You have read about everything under the sun about mortgages and the reasons why things are the way they are. The banks are to blame because they didn’t have the forethought to realise that high interest rates combined with balloon payments would mean big trouble for the little guy. They didn’t take the time to study the employment trends and when they did crash didn’t bother to do anything about it. There came a time shortly after when the balloon payments were becoming due and people just could not afford to pay them back. This wound up being a good thing for those seeking to remortgage because the lending companies were needing to increase a customer base.

Under many circumstances you need a provable source of income in order to remortgage. Being self employed can cause several issues to arise with the lending institutions and they may have a different process to go through when applying. Being self employed affords you the ability of basically claiming what you want to for tax and insurance purposes but this can also hurt you when you are looking to remortgage your loan with another lender (or attempting to do so with your current lender). This is where self-certification comes in to play.

Nearly a decade ago self-certification was created so that those that opted for self-employment could state their earnings and to certify them. This is an important step to being able to remortgage as you will be showing your income. The commercial sector has the same thing these days and exists for:

*Sole Proprietor

*Limited Company

*Partnership

In the private sector many of the mortgage brokers and bank lenders are of the mindset that each individual person should be judged; accepted or denied on their own merit. These days the bankers are fully aware that we do not live in the utopia that we would have hoped we would. The world certainly is not perfect. Balloon payments, high interest rates and subsequently high monthly payments combined with other lingering bills and those unforeseen ones it is even harder today. Life is never easy and times of hardship and turmoil are inevitable. The same especially applies to small businesses.

When you own your own business you are not just responsible for your own hide but for everyone that works for you. Your business has to remain above water and functioning in despite of all of the financial hardships of the outside world. Regardless of all of those issues your business will be suffering and if you own property and are considered to be one of the general public then you could be in trouble as well. You have our own bills to pay on top of those of your business.

As an individual you may be suffering alongside everyone else but your business has to operate as its own thing. Thankfully lending institutions seem to appreciate their business customers more than their individual customers. They realise in order for society to function there needs to be a strong business model that can expand despite the financial woes. These strong connections between lenders and businesses have created a product where up to 95% (not less than 85%) of the property value can be loaned without proof of equity.

The Limits of Self-Certification

As a business you need to protect your assets and one way is to self-certify your earnings. This way you are able to prove how much you make from your business. This is important to lenders because they can then decide how much you can afford, what interest rates to charge and your type of loan. The down side here is that they expect you to borrow a lot of money. They will typically provide 75% to the loan value but what this transfers to is a considerable deposit. In rare circumstances a lender may allow a self-employed customer the ability to borrow from 85% to 95% if they have a self-certification of income and this is based on the current commercial mortgage numbers and your broker. It is their job to find you the cheapest loan product that fits your needs and flexible enough for you to breathe just in case of bad times.

Looking for the Best Remortgage Value

Being able to find the correct mortgage for your needs is an incredibly important decision for your financial well-being. There is no doubt in my mind, as a business owner myself, and in your mind as someone who is in the same situation as I was, that the survival of the business is paramount. Looking for a lender is like browsing the supermarket aisles for the products that have coupons by their shelves. Even if you are saving just a small amount of money you are still saving money. I will look for products where I barely save 1p or 2p – it’s just how I continually save funds because over time it does add up.

From a very early age we were always told by our parents to finish the food on our plate because they worked hard to provide for you. When we are young we really don’t see it from their point of view because we are kids, supply demand and waste of supply just does not factor in to our young minds. When we get older this changes quite rapidly. We realize that we buy food, we cook it and then we consume it. What we don’t eat is thrown away and that is money lost. As a business we can live and die on the amount of waste that we produce.

Inflation is one of the few constants that we can count on. The cost of petrol and every day housing goods serve as testament to this fact. A decade ago we would have never figured that a loaf of bread would reach £1! It is crazy to think what another decade would do – are we going to be paying £10 a loaf!? Think of UK property as a loaf of bread. Inflation hits the housing market just like it hits others. The average first time buyer home mortgage is currently hovering around the £100,000 mark.
The old saying is that a man’s home is his castle but when you own a small home you don’t want the rates of owning an actual castle! It is bad enough that we are at the £160,000 average property value. What this means for us is that remortgaging now can save us a lot of money later on getting a variable and open rate so that we can review and remortgage without much penalty.

Remortgaging in the UK

If you let emotions get in the way of what needs to be done you will find yourself in a world of hurt. It is hard to remove yourself from a situation in order to make the best decision possible. You need to look at the financial situation as it is: math. It is all about the numbers game and you just need to learn how to play it. Assume you have a mortgage in the £100,000 range and you will save roughly 2% on that number. That means you will have £2,000 savings over a years time. This of course assumes that you can make that percentage and savings each year. You can try to make this savings boon happen for you by shuffling through other lenders and constantly remortgaging when the situation improves in your favor.

What I mean by beneficial is that assuming you get a £2,000 savings a year you could move it to someone else and possibly net a savings of £50,000 a year! That is an astonishing savings over the average of a 25 year mortgage. Why continue lining the pockets of bankers and fat cats when you can take the extra droppings for yourself?

Hard Times are Common

We have all experienced some kind of hard financial times. This is the most common stresser we all share in life. While the big wigs and fat cats sit high upon their ivory towers us little guys, like Oliver with hand outstretched, beg and ask; “Can I have some more, please?” and it falls on deaf ears. Letters from our lenders are as common in the post as catalogs. They enjoy letting us know how much we owe them because a cheque we wrote a month ago did not have enough currency behind it so now we are being asked for a £27 fee. Do not worry because that will be increasing several more times as lenders like to constantly try to put the cheque in to be cashed so it will bounce a few times before they decide to stop or we deposit enough money to cover the cheque and all of the overages.

The lender deserves to be taken to the boxing ring more often. We can do this by remortgaging our current rates. We need to get money out of our property in the form of equity instead of constantly giving them the money. It is our right to get money from our homes instead of the bank getting it. Remortgaging offers us that solution by giving us some savings. It makes one wonder why remortgaging does not occur often? We are, in hindsight, lucky that it does not or else the terms would not be as good as they currently are.

The most basic reason for remortgaging Is to help yourself out with tough bills that are piling up and freeing up some money. But what can you use this money for other than bills?

What You Can Accomplish With a Remortgage

Life unfortunately walks hand in hand with debt. When you are born you are immediately saddled with debt and a credit rating. Over your lifespan you can rack up unfortunate large sums. Owning your own home along with all of the upkeep and taxes that go with it, buying and maintaining a car or attempting to pay back student loans are all debts. Remortgaging can give you the cash you need in order to refinance these numbers to make them lower or to pay them off completely. Besides remortgaging for the usual home reasons you can remortgage for a myriad of other purposes including:

*Money to go to starting a new career. Over time we become annoyed with our present job and just can’t deal with it any longer so we can use the money to go to school. This can help us in our own small business efforts as well.

*Opening a second business location, putting money in to new products or increasing marketing endeavors.

*Hiring new or more employees to better handle the day to day operations so you can take a break.

*Go on a much needed holiday.

The most important reason to remortgage is to stop struggling with high payments to find our own freedom.

Remortgage: What is it?

A remortgage is basically taking a mortgage that you currently have and getting a new one. You can do this by either going with a new company or trying to get your current lender to give in and let you redo what you have at this point in time. You do it in order to take whatever payments you currently have and make them lower so you can afford more things or to release positive equity in your home. A remortgage can be done through your bank, a special mortgage broker or a third party company that exists just for mortgage bartering. Once these guys have done all of the leg work you can put it to use to get the loan at the best rate possible.

Problem Remortgages

This does not mean anything other than being a type of mortgage made for people with bad credit. Nearly 1 in 4 people in the United Kingdom have a bad credit mark at some point. This adverse credit can greatly hinder you as time goes on. People with these problems really should reach out to the professionals that are not connected to any specific lender. This is the only way you can ensure that you will get the best rates possible without a biased opinion.

Lower Payments = The Goal

With the world’s financial health in jeopardy and every person scurrying for dry ground like an escaping rat. Bills are growing and there is no end in sight. The purpose of a remortgage, in all reality, is to get a mortgage that is lower than what we currently have. We need lower interest, lower monthly payments and a longer payback period. The deals are out there especially now with the down turn in the financial market. Your best bet is to find another lender as your current one most likely will not succumb to your pleading. The time to act is now because burying your head in the sand will not make it all go away.

Releasing Equity Through Remortgaging

If you are a good risk that means you were able to avoid any huge financial blunders. Your bills are paid, you have a decent mortgage currently and your home has positive equity in it. What this means for you as someone wanting to remortgage is that you can get money out of your home MORE than what you currently have as a mortgage. Basically you are releasing some of the funds you have already paid. This is great if you have recently lost your job or your property taxes have gone up. It is very much like getting a loan except that the rates are much less than usual plus you have the added bonus of a remortgage rate of low interest and lower payments.

Sometimes a Remortgage is NOT Right

Remortgaging is not not as cut and dry as you would think it would be. It may not be right for you to do it. You have a good job, a decent mortgage rate and you have no lingering bills. Why would you want to risk a remortgage when you will usually have to succumb to a variable rate where your interest will constantly be fluctuating. Remortgaging when you have a good market position can only possibly lead you to paying it back over a longer period of time. If it is not broke; do not fix it. Even if the remortgage appears helpful at this juncture you may be making your short-term loan repayment long-term and wind up paying more without any pension provisions.

Basically you need to think long and hard about remortgaging because it can help you out greatly but can also hinder you down the line. If you are currently in debt and need to get your head above water then remortgage now! The time is right since the market is at a low and bankers are fighting for business. Do not wait until the market decides to turn around or you may be caught between a rock and a hard place. If you have a way out – take it – the risk is minimal and the benefits high. The consequences of faltering and lingering may find your position worsening as time goes on.

Kids are going off to school, you have gotten laid off from work or you have housing issues that need repair NOW not months down the road. Your car is broken down or you have a parent needing professional health care that you just are not capable of giving. All of these things among many, many others is where we wind up finding ourselves going in to debt. Many people are lucky enough to not get so deep in the gutter that they have to file for restructuring of their personal finances. Those that do will find themselves in a hole that could take years of digging to get out of. Bad credit is no laughing matter and remortgaging your home can go a long way to helping to repair it and getting you out of a large mortgage money pit.

The world is not a safe place by any means and anything can happen that we simply do not expect. This current economic hurt is one such situation that no one saw coming. We put a lot of our faith in to the banking institutions to keep us in the light and to warn us of any possible problems on the horizon. That is what we expect from a lender that cares but the reality of it is that they only look after themselves. Their bottom line is the most important thing to them and charging huge interest rates and creating tremendous balloon payments is a way to keep them above water. When the unemployment rate began to climb they started to worry but not enough to do anything about it. Why do nothing you ask? Simple. They figure that if you default on your mortgage due to not being able to pay they would just foreclose on your house then sell it. This where the canoe began to take on water.

Banking institutions were so enthralled with their own highs they ignored the other markers around them staring them right in the face. The end result is a recessed housing market and now banks are really regretting their original “take no action” mentality. If they had the forethought to open their eyes and see the forest through the trees then we may not have this situation upon us. They would have been able to develop products and services to offer a way out before it got to the point where families were losing homes and they sit vacant because it is too expensive and scary to buy right now.

As a homeowner you have a lot of responsibilities to take care of with the most important ones being directed toward your family. Paying off your bills is directly connected to taking care of the family unit but what can you possibly do when one bill that has to be paid interferes with a bill that needs to be paid? In the end the two will clash and your situation will eventually bend. You think that if you send your credit card the minimum payment this month that you can pay more for something else this month and so on. Unfortunately this bending and breaking of important bills just increases debt due to high interest rates. Minimal payments don’t do a thing for you except increase your bad credit. This black mark can ruin your chances for remortgaging and refinancing your bills – but you would be wrong.

If you have bad credit issues such as CCIs, arrears, IVA or even defaults on other loans you may still have a chance to remortgage. The situations that the lending institutions have created by lack of apparent interest have also made it possible for the down and out homeowner to actually get a new mortgage loan despite all of the bad credit issues they may face. With the current state of affairs in the banking, housing and economic markets the lending institutions are more than willing to invite you in to apply for a remortgage.

What Can You Do With A Remortgage

There are many things that can be done when you remortgage your current loan including:

*Home renovations

*Buying a new car

*Debt consolidation

*Pay off a student loan or get one

*Help pay for insurance

*Take a much needed vacation

And many other possible things as you will be able to afford some of them. The most practical thing to do is to remove pesky bills from your credit report so it can be repaired. But if you are one of the lucky few that doesn’t have all of these bills piled up then you could use it for other needs.

The Main Reason To Remortgage

Out of all of the reasons to remortgage the main one has always been to reduce interest. When you first got your loan you were saddled with a less than favorable loan with a gigantic balloon payment after the term of the loan was up. This meant you had to pay your monthly payment, which was not the greatest, and other bills kind of slipped out of your grasp. Even the small bills can be large burdens over time. You figured you could deal with it as needed then your term was up and now you had to pay off a large balloon payment that you simply could not afford. Under normal circumstances you would remortgage with your current lender but thanks to the bleak housing and job markets they weren’t having none of that. The only other option was to seek out other lenders but they weren’t in the lending mood. Fast forward a few years and that has all changed.

Remortgage Now To Repair Credit

At this stage of the game you may think it is too late. Considering everything I have just said you may be more scared than hopeful. This is the band aid part where I pull it off real fast and you come to the conclusion you were worried too much in the first place.

All of these situations you may be in are all horrible and dreadful. They cause undue stress on an already stressful situation. But there is currently hope in the horizon as all of the issues you are facing are also being faced by the lenders who may have told you to pound sand prior to the housing market down turn. Now they are creating products and services to generate appeal to their brands. They are also lowering interest rates and competing against others in the service area to get new customers. You may be with a bank now but you can step out on them and remortgage at a lower interest and thus reduce your payments. Act fast because once the market rises these advantages may disappear

The world is synonymous with the word “turmoil” as at this moment we are staring down the barrel of one of the most recessed economic times in recent memory. Many of the lending institutions have been suffering from the economic down turn as much as the consumer has been. High interest loans are killing your credit. Not to mention that your monthly payments are too high (in part to the high interest and to the lending institution’s own mistakes) and that makes your debt increase. This also opens you up to facing the possibility of having your home taken from you.

This is the time to remortgage though. It may not seem like it at the outset because in most circumstances refinancing during a bad economy but it is your best chance at reducing your mortgage payments and interest rates. There are two ways you can go about reducing your mortgage and each one just takes patience.

Remortgaging with Your Current Lending Institution

You would think that you would have an easier time getting a reduced rate with your current lender, wouldn’t you? The problem is that in most cases your lender does not really care about you. You are already their customer and they figure they have no real reason to continue to impress you. Under some very rare circumstances they will help you out. In the end they will usually just send you on your way. Your current mortgage holder is looking to get new business which you are not. You can attempt to get them to remortgage your loan by pitting them up against other lenders that they compete against.

Dealing with your current lender can go your way if you know how to handle them. They have been hit just as hard as you and the other lending institutions but they like to play a hard game. Though they want to give more aid to the new customers they do rely on their current customers to keep them afloat as there are no guarantees. The threat of parting ways with them may prove to be a great deciding factor in them actually going right ahead and remortgaging your current loan.

Stepping Out and Going with Someone Else

All lending institutions are the same. They enjoy telling us all just how different they are but, in the end, they are completely identical. They virtually have the same products and services, the rates are closely similar because they are constantly competing. One lender executes an interest rate and another got half a percentage below it. They continue until they reach a point where they are losing money. A few years ago everyone was on a high road to heave with pie in the sky dreams of market boons. They didn’t see that all good things must come to an end. As a result the economic turmoil began and homes were being lost.

With this in mind the economic down trend has caused banks to scurry for more business. The interest rates have been dropping and their loopholes have been getting wider. They are making it easier for current homeowners to come to them to remortgage their current loans. You will wind up having to pay a percentage to your current lender as a fee. You may also have to read your loan document’s fine print and see if you have to pay an early repayment fee.

Why Remortgage Now

You are probably thinking that you have really bad credit and that you will not be able to get a mortgage from another lender. It is this thinking that will make you stay with your current lender at a higher interest rate. A remortgage loan will allow you to greatly reduce your current mortgage loan.
You can attempt to renegotiate your current mortgage with your current lender but that is a slim to none chance. Your only way out of this bleak situation is to find your new mortgage loan from a brand new provider. Your interest rate is only but one instance of renegotiation as you also want to rework your terms and conditions.

If you can get the lender to increase your repayment or decrease your interest you will be well on your way to getting your credit back and not losing your home. Going with a new lender may be the only way that you can do this. In essence they will save your financial life by saving you all this money you are used to paying.

The money that you get from remortgaging can go a long way to other facets of your life:

*Between being a homeowner, taking care of your taxes and making sure your home is order there are a lot of bills to take care of. Life is not easy when you have to spend all of your money on those things. When you remortgage you can use those funds to take care of those money issues by consolidating them in to one payment.

*When you own your home there are things that can go wrong: the roof can leak, windows can break, hot water heaters can fail along with many other issues. These are not cheap to fix by any means so your extra money from remortgaging can be used to do all of those much needed repairs you couldn’t otherwise afford.

*Assume you work out of the home like most other people and you need a way to get to and from it in order to make a living. Nothing is perfect and, as such, your car is a requirement for these chores to be taken care of. If your car fails you or needs much needed repairs your remortgage can help you do that.

*Many of us are not pleased with where our lives are and so we think we should change careers. This is a great idea but only if you have the financial means to do so. You will need to still provide for yourself and your family while paying for school. Your remortgage loan can do that for you.

Final Word on Remortgaging Now

At this point in time I know it looks like a really bad idea to remortgage. Jobs are being taken away from hard working people and bills are going unpaid. When your neighbors who were financially stable are now cringing at the thought of losing their home and livelihood. It only makes you take pause and worry about your own situation. You know that your mortgage rates are high but you are scared that they are going to decrease once you decide to remortgage so you wait. I guarantee that now is the right time to take your financial world back. Lenders are on the retreat and are bending over backwards to help out new customers.

Instead of worrying about the what ifs you need to take the bull by the reigns and yank real hard. Tell yourself to slow down and use your head. This is the time to do it while the interest rates are lower than what you are currently suffering with. Keep in mind that you are being proactive and sensible.

Well we were going to put a high ltv mortgage comparison chart on here, but after going through the data there weren’t enough mortgage lenders to create a chart!

Whats LTV ? – Click here to find out

This is the result of the so called credit crunch (lenders are scared)
So you really DO need a deposit, without a deposit you are going to be struggling to get a mortgage, best advice is to speak with an independent advisor (mortgage broker) to try and get around this problem – think accountancy creativity. Or borrow the deposit off your Aunty or Uncle

The good news is we did find a couple of UK lenders that are giving out mortgages based on high 90% + LTV’s so here they are:-

Woolwich – remortgaging only – 90% LTV – 3.49%

Abbey – mortgages, first time buyer mortgages and remortgages – 95% LTV – 7.09%

Halifax – first time buyer – 90% LTV – 6.99%

We are in the middle of a financial crisis not seen since the days of the great depression, market crashes or bombs leveling the city. Asking a bank for a mortgage in today’s market is like pulling teeth with a pair of broken rusty pliers. If the person in charge of lending the money does not actually laugh at you then he or she will most likely put you over the barrel in interest rates. Just 18 to 24 months ago it was easy to get a mortgage with fairly reasonable rates. But now, however; you might as well strap on some spiked boots, grab some floss and try to climb Mt. Olympus. The problem here is that the lending institutions are in the exact same place that you happen to be in – scary is it not?

To say that there is no “secret” to the mortgage game is an understatement. Lending institutions always love to keep their inner circles close to the breast. The fear of losing customers is up on the same level as losing money considering, in all reality, it is the same thing! Bankers see people as money signs more than as human beings. This is what got them in the mess they now see themselves in. They looked at people as money and their lending procedures were too relaxed in order to give them mortgages and other loans. If you had a job you had a mortgage if you wanted one. Unfortunately for them they also gave out small interest rates so the mortgage holders spent less money and less principal came off of the balances! When the bulk of the loans came due the mortgage holders couldn’t pay and their houses were taken by the banks.

Under normal circumstances taking someone’s home is a good thing for the bank as they would sell the house; get their money and a dividend on top of that. Too bad they couldn’t foresee a down turn in the employment market which made buying a home an impossible mission so the lenders wind up sitting on several properties that they simply could not unload and their customer’s could not find work to pay them off. This made an interesting situation for the consumer’s who did not meet a demise in the job market. Banks are now trying to give out mortgages left and right at insane interest rates as a way to make a shift in the housing market occur. Now the stars have aligned and the lenders are scurrying like rats on a sinking ship. Believe it or not buying a home in this market is not a good financial move for you.

Like any other endeavor it pays to research! Use the tools at your disposal. The Internet is the greatest tool that you can use. Research your local bank branches and larger companies that may service your area. Get quotes from as many as you can and find out all of their rules and what not. Once you have this information you can put the ball in your court and pit these lenders against each other to haggle down their fees and rates.

Hints for the First Time Buyers

This market is like a lottery with the person just buying a home for the first time. Except in this lottery you are winning instead of throwing your money away. There are plenty of losing tickets in this current mortgage market but as a first timer buyer and mortgage seeker you will not be scratching off the proverbial dud.

Many new buyers are looking at houses on a greatly recessed market so the prices are a lot less than they have been in previous years. A house that is being sold at a savings (or as a “foreclosure”) means that your mortgage will be less than it should have been in a stable, high-priced market. Since the lenders are feeling the crunch too they are lowering interest rates and waiving fees to entice buyers to pick up a mortgage. The type of market exists because there are is vast amount of sellers than buyers and they aren’t selling a property to buy another one and the sale can sail through the process.

Most lenders want you to supply a deposit to the tune of 15-20% for their basic mortgage packages. All of those “in the know” are not predicting a huge fall in the housing markets for the prices to drop that low. What this means for you is that you are not likely to slip into negative equity territory within the near future. Even if you do get in the hole right out of the gate then your only hindrance will be trying to sell your home or attempting to mortgage in the short term.

Hints for Existing Homeowners

Unfortunately this new market is really meant to suck in new customers. Those of you that still own homes are being looked at as a near lost cause so you will be facing an uphill battle with lenders. Remortgaging when you are are in negative equity is a sure way to find yourself being tossed aside.

Of course you are thinking this is not fair and, you know what? It isn’t. Not by a long shot. What can you do though? You are in negative equity, you own your home and the housing market is in the gutter. The fact of the matter is that selling your home in a low market usually means that you will not get enough money from the sale in order to cover what you owe. With this in mind it is no wonder that a lender would have difficulty wanting to take on the higher risk. When a bank decides to give you a mortgage and the house sells you will have to make up whatever the difference is be it one lump sum or in installments. If you want to “stay put” then you will have to pay your lender’s SVR (standard variable rate) when you reach the end of any fixed term deals.

Now if you are a very lucky person and have evaded finding yourself in negative equity then the lenders should not have a problem talking with you. You may need to jump through a few extra hoops than first time buyers but, in the end, you should be able to reap the same rewards and benefits that they have. The most important aspect of these new loan packages is the lower interest rate which can save your mortgage payments from being so high.

Never be Afraid to Ask a Professional

There is no such thing as a bad question when your financial future is at stake. Getting mortgage advice from a source that knows their stuff is absolutely essential in this mortgage market.

You will need to do some digging in order to find the best rates among lenders. Even though they are more apt to give a loan at a good rate does not mean they want their rates known as “frugal”. Talking to an expert, or doing your own thorough research, will allow you to uncover those hidden deals that are more beneficial to you.