YBS not offering retention mortgage deals to N&P customers?!

dudekshands

Evening all!

I would value anyone's advice / opinion on / experience of the following situation, especially if you are/have been an N&P mortgage customer in the past!

We have an offset mortgage which was taken out with Norwich & Peterborough Building Society (N&P) approx 7 years ago (for those of you that don't know, N&P were taken over by Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) in 2011). Anyway our 5 year offset fixed rate deal comes to an end in March next year, so I called YBS/N&P today to discuss switching to a new deal with them for the following reasons:

We want to continue with an offset deal for which YBS/N&P seem to be one of the main providers of, as this works well for us

We don't really want to jump through the hoops/have the hassle of re-mortgaging with another provider (seem to be very few other offset mortgage providers anyway)

Simple I thought... Wrong! I was told that YBS have taken a 'business decision' not to offer any retention deals to N&P customers and therefore their only options are to either remortgage to a YBS deal (YBS will treat us as new customers with a new application) or another mortgage provider!

Have to say I am amazed and pretty angered by this especially as customers of YBS are offered a really simple and straight-forward way to switch deals which is laid out on their website! Can't help feeling I am not being treated fairly and also differently, simply because I have an N&P mortgage.

I am thinking of making a formal compliant about this (even though I suspect they will just try to brush it off). It seems to me that this so called decision could lead to N&P customers being stuck indefinitely on their standard variable rate (4.99% I think) because they fail affordability criteria when they try to re-mortgage even though they consistently meet their monthly repayments.

I would be particularly interested to know if any of you have or have had an N&P mortgage and experienced this situation, were you told the same and if so what did you do?

Thank you in advance!

dudekshands

To add insult to injury, I have just found out that Accord Mortgages (also owned by RBS) offer end of deal switches with the same process as YBS!

Thrugelmir

dudekshands wrote: »

I was told that YBS have taken a 'business decision' not to offer any retention deals to N&P customers and therefore their only options are to either remortgage to a YBS deal (YBS will treat us as new customers with a new application) or another mortgage provider!

Firstly N&P and YBS are different legal entities. YBS will therefore be running down the old N&P mortgage book. There'll be no new N&P products. Other than a switch on SVR or whatever follow on rate was specified in the original product.

Secondly lenders use different underwriting criteria. YBS will therefore need to ensure that all mortgages moved under their jurisdication meet their own commercial criteria. This is to comply with regulatory requirements. Failure to do so would not incur the wrath of the regulators and possibly incur them financial fines.

The question then arises. Do you believe that you are going to fail affordability criteria with YBS or any other mainstream lender?

dudekshands

Hi Thrugelmir

Thank you for taking the time to respond, it is much appreciated.

Another reason I feel so aggrieved by this is that we were able to switch products back in 2015 even though YBS took over N&P in 2011 (yes I know they are separate legal entities) when our initial two year deal ended without this issue.

I take on board your point about regulation but I am dubious that regulation is to blame here. If it is, it seems strange that Accord mortgage customers are offered the ability to switch to retention deals when their current deal ends!

According to the affordability calc on the YBS website they may lend me approx £32,000 less than the value of our outstanding mortgage! So if what I have been told is correct we will be forced onto the SVR or have to look for another lender which does not leave me feeling particularly valued as a YBS customer or with a particularly high opinion of them!

TrickyDicky101

dudekshands wrote: »

I take on board your point about regulation but I am dubious that regulation is to blame here. If it is, it seems strange that Accord mortgage customers are offered the ability to switch to retention deals when their current deal ends!

That isn't what Thrugelmir was saying - the reference to regulation is in respect of switching products between separate regulated entities.

The reason why you have no product to switch to is because the regulated entity you are borrowing from is no longer offering any new products to anyone (not just you).

Sadly, many ex-customers of Norther Rock will know exactly how you feel.

[Deleted User]

Accord offer retention products as they are still trading as an active mortgage lender. N&P are not.

YBS and Accord are more closely linked than N&P but they still operate as separate lenders. If I have an accord client and like thr ybs rages, I have to remortgage. They are separate

The decision to not offer N&P retention is a completely separate matter to ybs and accord offering their own customers rete tion deals

Thrugelmir

dudekshands wrote: »

Another reason I feel so aggrieved by this is that we were able to switch products back in 2015 even though YBS took over N&P in 2011 (yes I know they are separate legal entities) when our initial two year deal ended without this issue.

In January 2017 YBS announced the demise of the N&P brand. This was concluded in July 2018. All that remains is the old mortgage book that is being run-off.

p00hsticks

dudekshands wrote: »

To add insult to injury, I have just found out that Accord Mortgages (also owned by RBS) offer end of deal switches with the same process as YBS!

What do RBS have to do with anything ? Or is this a typo ?

davidmcn

p00hsticks wrote: »

What do RBS have to do with anything ? Or is this a typo ?

Typo, they're also owned by YBS.