Product Transfer vs Remortgage: Which Is Better When Your Deal Ends?

When a fixed rate mortgage deal ends, you have two choices: accept a new deal from your existing lender (a product transfer) or remortgage to a different lender. Both have advantages. The right choice depends on whether your lender’s retention deals are competitive with the market.

What Is a Product Transfer?

A product transfer (PT) is switching to a new mortgage product with the same lender. No legal work, no new valuation, and no credit check in most cases. Your lender offers you a menu of rates — typically available online — and you select one.

**Advantages of a product transfer:**

• Fast — often completed in under an hour online
• No solicitor required (and therefore no legal fees)
• No new valuation
• No credit check in most cases
• No interruption to your mortgage payments
• Lender retains your payment history (useful if circumstances have changed)

**Disadvantages:**

• Limited to your lender’s products only
• No guarantee the retention rate is the best in the market
• May miss significantly better deals elsewhere

What Is a Remortgage?

A full remortgage means repaying your existing mortgage and taking a new one with a different lender. It requires a new mortgage application, a new valuation, and a conveyancing process (though many remortgage products include free legal work).

**Advantages of a remortgage:**

• Access to the whole market — often more competitive rates
• Opportunity to change mortgage terms (extend/reduce term, switch repayment type)
• Can borrow more (release equity) at the same time

**Disadvantages:**

• Takes 4–8 weeks
• Involves more administration
• May have legal and valuation costs (though often included free in competitive deals)
• Full affordability reassessment

The Rate Question

Research consistently shows that lenders offer their best deals to new customers and slightly less competitive rates to existing customers on retention products. The gap is not always large — and lenders have improved their retention pricing in recent years — but it is worth comparing.

The process:

1. Check your lender’s retention rates as soon as your deal end date is confirmed

2. Compare against the whole market using a broker or comparison site

3. Calculate the total cost of each option including any fees

If the rate difference is 0.1% or less, a product transfer is usually more cost-effective given the time and administrative saving. If the difference is 0.3% or more, a remortgage is likely worth the effort.

Starting the Process

**Product transfer:** Most lenders allow you to select a new deal 3–6 months before your existing deal ends. The new rate activates when your current deal expires.

**Remortgage:** Start looking 6 months before your deal ends. Allow 6–8 weeks for the remortgage to complete.

Missing your deal end date and reverting to the Standard Variable Rate (SVR) is expensive. SVRs in 2026 are typically 1.5–3% higher than fixed rates available in the market. Every month on the SVR costs money.

The Right Approach

1. Start the process 4–6 months before your deal ends

2. Check your lender’s retention rates

3. Compare with the market via a broker

4. If the lender’s retention rate is within 0.2% of the best available, do a product transfer

5. If a remortgage would save 0.3%+ annually, remortgage (the savings outweigh the admin)

For a £250,000 mortgage, a 0.3% rate difference saves £750 per year. A remortgage costs essentially nothing if the deal includes free legal work, making the decision straightforward.