Accord Mortgages - Increasing SVR?!

[Deleted User]

captainhaggis wrote: »

But I'm talking PURELY about the part of the new interest rate that my lender directly controls. That is the part ABOVE the base rate that they set. Can they say that instead of charging 10% above Barclay's Base they'll instead charge me 20% above Barclay's Base?

I don't think they can.

As this is written into the terms of your mortgage offer, then they would find it difficult to change that percentage. However, they can change the BBBR rate whenever they feel like it, as amply demonstrated by Accord Mortgages and others recently. And if you're one of the many borrowers who can't afford to switch to another product, that's all the more money to be made from you.

Note_of_Dis-accord

I've posted on here becasue I feel strongly about this. The points made in response to Myssinic original thread in my poinion are all valid as indeed is the point made in this thread, ie its in the Ts&Cs that they can adjust SVR, they have have a balance sheet to maintain in profit and they may not be the best performning company etc. However, I feel the argument is that of moral obligation and providing assistance to recovering the economy. I don't think that they should give money away as we need the financial institutions to be stable, but they do need to be playing a greater part. The point I make below, is an extract from a complaint I have made to them about this subject on the principle of 'if I don't tell them how I feel, they won't know its hurting.' It will probabaly come to nothing but I still thought it worth writing:

Mortgage Standard Variable Rate

I've just been to your website and I am absolutely appalled at the increase in your svr from 5.34% to 5.99%. I am a customer of yours with a buy to let mortgage and when my fixed period ended 12-months ago I let my mortgage revert to the svr as I thought it better to wait for svr reductions as I envisaged this to be the cheapest option.

Whilst I appreciate that the situation we find ourselves in may well have been down to irresponsible lending from financial institutions and borrowing from customers, I do think that you could be doing more to help the average customer.

It was bad enough but understandable, as you do have to make a profit, when your svr was 7% and the BoE base rate was 5.75%. What I absolutely cannot understand is how you can justify a svr at 5.99% when the base rate is at 0.5%. The difference between your rate now and when the BoE rate was at its highest most recently is a staggering 4.25 times greater, ie the difference then was 1.25% and now its is 5.49%. Please tell me how this is justified? I do appreciate your may not be a financial institution that has benefited from government bail outs but I would appreciate it if you could explain your increase. I note that most other mortgage lenders hold their svr at between 3 to 4%. My residential mortgage with IF is currently on a tracker at 1.55%, which I appreciate is very good. If it were to lapse now the svr for IF is 2.5%!!!

I am sorry this may appear a complete rant, but I do believe everyone has a responsibility to recover the economy; even financial institutions. Decisions such as yours can only be bad for your business as they reduce the amount of money that can be reinvested into the economy and they most certainly do not promote goodwill.

Your consideration with this matter would be most appreciated.