Woolwich tracker.....Good deal?

juandellie

We're currently looking at remortgaging with the woolwich. The deal we are looking at is the lifetime tracker mortgage at a rate of BBBR + .59%.

Currently we owe £72000 with a house value of around £140000 and 17yrs left. The main thing that is drawing us to this deal is it's Fee free (currently with Bristol + West) and no Early repayment charges. The only thing that's nagging me, is the mortgage is linked to Barclays Bank Base Rate, not the BOE base rate. I know it's historically been the same, but if barclays control the rate then they could theoretically control the rate independently.

I was looking at a very similar deal with the Halifax but that has quite hefty early repayment charges.

Does this sound like a good deal in the current economic climate or should we be looking at other options.
For reference we have a joint income of around 40k , one self employed and the other employed, with no bad credit history and a car loan of £294 a month

Trying_to_be_good

I have the same deal, but from last summer when it was base +0.18%. When I checked what BBBR (Barclays Bank Base Rate) was I was told it is Bank of England Base Rate. I don't have it in writing (I asked for them to write down that it was always equal to or less than BoE base), but do have a note of the phone call. I arranged through L&C, who were given a similar assurance. Interested what others think, though!

The telephone service is horrendous in my experience, so make sure you won't want to call them much! Should be calming down as Barclays computer systems become aligned with/take over the Woolwich systems.

juandellie

Trying_to_be_good wrote: »

I have the same deal, but from last summer when it was base +0.18%. .

Wow, just shows how the markets have changed. To me the BBBR is like an insurance policy for them if they needed it

Rikki

I have had my tracker with Woolwich for over 5 years now.
Barclays Bank Base Rate is the same as the Bank of England Base Rate and has tracked identically throughout this mortgage for me.