Remortgage lenders have been busy luring homeowners away from their standard variable rate mortgages. The demand has been high from homeowners and lenders have been more than willing to offer attractive products but perhaps at a higher cost than homeowners should be quick to grab. Not long ago when demand was lower there were remortgage deals for fixed rates that had lower fees. Now fees can be very costly when it comes to a fixed rate deal.

Despite the higher fees homeowners have been willing to pay more up front to get a remortgage that gives them no risk from an interest rate hike that may be coming soon. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the increase in inflation is due to the higher mortgage fees being charged by lenders. The ONS reported that between January and February this year there was little change in the fees. However the same time last year there was a 1.3 per cent decline.

Now that demand is higher there are homeowners willing to pay the higher fees than compared with the competitive environment of this time last year. There had been remortgage deals with no fees and other incentives such as free legal work. Now fees for fixed rate remortgage deals can be found with fees of close to £2000.

It is due to this change seen in fees that a homeowner should take into account all aspects of the remortgage when choosing a fixed rate deal. The entire package should be looked at as a whole. Only with careful consideration should a remortgage be chosen and perhaps for some the deal found with the fixed rate is worth the extra cost in a fee. While in other cases a shop around might be beneficial to the remortgaging budget.