Can this be right??

misstipsycake

This is a strange one..........On Saturday at a branch of Alliance and Leicester I was informed by a customer advisor that since becoming part of Santander they are actively chasing mortgage customers and asked if I would consider changing mortgage provider. I am halfway through a 5yr fixed rate (5.89%) with Standard Life and they informed me that that wasn't a problem, they would cover any early redemption penalty and refund my valuation costs!

Surely this cannot be correct, or else everyone would be changing to the lower rate deals ??? I was told that this information is not available on their web-site, but if I was interested they would call me this week to discuss further. It all seemed a bit cloak and dagger.

Has anyone else heard of Alliance and Leicester covering another provider's early redemtion fees? I aksed twice to make it clear that I had understood what the advisor was telling me!

Very confused and not willing to get my hopes up!!

pebblespop

my hairdresser was saying her bank have done the same thing - offered for her to move her mortgage and not pay redemptions.

if you can geta mortgage with someone else it may be worthwhile.

blued

The way I understand it this is different to your hairdresser though? This is another bank trying to get your custom by paying your redemption fees with your existing bank rather than your current bank looking (essentially) to get rid of you!

If this is on offer to all new customers I'd look at switching because they have some decent 5yr fixes!

_Andy_

Are you sure it's them actually paying them, rather than the fees being incorporated into your new mortgage (i.e. you wouldn't pay them upfront but they would then form part of the new mortgage and thus be paying interest on them over the full term)?

misstipsycake

Thanks for your replies folks.

_Andy_, good point - I will check with them that they are not merely adding the redemption fees into the new mortgage.