5 Tools to Help You Get a Good Mortgage

Getting a mortgage is like a right of passage for young adults. When we look to start a new chapter of our lives, getting a mortgage seems like the natural step. Buying your first home introduces a whole new level of responsibility. But how can you ensure that you get a good mortgage deal?

With the complexities of the mortgage process in the UK—different interest rates, lender terms, and the stress of ensuring you get a good deal—it can feel overwhelming.

Thankfully, there are several tools that can help make the journey smoother. Whether you’re a first-time buyer or looking to remortgage, here are five essential tools to help you secure a good mortgage in the UK.

Tools to Help You Get a Good Mortgage:

Tools to Help You Get a Good Mortgage

Credit Score Monitoring Tools

Your credit score is one of the key factors lenders will look at when deciding whether to approve your mortgage and at what interest rate. A good credit score can mean better deals, so it’s crucial to keep an eye on it and take steps to improve it where necessary.

Popular credit score tools:

Experian
ClearScore
Equifax

These services offer free access to your credit report and provide tips on how to improve your score, such as paying down debts or correcting any inaccuracies on your report.

Most of the top credit rating agencies have five categories for credit scores: excellent, good, fair, poor and very poor. The exact score you need for a mortgage application will vary from lender to lender. But the higher your credit score, the better your chances of getting the best deal.

A Robust Budget

When applying for a mortgage it is important for you to set out a budget that you can stick to. When I was in the process of applying for my mortgage I used a spreadsheet to calculate all my incomings and outgoings. Setting a realistic budget will allow you to have a better understanding of what house you can afford; specifically the monthly repayments you will need to make.

Remember when budgeting to think about the monthly costs of having a house such as utility bills, your daily commute and your food shop. You need to be sure that you can comfortably afford to live in your home and have your lifestyle. Bonus: saving up an emergency fund will help you navigate any financial emergencies that you might encounter as a homeowner.

Mortgage Calculators

Before you even start applying for a mortgage, it’s crucial to understand how much you can realistically afford. By using a mortgage calculator you’ll be able to find out what your monthly repayments will be, determine if you are better off renting or buying a home, and calculate the minimum income required to your dream home.

MortgageCalculators.info is a great resource and has a whole range of money saving calculators to help you make calculated decisions on the following topics:

Rent or buy?
Extra payments
Refinancing
Second mortgages
Reverse mortgages

Look through the list of calculators to find the one that best fits your circumstances. A good mortgage deal is the one that suits your circumstances the best.

A Mortgage Advisor

A mortgage adviser (also known as a mortgage broker) is a specialist with in-depth knowledge of the market. They’re able to look at a range of financial products and get a good mortgage deal that will suit your needs. It’s a good idea to speak to a few of them to see what’s on offer.

In some cases, it can be well worth looking for a mortgage advisor that can work with your specific career. This is particularly important for those who don’t earn traditional salaries, like people who are self-employed or in the military. You will be surprised to find how many professionals like this can be found with a quick search around the web.

My advisor is the reason I have my home. I was originally rejected for a mortgage but it was my advisor that managed to find me a new deal and make sure that this one was accepted.

Comparison Sites

One of the easiest ways to start your mortgage search is with a mortgage comparison site. These platforms allow you to compare deals from various lenders quickly, giving you an overview of the best interest rates and terms based on your financial situation.

Popular mortgage comparison sites:

MoneySuperMarket
Compare the Market
MoneyFacts

These sites often offer filters to help with your mortgage comparisons, so you can narrow down your search based on mortgage type (fixed vs variable), term length, and loan-to-value ratio. It’s a good idea to start here to get a sense of what’s available in the market, but bear in mind that not all lenders list their products on comparison sites, so this should be your starting point rather than your only resource.

Sprive App

The Sprive app helps you to pay off your mortgage early. Using its smart calculator, it saves small regular amounts that you can later use to make mortgage overpayments. You can also earn cashback through Sprive to use towards making additional mortgage payments.

You’ll get a free £5 when you sign up, use the referral code below and buy your first gift card in the app.

Sprive referral code: BEEMONEY

Download Sprive