A whinge about Britannia BS

johnmw_2

I moved into a new home earlier this year & doubled my mortgage with the Britannia as it would have been prohibitively expensive to move to another lender (redemption penalties).

They gave me a base rate tracker for two years on the new lend after paying the usual fees, but refused to do anything about the rest of the loan (I have been advised that this will cost me yet another arrangement fee of £349 plus and admin charge of £100 but they would very generously allow me to add this to the cost of my mortgage!)

The poor half currently stands at 6.1%. So adding 4.75 + 6.1 & dividing roughly by 2 then I have an average of about 5.4 to 5.5 which is OK but not great.

Imagine my surprise when I found an advert on there website and in morning newspaper inviting people to move their mortgage to the Britannia where an arrangement fee is to be waived and valuation and conveyancing is also to be provided free of change!

I wrote & complained & they told me to take a running jump, I'm now free to remortgage but after a previous move have 3 sub accounts with exit fees of £75 each, so if I wanted to move to another lender I have to pay £225 before I even start. they got me over a barrel & Know it as my mortgage rate isn't quite rubbish enough to move to another lender.

I was considering applying for a new mortgage with the Britannia as if I was a new customer but not sure if this will just wind them up!

Not expecting any advice / sympathy but felt like a rant!

aaarrrgghhh!

mrcow

Rant away!

One thing that struck me, I'm with C&G and have two sub accounts with them, but would only ever pay one redemption fee as it's still the same mortgage account (although it is a lot more than £75! and they seem to up it whenever they feel like it).

The only reason that I could see that they wouldn't move your old mortgage figure onto a new deal would have been if you were on a special term already and it was still running? Was this the case? If not, then I'm not surprised you're annoyed.

With regards to moving, just keep your eye out. There are good deals to be had, which will cover the cost of moving the mortgage within the first few months. Have a read of the remortgaging guide on this site.

johnmw_2

Yes, due to the red mist descending I forgot to mention I was at the back end of a tie in on one "sub" account I just presumed as a "valued customer" they might want to keep me happy especially as they were throwing money at new customers, ah well I'll just have to find a better deal that doesn't cost me much & jump ship.

mrcow

I know what you mean.

There's a difference between a 'valued customer' and a 'customer that we already have over a barrel' :rolleyes:

mummytofour

Britania get to me too.
I have a shared ownwership place and wanted to buy some more of it, but they wont let me have any more than another 10k, so no hope of buying the rest of this house, i have been with them for 6 years, but alas they are about the only people that let you borrow more for home improvemts etc other lends dont do this with s/o.
I also have tie ins on sub accounts.
One day i will move house then i shall not use britanna.

donna-j_2

We've been really happy with Britannia are are about to remortgage with them for our new purchase. They have been really helpful, particularly sa we have been really 'woolly' about what we are doing and keep changing our dates.

They tend to have some of the best rates around for mortgages. I think they offer fee-free deals for existing customers too, but the rates are not as good.

johnmw_2

Eventually I managed to speak to a very nice lady in retention services they have a fee free fix of 5.09% for 5 years, I know the general interest rate trend is down, but it will save me 1% I'm currently payin 6.1% on 50% of my mortgage and the othe 50% is tracking the base rate for 2 years anyway, i am tempted as this means my rate is under 5% for the next year or two.