Screwed by Nationwide rate change!

joAnn

Any advice would be much appreciated!
My discounted rate with Nationwide finishes at end of Dec. Have to stick with NW as salary has decreased. Phoned 2 weeks ago to discuss the products available to me as existing loyal customer and interest rates/fees etc. Was told that I would have no problem reserving a product, I could do it then and there, but if I wanted to think about it, that there was no talk amongst those at Nationwide that interest rates would change or fees would be applied. So I went off and ompared the products on offer and phoned back on Monday or Tuesday last week to reserve my product, only to be told by some guy who sounded like he was on the other side of the world that I was not allowed to reserve a product as I was not yet within the 3 months reservation period. I asked again if there was any talk of fees and interest rates changing, he said no.
So I phoned again last Friday to reserve my product, only to be told that fees now applied and the interest rates had changed as of that day! I argued that I was told in the 1st call I could reserve the product, and wasn't allowed to by the 2nd guy I spoke to. If he had let me reserve it on Monday, I would be able to benefit from the lower rate. I feel that I should be allowed to take out the product based on the previous week's rates, and the guy I spoke to last Friday said if I was told I could reserve the product during my 1st call then they would honour it, but he needed to listen to the phone call first. He also told me that most customers were warned and that it was on the news. I am concerned that the feedback he will give me will be twisted.
However, with the second call I made to actually make the reservation there is no log or note of me calling them. What can I do? BT do not have a log of calls made to 0800 numbers so there is no proof that I actually called and was misadvised the 2nd time around.
Even more annoying is my friend and her husband visited a branch of NW on Monday last week to review their mortgage and were advised of the rate change that would be taking place.
Can I threaten then with the FSA? do i have a leg to stand on??

going2die_rich

Do you really think call centre staff are kept up to date on the mortgage products future decisions? Only the staff involved in releasing the products are likely to know.

Come on, I think you have just been unlucky. Plenty of mortgages are being withdrawn very quickly now due to the credit market being very unstable. One minute things look like they are going okay, then it's back to black thundery clouds.

Basically, you don't have anything you can do but accept it.

dunstonh

phoned back on Monday or Tuesday last week to reserve my product, only to be told by some guy who sounded like he was on the other side of the world that I was not allowed to reserve a product as I was not yet within the 3 months reservation period.

That is correct. The offer letter is only valid for 3 months.

I asked again if there was any talk of fees and interest rates changing, he said no.

Which is almost certainly the honest answer.

So I phoned again last Friday to reserve my product, only to be told that fees now applied and the interest rates had changed as of that day!

Always a risk if you wait until a later date.

I feel that I should be allowed to take out the product based on the previous week's rates

Would you be saying the same had you reserved the deal and a better deal was out this time?

Can I threaten then with the FSA?

They have done nothing wrong and the FSA will just tell you to take your complaint up with Nationwide as the FSA do not handle complaints.

As mentioned in post #2, call centre staff are not going to be made aware of rate decisions in the future. Even branch staff are not told until late on. Mortgage brokers often get advance notice of withdrawals but that sometimes comes unofficially or with guesswork based on leaked information. However, its just as common to get less than 12 hours notice.

You have not been screwed but you have missed out due to bad timing and attempting to look at your options before you are able to do so. For all you know a better deal could exist in a months time. You can only look at what is on the table when you apply (and are able to apply).

zorber

Sorry to hear you have fallen foul of nationwide.

This almost happened to me too, my rate doesnt end until end of jan.
first person i spoke to knew what they were talking about (2 weeks ago) but as i was out side 3 calendar months i would be charged £150 early redemption penalty, so i said no, she said if i phoned back onthe 1st of october i would be ok for the early redemption penalty, this is were i got stuck the first 2 advisers said to me that i could only reserve a product 90 days before my product ended. Which is technically true i beleive. though i wasnt worried about this as i wanted to start my new rate early to take advantage of reserving the rate (so i was asking for the new product to start on the 1st of dec 08 rather then the 1st of feb 09)
the first advise just didnt know what they were doing.
second one was worse got what i was doing but said a 2K early redemtion penality would apply :eek: :mad:

I then read a post on here (this is last wed) about nationwide changing its reservation fees, so i started to panic.

Waited a couple of hours and phone back this time i got the most helpful man i could have got. He told me they could only start rates on the 1st of Dec, which i knew but went on to say if i called on thursday they would be booking from 1st jan, i said i couldnt call back on thursday due to work commitments.

So he went through everything and booked the rate to start from dec.
He then let me have some very important advice on sending back the paperwork inorder to get the deal started. The offer is valid for 3 months so upto the 1 jan if i send my paperwork back before 20th nov rate would start 1st dec, if i forgot and sent the paper work back before the 18th dec rate would start 1st Jan or if i forgot again solong as they had my paperwork back between 17th dec and 1st jan then the rate would start 1st feb. Perfect.

Sorry i cant give any helpful advice but they are useless and it all depends on who you get as to what advice they give.

hethmar

I had a smilar thing happen with Abbey. I rang well in advance of our last fix ending, the guy was more interested in trying to sell me a loan for a retirement home. Even put me through to his colleague to discuss it - when I told him I was not interested.

Anyway, he said he would ring me back with the offers available to me the following week but didnt do so, then the rates all went up. I was furious, rang and spoke to a supervisor about this and they put me through to the department where you are considering leaving them. In the end they kept the rate the same but dispensed with the fee for the loan. As we only had 3 years to run I didnt pursue it any further. But very annoying.

lisyloo

It's very annoying when someone gives you wrong information.
However you have not become worse off because you were not in a posistion to re-mortgage on the 1st call, due to the timescale.
So you have not been disadvantaged.

In a case where you have not been disadvanataged, then I sympathise but basically it's tough luck,

If you had been disadvantaged then you might have a case, but you'd still have to prove your case.
I now keep notes of who I speak to, the date and the time and ask them to update my notes on their computer.
It's not 100% but at least if you know the time, it makes it easier for the tapes to be checked.

joAnn

Thanks for the comments everybody, it seems I have fallen foul of the inconsistent knowledge in NW staff who don't seem to know when products can be reserved and filtering of information from the powers that be to the person who deals with the customers on the phone. Seems odd that branch staff or other call centre workers would know more about rate changes at different times as they are all technically providing the same service. I tried to be ready to reserve as soon as the Nationwide would let me, but missed the boat by 4 hours.