TMB - no products on offer - help???

mutleee

I have come to the end of my deal with 'The Mortgage Business' and am being put back on their standard rate (4.840 %). This means an increase of £550 month. The problem is they were bought out by Birmingham Midshires (which is owned by the bank of Scotland!) and they are not offering any other rates. I called Birmingham Midshires and was told that they only take on business through brokers - meaning I can only approuch them as a new customer.

Apart from feeling very let down I am extremely worried. My mortgage is a buy to let interest only and I am only just hanging on to the place - the rent is £150 month short of the cost. I would consider moving into the flat but I am at a loss as where to go or do.

Can anyone offer me any advice regarding the lack of rate offers from TMB, BM or the bank of Scotland???

Thankyou in advance

beecher

My only advice would be to sell - presumably you have some equity in this since you were expecting to be eligible for new deals. Losing £150/month seems pointless to me.

Gunner101

I have told TMB I intend to complain about the way they have handled this situation. I have been on a fixed rate deal which expires end of this month and I am not happy that I am being forced onto their standard variable rate.

I didn't receive any news of their decision to pull out of the market in August 2008 and I think that I should have been given the option of looking elsewhere in the market for re-mortgage without incurring the redemption penalties on my product.

TMB have no vested interest in making their standard variable a competitive product and the very least this is doing to me is to force me into paying their rates while I change lenders...which could take 2 or 3 months to complete.

They should have given customers the option to change lenders without redemption penalties if they were pulling out of the market!!

_Andy_

The standard variable rate is what you agreed to go on to once the rate ends, as per your mortgage offer and original KFI.
You are not 'forced' to pay these rates - you should've started looking at what was available 2-3 months before the rate ended.

opinions4u

Gunner101 wrote: »

I have told TMB I intend to complain about the way they have handled this situation. I have been on a fixed rate deal which expires end of this month and I am not happy that I am being forced onto their standard variable rate.

When you signed up for the mortgage, what did your offer say would happen at the end of the fixed rate period? You've been forced in to nothing.

I didn't receive any news of their decision to pull out of the market in August 2008 and I think that I should have been given the option of looking elsewhere in the market for re-mortgage without incurring the redemption penalties on my product.

In what way did they stop you shopping around a couple of months ago? If your product is due to expire, what redemption penalties are you facing?

TMB have no vested interest in making their standard variable a competitive product and the very least this is doing to me is to force me into paying their rates while I change lenders...which could take 2 or 3 months to complete.

They are forcing you to pay the SVR, which is what they told you - in writing - would happen 5 years ago.

They should have given customers the option to change lenders without redemption penalties if they were pulling out of the market!!

Why? They aren't taking on new business, but they aren't stopping servicing their existing customers.

Why didn't you shop around sooner? Just because you assumed something would happen doesn't mean it has to happen.

They have no legal obligation to do anything more than they have done. They have no moral obligation to do anything more than they have done.

What about you? What about your obligations to yourself? Why didn't you get off your butt a couple of months earlier and sort something out instead of expecting a letter from TMB offering you some sweet deal other than the SVR?

Anyway, 4.84% will probably be as good as any 5 year fixed deal you now negotiate, so you won't be out of pocket will you?

_Andy_

Incidentally the same poster requested help on the DFW board a month ago (which he duly got) and then didn't even give the people that responded the courtesy of thanking them. Nice.

beecher

As opinions4u says, 4.84% is a pretty good rate - what rate were you on before? I don't get how your payments can go up by £550/month at such a low rate.

nw_man

beecher wrote: »

As opinions4u says, 4.84% is a pretty good rate - what rate were you on before? I don't get how your payments can go up by £550/month at such a low rate.

Thinking that very same thought myself

kerryburn

Guys

I wanted to make an observation rather than a judgement on the poster mentioned.

I too am with TMB and have had the 'shock' of moving from a tracker product on my buy to let to SVR, representing an increase in payments from £150 to £549 pm.

Having to tried to shop around, there is nothing because of the Loan to Value calculation. Therefore I am stuck as well. I need to have between 60% and 75% LtV and there is no way my property will value in that favour.

I totally agree with the arguments and the letter of the law, the moral argument that someone raised however is a joke, this issue of profit around the difference between base rate and SVR (or most products) is all about us paying for the mistakes of the past and at the moment I for one begrudge paying this rate. Other lenders are a full point cheaper (Abbey, HSBC).

I have been shopping around by the way, and got nowhere, any thoughts would be appreciated.

Kerry

Conrad

Companies are in existence to make money, that's thier responsibility. If your pension does badly because the pension fund manager decides to invest in companies that feel sorry for thier customers, you would be the first to complain as to why your pension pot had'nt done well.

People cannot have it all ways.

You could have gone to abbey / HSBC instead of TMB but YOU chose not to, so cannot bleat now. Most people with TMB went there for a reson, usualy they could nt prove enough income (and 'benefited' by therefore paying less Tax for schools and hospitals).

If you'd wanted an Abbey mortgage yyou could have put yourself in a position where you could access them. NO ONE FORCED YOU TO CHOSE YOUR LIFESTYLE.

You love TMB when they 'came to the rescue' with that specialist mortgage, now you foget that love.