When your fixed rate mortgage ends, you have two choices: take your lender’s product transfer offer and stay on a new rate with the same lender, or remortgage to a new lender through the full market. The product transfer is faster and simpler. The remortgage accesses the full market. In the majority of cases — stable circumstances, competitive rate environment, sufficient time before the deal ends — the remortgage produces a better rate. But not always. This guide explains when each is the right choice.
Product Transfer — What It Is and How It Works
A product transfer switches your mortgage to a new rate with your existing lender when your current deal ends. No new affordability assessment, no property valuation, no legal work. The process: log into your lender’s portal (or call them), select the new product, and it activates on the day your current deal expires. Some lenders allow you to lock in a product transfer rate up to 6 months ahead. The entire process can be completed in under 30 minutes.
The rate available on a product transfer is your lender’s retention rate — the rate they are willing to offer to keep you as a customer. It is set by the lender’s retention pricing team, whose job is to minimise the rate they need to offer while keeping enough customers to justify the cost of the retention operation. The retention rate is never the lender’s best available rate, and it is never the market best available rate.
Full Remortgage — What It Involves
A full remortgage to a new lender involves a new mortgage application with affordability assessment, a property valuation (usually automated, occasionally physical), legal work from the new lender’s conveyancer, and ID verification. The process typically takes 6 to 10 weeks. Most lenders accept applications up to 6 months before the current deal ends, allowing you to lock in a rate while the current deal is still running.
Most remortgage products include free legal work and free valuation from the new lender. Some charge arrangement fees of 495 to 999 pounds. The arrangement fee is worth paying if the lower rate saves more than the fee over the fixed term — we calculate this for every remortgage comparison.
| Comparison | Product Transfer | Full Remortgage |
|---|---|---|
| Time to complete | Days | 6–10 weeks |
| Rate source | Your lender’s retention rate | Full market (90+ lenders) |
| Affordability reassessment | None | Full assessment |
| Property valuation | None | Automated or physical |
| Legal work | None | Usually free from new lender |
| Credit search | None / soft only | Hard search |
| Best suited to | Changed circumstances, tight timeline | Stable circumstances, 6+ months before expiry |
When Product Transfer Is the Right Choice
Changed circumstances since the original mortgage: income reduction, adverse credit events, recent employment change, or property value decrease. Any of these may make a new lender’s affordability assessment more restrictive than your existing lender, who is not reassessing under a product transfer. In these cases, staying with the existing lender protects the mortgage you have.
Short timeline: if your deal ends in less than 6 weeks and you have not started the comparison, the product transfer may be the only viable option. A full remortgage needs 6 to 10 weeks. Starting the comparison 6 months before expiry avoids this constraint entirely.
Rate differential under 0.15%: if your lender’s retention offer is within 0.15% of the best available market rate, the time and administrative cost of switching may not justify the saving on a typical mortgage balance.
Worked Example — Fleet Homeowner
Fleet homeowner, 3-bed Elvetham Heath semi, purchased 2020. Outstanding balance: 340,000. Current 5-year fix ending in 3 months. Lender retention offer: 4.85% 5-year fix. Best available market rate at time of comparison: 4.25% 5-year fix.
| Scenario | Monthly Payment | Annual Cost | 5-Year Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| SVR (doing nothing) | £2,083 | £24,996 | £124,980 |
| Product transfer (4.85%) | £1,849 | £22,188 | £110,940 |
| Best market rate (4.25%) | £1,759 | £21,108 | £105,540 |
| Saving vs PT (remortgage) | £90/month | £1,080/year | £5,400 |
| Saving vs SVR (best rate) | £324/month | £3,888/year | £19,440 |
For this homeowner, the comparison shows 5,400 additional saving over 5 years by remortgaging versus taking the product transfer. The arrangement fee on the new product (500 pounds) reduces this to 4,900. The legal and valuation are free. The decision: remortgage, if circumstances are unchanged and there is sufficient time before expiry. We run this comparison for every client before any recommendation is made.
How to Start the Process
Contact us 6 months before your current deal ends. We request the current mortgage statement, run a soft search to confirm circumstances, identify the best available retention and market rates, and produce a clear recommendation within 48 hours. If you should take the product transfer, we confirm it in writing. If you should remortgage, we identify the lender and manage the application. No broker fee either way.
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📞 01252 111 000When Capital Raising Changes the Decision
If you want to raise capital alongside the rate review — for home improvements, a BTL deposit, school fees or other purposes — the full remortgage is required regardless of the rate comparison outcome. A product transfer only changes the rate; it cannot increase the mortgage balance. The capital raising case therefore makes the rate comparison academic: you are remortgaging whatever the rate difference, and the comparison ensures you do so to the best available lender for the combined rate and capital-raising purpose.
The Self-Employed Remortgage Review
For self-employed homeowners, the remortgage creates an opportunity to reassess the income methodology alongside the rate review. If your income has grown since the original mortgage — your company has accumulated more retained profit, your most recent year shows significantly higher income than the two-year average — a specialist lender may offer meaningfully more capital on the remortgage than was available on the original purchase. We include income reassessment in every self-employed remortgage review as standard, because the capital-raising opportunity is often more valuable than the rate saving alone.