A look at the good and bad guys when it's time to revert to your lender's standard rate.

Following yesterday's post on Standard Variable Rate (SVR) increases, we thought we'd round up the current highest and lowest revert-to rates we're aware of.

The range between the best and worst in the market is quite staggering — but then, these are (still) exceptional times. 

Best & Lowest Mortgage SVRs:

The following data is correct at time of publishing:

As you can see, some lenders followed the Bank Of England's movements and are still at 2% (a 'normal' kind of margin) above the base rate.  Their customers will be pleased to just sit tight at reversion time!

Worst & Highest Mortgage SVRs:

Meanwhile though, other lenders have acted as if nothing has happened in 12 months:

For an argument on why building societies are putting up SVRs, see yesterday's post. However, if you have one of these lenders' mortgages, you're not going to see the funny side of a standard variable rate nearly twelve times base rate.  Re-mortgage options might be a bit limited at the moment, but there's no harm in getting some advice!

Customers with the lifetime option on A&L tracker mortgages may have the best outcome of the 'zero percenters' mentioned yesterday.

Alliance & Leicester was one of the lenders offering customers a discount tracker at below base rate during 2007.

And whereas Halifax, C&G and Abbey mortgage customers face (admittedly mild) payment shocks – jumps of around 3 to 4 per cent interest – it turns out that some A&L customers will be sitting pretty on 1.49% for a while yet.

Clairvoyant customers, perhaps. You see, an option on Alliance & Leicester's two-year tracker deal allowed borrowers to choose to continue on a lifetime tracker at only 0.99 per cent above Bank Of England Base Rate. 

At the time, when 0.29% trackers were available and the base rate was 5%, this might not have seemed such a desirable move.  Hence 'clairvoyant'.  Those customers were either capable of seeing what was coming, or... hmm. A thought occurs.  You don't suppose they might have been talked into it by an A&L sales adviser, convinced that they were pulling a good move for the bank at the time?

Either way, the 0.99% tracker remains significantly below A&L's standard variable rate of 4.99&, and likely to be more competitive than any mortgage deal available on the high street for a while yet (compare HSBC's headline-stealing 1.99% tracker).  And this select band of borrowers won't have to pay exit or arrangement fees in order to end up on this envy-inducing deal.

Moral of the story?  Predicting interest rates too far ahead can make losers or winners out of any of us!

Cheltenham & Gloucester, one of the lenders in the huge Lloyds Banking Group stable, has just shuffled its rates - and brought an end to 'dual pricing' in the process.

The rates update is nothing spectacular in itself - only the 3.99% tracker mortgage looks like a possible best buy - but the noteworthy aspect of this change is that C&G's rates are now the same for both mortgage advisers and direct applicants.

'Dual pricing', the habit of lenders offering special deals to applicants in branch or via the lender's website, is a practice loathed by intermediaries (advisers, IFAs) as it puts them in a no-win situation. They have to offer customers best advice, meaning that with dual pricing they feel the obligation to tell clients to pop down the road themselves, earning no fee in the process.  Advisers could charge an upfront fee for this kind of advice, but they fear this will turn customers away.

It's probably good that C&G have taken this step, as it helps clear up a confusing marketplace for applicants, although we're not sure all banks will do the same.  Perhaps some lenders will stay friendly to intermediaries, while others (like, say, HSBC) will aggressively court direct business.

By all means let us know whether you think dual pricing favours the banks or the applicants... though we're sure not many of you will say it favours advisers!