Hi,

We have just gone for this remortgage deal with HSBC. We went to two independent IFA'a first, the first one we went too was flippant and dismissive and the second one gave bad advice. I was on a two year deal with Halifax at 4.49%. The best they could offer me on remortgage was around 6.5%. The .23% over BER is good and for the life of the mortgage so works out as a low APR of 5.7% compared to other loans. I wanted a more long term deal than two years again as some of the arrangement fees for changing are really high and counteract the low interest rate they are offering. Anyway, HSBC were good to deal with, they were able to give a decision quickly, there are no early repayment fees or tie-ins so if interest rates do go crazy you can go onto a fixed rate. They give you a free valuation and legal fees, in fact I think if you are in England and Wales they do it in house so it goes through quite quickly. We are in Northern Ireland. I found them very good and preferred going directly to the lender rather than using an IFA (you can't get HSBC mortgages through an IFA). You get a quicker decision. The £599 fee has to be paid up front, it can not be included with the mortgage. I wanted to act quickly as good deals are disappearing and any low rates had a massive arrangement fee, some of up to £1999!

Still looking around at remortgage deals - I've noticed a lifetime tracker of 5.48% (+.23% above BER) with HSBC with arrangement fee of £599.

We have 8 years left on our mortgage with £60K still to pay - trying to decide if to take this offer now (our current deal runs out 3.5.08 and our current provider isn't offering much to replace it) or to run risk of even more deals disappearing (I notice the Direct Line fixed rate I was interested in has now gone)

Any thoughts?

Cheers