New customer only - name and shame : Santander

michaels

shortcrust wrote: »

I never understand the outrage that this very widely found and much discussed practice seems to elicit in some people. Offering incentives to new customers seems perfectly legitimate to me. It’s a bit like moaning that you have to pay for your gym membership for July when new members get July for free.

I'm just wondering why it is worth Santander paying 2500 to acquire a new mortgage customer and yet not be willing to offer any incentive to keep an existing one.

Sky virgin etc have redemption teams as they understand that it is worth keeping a customer rather than going through the costs of getting them back.

vivatifosi

michaels wrote: »

Perhaps I should switch to a no fees deal with another lender then immediately go back to Santander....

If they are not loyal to you, why should you be to them?

We changed mortgage supplier after our first fix ended, again because they wouldn't offer us as good a deal and we found better. Never went back though.

amnblog

Sky and Virgin are interested in subscriber numbers as the more they have, the more their advertisers will pay them.

Totally different business model from Santander where existing borrowers are unlikely to move on but new borrowers need to be competed for on the market.

Most Lenders operate in a similar way.

batg

kingstreet wrote: »

Remortgage deals (that's a new mortgage with a new lender) are usually better than existing customer retention products.

That's because lenders measure themselves on new business, not business retention.

Hi can you tell me how this works?
We have mortgage with Santander and the fixed 5 year rate ends in March next year.
Do we just go to another bank and get a new mortgage or what?
thanks

kingstreet

You ask Santander what customer retention products it has to offer you and you look at other lenders remortgage offers.

Compare the two and choose what's best for you and your circumstances.

batg

I had a quick look on U Switch at other lenders and all of them seem to be cheaper than what we are paying now for 2 years, then go up to more than what we are paying now after that.
Our current rate is 3.49%. All the ones mentioned above are more than that in overall cost.
I can't work out on the Santander site where the get a new deal bit is

kingstreet

batg wrote: »

I had a quick look on U Switch at other lenders and all of them seem to be cheaper than what we are paying now for 2 years, then go up to more than what we are paying now after that.
Our current rate is 3.49%. All the ones mentioned above are more than that in overall cost.
I can't work out on the Santander site where the get a new deal bit is

How about here;-

https://mortgage.santander.co.uk/

batg

kingstreet wrote: »

How about here;-

https://mortgage.santander.co.uk/

thanks for that
but it's too long until the fixed deal is up
I will wait a few more months
We are also maybe looking at moving house anyway but will wait until that deal is up so there is no ERC to pay

michaels

batg wrote: »

Hi can you tell me how this works?
We have mortgage with Santander and the fixed 5 year rate ends in March next year.
Do we just go to another bank and get a new mortgage or what?
thanks

On their website you log in to the 'renew my mortgage' link not normal online banking (using mortgage account number, dob, monthly payment and postcode) and see a list of available offers. This only works once you are in the final 4 months of your current deal - good thing is you can then start the new deal straight away rather than having to wait until your current deal actually finishes - our new rate is about 0.55% lower which will save us about £135 per month for 3 months from what we would have been paying had we had to wait to our product end date in October.

Plus no need to go through affordability, underwriting, credit checks etc that are needed if you go elsewhere.

Thrugelmir

batg wrote: »

I had a quick look on U Switch at other lenders and all of them seem to be cheaper than what we are paying now for 2 years, then go up to more than what we are paying now after that.

You'll need to budget on a cost to move your mortgage in and likewise out at the end of the product term. As the mortgage balance reduces the benefit of moving gets more and more difficult to achieve. Until you reach the point of being stuck.