Switching Mortgage lenders

New and more attractive mortgage products appear on a regular basis, so it pays to keep up-to-date on deals available to ensure that your current deal remains competitive.

If a better mortgage deal comes on the market, it might be worth considering switching mortgage lender. As costs nearly always apply when switching it might be easier just to ask you existing lender to offer you a better rate first.

Nonetheless, weigh up the cost of switching mortgage, including penalties and fees against any 'better' offer that your current lender says they will provide before making a decision.

Cost of switiching a mortgage may include:

• valuation fees (you may be able to have the new lender pay this cost),
• legal fees and associates charges (lenders may pay these costs),
• penalty fees to your existing lender for breaking a fixed rate loan if you don’t already have a variable rate mortgage.