Tied into a Mortgage

sheree1981 · 15 January 2020 at 12:18PM

Hi, I'm Sheree, I read with interest that mortgage prisoners are now getting somewhere with regard to compensation for being tied into mortgages. I had a 10 year fixed term mortgage with the Norwich and Peterborough and was tied in at 4.77% for the whole period, and saw the interest rates drastically drop the entire time ☹ . Does anyone you know who took over Norwich and Peterborough and If I can claim for being a mortgage prisoner in 2007-2017? Norwich and Peterborough has closed down so I'm not sure if I can do anything at all?

dimbo61 · 15 January 2020 at 12:35PM

Well I paid 4.74% fixed for 5 years but that was a hell of a lot less than the 15% some people paid when Interest rates were

nterest Rate History
During the 18th century, interest rates in the UK were stable, remaining at 4-5% regardless of the issue. The instability came about in the 19th century, where there was more volatility in the interest rates that saw it moving anywhere between 4 and 10%. The start of the 20th century was no different, with the same instability and constant flux between 5 and 10% instead.
The 1979 Conservative government
The incoming administration of Margaret Thatcher raised interest rates to 17 per cent, as the government of the time saw this as a critical weapon in combating inflation, which was steadily rising at the time. It did have the effect of reducing inflation, although critics noted its negative impact on UK manufacturing exports. Interest rates began to rise again towards the end of the 1980s, partly under the pressure of house price rises. Interest rates had gone from 17% in 1979 down to 9% in 1982, and were back to 14.88% in October 1989.
September 1992
Known as "Black Wednesday", the UK withdrew from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism on 16th September 1992. This meant that the Bank of England base rate interest sat at 12%, up from 10%. This was at 10.30am. John Major, the prime minister, promised to raise the rate even further to 15%. This was due to the encouragement of speculators to buy Sterling. This did not happen, with the government reducing interest rates back to 10%

The_squirrell · 15 January 2020 at 12:38PM

Unfortunately, you are in no way a mortgage prisoner. Rather, a victim of your own unfortunate choice. You decided to enter into a a contract for the ten year fixed rate on what looked like a good deal at the time. Then rates came down.
I am not rubbing salt in the wounds here as I took out a "great" ten year fixed rate mortgage at 5.54% when all the pointers were that rates would go up. Of course they didn't, but life is all about choices. Sometimes we choose the right path, sometimes we don't. My first two wives would confirm this !!

ACG · 15 January 2020 at 12:44PM

You were not a mortgage prisoner. You could have gone somewhere else, you would have had to pay early repayment charges to leave but you were not being held there against your will, you just did not want to pay the fees (that you agreed to) to leave.

Had rates gone up, would you be offering to pay them extra money?

kingstreet · 15 January 2020 at 1:34PM

N&P is part of Yorkshire Building Society.

Brock_and_Roll · 15 January 2020 at 4:39PM

Actually depending on your outlook on life, the OP had a decade of stress free borrowing.....anything could have happened to rates over such a period - and for most of the last century, it usually has!

sheree1981 · 16 January 2020 at 2:44PM

I didn’t think about it like that! thanks for your response, it makes sense :-)

Tied into a Mortgage

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