Fees

WATCH out for fees – these are becoming the curse of the serial re-mortgager. A few years ago most application fees on new fixes or discount deals were around £399 or less. Today fees of £699 are common and some lenders charge even more. Depending on the interest rate and the size of your mortgage it can take a long time to recoup these costs in lower monthly payments. So make sure the re-mortgage will make sense. Louise Cuming, head of mortgages at Money Supermarket says the bigger your mortgage the more likely it is that big fees are worth paying. People with loans of £100,000 or less might be better off with a higher interest rate and lower re-mortgage fees. ‘The way to find out is to add up the total cost of the re-mortgage plus a few years of monthly payments. Only then can you compare deals properly,’ she says.