MSE News: 40,000 Halifax mortgage holders at risk of payment hike

JimmyTheWig

puregeordie wrote: »

This change does not affect the amount customers pay, and the SVR remains at 3.5 per cent.

Hopefully this means that skinnyman's parents (post #18) mis-read their letter (or something got lost in relaying the contents to skinnyman).

I have also just come of the phone from the HALIFAX as I'm on the bog standard SVR and it will NOT affect me as if shouldn't effect anybody else on the SVR with them I guess.

Doesn't affect you as in your rate won't be going up?
Or doesn't affect you as in your cap won't be going up? If so, why? Is it because you didn't take out your mortgage between 2001 and 2007? I haven't worked out the significance of these dates.


@MSE Guy - any chance of confiming this misunderstanding?

puregeordie

Hi, sorry it is a bit confusing..

Yes I took a mortgage out with them between the dates and yes I got additional borrowing out with them.

My deals/rates have ended and I'm now on the SVR. if the BOE rate goes up my SVR goes up and I pay more.

I am not on this 3% capped rate on any part of my mortgage and so I will not be affected of this cap going up to 3.75%

The SVR stays the same at 3.5% which is the majority of people. Its just the capped rate mortgage and whoever is on 3%.

I think.:)

Thrugelmir

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

What's the betting on them putting up their rate on 13th June, or sometime soon after?
By doing it this way they avoid giving the people tied in an escape route at the time they put the rate up.

The longer that BOE base rate remains as is. The higher the probability that SVR will rise. Banks are being squeezed on lending margin.

LloydsHBOS has repaid all £165 billion lent under the Special Liquidity scheme. By October 2012 needs to repay a further £23 billion under the Special Guarantee Scheme. So after this funding mortgages will be dependent on wholesale markets and retail deposits. Therefore interest rates can only go one way.

StephenM_2

Pincher wrote: »

What happened to the BOE+1% Life Time trackers that Barclays and Woolwich did?

Or the Halifax itself, since this is a Halifax thread. I'm lucky enough to be on a Halifax BOE+0.99% lifetime tracker.

Trying_to_be_good

Paul Lewis, on BBC Breakfast (he's the presenter of Radio 4's Money Box) has just said that tomorrow Halifax are announcing their SVR is increasing to 3.99% - an increase of 0.49 percentage points. Presumably he has a good source for that information.

RenovationMan

This is a ploy by the Halifax to get people off SVR and arrange a new mortgage (allowing the Halifax to profit from the arrangement fees). Hopefully if people feel they need to arrange a new mortgage, they do it with a different bank.

Halifax are never the cheapest lender anyway, so better deals wil be out there with other lenders.

y3andy

Its going upto 3.99% by the start of May!

Almost a million homeowners will see their mortgage payments rise from May after the UK's largest lender Halifax raised its standard variable rate.
The rise in the Halifax standard variable rate (SVR) for existing Halifax borrowers from 3.5 per cent to 3.99 per cent will deprive around 850,000 Halifax mortgage holders of hundreds of pounds each year.
Halifax - which is part of 41 per cent state-owned Lloyds Banking Group - made its move despite efforts by the Bank of England to ease the pressure on cash-strapped families by keeping the base rate at a record low 0.5 per cent.

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2109329/850-000-households-pay-hundreds-Halifax-hits-borrowers-mortgage-rate-hike.html#ixzz1o2tGPQd4

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2109329/850-000-households-pay-hundreds-Halifax-hits-borrowers-mortgage-rate-hike.html

alexlyne

RenovationMan wrote: »

This is a ploy by the Halifax to get people off SVR and arrange a new mortgage (allowing the Halifax to profit from the arrangement fees). Hopefully if people feel they need to arrange a new mortgage, they do it with a different bank.

Halifax are never the cheapest lender anyway, so better deals wil be out there with other lenders.

I read in the week that the last time Halifax increased their cap, they followed it up with a SVR increase 3 months after - this was when it went from 2.5 to 3.5% in '08... and the hoo-har about this and their 'goodwill' gestures was that they didn't adequately inform people at the time. So now they are, and people are just as confused.

Me... I'm part svr and part fixed. I'm applying elsewhere for a new fix. I'll take a hit on the ERC but it's not siginificant compared to the savings. Finger's crossed as the missus is on maternity leave!

[edit: i did write this before teh links above were posted!]

samoblade

I think some people are getting a little confused about the letters that have gone out. with effect from 31st march, the CAP at which halifax can charge above the BOE base rate is increasing to 3.75% + BOE base rate.
however, that does not mean that with effect from 31st march the interest rate will be increasing to the said 3.75% + BOE base rate. They could do this if they wanted to, but that isn't what the letters state will be happening.

All the letter says is that the CAP will be increase NOT the interest rate/payments.

samoblade

samoblade wrote: »

I think some people are getting a little confused about the letters that have gone out. with effect from 31st march, the CAP at which halifax can charge above the BOE base rate is increasing to 3.75% + BOE base rate.
however, that does not mean that with effect from 31st march the interest rate will be increasing to the said 3.75% + BOE base rate. They could do this if they wanted to, but that isn't what the letters state will be happening.

All the letter says is that the CAP will be increase NOT the interest rate/payments.

ok.....so this announcement may now have been made!!!!
but just wanted to help clear up any issues with the original letters!!!