What is Family Income Benefit?

Many people make sure that their mortgage is paid off in the unfortunate event of their early death, but few people consider where their income would come from if a partner died and they had to stay at home or go part time to bring up the children.
Family Income Benefit of FIB provides an income on death for a fixed period of time, usually until the children have gone into work, or University. Every client I quote for FIB is always amazed at how little the monthly premiums are for such important cover.

Life is not over with CCJ's

I increasingly get calls from people either with a mortgage or looking for one who have got either a default notice or worse still a CCJ. Lenders used to flutter their eyelashes at these people and think about the increased margins, however they are now as welcome as a new TV series about Essex girls in Essex!

If you have bad credit registered over 2 years ago, all is not lost. A few lenders will offer deals at lower 70% Loan to Value. If you have had adverse credit registered in the last 12 months, things still look very bleak.

A glimmer of hope would be opening a bank account with a lender like Barclays and manage your bank account as though it is one of the family, pay your wages in and be proud to look at your statement at the end of each and every month. Barclays might just after 6 or 12 months give you a pre-approved mortgage limit which requires no further credit checking.

To Fix or Not to Fix?

Many clients ask me at the moment whether to fix their mortgage or go for a base rate tracker. As always my advice is client specific, but their are a few issues to consider when deciding whether to fix or not. With the base rate so low, it is very tempting to so for a low tracker rate. However, if the base rate was to increase to say 4%, these same tracker rates look almost disastrous, especially if you are on a tracker 3% or above over base.

As for fixed, I have always had a golden rule. If you can fix under 5%, fixed it for as long as you can! I had many clients go for a 10 year fixed at 4.99% some months ago. I think this could prove to be great value.

My concern with 2 or 3 year deals for both tracker and fixed rates is that the arrangement fees are getting ridiculous!

Exercise your Credit

In this post credit crunch age, where lenders are seemingly looking for any excuse to refuse you a mortgage, it is worth spending a bit of time making sure that your credit file looks lean and mean.
I frequently have applications refused because people have paid their credit card bills a day or two late, thinking that it wont be a problem. YES IT WILL.
If you haven't done so already get a copy of your credit file from experian and/or equifax and view it as though YOU were a lender. This tends to sharpened your mind and ensure you pay bills early if necessary to keep your credit in tip top shape.