Common questions

• Can I get a mortgage offer before I find my property?
• Must I clear my home loan by a certain age?
• What does APR mean?
• What if I want to release the equity in my home?
• How do I repay capital with an interest-only loan?
• Do I always need life insurance?
• What other costs might I incur in taking out a mortgage?
• What is the difference between a Standard Variable Rate (SVR) and a Tracker Rate?
• What is a Higher Lending Charge (HLC)?
• What is the Early Repayment Charge for my mortgage?
• What if I want to rent out my place?
• What if I lose my job?
• What if I am having trouble paying my mortgage?
• What Mortgage Exit Administration Fee/Sealing Fee will I pay?

You can choose the mortgage that suits you best and get an 'agreement in principle' from a lender. However, your lender won't make a formal mortgage offer until a valuation has been carried out on the property you wish to buy or remortgage.

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A mortgage is usually designed to finish no later than your normal retirement age. That age is taken as 65 for employed people (male and female) and 70 for the self-employed. Some lenders will consider a longer term if you have enough income after retirement.

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APR stands for Annual Percentage Rate. A lender is always required to quote the APR when advertising a loan or borrowing rate. The APR calculates the total amount of interest that will be paid over the entire period of the loan. It must also take into account charges which the borrower has to pay in order to obtain the loan and during the loan period (such as lenders fees, valuation and legal fees etc). The purpose of APR is to help you compare the true cost of borrowing.

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If you're aged 60 or over and you'd like extra cash to enhance your lifestyle, you could release the money tied up in your home with our Lifetime Mortgage.

Find out more about our Lifetime Mortgage.

If you're under 60, take a look at borrowing more.

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Interest-only mortgages pay off only the interest on your loan, not the money you borrowed in the first place. In order to repay the capital borrowed, you normally save money in a separate plan. The main options for saving in this way are by using an Individual Savings Account (ISA), an endowment policy or a pension.

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When you take out a home loan, your lender needs to be sure that you'll be able to pay it back, even if you lose your job, become unwell for a long period or die. Find out more about life insurance.

Because of this, many lenders insist you buy life cover when you take out your mortgage. We strongly recommend you take out an appropriate life cover policy for the value of your mortgage. We can give you a quotation.

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When you take out a mortgage you should be aware that, on top of the mortgage cost, you're likely to have to pay a valuation fee and booking fee for fixed rates yes on application. You'll also need to pay arrangement and search fees, land registry fees and legal costs, as well as stamp duty on properties over £125,000.

Once you own your property, your lender will insist that you take out adequate buildings insurance and it is advisable, but not compulsory, to take out contents insurance as well as sickness and unemployment insurance, for your own peace of mind. Find out more about insuring your property.

Some mortgages offer a free valuation, or a refund on or after completion, whilst others include cashback sums that you can use to offset your costs. If you are remortgaging your property, you may also find that your new lender will offer to pay some or all of the legal costs.

You should always look at the total mortgage package and not just focus on costs or just on the interest rate.

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The SVR of each lender is set by that lender and they can vary it at any time. Although lenders normally change their SVR as a result of The Bank of England Base Rate changing, they don't always change them by the same amount.

With a tracker rate, the mortgage tracks an independently set interest rate, such as The Bank of England Base Rate. The benefit of a tracker mortgage is that you are guaranteed that any falls in interest rates will be passed on to you, usually from the beginning of the month after the rate change. However, any rises in rates are also guaranteed to be passed on to you.

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The Higher Lending Charge is a fee that reflects the increased risk to the lender when the loan is a large percentage of the value of the property. (The lender may agree that you can add the Higher Lending Charge to your mortgage, although this means that you will pay interest on it). For NatWest, the Higher Lending Charge rate is 7.3% for loans between 90.01% and 95%.

HLC example

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Your existing Terms & Conditions and/or Offer Letter will detail when an Early Repayment Charge is payable and how it is calculated.

If you would like to find out how much your Early Repayment Charge is, please call our Customer Service team on 0845 302 0190.

Lines are open Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm.

Alternatively, write to our Customer Service team at the following address:

PO Box 156, Brindley Place, Birmingham B2 2BN.

If your existing Terms & Conditions refer to a 'Charge Rate' in calculating the Early Repayment Charge, reference should be made to the table below.

Note: if exactly three years and six months remain on your fixed rate at the time you repay your mortgage, the Early Repayment Charge Rate used to calculate the Charge would be the four-year rate. If three years and five months remain at the time you repay your mortgage, the three-year rate will be used.

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You'll need to tell us. We usually grant consent, for a fee of £100. You can remain on your existing deal until that ends. When you take a new deal, if you are renting the property out, you'll need to select a rate from our attractive range of buy-to-let products.

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You must tell us immediately of any change in your circumstances that could affect your ability to meet your mortgage repayments.

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Treating you fairly when you cannot pay your mortgage

If you are having trouble paying your mortgage, we will treat you fairly.

We will:

• contact you as soon as possible to discuss your problem;
• talk to agencies who give advice (for example, Citizens’ Advice) and are acting on your behalf if you want us to;
• give you a reasonable time to pay back the debt; and
• only start proceedings to repossess your home if we cannot solve the problem with you.

We might be able to:

• arrange a new payment plan with you taking your and our interests into account;
• change the way you make your payments or the date you make them;
• allow you to pay back your mortgage over a longer period of time (which could reduce your monthly payments). This may increase the total amount you pay back; or
• change the type of mortgage.

If we cannot do any of these things, we will tell you why. If we can make one of these arrangements with you, we will explain how it would work and give you an agreed period of time to consider it first.

What you can do to help us:

• Tell us as soon as possible if you are having problems repaying your mortgage, or anticipate having problems.
• Get in touch with us quickly if we try to contact you.
• Make sure you keep any other people paying the mortgage, and anyone guaranteeing the mortgage, up to date with what is happening.
• Keep to the payment plan we agree with you. If you do not make the payments, we might have to go to court to get back any money you owe us or to repossess your property.
• Check whether you can get any state benefits or tax credits.
• If you have an insurance policy, check whether it would help with your payments.
• Tell us if you move to a new address.

You may want to talk to a professional adviser, such as a debt counsellor or a lawyer, before you change your mortgage arrangements.

Costs and charges

We may charge you for administrative and legal costs. We will tell you the amount you will have to pay.

If we cannot agree on a solution

• If we cannot agree on a payment plan with you, we may go to court to start proceedings to repossess your home.
• We will keep trying to solve the problem with you, by talking to you about a payment plan, throughout the process or assisting you with the sale of your property.
• Before we repossess your home, we will give you advice about getting in touch with your local authority to see if they can find you somewhere else to live.

If we repossess your home

• We will sell it for the best price we can reasonably get. We will try to sell it as soon as possible.
• We will give you reasonable time to take your possessions from your home.
• We will use the money raised from selling your home to pay your mortgage first, then any other loans or charges secured on the property.
• If there is any money left over, we will pay it to you.

If selling your home does not raise enough money to pay off the mortgage

• If there is not enough money from the sale to pay the whole mortgage, you will still owe us the amount that is left. We will tell you what this is as soon as possible and contact you for you to arrange to pay back what you still owe.
• If you bought your home with other people, each of you is responsible for all the money borrowed. This is true even if you normally only pay part of the mortgage.
• We will take account of your income and outgoings when we arrange a payment plan with you. But if we cannot arrange a suitable plan, we may go to court to get our money back. You might have to pay the court costs.
• Not being able to pay off your mortgage could affect whether you are able to get credit in future.

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If your Offer of Loan is dated after 31 July you will not pay this fee. In all other cases you will pay the fee applicable at the time you entered into your last contract with the Bank. This date will either be when your original mortgage was drawn down, or when your contract was varied by a further advance or product change.

If you have any concerns or queries regarding this matter please write to Mortgage Operations, PO Box 19505, Greenock, PA15 1EF or telephone us on the numbers below and a member of staff will be able to help.

Contact numbers:
NatWest - 0845 302 0190
(NatWest Offset - 0845 300 4012)

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