Crystal Life’s independent advisers search the whole mortgage market to find the right mortgage and protection for you. 

How we help

• Mortgages and re-mortgages
• Mortgage protection and life assurance for your family
• A shortlist drawn from hundreds of products and lenders
• Honest, open advice, with time to compare your options

Where to find us
Visit our Borehamwood office at Kinetic Business Centre, Theobald Street. Prefer not to travel? We’ll come to you, with home visits out of hours or appointments at your workplace.

Once your mortgage has been agreed in principle, you may have a choice of repayment methods, depending on the lender’s criteria. These include:

• Capital and interest repayment
• Interest-only repayment
• A combination of both

With a capital and interest mortgage, each monthly payment covers the interest charged on your loan, as well as repaying part of the amount you borrowed.

In the early years, a larger proportion of your payment typically goes towards interest. As the outstanding balance reduces, the interest charged generally falls, allowing more of each payment to go towards repaying the capital.

Provided you maintain the agreed payments, the mortgage should be fully repaid by the end of the term.

With an interest-only mortgage, your monthly payments cover the interest on the loan, rather than reducing the amount you owe. This usually means lower monthly payments, but the original loan remains outstanding and must be repaid at the end of the mortgage term.

Lenders will normally require evidence of a credible repayment strategy. This could include:

• Savings or investments
• Pension benefits
• Using bonuses or other irregular income to repay the capital
• Selling another property or a piece of land
• Another repayment method acceptable to the lender

REMORTGAGE

Remortgaging means switching your existing mortgage to a new deal, usually to reduce what you pay. You don’t need to be buying a new home to do it.

You aren’t obliged to stay with your original lender for the whole mortgage term. You can move to another lender, often to get a lower interest rate. Depending on your circumstances, this could save you hundreds or even thousands of pounds over the life of the mortgage.

Your existing lender may charge an early repayment charge if you leave before your deal ends, and this could cancel out some or all of the savings. You should also allow for other costs, such as arrangement fees and legal or valuation fees, before deciding whether switching is worthwhile.

We can help you work out whether remortgaging is right for you and explain how to switch

First Time Buyer 

Buying your first home can feel daunting and confusing. We aim to guide you through the process from start to finish, so that you understand what the purchase involves and what it is likely to cost.

The mortgage market changes all the time, including the deals on offer, the regulations and the way lenders assess applications. Lenders now look closely at whether a loan is suitable and affordable for you. They mainly consider:

• The property: its type, condition, access and location.
• Your employment: how much you earn, how often, and how long you’ve been in your current role.
• Your financial commitments: what you owe now and may owe in future, and how you’ve managed credit in the past.

There is now much more focus on affordability and spending. This is quite different from the traditional approach of simply multiplying your annual income, or rental income, by a set figure to find the maximum you can borrow.

We keep up to date with regulation, legislation and the economic market. We aim to understand your needs, match them to lenders’ requirements, and help protect you and your dependants once you’ve bought your home. We hope this helps you save time and money.

First-time buyers often have an advantage because they don’t have a property to sell. This means there is no chain, which can make them more appealing to sellers.

Get in touch today to talk through your options.

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

I cut the “thousands” and “literally hundreds” figures down to one claim, since the two numbers contradicted each other, and added the standard repossession warning. Your compliance team should check that “whole market” and the 28-year claim are accurate and that the full regulatory wording is in place.