Borrow a small amount extra on my mortgage as a contractor

[DaniX]

I have a mortgage with Lloyds. I want to burrow a little bit extra for home improvements - between 5K and 9K. I called Lloyds and they said as a contractor, I need to have 2 years of trading history. I only just got back to contracting a month ago with a new company.

Do you think there's a mortgage contractor specialist who can help me with this? I think they are usually paid a commission by the lender, based on the mortgage size - so not interested in small sum mortgages. Also I have a 6 month contract, but no trading history.

[Dorkeaux]

I have a mortgage with Lloyds. I want to burrow a little bit extra for home improvements - between 5K and 9K. I called Lloyds and they said as a contractor, I need to have 2 years of trading history. I only just got back to contracting a month ago with a new company.

Do you think there's a mortgage contractor specialist who can help me with this? I think they are usually paid a commission by the lender, based on the mortgage size - so not interested in small sum mortgages. Also I have a 6 month contract, but no trading history.

You should definitely speak to a specialist mortgage broker.
I used John Charcol around 20 years ago, a young lady there called Sara Maxwell was very helpful with our weird joint contractor/foreigner situation.

But this info might be very dated.
A LLM search brings up Freelancer Financials, CMME Mortgages, and Contractor Mortgages.

[jamesbrown]

Call Ryan and Katherine at Freelancer Financials. You won't be disappointed - you can find many other threads around here recommending them. No affiliation, other than having used them in the past.

[hobnob]

A couple of questions:
a) How long do you have left on your current mortgage with Lloyds, and is there an early repayment fee?
b) How urgently do you need the money, and how long would it take you to save it up?

I looked at Freelancer Financials (now part of Mortgage Quest) earlier this year, based on recommendations here. They asked for contracts covering the last 12 months, which would be a problem for the OP. They also charged a £199 fee (separate from the product fee that some mortgage lenders charge). After 4 months, I gave up on the process and wrote off their fee as a sunk cost (along with the higher interest payments after my old fixed rate ended). I then went back to my original lender, who sorted it out in a matter of days.

In fairness to Mortgage Quest, the delay was caused by the conveyancers (chosen by the new lender), but it was still frustrating. There's no harm in talking to them, but that might not be the best option. Even if it all goes quickly, the fees (for the broker, old lender, and new lender) might be disproportionate for the amount you want to borrow.

My advice is:
a) Delay the building work until you can save up the money. (In previous posts, you said that you went from a £625/day contract to a £65k/year permanent job, so I assume you're on a similar rate now.)
b) If you need the money urgently, look at an unsecured loan, or maybe even use a credit card.
c) When your existing mortgage comes up for renewal, the quickest/cheapest option will be to stick with your existing lender and not borrow any extra money - that will avoid a credit check, which is useful if you haven't been contracting for long.

[northernladuk]

Call Ryan and Katherine at Freelancer Financials. You won't be disappointed - you can find many other threads around here recommending them. No affiliation, other than having used them in the past.

I'd also recommend Freelancer Finacials. They've done the full suite for mortgage types for me. Half perm/half contractor, full contractor, insideIR35, new mortgage, renewal and Buy to lets so they've had to work hard with me. Never straightforward but wouldn't go anywhere else.

[jamesbrown]

They also charged a £199 fee.

The thing about professional help is that you're going to pay for it, one way or another.

[hobnob]

I'd also recommend Freelancer Finacials.

Thinking about the people here who've had good experiences with Freelancer Financials, has anyone else used them since the Mortgage Quest acquisition? I wonder whether that's why I had a different result.

The thing about professional help is that you're going to pay for it, one way or another.

Yeah, absolutely. If you're negotiating a £500,000 mortgage then a £199 fee is negligible, but if you just want to borrow £5,000 then it's more significant.

[jamesbrown]

Thinking about the people here who've had good experiences with Freelancer Financials, has anyone else used them since the Mortgage Quest acquisition? I wonder whether that's why I had a different result.



Yeah, absolutely. If you're negotiating a £500,000 mortgage then a £199 fee is negligible, but if you just want to borrow £5,000 then it's more significant.

Right, but that's the nature of lending. The work involved isn't that closely related to the amount you want to borrow. Their fees are straightforward and transparent, and I don't think you can really ask for more than that. You can look at the Google reviews for recent reviews (FWIW). No slippage from what I can see. It is not that common to come across a company that has uniformly 5 star reviews from hundreds of people, especially in financial services. But, more than that, trust the experience of people around here, because we're not fake. Of course, companies can change, things can slip, but others will probably report that if it happens.

[DaniX]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'll give a call to a couple of the mortgage brokers mentioned, although it looks like the chances of it working out are slim.

[eek]

This is not a dig at the OP but it shows how much the world has changed, £10k used to be money that would be available in a couple of months just by not spending much for a short period of time.

equally £10k won’t give you much for home improvements. My daughters kitchen (small) cost £20k and that’s doing things cheaply