| 17 months to pay off your application fee
Mortgage application fees are on the up and research from Moneysupermarket.com shows that it could take up to 17 months to pay off the application fee for your mortgage. According to the research from the financial comparison site, a Northern Rock two year fixed rate deal with an application fee of £5,250 on a £150,000 mortgage could mean that you spend 17 months repaying the application fee and only seven months repaying the mortgage debt. An Abbey deal with a lower rate would mean paying off the application fee in just four months. With increases in the Bank of England base rate and more fixed rate products on the mortgage market, homebuyers may have difficulty in finding deals that don’t have high application fees. There are two options for avoiding what Moneysupermarket.com calls a 'fee sentence'.
30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Rises as Fed Discusses Inflation
Bankrate Inc.'s national weekly mortgage survey of large lenders has concluded that The Federal Reserve Board's concerns over a possible recession have prompted the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to jump from 6.19 percent to 6.22 percent this week. Meanwhile, the 15-year fixed rate mortgage dropped from 5.93 percent to 5.92 percent, and the 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage fell from 6.08 percent to 6.05 percent.According to Bankrate, fixed-rate mortgages, which are popular refinancing models for borrowers, remain lower than last summer when the Fed raised interest rates.In its latest report, Bankrate offered a market comparison, which shows a $165,000 home loan with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage would cost a borrower $1,090.00 per month under last summer's rates. Under the current interest rate of 6.22 percent, the buyer's monthly mortgage payments would drop to $1,012.72 per month.Bankrate's news of the increasing 30-year fixed-rate mortgage comes on the heels of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony in front of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee.
Bank interest comparison rate on way out
Just as superannuation advocates from the low-cost segment have been promoting more standardised fee measures, the model for which was the banking sectors 'comparison rate', it looks like the banking sector is set to dump its comparison measure after it has been found to be a failure. The Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA), which represents mortgage brokers, said state governments were maintaining a complex and costly system that had not served consumers when available research made its failings clear. But Cannexs Mara Bun, said the idea of comparison rates was a good one and the problems in the current arrangement could be fixed. Comparison rates add fees and charges to the interest rate as a way of comparing the full cost of one loan with another.
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