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

robnye

im with nationwide and thought i would check this out, found original paperwork which said i had a collar, so thought oh well...

just got latest boe base rate cut and nationwide are allowing the full drop..... woopeee...... good on yer .... not often these people will ignore there own paperwork and actually allow the customer to benefit...

payless

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Nationwide & Halifax

In the last fortnight both Halifax has abolished its collar and Nationwide has suspended its saying...

"Nationwide has decided it will waive the condition which state that some tracker mortgage customers would not see further rate reductions once the Bank of England base rate falls to 2.75% or below."

Though of course there is a chance (it'd be bad PR and thus unlikely) they will try to re-establish them

Todays news says NW says will enforce on further rate cuts , and I have yet to see an offical statement from Halifax that they have abolished ! ( only not applying it at moment)
Seems PR is not their major concern then !

feisty1

payless wrote: »

Todays news says NW says will enforce on further rate cuts , and I have yet to see an offical statement from Halifax that they have abolished ! ( only not applying it at moment) Seems PR is not their major concern then !

Good way of reducing the mortgage book instead of increasing rates!

shinydoc

I am assuming that Banks and Building Societies make their money from the differential between savings and borrowing interest rates?

I guess if Nationwide wont drop their Mortgage rate anymore then their savings rates will also have to remain high too...:rolleyes:

2latenow

So long as these collars were correctly in the Key Facts info, then why shouldn't the NW (and other banks) enforce it? It stands to reason they have to make *some* margin for operating the loan and people willing signed up.

I bet now that the NW have broken ranks and made a stand some of the banks will follow suit --- maybe not yet, but if rates dropped another 1% I dont see how they would avoid it.

People shouting for all collars to be un-enforced will draw attention from any genuine claims of people where the collar was not mentioned in any of the paperwork (as the original thread subject).

Kez100

payless wrote: »

Todays news says NW says will enforce on further rate cuts , and I have yet to see an offical statement from Halifax that they have abolished ! ( only not applying it at moment)
Seems PR is not their major concern then !

PR may still be their concern. It's just Martin was looking at it from borrowers point of view. Not dropping is actually GOOD PR, if you want to appeal to savers.

Remember borrowers tend to be moaners whereas savers are not - they just quietly move to the best rate they can get or stay due to loyalty. This enhances the chances of better rates being available and also commits to those loyal to Nationwide. The PR is already working as I am looking to where I can put some recent savings - Nationwide after today will be in the front of my mind as one port of call.

Ian_Griffiths_Halifax

I've said this on one of the many other threads on the same issue, but no apologies for repeating my self. If the Collar was in their KFI and Offer Letter, then it's enforceable and they should do so. The people who lose out if they dont enforce it are their savers, or at least it would make people think twice about saving with them.

Where Nationwide have gone wrong is, less than a month ago they announced that they wouldn't be enforcing their TOTALLY LEGAL collar, but now they've gone back on that.

I have a client who is ready to complete next week on a mortgage which shows the Collar in the KFI and Offer Letter, but they wouldn't remove the Collar from the offer, just gave the same guarantee that was on their website, which stated that they wouldn't enforce it 'in the current financial climate'. As I said to their Underwriting Department last week, "that means that next week you could go back on that if you want as the financial climate is constantly changing". Sometimes I hate being right!

aitch-aitch

gazmona wrote: »

just a quick one....
we did the same last year as we kept running short by 16th of ever month, we asked to make payments by the 28th and......the 10 days or so you pay later are not free....in our case nearly £ 200 was added to our motgage or we had the option of paying it straight away.
We are also with the Woolwich !

Thanks for the info - fortunately I have it in writing from Woolwich so if they do charge me I can wave my piece of paper they sent me at them;)

Hurdler

I have a strange one... I just rang up Woolwich as the only adjustment I had was back in October... turns out that was their annual adjustment based on a drop in the rates.

Looks like... they have been adjusting the interest rates for trackers (I will be paying 1.97% in Feb) BUT... they kept my Direct Debit the same, so effectively I have been overpaying.

Now - I realise long term this is good because I have a nice buffer for when the rates go up again... but there is a teeeeeeny tiny bit of me that feels that I would have liked the money back in real terms and then made the decision as to whether to overpay/use the money for home improvements.

Of course I can ask them to give me the full reduction so that I can see a real effect in my paypacket...

I think now we are post christmas and post Xmas-credit card bills it's probably prudent to reassess my budget and continue to do home improvements/overpay and at least I understand what they're doing.

paulahart280

gazmona wrote: »

just a quick one....
we did the same last year as we kept running short by 16th of ever month, we asked to make payments by the 28th and......the 10 days or so you pay later are not free....in our case nearly £ 200 was added to our motgage or we had the option of paying it straight away.
We are also with the Woolwich !

Hi we too are with the woolwich and now pay by standing order and were not charged for paying on a date that suited us! I think you should take it up with them. I do remember being told that I would need to make the payment in that month though eg if your first payment is due on the 16th Jan then you would need to pay batween the 1st Jan - 31st Jan. The only reason I can see why you were charged would be that you paid them a month late?