TSB mortgage - have you had problems

nerysmair

I have just had an excruciatingly painful telephone conversation with TSB's mortgage department about changing the interest rate on my mortgage - I am an existing TSB mortgage customer - which has led me to make a formal complaint to the bank. I want to urge anyone who has had the same problem to complain so that TSB change their ridiculous policy.
TSB offers two options for mortgage applicants/customers - execution only where you have already chosen your product, or a full advice service that takes 1.5 hours to run through every mortgage option, goes through all your finances, incomings/outgoings, affordability etc. They do not offer an option for existing customers where you can just compare repayments on different products e.g. two-year fixed rate deal vs five-year fixed rate deal and then make a choice. I had already chosen my product but when I was given the illustration, the monthly repayment was higher than I was expecting, but because I only have 7 years and 10 months left on the mortgage I couldn't use any of the mortgage calculators out there to try and compare the different rates as they only work on a 'per year' basis. I asked the mortgage adviser to give me a monthly repayment figure for the two-year fixed rate mortgage rate, which is a lower rate, but I was refused and told I would have to go through the entire Full Monty mortgage advice consultation to get it.
This seems unnecessarily restrictive for customers who already have a mortgage and know what they want. The complaints manager told me TSB know that many customers have complained and the issue has gone up to the chief executive, but so far nothing has changed. I was also told that other banks and mortgage providers will give you this information.
So please, if you've also had this problem - make a formal complaint to TSB to pressure them to change their policy.

[Deleted User]

The regulations were not written by TSB. They were written by the regulator.

The rules to avoid the lengthy advice process are:

(b) where the variation will (in whole or part) change from one interest rate to another, the firm has presented to the customer, using only a non-interactive channel, all products offered by it for which the customer is eligible, whether or not the customer then selects from those products using an interactive channel.

This means that in a conversation (interactive) if they talk rates you are elgible for then they have to do it as advised.

If you log in to their online execution only portal they will have all the options available to you in a list and you select which one you want. I dont see how you could need more than that if you ont want advice

I fail to see how TSB are at fault here

minimike2

As above. This isn't a TSB issue, it is you not understanding the regulation. Face to face advisors are not allowed to offer execution only or what used to be called "informed choice / non-advice" options unless they are a market counterpart or of a specific profession.

If you already knew what product you wanted then why didn't you go down the execution only route? If you just wanted to know the payments you could have quite easily done an internet search for "mortgage payment calculator" and put in your numbers and got that answer in under a minute. Your reasoning for not being able to use any doesn't really make sense. You would have had a rough idea and given you already hold the mortgage it's not exactly a deal breaker - You just need to be looking at the best rate for you.

This is a nothing complaint. If you are unhappy with the regulations then complain to the FCA about them.