My First Re-Mortgage Experience

I've been well and truly dreading the day I have to re-mortgage my house, especially with the interest rates. I know they've been coming down, but they're still so much higher than they were and what they should be. I got my original mortgage at an interest rate of 2.15% and even that was originally meant to be 1.96% as it cheekily increased by the time the paperwork went through. 

It also brings up so many sad memories and so many tainted ones. I originally went for a two-year fixed rate mortgage because I genuinely thought that by the end of the 2 years, I would be getting a mortgage with my now-husband. Turns out, we never even moved in together and it breaks my heart to know how happy I was the last time I was doing this process. 

I was a little confused about the whole process and really hoped I could just re-mortgage with my current provider which would be so much easier as it would just be a "rate adjustment", but given that I've spend £10,000 on the house, I wanted it to be revalued so that I could have a better Loan to Value (LTV) ratio and unfortunately, if I did that through the current provider, I would have to pay for a valuation through their valuator, despite already having 3 values completed. 

I decided to find a broker that hopefully didn't charge a fee, so I went through L+C who I somewhat used last time, but not for the actual mortgage. I filled in the questionnaire and then had not one but two 1 hour long conversations via the phone. I then had to arrange another appointment and then they wanted another before they would even send the details over. The most they would say was that it was a highstreet bank which was really frustrating. 

I was told through my current provider, with the 70% LTV it would be £850/month, with an interest rate of 5.32%. Another provider would be 5.17% at £843/month, which was 65% LTV. Both for 2 years fixed rate, as I was advised interest rates are likely to reduce so not to go for a longer term. 

I ended up getting frustrated by the constant phone calls, and had to cancel one of the appointments due to a family emergency and then struggled to reschedule it because there was a weekend and then I was on 3 night shifts and had my birthday celebrations, so I ended up looking for myself and despite being told that I had the "best rates", I found my own with Santander for a 2 year fixed rate, 65% LTV, £819/month and 4.89% which I felt much happier with.