Hot Topics

How Much Can I Afford?
You have to be very careful when buying a house to be sure that you will be able to afford the monthly mortgage repayments – as you risk losing your home completely if you find you simply cannot afford it.
How Is Interest Calculated On a Mortgage?
Interest is charged in different ways depending on what kind of mortgage you have.
The Mortgage Glossary
APR - This stands for Annual Percentage Rate and should be used to compare the costs of credit.
Refinance Mortgage
What is a Refinance Mortgage?
Base Rate Tracker Mortgage
A base rate tracker mortgage tracks the Bank Of England’s base interest rate then adds on a additional figure to arrive at the borrowers variable rate. Your monthly mortgage interest payments go up when the base rate goes up and they go down when the base rate goes down. The base rate tracker interest rate is usually between 0.5% and 1.0% above the Bank Of England's Base Rate.

Do I Need a Guarantor?

If your lender is concerned about your ability to meet your mortgage commitments, they may ask you to provide a Guarantor.

If you can provide someone who will promise to support you financially if you cannot meet the mortgage repayments, your mortgage lender will provide you with the advance loan. This will usually be a blood relative. The lender will then look at the income of the guarantor – and they will need to prove that they can cover any mortgage repayments of their own, in addition to yours.

If the borrower defaults, it is then the responsibility of the guarantor to keep up the repayments. The guarantor should seek independent financial advice to ensure that they fully understand the implications of this. A typical example of this would be a parent acting as a guarantor for a student buying a flat. This is also especially likely to occur if you are buying a 100% mortgage, and are unable to raise a deposit.