Remortgage Help - Nationwide vs Woolwich

firey-dragon6666

Hello!

Can anyone help? I have 2 decent offers on the table for a lifetime tracker.

1. Woolwich's Barclays Rate (traditionally same as B of E) + 0.23 and no fees
2. Nationwide's B of E + 0.34 Lifetime tracker and no fees

Both seem good products to me, obviously the concern is that Barclays rate could easily differ from Bank of England in the future, and the exit fee is £275 as compared to Nationwide's £90. Anyone have any advice for me?

Thank you!!

Ian_W

The brokers who regularly post on here have often been less than complimentary about Woolwich's application admin & service standards whereas mostly I've good reviews of NW's. I suppose it boils down to how much difference the 0.11% difference makes to your repayments which is governed by the size of your mortgage as opposed to the release fees of each.

firey-dragon6666

The mortgage amount will be about £95k, so the difference would be about £6 a month. I feel happier about Nationwide but the gambler in me wants the savings at Woolwich!! However, if the base rate falls, how likely is it that Barclays would decrease their own rate in line with B of E straight away? Thanks

MarkyMarkD

Barclays base rate ALWAYS matches BoE base rate. The fact that they could theoretically differ is theoretical only and not worth worrying about.

So, based on £95k, 0.11% is £105 a year which means that you'd recoup the difference in MEAFs in under two years.

If both lenders are prepared to offer you the loan you need, and you expect to stay in the house for more than two years, I can't see any good reason to choose Nationwide.

Based on a £95k loan, I'd be surprised if you couldn't get a better deal by paying a fee. Have you considered that option?

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Woolwich product ERC free whereas the Nationwide one has a 3% ERC for the first 5 years? If that's the case, I definitely cannot see why you'd go with Nationwide.

InsuranceLiability

What about the ING direct mortgage?

That seems to beat both of these at 5.14

admittedly there's no guarantee the rate won't change but then you could always move if you found something better

mhay_3

can i ask why you are considering a lifetime tracker in a currently volatile market?

mhay_3

and quickly touching on what marky has said, nationwide does have a 5yr tie in!

MarkyMarkD

mhay wrote:

can i ask why you are considering a lifetime tracker in a currently volatile market?

I'm not sure I see the problem in opting for a lifetime tracker irrespective of volatility. The benefit is that you are locking in a very narrow margin over BoE base rate.

I doubt that anything much cheaper than Woolwich's rate, with its terms, is likely to come out as it's a very good value product.

ING's is interesting but, as posted, it's not guaranteed to remain at that rate. It would be very sad for someone (who wants to stick with a mortgage for the long-term) to choose ING because it's currently competitive and then find they jack their rates up by 0.50% relative to BBR just after Woolwich re-price their product upwards as well.

peterg1965

If it were a straight choice between Woolwich and Nationwide, then the Nationwide wins by a mile. It is not a bank for starters and has historically offered better rates and customer service and is also considerably better in many other respects.

firey-dragon6666

thanks very much for all your help! I would consider paying a fee if it got be a better deal, but I haven't seen anything to beat these rates over a long period. If anyone knows of anything please let me know! Looking at the ING deal - seems great, maybe it would be best to do that and switch elsewhere if their rate does change. However, the remortgage isn't until 1st June, so their rate may well have changed by then. Are there any other products I should be considering? Thanks

Leon_W

I've used Hinckley & Rugbys' tracker recently. Not as good as ING (but there is no way in this world that rate will stand) It's at 5.32% (BBR + 0.07%)

Free legals for remortgages but there is an arrangement fee and val fee.

The interesting bit is that an offset facility is available also there are No Early Repayment Charges.

To be honest, if it were me, with that size of mortgage I'd go with the Woolwich. Service has been much better than Nationwide of late !