Tracker mortgage rates might not drop. Fight back against restrictive 'collars'.

Ruseph

Hmmm, I need to check my Abbey +0.75% tracker details as I'm sure they've put a huge collar in somewhere. I recently got a letter after the cut to 3% and they only quoted what rate they were now charginging me a whopping 5.25%, and not what cut they had made, as I'm sure I was on 5.99% before the cut of 2%. I can't see on any of the MSE pages mentioning a collar as high as 4.5% for any of the banks following BEB rates. Not happy so far to say the least! I hope they sort it out as 'jamielupton' above suggests they may do. Otherwise may be time to chuck them for a better offer if I can get it? Greedy Blighters!

benfw

Just to confirm what foreversummer says above... the Scottish Widows tracker doesn't track the Bank of England base rate, but their own 'Scottish Widows Bank Base Rate'. And when I've spoken to them, they've emphasised that it's always been the same in the past but might not in the future.

Just phoned them again and they confirmed the most recent change is still 'under review': he agreed that it'd taken longer to review than most of these decisions. The current rate is listed at https://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/bank/interest_rates.html for those affected.

His guess was that the rate would follow the BoE downwards - especially as that's what its parent Lloyds TSB has done. But no official confirmation yet.

Ben

money_savy

Saw this on HSBC website reg trackers

"HSBC Trackers are linked to the Bank of England (BoE) Base rate and any changes to the BoE base rate will become effective the next working day"


Also saw this

Date of Announcement: 4th December
Change to BoE base rate: 1% reduction
Tracker rates: 1 %
Date of effect: 5th December

Hope this helps!

Gizza-bit

Just like Daddy says - my 'woolwich' tracker is just above BOE base rate and will go down with the current rate . . . but . . . I am annoyed that with the base rate dropping on 6th Nov that my repayments on 16th of Month will not go down until 16th December and with the latest reduction they won't go down until 16th January - a 6-week benefit to the societies. *Wonder how will they apply any subsequent increases? That day / week or very soon thereafter for sure??? :-(

wannabemoneysaver

I, like many previous posters have a tracker with the Woolwich which is linked to :

"Barclays Bank Base Rate
Barclays Bank Base Rate follows the Bank of England Base Rate, which can go up or down and is announced by the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee every month"

"which is currently 2% (Effective 5 December 2008)."

(Above is from website) http://www.woolwich.co.uk/mortgages/tracker-mortgages.html

As a previous poster said, if rates had gone the other way, would they have allowed me to impose a retrospective collar and not pay rate increases? I think not. Woolwich are probably getting a raw deal out of their old trackers, but its about time the individual won one or two against the big finance boys after the endowment and other scams.

There's no mention of a collar on my Key Facts, surely they are breaching contract to impose one after the deal is done? I would be in the queue to take them to court if they try...

space_rider

Ruseph wrote: »

Hmmm, I need to check my Abbey +0.75% tracker details as I'm sure they've put a huge collar in somewhere. I recently got a letter after the cut to 3% and they only quoted what rate they were now charginging me a whopping 5.25%, and not what cut they had made, as I'm sure I was on 5.99% before the cut of 2%. I can't see on any of the MSE pages mentioning a collar as high as 4.5% for any of the banks following BEB rates. Not happy so far to say the least! I hope they sort it out as 'jamielupton' above suggests they may do. Otherwise may be time to chuck them for a better offer if I can get it? Greedy Blighters!

Are you sure yours doesnt track Abbeys svr. My letter was correct. Mine was 0.13 below the base rate and the rate was spot on.

Pembersdev

I assumed until receiving Martin's weekly update that my Nationwide collar had been reached and that I wouldn't benefit by the latest BoE base rate cut. Hurrah, they have suspended the collar. Good on ya Nationwide. They are also much much quicker than Abbey at passing on the cuts in my own experience.

lorrmac

I have a Woolwich tracker and had several cuts last year, Haven't had any correspondence re either of latest cuts. My actual payments only change annually (Nov), so i may not know until next October! Although any cut will still be reflected in interest calculations

Aliphant1964

Thanks Jamie - you've saved me a phone call - I'll look forward to the Christmas Post with bated breath!

MarkP80

Hi all,

As Martin's first post says, the Scarborough BS tracker has a 3% minimum rate. For the info of anyone with one of their mortgagaes, I emailed them and received the following reply -

Thank you for your recent enquiry made through our website.

At present, the floor rates on our tracker mortgages are under review with our Board of Executives. If a decision is made regarding the floor rates, we will write to all customers which it would apply to in order to advise them further.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

- So no decision from them that I'm aware of yet. I'll be checking my Key Facts document this evening though.

Regards,
MarkP