Experience has shown it is vital you critique your finances often. Equity release schemes are no exception.
Who would have believed that 8 years ago, with essentially a handful of providers namely Norwich Union, Northern Rock, Hodge & Mortgage Express were the only firms in the market. How times have changed!
The industry now has more than 20 suppliers competing for company. This has proved a healthy scenario given the inflexibility & greater interest rates of the earlier plans & enabled such schemes to create towards the significantly more flexible & competitive plans they are nowadays. But complacency must not prevail.
Competition with the equity release providers has created new techniques of releasing equity & consequently driven interest rates lower.
It is one of these former companies Mortgage Express that is of concern.
Customers of Mortgage Express who have equity release schemes with them have received communication over the past months detailing an intriguing scenario.
Mortgage Express had been 1 of the earlier corporations to lately suffer from the credit crunch immediately after primarily becoming caught out in the order-to-let market place of which they were a major player. They are a subsiduary of the Bradford & Bingley.
Due to the lending difficulties they have seasoned they have now closed to new enterprise & consequently have written to its mortgagors such as holders of its equity release schemes. They are willing to release these mortgages, without penalty to a new equity release business of your selection.
For strategy holders of the aforementioned it is a large choice to make as some of their schemes have interest rates as low as 5.99%, but some as high as 8%.
So would it be worth remortgaging?
The answer lies in the following elements present property worth, age, interest rate at inception & the increased balance of the plan. This is exactly where independent monetary guidance is vital.
Analysis can show where any break even point is. This will confirm irrespective of whether there would be any benefit in transferring your Mortgage Express scheme to a new lender. Study is conducted from the complete of the industry & dependent on your requirements, a recommendation can be made from a panel of more than 20 suppliers.
Fees are an very important element in the equation as they can detract any apparent gains of moving to a lower interest rate. This is where specialist deals with lenders are of help, as the lower the transfer costs are, the earlier the break even point is for justifying a remortgage.
The lowest interest rate at the time of writing is 5.79% with LV=, hence for some consumers significant financial savings can be created, nevertheless this rate is not readily available to everybody & independent guidance ought to generally be sought.
