Early Repayment Charges (ERC’s)

A charge levied by the mortgage lender on the customer in the event that the loan is repaid in full or in part before a date specified in the contract. Fixed-rate, capped-rate, cashback and discount rate mortgages commonly carry early repayment charges that can in some cases persist long after the initial special rate itself has expired. This can make it prohibitively expensive to move to a rival lender in the first few years of the loan. The John Charcol web site shows you the size of any early repayment charge and how it changes over time.

Employment Status

A term used by lenders to describe potential borrowers’ working arrangements. Self-employed applicants are sometimes seen as a greater risk than employees are. But many specialist lenders and mortgages have emerged in recent years designed specially for different types of employment status, and the John Charcol website has a wide variety of these in its database.

Endowment Mortgage

A mortgage funded by an insurance-based savings plan. The borrower only pays interest during the mortgage term and the savings plan is designed to repay the mortgage at the end of the mortgage term. As the returns payable under the savings plan depend on stock market performance, shortfalls and in some instances overpayments can occur.

Exchange of Contracts

The terms of a property’s purchase become legally binding for both parties when contracts are exchanged. The buyer is then committed to buying, and the seller to selling. As a buyer, you should normally ensure that you are covered by building insurance from this date, because even if the property were damaged badly, you would still have to buy it.

Execution-only/Non-advice

A service which offers no advice, but merely carries out the customer’s orders.