Challenge your mortgage everyday with Sprive
We’re excited to announce the release of our latest, feature which helps Sprive customers ensure they’re always on the best mortgage deal. The team has been working hard behind the scenes to bring this to you and with interest rates rising rapidly we’re keen to help as many people as possible save even more money on their mortgages.
How does this feature help me?
As a homeowner with a mortgage, you’ve committed to paying your lender back the amount you borrowed plus interest over time. Being on the cheapest mortgage deal can make a huge difference to how much money you end up paying your lender in interest over its lifetime. Getting it wrong, can cost you a huge amount of money and could result in you becoming mortgage-free a lot later in life.
Let’s take an example to illustrate.
Imagine you have borrowed £250,000 over 30 years at an interest rate of 3.5%. Over the 30 years, if you’re paying the same rate, you’ll end up paying your lender a whopping £154,301 in interest. Now if unknown to you there was a mortgage deal from another lender offering an interest rate of 3.4%, you would have saved £5,335. That’s a significant amount of money!
Independent research shows that millions of homeowners across the UK don’t get this right. For example, many homeowners decide to just switch with their existing lender just because it’s less hassle. This has led the FCA (UK regulator) to call for more innovation to help customers get the best deal.
Sprive answered the call 💪
How does this feature work?
When creating an account with Sprive, we’re able to automatically locate your mortgage information just by linking your current account.
This gives us the unique advantage of being able to challenge your mortgage every day to the 20,000+ deals across 90 lenders that exist in the market. This isn’t something a comparison site, your lender, or a typical mortgage advisor can do for you.
How to unlock this feature?
With Sprive we show you personalised deals whenever you want. However, to unlock the feature you need to let us know when your mortgage deal expires. Whilst we know a lot about your mortgage, for obvious reasons your lender, unfortunately, doesn’t tell us this as they would prefer you switch directly with them.
However, rather than forcing you to go dig out your mortgage offer document to tell us when your deal expires, we’ve made this easy for you. Simply tell us how long your initial deal period is and based on the information we have from your lender we’ll do our best to calculate for you when we think your deal will expire. If we get it wrong, then just override it with the correct information.
What type of deals do we show? We show you personalised deals based on the following 4 categories:
Lowest cost – these are the deals with the lowest cost (fees + interest) over the initial deal period that we can currently find in the market for you.
Lowest monthly payment – these are the deals with the lowest monthly payment throughout the initial deal period. Whilst this might not be the cheapest mortgage, you may decide to prioritise having the lowest amount to pay each month.
Stay with the same lender – these are the deals with the lowest cost (fees + interest) over the initial deal period within your existing lender. Switching within the same lender is easier so we wanted you to make an informed decision so that if you decided to stay, you understand the cost involved compared to switching with another lender.
Unlimited overpayments – these are the cheapest deals in the market that allow unlimited overpayments without penalty. If you find the typical 10% annual allowance restrictive then this might be the deal for you.
We typically start by showing you 2-year deals within each category. If you’re keen to lock into a longer team deal, then simply swipe right. The view also makes it easy for you to compare deals. On the first tab, we should popular deals based on feedback we’ve received from Sprive users. However, if you're keen on seeing only mortgage products that are fixed or variable then just click on the relevant tab. Here is an article that may be of interest if you’re not sure whether you should get a fixed or variable mortgage.
What if I’m thinking about borrowing more or the same for longer?
Simply click on the filter button in the top right-hand corner and you can adjust your preferences. Hit ‘update’ and we’ll source the latest deal for you in seconds. This is just a useful way of being able to just explore and see the impact those changes would make. Ultimately only with the right knowledge at your fingertips can you make the right decision.
How do I secure the best deal?
We’ll notify you via a push notification when you’re eligible to switch to a better deal. So please make sure your push notifications are enabled. With interest rates rising fast, not taking swift action could cost you thousands as deals are unfortunately getting more expensive.
Once you’ve found a deal that seems appealing click on it and ‘press continue with this deal.’ You’ll be asked to book an appointment with a vetted expert who will handhold you through the process to make sure you get the best deal for you. They’ll also fill in the paperwork and do all the heavy lifting for you for free!
We would love to be able to electronically help you get the mortgage via the app, but unfortunately, UK regulations and the technology with lenders simply aren't there yet. When it does happen, rest assured we will be taking advantage.
I’m interested in exiting my deal early
With interest rates rising fast, many homeowners are thinking about exiting their deals early to try and lock in a cheaper rate now. Lenders will typically charge you an early repayment fee, so it’s important that if you do this that you’re aware of the associated costs. The good news is that if you’re in your deal period you can still book an appointment with an expert for free and discuss if this is a viable option for you. Just make sure you have the details of your early repayment charges from your offer document ahead of the call.
What are the benefits to you?
Save money – the ability to find the best deals personalised to you and help you switch hassle-free so that you can avoid paying a much higher interest rate (SVR) on your existing deal
Let our tech help you – once you switch with us, we’ll know everything about your mortgage including early repayment charges (ERC) and when your deal expires. Benefits to you include:
• Make overpayments seamlessly on your new mortgage
• Able to automatically track your annual overpayment allowance
• Monitor if you’re financially better off switching within your deal period by taking into account your loan to value, your ERC penalty, and deals that are in the market
• We know when your deal expires so we can tell you when is the best time to switch
It’s free – whilst many brokers charge fees, we’ll give you access to expert advice at no cost
If you have any feedback on how we can improve this feature for you, please do email us at hello@sprive.com. We’re just getting started and with your help, we’re confident we can help millions of homeowners get one step closer to becoming mortgage free.
