Bradford & Bingley Fixed rate mortgage

harlandfamily

can someone help please
my current mortage with B&B was taken out in Jan 2007 on a fixed rate of 5.89% fixed for 10 years.I was very fortunate at time to get it and i know that rates have come down but i didnt mind paying what i was doing as deals were starting to become harder to get
however when B&B went into state ownership i kept paying as normal at the rate i had agreed.last year in jan 2010 i never recived a statement and did ask for one but to no avail.
today i have receivedmy new statement detailng my payments but showing a rate of 3.64%??? it also says my payment has now been reduced??
my questionsare theses: 1) should i query the rate and aonce agin the lack of statement for last year.2)i am assuming the smaller payment this year is because of the APR? 3) as i have been paying the amount agreed on the higher APR would this make a difference if i queried why the APR is not what is signed for?
to my mind a 10 year fixed rate was brilliant at the time and could also be for the future with how things are panning out in the financial industry.
all help provided would be brilliant :T

blueberrypie

Are you certain that the original fixed-rate period was ten years and not three? It wasn't three years at a certain interest rate and then moving to a different follow-on rate?

A reduction in your interest rate would certainly mean a reduction in the monthly payment. As your payments are being recalculated *now*, it doesn't seem likely that you have been paying the lower interest rate all along.

Best place to start is your original mortgage documents - they will provide the details of what you signed for in 2007.

harlandfamily

the documents i have show the rate fixed for 10 years.this was pre state ownership.i have my customer copy i retained.show rate fixed till 2017.:)

blueberrypie

harlandfamily wrote: »

the documents i have show the rate fixed for 10 years.this was pre state ownership.i have my customer copy i retained.show rate fixed till 2017.:)

Then you probably shouldn't be paying 3.64% now...

Generally when a lender is taken over by someone else, the loans they've made have to stand just as they were, with the original t&c etc., but maybe there's something that has made a difference. It could be a difference in your favour (lower interest rate) or not (interest rate could be variable...and go up when rates start rising). Is there anything else in the documentation (either the original documents or the ones you've received recently) which gives any further clues? Any mention of the 3.64% being SVR or variable? Any mention of a follow-on rate?

You could ring them and tell them you think you should be paying more interest, I suppose...

Bearing in mind that I am merely an interested amateur when it comes to mortgages...I think I'd be inclined to just make the payments at the new rate and stick the difference between the old payment amount and the new payment amount into a savings account just in case they decide at some point in the future that you should have been paying more. If they do, at least you'll be able to pay it. If they don't, you'll have money to pay off your mortgage sooner. Either way, it won't be costing you any more from your budget than you were expecting to pay anyway.

But there might be a mortgage professional along in a minute to tell you why my suggestion is a bad idea :-)