Don't

DON’T tie yourself to your new lender for too long. The beauty of being a repeat re-mortgager is that you are free to jump on to a better deal the moment your current one ends. In fact experts recommend researching your next deal and applying for it around two months before your current one finishes so you are never made to pay a lender’s high standard rate. Unfortunately some sneaky deals don’t allow this. They carry what the industry calls ‘overhanging redemption penalties’. On a two year discount, for example, you may have to pay redemption penalties if you switch on to a different deal for up to four years. ‘It is hardly ever worth signing up to a deal with overhanging or extended redemption penalties,’ says Ray Boulger of mortgage broker John Charcol. ‘In almost every case re-mortgage customers should make sure they can switch penalty-free as soon as the special offer period on their loan ends.’