Standard Life Bank being sold to Barclays? What would happen to mortgage customers?

leicsmark

Hi,

About 8 months ago I posted a thread on here about how uncompetitive Standard Life were being with their mortgage products and how frustrating it was being trapped with them as my equity was probably too low to move.

It seems now that there is a lot of coverage in the press about a possible takeover by Barclays as Standard Life want to offload their banking division.

Can anybody shed any light on what might happen to current mortgage holders with Standard Life? (Does anyone have any experience of their mortgage bank being sold to another bank?)

Thanks for any replies.

Gorgeous_George

Your mortgage will be unaffected.

GG

Old_Git

my mortgage was with Woolwich .It was taken over by Barclays .It made no difference to the mortgage .

leicsmark

Thanks for your replies.

I am on the Standard Life SVR of 5.34%, so is it likely to be Barclays' SVR?

EDIT: I can't find any information about Barclays' SVR, all i can find is a Barclay's Base rate of 0.5% which it surely couldn't go on to.

Swiss_Toni

leicsmark wrote: »

Thanks for your replies.

I am on the Standard Life SVR of 5.34%, so is it likely to be Barclays' SVR?

EDIT: I can't find any information about Barclays' SVR, all i can find is a Barclay's Base rate of 0.5% which it surely couldn't go on to.

I am in a similar position.

When Barclays take over another mortgage lender, presumably they are required to honour all existing fixed, discounted and tracker periods, but, like leicsmark, I wonder what happens to the Standard Life SVR?

Woolwich and Barclays SVR is now the same - will Standard Lifes SVR be brought into line too?

Does anyone know what has happened in the past? Has there been a long delay in alinement or does the "whole bank" SVR become the same?

For anyone on the SL SVR, this could save a huge amount!!

(The Barclays/Woolwich Base Rate is 0.5% currently)

Looks like the purchase will take effect in the first few months of 2010.

dunstonh

Woolwich and Barclays SVR is now the same - will Standard Lifes SVR be brought into line too?

At some point that is almost certainly going to happen.

Does anyone know what has happened in the past? Has there been a long delay in alinement or does the "whole bank" SVR become the same?

Usually they end up being the same but for a period they are shown separately and can be different, then later equalised but shown separately and then finally merged to show only one. Timescale could be over months or it could be over years. There is nothing to say that Barclays have to equalise the rate or even merge it into one. Just expectation that consolidating the Std Life lending book into their main lending book will happen.

leicsmark

Right, the takeover has now been completed.

According to the SL person, SL is a seperate business within Barclays. (though is currently not offering mortgages?). I asked her who is in charge of setting the SVR and she said "presumably the Barclays board". So that's reassuring.

Barclays/Woolwich have an SVR of 4.99% (sorry to say the 0.5% is called the Barclays base rate - all new products track this, usually at least 2-3% above it). You can find their old SVR on their rates document on the website, though it doesn't apply to customers on newer mortgages.

However, worryingly, on 23rd December they changed the T+C of their old SVR to ALWAYS track the Bank of England rate (interestingly not their own base rate) by +4.49% !!! So that's ok at the moment but if rates go back to 5% then any Barclays/Woolwich customer would pay nearly 10%. I find it extremely unfair that they (along with SL and others) reduced their rates by a couple of %, but then are now locking the 4.49% gap in so that they can increase the rates when they go up (presumably) this year.

I asked SL if we are now tied to these same T+C and she said she doesn't know, "as it's only Day 1 of the business". To be honest, thats a crap excuse as they have had months to sort it out and are leaving their customers with very little confidence and security. Who is in charge of the SL SVR of 5.34%, is anyone?

Not happy, and I will do some more investigating. Unfortunately my LTV is hovering just over 90% at best so I have little option. Overpaying as much as I can.

chedges

FYI your mortgage is probably no longer with Standard Life anyway. Banks often sell on mortgages and the borrower is none the wiser. Hence it makes no difference to your original mortgage.

leicsmark

chedges wrote: »

FYI your mortgage is probably no longer with Standard Life anyway. Banks often sell on mortgages and the borrower is none the wiser. Hence it makes no difference to your original mortgage.

The mortgage WAS with SL until 1st January, SL agreed to sell their savings and mortgages to Barclays back in October and it has now been finalised. The mortgage is now held within Barclays group. In order to deal with the mortgage i can only call the original SL team in Edinburgh (and can't visit a Barclays branch or take any of their customer only deals) and have all the same T+Cs for the time being. SL are no longer offering their own new mortgages.

It all depends how far Barclays want to go when integrating the business. The logo and name have already changed (Standard Life Mortgages a division of Barclays), and Barclays will "update us" on changes to T+C in the future.

Its all a bit vague.

dazzammm

ive found a great way to reduce the effect of the criminal standard life SVR.

have a low income, lose your job, wait 13 weeks and then the government pays it !!

Seriously, we are screwed on SL's rate and going onto the Barclays rate is just as bad and being in the above situation there is little I can do about it.

its just another way we are being shafted - there are too many companies making money at our expense in the current climate.

beecher2

Is it 4.99%? That's hardly a criminal rate by any definition.