Once your mortgage application has been accepted in principal, you may have the option of deciding how you repay the loan: on a ‘repayment’ basis, or on an ‘interest only’ basis.

Repayment mortgage

With a repayment mortgage your monthly repayments cover both capital and interest on the loan.

As the term continues, the amount outstanding on the loan reduces so the full amount of the loan will have been repaid at the end of the term as long as you have made all your payments on time.

No other repayment vehicle is needed and it avoids the risk of investing (e.g. in the stock market).

If you remortgage, you may be tempted to extend the end repayment date in order to lower your monthly payments. However this means that the amount you repay overall increases over time.

A Second Charge mortgage is, as the name suggests, a separate and additional mortgage to the homeowner’s main (or first) mortgage.

Second charge mortgages (sometimes known as ‘Homeowner Loans’) are loans which are secured against the borrower’s residential property, and as such, are available only to homeowners. In common with remortgages, second charge mortgages are sometimes used by homeowners to raise money.

When considering a second (‘further’) advance, the lender will take into account the value of the borrower’s home, less any mortgage owed on it. The difference between the two amounts is known as ‘equity’ and provides the lender with security against the loan. If for example, the home is estimated to be worth £300,000 and the amount remaining to be paid on the mortgage is £100,000, the equity is £200,000. In addition to the amount of equity that’s available, the lender will consider the borrowers’ ability to service both mortgages if interest rates were to rise.

In return for not receiving any interest on their savings, the homeowner pays a lower rate of interest on their mortgage: an arrangement known as ‘offsetting’. An Offset mortgage is only available where both the mortgage account and the savings account/accounts are with the same provider.

On a £200,000 mortgage for example, if the homeowner offset £20,000 of their savings against their mortgage, he or she would pay interest on the outstanding balance — i.e. £180,000. As the rates of interest charged on mortgages are usually higher than those paid on savings accounts, offsetting can be more financially advantageous to the borrower.

Furthermore, homeowners can use an Offset Mortgage to either shorten the term of their mortgage, or reduce the monthly repayments. Borrowers who wish to shorten the term of their mortgage would base their monthly repayment on the full £200,000 mortgage and pay more each month than the lender requires them to. Or the homeowner could base their monthly repayment on the lower (offset) figure of £180,000, which would reduce the monthly repayment but the term of the mortgage would remain the same.

A cashback mortgage is an arrangement where the lender pays or rebates to the borrower a sum of money (or some other form of financial benefit/incentive) either on completion of the mortgage or at a later stage. The borrower can use the cashback to help pay some of their property purchase costs such as legal and surveying costs, stamp duty, removals charges or home improvements and repairs.

The amount of cashback the borrower will receive depends on the lender’s requirements: sometimes it is calculated as a percentage of the total mortgage advance and will therefore vary in value, or it may be a fixed and non-negotiable amount. Some mortgage providers insist that the borrower already holds (or opens) a current account with them before they qualify for cashback.

Cashback mortgages are usually associated with standard variable rate or tracker mortgages, although the rate of interest may or may not be higher.

As well as applying an early repayment charge, if a cashback mortgage is redeemed before the end of the agreed term, the lender may ask the borrower to repay all or part of the cashback.

With a tracker mortgage, the rate of interest the borrower pays is linked to a specified index, normally the Bank of England’s (BoE) base rate of interest. So whenever the base rate changes, so does the tracker’s interest rate and the borrower’s monthly repayment. For those reasons, tracker mortgages are known as ‘variable rate’ mortgages.

When interest rates are low, the borrower’s monthly repayment might be less than it would be on a different type of mortgage, such as a fixed rate or standard variable rate mortgage. But when interest rates are high, the reverse is true. And as the rate is likely to vary, the borrower can never be sure exactly when or whether their monthly repayment may change.

In a fixed rate mortgage arrangement, the interest rate is fixed for a pre-determined period of time. The monthly mortgage payment will not change, no matter whether the Bank of England, or the mortgage provider, raises or reduces their interest rates. For the borrower, the advantage of a fixed rate deal is that he or she knows exactly how much their monthly repayment is going to be each month and for how long.

In some instances, the interest rate charged on a fixed rate mortgage can be higher than the interest rates charged for other types of mortgages. The borrower may also have to pay an arrangement fee to set up a fixed-rate deal.

Usually, once a fixed rate arrangement comes to an end, the lender's standard variable rate applies.

As a mortgage is secured against your home, it could be repossessed if you do not keep up the mortgage repayments.

In a Standard Variable Rate (SVR) mortgage, the borrower’s monthly repayments are based on the prevailing rates of interest their lender charges — not the Bank of England (BoE) base rate. In other words, it is entirely the lender’s decision on the rate of interest they charge the borrower.

Although the rate of interest charged in a SVR mortgage can be influenced by changes in BoE base rate, whenever the bank raises or lowers base rate, the lender can do the same, or ignore the change altogether. On occasions, the lender may increase or decrease their rates of interest even if the BoE has not changed theirs.

The rate of interest charged on SVR mortgages can range from 2% - 5% above base rate, or more.

As SVR mortgages do not involve any special financial inducements, they can be more (or less) expensive than other types of mortgages. And unlike fixed rate mortgages where the rate of interest never changes, SVR borrowers can never be certain when their monthly repayment may change.

For those who want to build their own home, a conventional residential mortgage is not an option. Instead, the self-builder would need to apply for a self-build mortgage. Not every lender is active in the self build mortgage market and those that are, tend to charge a higher rate of interest for self build mortgages. Self build mortgages involve regular site inspections, additional administrative tasks and are deemed to carry more risk for the lender than conventional mortgages do. Also, the self build mortgage application can take longer to process than average — five or six months is not unusual.

Key requirements

The lender will want to see detailed plans for the property, an accurate build cost projection, building regulations approval and would expect, at the very least, outline planning permission to have been granted. And rather than the borrower taking on the build, lenders are likely to require a professional builder or a qualified project manager to be appointed.

A relevant life insurance policy enables employers to provide individual death-in-service benefits for their UK-resident employees who are aged 17 - 71 when the policy is established. The policy, which is applied for and paid for by the employer, pays out a tax-free lump sum if the insured employee dies — or is diagnosed with a terminal illness — whilst in the service of the employer.

Relevant life plans are however available only where an employer-to-employee relationship exists — i.e. employees of a limited company. For that reason, relevant life insurance is not available to sole traders, a partnership’s equity partners or equity members of a Limited Liability Partnership

Employees can use a relevant life policy to provide their own individual ‘death in service’ benefits in addition to those offered by their employer’s group life insurance scheme if such a scheme exists. The premiums paid to a relevant life policy and the benefits paid out, are not included in the employee’s annual or lifetime pension allowances. (Relevant life is a term insurance, so the policy has no surrender value.)

It is quite natural for most people to want to make sure their families (and themselves) are going to be financially secure in the event of loss of income, illness or worse.

But with the usual pulls and pushes of daily life, it is all too easy to forget to deal with these considerations.

“I’ll sort it out soon - maybe next week” is a common response.

This is quite an understandable reaction because of the wide variety of different kinds of protection policies available which can appear bewildering and confusing.

Questions such as “what type of cover should I have for myself and my family?” or “what is the correct level of cover?” need the experienced, professional eye of a Financial Adviser to help you understand this complex and wide-ranging subject, and to guide you towards making the right decisions based on your own circumstances.

Financial Protection can include a very broad spectrum, and you might wish to consider protection cover for: