Ask the experts

About our experts...

At John Charcol, we are constantly asked for advice by borrowers on what they should do when it comes to mortgages.  As such, we created this section so that you can submit your questions to our experts.  The answers are provided by a number of people who have years of experience in the mortgage market.  The team is led by Peter Woodward who works in our technical department.  Peter spent his formative years as an underwriter with one of the major UK lenders so what he doesn't know, quite frankly, isn't worth knowing...

So please do submit your question and we will do all we can to answer it as quickly as possible

Please be aware that these answers can only be generic and no personal recommendations can be made.


Posted on 3 April 2009

I have equity of 130000 in a property valued at 150000. I want to buy a second property to retire to in 3 years when I will be 60. In the meantime I would like to rent out this second property.

 

I have an income of £48000 and...

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Category: Buy-to-let, Interest only vs repayment, Legal matters, Remortgaging, Tax issues


Posted on 27 February 2008

My house is valued at around £400,000 and I currently have a mortgage balance of £137,000 owing and a term of 8 years. I'm currently earning £65,000 - £70,000 (salary+pension) per year & paying approx £20,000 in tax. I'm allowed...

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Category: Interest only vs repayment


Posted on 6 February 2008

I have an interest only mortgage with Northern Rock of £180,000. I am 61 years old. I need to change the mortgage to a repayment but will the repayments be too high? Should I transfer to another lender? Also I want to buy a...

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Category: Interest only vs repayment


Posted on 28 January 2008

We have an interest only mortgage of £25000 with 18 months left of our 25 year term. We also have a repayment mortgage on the same property with £8489.00 owing over 4 years. Our endowment policy will not meet the £25,000 target...

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Category: Interest only vs repayment, Mortgages in retirement


Posted on 28 January 2008

If I took out a interest only mortgage say of £142,000 over 22 years and was allowed to pay an extra 10% a year if I paid the extra each month as if it was a repayment mortgage and never missed a payment would the extra money...

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Category: Interest only vs repayment


Posted on 7 November 2007

We have a joint mortgage on a 10 year term, £80,000 interest only & £53,000 on repayment total £133,000. The house is currently valued at £300,000. Our current tracker ends in Jan 2008 so we are looking to remortgage now. In July...

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Category: Interest only vs repayment, Overpayments, Payment Holdays, underpayments, Borrowback, Remortgaging


Posted on 16 October 2007

I have just found out from my widowed mother in law that she is still paying for a mortgage on her house and she's 76. It appears my father in law took out a mortgage called a life time mortgage with the Halifax and no life...

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Category: Interest only vs repayment


Posted on 4 October 2007

I have a Interest only mortgage for £128,449 but looking to covert that into a repayment mortgage, as I want to start killing off the mortgage instead of just renting out the Money. What options can you offer me?

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Category: Interest only vs repayment


Posted on 10 September 2007

What is the cheapest way of me getting a mortgage of £120k so that my payments are as low as possible for the first 12 months?

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Category: Interest only vs repayment, Lower mortgage payments, Remortgaging


Posted on 7 September 2007

I am trying to get a mortgage to buy out my husband as we have now separated. At present I earn £45,828 as a headteacher. Our house has been valued at £375,000.  We have an interest only mortgage of 120,000 and I would have...

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Category: Interest only vs repayment, Lower mortgage payments, Mortgages in retirement, Remortgaging, Valuations, Freehold, leases & unusual property


Posted on 6 September 2007

I am trying to find a mortgage calculator to provide guidence to establish the cost at variance interest rates on a part interest, part repayment format - Can you help?

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Category: Interest only vs repayment, Lower mortgage payments


Posted on 1 September 2007

I have a 38k mortgage with 12k on capital and interest and the remaining 26k on interest only. It still has 7 years to run. As I'm 2/3rds through a fixed 3 year term I've been overpaying £500 a month with the aim of paying it...

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Category: Interest only vs repayment, Lower mortgage payments, Overpayments, Payment Holdays, underpayments, Borrowback


Posted on 20 August 2007

Hi, I am looking at remortgaging at the end of my fixed rate and want a flexible loan, but dont know whether to go for repayment or interest only, and overpay.  The loan is for £130,000 fixed at 6.39% for 15 years with...

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Category: Interest only vs repayment, Lower mortgage payments, Overpayments, Payment Holdays, underpayments, Borrowback, Remortgaging


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