Remortgaging and refinancing in Spain

I will be assuming that my audience is composed of people who have a mortgage and are interested in financial matters. So please forgive me if I sprinkle my posts with financial terms without explaining them, you can always leave a comment asking for clarification and I will do my best to expand on it.

Firstly, why would you want to change your lender? Perhaps you are happy with the mortgage company/bank that you are with at the moment, and you've done some research and they are one of the cheapest anyway. Here are some reasons:

- interest rates are rising - fast! What you pay now is lagging the market by almost a year. Interest rates are going to be felt throughout the economy starting from this summer, so your evaluation has to include future interest rates, not just current payments.

- banks vary wildly in their treatment of refinancing. In my experience, Banco de Andalucia for example will not budge one inch in lowering your payments, even if you threaten to leave. Only after you've walked to the notary with another bank will they make (perhaps) another offer. So don't always assume that you can convince your current bank to refinance internally.

- if you are thinkingthat the new law of forcing banks to remove the "suelo" (minimum interest rate level) will put pressure on your bank to review your mortgage you might be greatly dissappointed! Many banks are currently appealing this decision and will be dragging it on for years.

This was by way of introduction today's post - I will write more specific information in my next post. Beware, I might be listing banks by name!