by Gary Webber
12. January 2010 15:12
CEO reveals off-the-cuff statistic at meeting of Treasury select committee
RBS Group — the banking conglomerate that owns mortgage lenders Natwest, Royal Bank Of Scotland, Ulsterbank, First Active and Coutts & Co — claimed that it had stepped "into the breach" of UK mortgage lending since many other lenders had disappeared from the market.
Its chief executive Stephen Hester, speaking before a panel of MPs, described the bank as something of a safe haven for beleagured borrowers:
"[I]f you are someone in search of a mortgage, nine out of ten times we will sell this to you […] I think that is an appropriate statistic."
If that's really true, borrowers with 75 per cent loan to value ought to put this claim to the test and besiege RBS for one of their 3.75%, £299 fee, variable tracker mortgages with no tie-in period (i.e. you can be off again when rates do the inevitable). Feel free to report back any experiences in the comments!
by Gary Webber
7. January 2010 17:10
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:
| Lender | SVR |
| Cheltenham & Gloucester | 2.50% |
| Cheshire BS | 2.50% |
| Derbyshire BS | 2.50% |
| Nationwide BS | 2.50%
(for mortgages before 30th April 2009) |
| Lloyds TSB Scotland | 2.50% |
| Bank of Ireland (NI) | 2.99% |
| Coutts & Co | 3.25% |
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:
| Lender | SVR |
| Chesham BS | 6.45% |
| Stroud & Swindon BS | 5.99% |
| Nottingham BS | 5.99% |
| ITL Mortgage | 5.99% |
| Newcastle BS | 5.99% |
| Accord Mortgages | 5.99% |
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!
Subscribe