Post Office Money/Bank of Ireland mortgages warning

Carlitoab · 23 July 2019 at 7:13PM

Dear MSE, based on my recent experience I would strong advise people to not use Post Office Money/Bank of Ireland for BTL mortgages in the UK (and probably residential too). They lure us in with semi-attractive interest rates (sold as a Post Office Money product in my case) yet the follow-on service is appalling, such as a website that doesn't ever work (tried registering to manage my account but it said there was an error) and therefore requires a call to a useless call center each time you want to know something. They charge hidden fees and once the initial deal ends they're effectively a zombie bank as there's a complete lack of new deals, only extortionately high interest rates.

Thankfully I have switched away from them but feel obliged to warn anyone who's thinking to use them to look elsewhere.

Amst · 24 July 2019 at 8:09PM

Thanks, but there are no such things as hidden fees these days - only people who don't read price lists and such when they are presented with them.

[Deleted User] · 25 July 2019 at 9:52AM

Post Office / Bank of Ireland are a lender that offers a few things that no other lender offers in the industry. They are trying to launch products that fill a gap rather than just compete on rates all the time.

I use PO quite a lot as their lower deposit ftb deals are really good. The broker service is great and the are very clear with what they do and dont do.

No lender is perfect but i would rather have one try to be innovative than another one just trying to offer decent rates. I can get good rates with the vanilla boring lenders on the high street.

As far as the zombie bank criticism. Have a look at Natwest, and Halifax. Their existing customer rates are terrible. Every lender has a different business model and its something you should take note of before committing to that lender. Barclays do discounts for existing customers, HSBC do the same for new and existing. Its part of the research you do before entering in to a contract with someone

For instance, if Natwest are the cheapest deal at the moment but Nationwide are only slightly more expensive I will question the clients future plans becuase I dont want them to be stuck with a lender they cant get away from that screws existing customers with high rates.

Did you get advice to go to PO/BoI? Or make this decision yourself?