Redstone mortgages. Just put my rate up by 0.85%!

IESCAPEDREDSTONE

I have just found this site as I was searching google for redstone mortgages! wow what an eye opener I understand all your problems with Redstone as I went through the same with them. I managed to escap though so am one of the lucky ones!

My original loan was with AMber who sold on to Redstone as soon as the mortgage completed.

Redstone were terrible don't have a clue what they are doing and I think this is mainly because the Skipton site is an outsourced administration centre. Redstone are actually based in London and all they do is buy sub prime mortgages from other lenders.

I was placed with Redstone due to past credit problems and was on a 2 year dicount product with a 6% redemption penalty which lasted for 3 years. I could see problems happening so I sold my place soon after the 3 year period and am now with the Chelsea who are high street lenders but will consider people with credit problems.

I was on a chelsea fixed rate product of 7.01% for 2 years and just moved onto their variable of 5.75%. I have been late with my payments with Chelsea a couple of times due to being self employed and my invoices not being paid on time but the Chelsea have been great and really uinderstanding!

So I suggest you all leave Redstone ASAP and move to a lender like Chelsea.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

IESCAPEDREDSTONE wrote: »

I have just found this site as I was searching google for redstone mortgages! wow what an eye opener I understand all your problems with Redstone as I went through the same with them. I managed to escap though so am one of the lucky ones!

My original loan was with AMber who sold on to Redstone as soon as the mortgage completed.

Redstone were terrible don't have a clue what they are doing and I think this is mainly because the Skipton site is an outsourced administration centre. Redstone are actually based in London and all they do is buy sub prime mortgages from other lenders.

I was placed with Redstone due to past credit problems and was on a 2 year dicount product with a 6% redemption penalty which lasted for 3 years. I could see problems happening so I sold my place soon after the 3 year period and am now with the Chelsea who are high street lenders but will consider people with credit problems.

I was on a chelsea fixed rate product of 7.01% for 2 years and just moved onto their variable of 5.75%. I have been late with my payments with Chelsea a couple of times due to being self employed and my invoices not being paid on time but the Chelsea have been great and really uinderstanding!

So I suggest you all leave Redstone ASAP and move to a lender like Chelsea.

My fixed rate (5.45%) ends with them in August. Much as I would love to remortgage elsewhere, realistically I will be stuck on their SVR some some years to come as I would have to self cert on a mortgage that may just be nudging negative equity by now. Certainly it's no better than 100% at current prices. I also have a lot of unsecured debt.
I asked recently how they calculate their SVR and it is the previous quarters LIBOR rate + 2%. At current rates that means my mortgage would drop slightly but I don't expect that to be sustainable. If rates climb appreciably, I could end up on a DMP or losing my home (or both). Fortunately, I do have the capacity to increase my income by some margin (I am currently working on this) which could be my saving grace.

Scorps

Hello everyone - been looking at this post with great interest - I took out a mortgage with Amber purely for self cert and a really good rate at the time!!! They sold my mortgage to Redstone after about 6 months, then the rates went up and up and up - my mortgage went from £550 per month to £1,750 - it totally crippled us, but the main point is under the banking code a lender or bank should not put you in a worse position than you would of been before - if anyone wants to join me I am taking this a lot further - I have details of all the interests rates I would have been on if Amber (Skipton) had kept my mortgage on and the rates that have been charged by Redstone in the time - there is a massive difference!!! ALSO - SKIPTON actually own - Redstone, Kensington, Platform - to name but a few of the mortgage companies that they sign people up to then sell on to - yes you guessed - REDSTONE - what a great way to make money - NOT. I have further information if anyone is interested. This really should not be allowed to carry on anymore!

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Scorps wrote: »

Hello everyone - been looking at this post with great interest - I took out a mortgage with Amber purely for self cert and a really good rate at the time!!! They sold my mortgage to Redstone after about 6 months, then the rates went up and up and up - my mortgage went from £550 per month to £1,750 - it totally crippled us, but the main point is under the banking code a lender or bank should not put you in a worse position than you would of been before - if anyone wants to join me I am taking this a lot further - I have details of all the interests rates I would have been on if Amber (Skipton) had kept my mortgage on and the rates that have been charged by Redstone in the time - there is a massive difference!!! ALSO - SKIPTON actually own - Redstone, Kensington, Platform - to name but a few of the mortgage companies that they sign people up to then sell on to - yes you guessed - REDSTONE - what a great way to make money - NOT. I have further information if anyone is interested. This really should not be allowed to carry on anymore!

Just wanted to say that although my original mortgage was with Amber, I have a letter stating that the original deal (3 month LIBOR + 2%) will hold with Redstone. I got that letter when the mortgage was sold on without having to ask for it. I'm surprised that you weren't given similar.

MarkyMarkD

The two situations are not necessarily the same. If your mortgage is "SVR" then the lender can charge you their SVR, whatever it is. If they sell the mortgage to another lender - and the terms and conditions will almost always allow them to do so - then it means the new lender's SVR and there's no obligation at all on the buyer to keep the SVR the same as the vendor in perpetuity.

If the rate is a tracker, or fixed, though then it's a term of the contract and they cannot unilaterally vary it. So the buyer of your mortgage will have no choice but to charge the same rate.

Scorps

What I meant by the two rates being different is exactly what MarkyMarkD has just said - in my original mortgage offer I was 1% below Amber's standard variable rate and Redstone have to honour that - but the point that is so wrong is that Redstone kept putting up their SVR - even when I rang to ask what their SVR was the person who was dealing with my call didn't know what I was talking about. So they have kept to my original mortgage deal but their SVR is a lot higher than Amber. Daylight robbery!!!:mad:

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Scorps wrote: »

What I meant by the two rates being different is exactly what MarkyMarkD has just said - in my original mortgage offer I was 1% below Amber's standard variable rate and Redstone have to honour that - but the point that is so wrong is that Redstone kept putting up their SVR - even when I rang to ask what their SVR was the person who was dealing with my call didn't know what I was talking about. So they have kept to my original mortgage deal but their SVR is a lot higher than Amber. Daylight robbery!!!:mad:

I think I see what you mean now. Your mortgage is linked to Redstone's SVR but mine is, effectively, a tracker mortgage based on 3 monthly LIBOR + 2%.
I do agree with you that the SVR ought to be the same as Amber's. It seems to me that Amber is just a feeder for other sub prime lenders (which they own or have links to) and Amber's SVR is deliberately kept lower in order to attract customers. This sounds like a classic case of bait and switch. I've known more honest drug dealers.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

The two situations are not necessarily the same. If your mortgage is "SVR" then the lender can charge you their SVR, whatever it is. If they sell the mortgage to another lender - and the terms and conditions will almost always allow them to do so - then it means the new lender's SVR and there's no obligation at all on the buyer to keep the SVR the same as the vendor in perpetuity.

If the rate is a tracker, or fixed, though then it's a term of the contract and they cannot unilaterally vary it. So the buyer of your mortgage will have no choice but to charge the same rate.

It sounds like I got quite lucky then in having a tracker (albeit a not exceptionally attractive one). When I did the re-mortgage (autumn '06), there was still a fair bit of competition around so this may have helped.

MarkyMarkD

I don't believe that Amber and the other lenders are commonly owned. They are just all administered by Skipton - but Skipton do this for a lot of lenders on a fee basis, not because they own the mortgages.

Amber is a subsidiary of Skipton Group; the others are not.

http://www.skiptongroup.com/ shows who is in the group.

The points about a sub-prime lender being able to originate loans at what appears to be an attractive rate, and then sell it on, is unfortunately totally true. And if you are sub-prime, you might not be able to leave them.

The lesson I suppose is to only buy a sub-prime mortgage which is NOT linked to an SVR - i.e. which is either fixed or tracker throughout it's term. But that will make the choice rather limited, for people who may realistically have little choice at all anyway.

pcarn009

This company are simply pirates, i have had nothing but problems with them, i would warn anyone out there NOT TO GO WITH THEM!!!!

I can only warn you, that just want to evict every1.