Change your mortgage interest rate

If you’re approaching the end of your fixed-rate period, you can make an appointment to discuss your new mortgage interest rate. We’ll make you an offer three months before the fixed-rate period is due to end. You can use this time to work out whether your mortgage is still right for you. It’s the perfect time to change one or more loan parts of your mortgage without paying a fee, and maybe lower your monthly payments.

Always review the different loan parts of your mortgage carefully. Is this a good time to pay off or transfer your mortgage perhaps? Can you get a client discount and/or sustainability discount on your new mortgage interest rate? What are the pros and cons of a fixed rate versus a variable interest rate?

• You may have to pay a risk surcharge on top of your interest repayments on a mortgage without a Dutch National Mortgage Guarantee (NHG). The more you borrow in relation to the value of the property, the higher the risk surcharge. We have various rate categories that we use to categorise mortgages. If your house goes up in value or if you make an extra repayment on your mortgage, your mortgage may come into a lower rate category. You’ll then pay less interest.
• We’ll check whether your rate category can be changed at the end of your fixed-rate period, but it’s up to you keep an eye on it at all other times. So check Internet Banking or the ABN AMRO app regularly to see whether you can change any risk surcharge you have, and if so, how to go about it.
• You don’t pay a risk surcharge if your mortgage is in the lowest rate category or if you have a Home Equity Mortgage, Bridging Loan, Sustainable Home Mortgage, or a mortgage with a Dutch National Mortgage Guarantee (NHG). 

It is possible to change the fixed interest rate on a mortgage during the fixed-rate period, but you may have to pay a fee if you do. This is because we are forfeiting income that we had expected to earn from interest. There are two ways of paying the fee:

• Incorporate the fee into your new interest rate. This is called interest averaging. You can opt for a new fixed-rate period of five or ten years.
• You can pay the fee in one go, with your savings, for example. You won’t pay the interest averaging surcharge, but you will be charged a single large amount.

If you want to change your interest rate mid-term, go over your options with a mortgage adviser. The fee can very expensive, so make sure that the lower interest rate and new fixed-rate period make it financially viable.

If one or more of your loan parts have a variable interest rate, you can change them to a fixed interest rate at any time, at no extra cost. You can also repay a loan part with variable interest prematurely without being charged a fee.

To find out whether a fixed interest rate is right for you, take a look at the pros and cons of variable versus fixed-rate interest.