Flexible Mortgages

In 1995, a small group of mortgage lenders introduced the flexible mortgage from Australia. They recognised that flexible mortgages would be a good fit for the flexible working patterns common in the UK today.

When Flexible mortgages first came to the UK there were no fixed or discounted rate flexible deals available. Borrowers had to choose a variable rate, and the actual rates on offer were no where near as competitive as those available today. Also, until now Flexible Mortgages have been viewed mainly as suitable for people who have experience of being homeowners, not to mention managing their money, rather than first time buyers. However, as flexible mortgages have evolved, the benefits to borrowers have increased and the first time buyers could do far worse than considering taking out a flexible mortgage.

Flexible Mortgages are designed to give you more control over your finances, but look out there are varying degrees of flexibility, you should be able to overpay, borrow back overpayments, underpay and take payment holidays (see flexible features pages). You can walk away from a flexible deal with no penalties, and your interest is calculated daily. So as soon as you make a payment you start paying interest on a smaller loan amount. Of those that do, however, some lenders have gone one step further and now provide current account mortgages, and offset mortgages.

Flexible mortgages make sense, and more and more borrowers in the UK are waking up to this fact.

Offset Mortgages

With an offset mortgage the interest on your mortgage is reduced by the funds in both your savings accounts and your current accounts. The more you have in your savings account, the less interest you pay on your mortgage, which helps you to repay your mortgage faster and more cheaply in the long term. Your part of the deal is that you don't receive any interest on your savings or your current account. Read more›

CAM Mortgages

With a CAM, you run all of your finances through a single account - your mortgage, current account, savings and personal loans. Read more›

Flexible Features

There are many varying degrees of flexibility. In order to be truly flexible, a mortgage must allow borrowers to do the following:

Overpay
Underpay
Take Payment Holidays
Borrow back overpayments
Carry no redemption penalties
Calculate interest daily

Some so-called flexible mortgages may only meet a couple of these criteria, while other all-singing, all-dancing products allow you to do much more. So make sure you do your homework before you choose the deal that suits you best. Read more on flexible features ››