What the Fee analyser works out
The Fee analyser takes the fees attached to a mortgage deal and weighs them against the rate on offer, so you can see the total cost of a deal over its fixed period. A deal with a lower rate but a large arrangement fee can end up costing more over two or five years than one with a slightly higher rate and no fee at all. The tool uses the figures you enter to show which of the deals you are looking at actually works out cheaper.
The fees it takes into account
A new mortgage deal, whether it comes through a remortgage (moving your mortgage to a new lender) or a product transfer (staying with your current lender but moving to a new deal), usually carries some combination of the following charges on top of the interest rate itself:
- Arrangement or product fee, charged by the lender for setting up the deal, sometimes added to the loan and sometimes paid upfront
- Valuation fee, for the lender to check the property is worth what you say it is
- Legal or conveyancing fee, for the paperwork that transfers or amends the mortgage
- Booking fee, sometimes charged separately from the arrangement fee to reserve the rate
If you are leaving your current deal before it ends, you may also face an early repayment charge (ERC), a penalty set out in your existing mortgage terms. That is a separate calculation from anything the Fee analyser does, and the ERC estimator guide covers it on its own.
How it compares one deal against another
The tool adds the fees to the interest you would pay over the deal period, using your outstanding balance (what you still owe) and remaining term, and produces a total cost figure for each deal you enter. Two deals with the same monthly repayment can still have different total costs once the fees are folded in, and that difference only shows up when you look at the whole period.
This is why a fee analysis is worth doing separately from just comparing rates. A deal that adds a fee to the loan rather than charging it upfront will show a slightly higher balance from day one, and the tool reflects that in the total rather than hiding it in a smaller monthly figure.
What it can't tell you
The Fee analyser works with the numbers you give it. It cannot tell you which deals your lender or any other lender will actually offer you, because that depends on your loan to value (LTV, the size of your mortgage against the property's value), your credit history and the lender's own current criteria. The fees you enter are the ones you have been quoted or found in a deal's terms, and if a fee changes before you complete, the total cost changes with it.
It also does not reflect any lender's live pricing. Fee structures and product fees vary between lenders and change over time, so treat every figure as an estimate based on what you have entered, not a quote.
What to do with your result
Once you have a total cost figure for a couple of deals, the comparison is straightforward: the lower total, over the same period, is the cheaper deal for your situation, fees included. From there, checking a lender's current fee structure against your own paperwork, and speaking to a broker about what is actually available to you, are the next steps. A broker can give you advice based on your full situation, which this calculator cannot. See the next steps guide for what that conversation usually covers, or browse the mortgage lenders directory to see who is in the market.