Remortgage or Product Transfer? How to Decide When Your Fix Ends

Published 12th August 2026

Six months before your fixed rate ends, you have three options and only one of them is bad. You can take a new deal from your existing lender, which is a product transfer. You can move the mortgage to a different lender, which is a remortgage. Or you can do nothing and roll onto the standard variable rate, which is the expensive one.

Most people default to whichever is easiest rather than whichever is cheapest, and for a lot of balances those are genuinely the same answer. Here is how to work out whether yours is one of them.

What Each One Involves

	Product transfer	Remortgage
Who you end up with	Your current lender	A new lender
Choice of rates	That lender's range only	Whole market
Affordability assessment	Usually none, as you are not borrowing more	Full application
Valuation	Usually not needed	Usually required
Legal work	None	Conveyancing, often free with the deal
Typical time	Days	Four to eight weeks
Can you borrow more?	Sometimes, as a separate application	Yes, subject to affordability
Can you change the term?	Often yes	Yes

A product transfer is a form and a few days. A remortgage is a full mortgage application with everything that entails: payslips, bank statements, an income check, a valuation and a solicitor.

The Only Calculation That Matters

Take the rate difference, turn it into a monthly figure over the length of the new deal, and set it against the cost of switching. If the saving is bigger, move.

Three balances, the same 0.3% rate difference

In each case, the new lender offers 4.78% and the existing lender's transfer rate is 5.08%.

£100,000 over 10 years, two-year deal: £14.64 a month, so £351 across the deal.
£200,000 over 20 years, five-year deal: £33.04 a month, so £1,982 across the deal.
£350,000 over 25 years, five-year deal: £60.96 a month, so £3,657 across the deal.

Set those against switching costs. A remortgage typically involves a product fee of up to around £1,000 where one applies, a valuation that is often free, and legal work that is frequently included in the deal as a free legal package. Call it somewhere between nothing and £1,200 depending on the product you choose.

On the £100,000 example, a £999 fee wipes out the entire benefit almost three times over. On the £350,000 example the same fee is comfortably worth paying. Balance size and deal length are what decide this, far more than the rate difference itself.

Compare like with like. A fee-free product at a slightly higher rate frequently beats a headline-grabbing low rate with a £1,499 fee, especially on smaller balances. Work out the total cost over the deal period including every fee, not the rate on its own. Adding the fee to the loan makes it look cheaper and costs more, because you then pay interest on it for the rest of the term.

When a Product Transfer Wins

Small balance or short remaining term. The saving is too small to cover the switching costs.
Your circumstances have got worse. Redundancy, reduced hours, a self-employed year that looks bad on paper, a new credit commitment. A transfer usually avoids a fresh affordability assessment; a remortgage will not.
Adverse credit since you last applied. A missed payment or a default can shut off the mainstream market entirely.
You are close to retirement. Lending into retirement narrows the field of lenders sharply.
Your deal ends in three weeks. A remortgage will not complete in time, and a month on the SVR at 6.58% costs real money. Take the transfer, and remember you can remortgage at the end of the new deal.
Your property is unusual. Non-standard construction, a flat above commercial premises, a very short lease. A new lender's valuer may take a different view from your current lender's.

When a Remortgage Wins

A large balance with several years to run. This is the main case, and it is not close.
Your loan to value band has improved. Overpayments and house price growth can move you from 85% to 75%, which unlocks better pricing than your lender may be offering on the transfer.
You want to borrow more. Extensions, a car, consolidating debt. Do this with your eyes open on the last one, because you are turning short-term debt into 20-year debt.
You want a shorter term. Since July 2025 a full affordability assessment is no longer required simply to reduce a mortgage term, which removed a real barrier to shortening.
Your lender's transfer range is thin. Some lenders reserve their sharpest pricing for new customers. Comparing takes twenty minutes.

A Rule Change That Helps Switchers

In July 2025 the FCA extended the modified affordability assessment to remortgaging with a new lender, where the new contract is more affordable than either the borrower's current mortgage or a product available from their existing lender. Before that, someone whose circumstances had changed could often only stay put, whatever anyone else was offering.

The change is permissive, so lenders may use it and are not obliged to. If you have been told before that you could not switch, it is worth asking again, ideally through a broker who knows which lenders have adopted it.

The Timeline

Six months out: find out exactly when your deal ends and what your ERC is until then. Both are in your mortgage offer and on your annual statement.
Five to six months out: get quotes. A remortgage offer is typically valid for three to six months, so you can secure a rate now and complete when the deal ends. If rates fall in the meantime you can usually swap onto the better one before completion.
Three months out: your lender will write with its transfer options. Compare them with what you have found elsewhere.
Six to eight weeks out: if remortgaging, get the application in. Conveyancing on a remortgage is straightforward but not instant.
Two weeks out: if nothing has completed, take a product transfer as a fallback rather than landing on the SVR.

Do not leave early without checking the ERC. Most lenders will let you switch to a new deal in the final months of your existing one without charging it, and many will let a remortgage complete in that window too. Ask for a redemption statement, which gives the exact cash figure, rather than working from a percentage.

Should You Use a Broker?

For a straightforward product transfer with a decent lender, probably not: you can do it yourself in the app in a few minutes.

For a remortgage it usually earns its keep, particularly if anything about your situation is not textbook. Brokers see the whole market, know which lenders take which view of bonuses, contract work or a thin credit file, and know which ones have adopted the 2025 rule changes. Check how they are paid: some take a commission from the lender only, others charge you a fee as well, and that should be stated up front.

Whatever You Do, Do Something

On a £200,000 balance with 20 years left, the difference between a competitive fix and the average revert rate is £204.85 a month. Doing nothing is a decision, and it is the most expensive one on the list.

Put the date your deal ends in your calendar with a six-month reminder, then run your balance through our mortgage calculator at your current rate and at what is available now. The gap is the size of the decision.