 6.45 per cent for three years and 7.24 per cent for five years. Variable rates range from 5.95 per cent with discounts of 3.99 per cent for a year up to 1.52 per cent for five years.
What's on offer on the flexible mortgage front
Product name
Abbey National
Flexi-break
Bank of Scotland
via local branch
Mortgage Direct
Centrebank
Personal Choice
Clydesdale Bank
Flexible Repayment Mtg
First National BS (NI)
Mortgage Trust
Early Payment Plus
Homeloans Direct
Flexible Repayment Mtg
Legal & General Mortgage Servs
Mortgage by Design
Market Harborough Building Soc
Mortgage by Design
Mortgage Express
Choices
Stroud & Swindon Building Soc
Flexible Mortgage
Sun Banking Corp
Reflex Mortgage
Tipton & Coseley Building Society
Lifestyle
Yorkshire Bank
Flexible Payment Mortgage
Variable rate %
7.04
6.99
6.49/6.99 and fixed rates
Any variable product
6.45
6.24
6.99
Any product
6.99
6.99
6.24
6.99
Overpayment
No
Monthly. If lump sum, min pounds 500
Yes
Yes
Monthly. If lump sum up to 20% pa
Monthly min pounds 50. If lump sum min pounds 500
Monthly. If lump sum - Ist 4 yrs 10% of o/s balance
Yes. Min pounds 25
Yes
Lump sum - min pounds 750. Max 3 p.a.
Yes
Monthly fixed for 1 yr. If lump sum no min
Monthly underpayment
No
Yes, maximum o/s balance - 6 monthly instalments
No
Yes within available reserve
Yes, set minimum
Yes within available reserve
Yes, fixed for up to 2 years
Yes
No
No
No
Yes, fixed for 1 year
Lump-sum withdrawal
No
Min pounds 500. Max 12 cheques pa
No
pounds 50 within available reserve
No
Yes within available reserve
Min pounds 500
Yes within available reserve
Min pounds 500, max 6 withdrawals in 12 mth period
Min pounds 750, 3 free withdrawals pa then pounds 25 each
Min pounds 1000. 4 withdrawals pa after 3 mths
No
Payment holiday
per year
After 9 mths, up to 8 int free payments in 1st 5 yrs
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes after 1st year
Yes
No
No
Max 6 mths after 1st yr
No
Additional notes
Bank of Scotland fee pounds 250. Others no fee
Rate 6.49% if bank's buildings and contents inurance arranged
Available on self-certification, max 75%
Incentives - free valuation and pounds 350 towards costs
3% of adv cash rebate. Free insurance offers. Fee pounds 295
If over 95%, overpayment facility only
3% of adv rebated over 1st 3 yrs. (Rmtgs 2% over 2 yrs). Free valuation/legal costs
Fee pounds 150
Advance pounds 50K-pounds 250K
Fee pounds 150 (inc valuation)
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