Looking for a fixed rate? Up to £1,135 savings in mortgage fees from the Leeds

Leeds Building Society is taking its current 3 year fixed rate mortgages and stripping out several of its fees for a New Year sale offering.

The 3-year fixed rate mortgage range starts at 4.75% (60 per cent LTV) and goes up to 6.24% at 85 per cent LTV.  There's a booking fee of £199, but the completion fee of £800 — which usually takes total up to a fairly standard £999 — is being removed to tempt January buyers.

If saving £800 isn't enough, you can also get a free standard valuation which Leeds Building Society says is worth £335.  This takes the total potential savings up to £1,135. 

So, good news for those wishing to remortgage in January. Many households have mortgage deals that expire on 31st December, which always seems a long way off at the time of signing the form but in practice takes people by surprise as they try and squeeze in a remortgage while mortgage advisers are just returning from their Christmas break.

And that money would be better spent on repaying any debts incurred at Christmastime rather than ploughed into the pockets of mortgage lenders!

Happy New Year to our readers — merry mortgaging in 2010.

Leeds Building Society is launching a cheap tracker mortgage at 3.2%...

– or you can pay 3.7% on a similar deal with no lock-in.

There are two new tracker mortgages on offer and one fixed-rate deal. The lowest initial interest rate is available on the two-year mortgage tracking at 2.7% over Base Rate. It's limited at 75% loan to value, with total fees of £599.  This mortgage allows you to repay up to 10% of the capital each year without penalty.

Oddly, the higher rate deal (currently 3.7%, tracking at 3.2% over base rate) has lower loan to value limits (70%) and higher fees (£999). Why's that?

The difference is that the latter deal can be paid off at any time without penalty.  If you suspect you might want to clear large chunks of the capital at once, this deal could be better over the term.

Continuing the 'no handcuffs' theme, Leeds also introduces a two-year 4.6% fixed rate mortgage that lets you repay unlimited capital at any time without penalty. Total fees are £999 and the loan to value limit is 70%.

Reallywannatracker? 

I don't really understand the strength of demand for trackers at a time when the Bank of England is unlikely to make any further cuts in its rate.  However, if you're betting on base rates staying under 1.5% for the next couple of years, the interest would cost you less with the tracker than with the fixed—so that's a bet you might be happy to take.

And if freedom's your thing, Leeds Building Society clearly has a thing for non-locked-in mortgages, so they'd certainly be worth a look.