ING ok or not?

Wig

Someone said that Martin had said on BBC R2 not to go near ING.

Is this true?

Was he talking about mortgages or something else like credit cards?

What if anything is the problem with ING mortgages?

pavlovs_dog

not the most competitive for savings, but dont have many problems customer services-wise. although their website is down for maintenance as often as it is up :rolleyes:

Wig

I think the person I heard this from was remembering what Martin said about another ING product (probably savings) recently. As I recall the rep from ING was made to look pretty stupid on the program - I can't remember what it was about something like ING now bottom of the league table for savings and the ING guy saying we still have a top product.

I think from what I see of their mortgage they are very good in the mortgage dept. But wanted to know if Martin and you guys know something I don't about ING mortgages.

Takecareofthepennies

ING did not pass on the last two BOE base rate rises to their savings customers. Therefore, their savings account at currently 4.75 % is no longer exactly a Best Buy.

As far as mortgages go, their Standard Variable Rate is rather low at currently 5.14 %. While you can get better fixed or discounted deals, you might want to consider ING if you have not a million years left on your mortgage and your outstanding balance is under £ 100k or so. This is because with shrinking balance and remaining term, a fractional advantage in interest percentages will be eaten up by the cost of changing lender, i.e. (ever-increasing) arrangement fees plus exit fees (to the extent to which you have to pay them).

Personally, I switched to ING in December for this very reason, with £ 81k and 8 years left on my mortgage. And believe me I did my maths first ...

The process was painless and hassle-free. If you need to contact their call centre, there is no long wait :T and they are based in the UK.

AMO

Yes, ING Direct are very good for mortgages. I switched about a month ago to their fixed rate and it was better than anything else out there. I didn't find Money Supermarket or ThisIsMoney very good as whilst the interest rates were good, the arrangement fees were high.

AMO

spike9

I am due to remortgage and have been with Nationwide for last two, two year spells. Just looked at options and ING looks almost too good to be true. Currently 5.14 for life of mortgage , promise never to exceed .9% over base. No arrangement , legals or valuation and free to leave !Plus overpay as you wish. Can anybody suggest any reasons not to go with this ? Thanks

cheveleyaprkpaul

I also remortgaged to ING direct on the fixed rate offer and completed at the beginning of Feb. Some other posters on here found their service slow, but in my experience they were first rate. Everything progressed incredibly easily and you can track the progress on-line to see where its got to. The only thing I would say is that the 5.14 rate will almost certainly go up as it has not had the last .25 base rate increase priced into it. The recent criticsm was to do with their savings product which used to be market leading, but is not anymore. I guess there could be a fear that the mortgage product will go the same way, but there is no tie-in, or cost to leave. If you are dissatisfied with the rate in the future there is always the option to leave for free. Personally I kind of like their approach - create a simple good value product and if it is good enough people won't want to leave, so you don't need to try and tie them in. It credits the consumer with some intelligence.

docmarty

cheveleyaprkpaul wrote:

I also remortgaged to ING direct on the fixed rate offer and completed at the beginning of Feb...

What fixed rate product was that ? Currently ING only offer a variable rate
deal (5.14%). Just curious...

Jeannine

It was fixed at 4.95% I think.....and pulled some weeks ago, just after (or before?) the latest base rate increase.

docmarty

Thanks Jeannine -sounds like that would have been a good deal,
shame I missed it.

Lib_3

My personal experience with ING direct Mortgages was very unsatisfactory when I tried remortgaging with them in Dec. Maybe because they are new, they didn't seem to know what they were doing.