Jonathan Tullett

Last night, while waiting for my chicken soup to defrost, I attacked the ever growing pile of paper work. It was a bloody battle, but there could only be one winner. Me. HAHAHA!

I did my usual trick of throwing most of it out – if I can get it online if I need it again, or if I don’t get a feeling I should keep it, it goes. It’s amazing quite how much stuff I accumulate in a short space of time, though it was probably exagerated by all the recent remortgage paperwork.

I also spent a while researching why Scottish Widows said I failed their credit check. It appears that having bank accounts with zero balances can negatively impact, and also having lots of accounts can work against you too. I’m guilty of both.

So last night I wrote letters to the high street banks I use requesting they close down some accounts, and phoned the non-high street banks to do the same. Why the high street ones won’t allow you to close accounts by phone I have no idea, really annoying. Once completed, hopefully I won’t have any further credit issues.

On a related note, and further to an earlier post (thanks to all who replied), I’ve decided I’m going to switch my HSBC accounts over to Abbey. Wish me luck, there’s a lot which can go wrong.

My last mortgage deal, taken out when we moved to Orpington, comes to an end in December.

About a month ago I started looking around. Following the download of a document from the Money Saving Expert website, I decided to use London & Country, a fee-free mortgage broker; they are full market, and advise on specific mortgages.

I had two requirements for a fixed mortgage: low rate (HA!), and being able to offset my savings against the debt.

The first deal they came up with was with Scottish Widows. On the surface was a great deal, fixed at 1.39% above the Scottish Widows Base Rate (which at the time was the same as the BoE rate) for the term of the mortgage and no arrangement fee; they’d also refund the valuation fee. Despite passing the preliminaries, they said I failed the credit score and the maximum they’d lend was £35k less than I was asking for. Enquiries against my credit score showed they were lying; my score is almost perfect (999/1000). When pressed on that point they changed their story and said I failed for other reasons, which they wouldn’t disclose. I won’t be dealing with them again.

Moving swiftly on, the next best offer was from Intelligent Finance. Fixed at 1.59% above the BoE rate for the life of the mortgage, it looked like a good deal. The biggest downside was the £430 valuation fee and the £1000 arrangement fee., though given the current with deals disappearing by the day, not a deal breaker.

Within a week the valuer had been round, and the news was good. A week later, despite saying I wanted to complete in January, I received a call from the conveyencer saying we could complete yesterday – just two weeks after first contacting them. The fee to terminate my previous agreement early was tiny, I said we should go ahead.

I’ve just spoken to IF and, indeed, it has completed. I’m stunned. It has been, apart from the arrangement and valuation fees, painless.

My timing was excellent: since the rate cut last week, IF have pulled all their trackers off the market. As it’s a rate fixed for the term, I’m likely not to need to remortgage again. I am a very happy bunny.

A+++++ transaction, would do business again.