Advantage Mortgage Shock Offer

opinions4u

Based on what you've said and a bit of Google I think I'd take their offer at face value and move fast.

Don't use their broker though.

Find a reputable whole of market adviser locally.

And try to get in with a mainstream lender - sounds like your ltv and credit rating would support it (no idea if your employment / income would - what is your job, what is you annual income, do you have any other debts, are you employed or self-employed?).

Out of interest, why did you go with Advantage in the first place? The mix of non-mainstream lender and the reference to bank charges does suggest your credit history may not be whiter than white.

Gut reaction is it's a gift horse / mouth situation to benefit from.

shino74

opinions4u wrote: »

Based on what you've said and a bit of Google I think I'd take their offer at face value and move fast.

Don't use their broker though.

Find a reputable whole of market adviser locally.

And try to get in with a mainstream lender - sounds like your ltv and credit rating would support it (no idea if your employment / income would - what is your job, what is you annual income, do you have any other debts, are you employed or self-employed?).

Out of interest, why did you go with Advantage in the first place? The mix of non-mainstream lender and the reference to bank charges does suggest your credit history may not be whiter than white.

Gut reaction is it's a gift horse / mouth situation to benefit from.

Yes it does seem a gift horse situation. I am a Quality Manager currently earning 27k per annum. I have 2 credit cards with total balance of 2k and also Car Finance with Peugeot of 237 per month.
We went with Advantage cause as you state at that time I had some old arrears (these are now over 6 years old). Hoping I can now get in with a mainstream lender, but even not surely I can get anyone just to save the 21700 for now.

Kavanne

shino, have you called them to confirm this? It's the first thing I would do as mistakes can happen. If they confirm, make sure you note the time, date and name of the person you spoke to.

shino74

Kavanne wrote: »

shino, have you called them to confirm this? It's the first thing I would do as mistakes can happen. If they confirm, make sure you note the time, date and name of the person you spoke to.

Kavanne - Yes I called them as soon as I picked myself up off the floor, I have the date time and name written down! I have seen another thread somewhere on this forum with others in the same position, one even offered 30k to move!
As pointed out earlier Advantage / Morgan Stanley have been severely crunched and require released funds, so guess its better for them in the shortterm to have 67k off me now rather than wait another 23 years with dribs and drabs coming in!

Kavanne

well done, find yourself an independent advisor ASAP to help you find a deal appropriate for your circumstances. Remember to be honest, even about the arrears over 6 yrs old.

Trollfever

Thanks for the info.

Advantage appears to be a popular name for sub-prime lenders:

Welcome to Advantage Loans

"Advantage are no longer accepting new applications. If you are looking for a loan and have not yet made an application we would recommend that you visit Loanxxxxxx or call them on 0800 4089 xxxx. Loanxxxx UK are a loan broker from the same group of companies as Advantage Loans who specialise in helping those who have struggled to get accepted for a loan elsewhere.

Good luck OP.

:beer:

silvercar

Reading threads like this makes me wish I'd taken my mortgage with a sub-prime lender rather than a high street lender. AN extra 1-3% on the interest rate would have been worth paying to get 25% of my mortgage wiped out.

Rather like the carpet baggers spotting the next building society to be privitised, should we be taking out mortgages with lenders about to make amazing offers?

thriftymomma

What a fabulous offer!! You lucky soul!

coffeelover_2

Hey Everyone, I've also had an offer from Advantage Mortgage. I didn't know whether to believe it so I thought I'd run it through Google and found this forum. My offer is for a "£23,100 cash allowance paid directly into my mortgage account on the date of closure" - states "no early repayment charges to pay" and "No mortgage exit administration fees to pay."

I rang them, they confirmed letter and suggested I see a financial adviser.

Am glad I'm not the only one, it makes it more believable. I don't know a great deal about mortgages, this being my first taken out in October 2007.

Just thought I'd share this with you.

JCR1987

Hi all. I'm another one of the 'lucky one's'. Had a letter a couple of weeks ago making us an offer of £29k to leave Advantage. (There was part of me tempted to ring up and try and haggle for more seeing as they appear so desperate, but I figured that may be tempting fate)

We're up for remortgage now as well so approached our bank (Yorkshire) to do a remortgage and they couldn't believe Advantage would make such an offer, even though it was written in black and white in front of them. They phoned them up and Advantage confirmed they would pay £29,000 off the balance before the mortgage was settled if we could find another deal. No ERC's, no transfer fees, nothing.

Unluckily for us my wife had a default with 1 month left of the 6 years to run before it drops off her credit file, thereby getting us rejected by Yorkshire. We're in the process of appealing but don't hold out much hope. However, our plan of action if we don't get the remortgage is to go to an IFA to see what they can do for us.

We used an IFA (MoneyQuest) to get the Advantage mortgage in the first place when no-one else would touch us, so hopefully they can work their magic again for us. We're certainly in a better position now with around a 20% deposit to offer.

The only thing that slightly worries me is that Advantage have time-limited the offer to the end of August, so if we can't get anything going within the next couple of months it would be a major kick in the crown jewels if we lost out on 29k off our mortgage. Hopefully if they're that deperate to get rid of us they'll be prepared to extend the offer.

Thank the lord for the credit crunch!!