Our "Solicitor" has said the delay is because they are waiting on a Redemption statement from the Woolwich!! We have been told this can done verbally/electronically/post, supposedly the Woolwich have been unable to say when it be available. Can anyone shred any light on this problem?
Got a BTL going through with The Woolwich for a client and they have said they have an 8 day delay looking at post at present. That might explain the problem BUT your solicitor should be able to phone the legal dept at The Woolwich and demand one. Solicitors seem reluctant though to pick up the phone and wait on the phone until they get what they want (no money in waiting 20 mins on phone to speak to someone)!
14 days we have been waiting, it took her 4 days to contact someone who works for the same company albeit a different office. @Large, its not our redemption so I cant ring the Woolwich.
Our "Solicitor" has said the delay is because they are waiting on a Redemption statement from the Woolwich!! We have been told this can done verbally/electronically/post, supposedly the Woolwich have been unable to say when it be available. Can anyone shred any light on this problem?
"The Woolwich" does not exist. It is merely a brand name used by Barclays for that bank's mortgage products. There's only one way to deal with large consumer banks. Make an immediate formal complaint which they are required to include in the statistics they provide to the Financial Conduct Authority (and which, consequently, they don't like). Here's the contact details; be sure to say that it is a formal complaint but an email should be fine. (The telephone number on the register appeared to be wrong - not enough digits!! I've added an extra zero after the 08 bit so it should work). Paul Maddox Head Office Customer Relations Barclays Bank PLC 1 Churchill Place London E14 5HP Phone: 0800 028 2390 Email: paul.maddox@barclays.com
However, press reports indicate that Barclays have the worst record in dealing with consumer complaints and that Maddox has resigned as MD of Customer Relations. Don't know if he's still there but his replacement is Bob Cliff and the CEO of retail banking is Ashok Vaswani.
Hi - need to remortgage. Owe 192k with about 40% equity. Someone mentioned an offset mortgage to me as can have access to the cash. Can anyone recommend?
an offset mortgage is really on worth it if you are likely to keep ££££ sitting on deposit (prob min £20k) - ie, if you are self employed and need to have cash at hand to pay your 6 monthly tax bill as offset's are generally 1% higher, esp if you are looking at 60% LTV.
Going back to my time as a mortgage adviser at the Woolwich, it was usually reckoned that Offset mortgages worked out financially if you had about 40% in savings to offset against the loan amount. The cash being Offset earned no interest so currently makes more sense as saving rates are much lower than mortgage rates.
Below 35-40% offset mortgages were normally only recommended when flexibility on repayments (or the need for early repayment, by using the offset to reduce the term RATHER than reduce the payment), were the main priority, as often the discounted mortgages had a cheaper monthly repayment. Some people liked the Offset because the fees to opt in were usually less, and there was no need to sign up to a new discount scheme every few years when Offsets were usually open ended.
Resurrection of an old thread, but just entered the six month renewal window for Mortgage (Yay!) - Whats the opinion in terms of best fixed term to be on at the moment, seeing lenders on a few "comparison" websites offering 2 / 5 / 7 / 10-year deals
Most lenders will allow you to do a "product switch" 4 months before the end of your current deal, and then scrap that & take a different one if a better deal (of theirs) becomes available within that period.
Interest rates should start falling some time this year.....but when is anyones guess. 6 months ago it was anticipated to be March -May, now its looking likely to be June onwards. I read yesterday that Japan was even looking to start raising their rates again so who knows what's in store this year.
What is worrying is that I have seen many lenders over the past 2 weeks increasing their fixed rates. Every update I receive (usually 3 or 4 a day) is currently showing increases of around 0.2%-0.4% over all LTV's.
Also, whether you go for a 2 or a 5 year fix is really down to whether you can stomach a higher rate now knowing that in 2-3 years time rates should be lower than the current 5 year rates. If you can get a 3 year rate then go for that....but very few lenders do 3 year fixes.
So basically I would say sit it out for a few months & see what transpires. At worst sort out a product transfer with your existing lender (assuming they will let you cancel before it activates) but be prepared to go down to the wire as my bet is the BOE base rate will be lower in 6 months than it is today. But I'm no expect.
PS.
I'm off to a couple of investment seminars next week where hopefully I might get a better steer on where they see interest rates being by Q3/Q4.
Comments
@Large, its not our redemption so I cant ring the Woolwich.
grrrrrr
There's only one way to deal with large consumer banks. Make an immediate formal complaint which they are required to include in the statistics they provide to the Financial Conduct Authority (and which, consequently, they don't like).
Here's the contact details; be sure to say that it is a formal complaint but an email should be fine. (The telephone number on the register appeared to be wrong - not enough digits!! I've added an extra zero after the 08 bit so it should work).
Paul Maddox
Head Office Customer Relations
Barclays Bank PLC
1 Churchill Place
London
E14 5HP
Phone: 0800 028 2390
Email: paul.maddox@barclays.com
However, press reports indicate that Barclays have the worst record in dealing with consumer complaints and that Maddox has resigned as MD of Customer Relations. Don't know if he's still there but his replacement is Bob Cliff and the CEO of retail banking is Ashok Vaswani.
Below 35-40% offset mortgages were normally only recommended when flexibility on repayments (or the need for early repayment, by using the offset to reduce the term RATHER than reduce the payment), were the main priority, as often the discounted mortgages had a cheaper monthly repayment. Some people liked the Offset because the fees to opt in were usually less, and there was no need to sign up to a new discount scheme every few years when Offsets were usually open ended.
Interest rates should start falling some time this year.....but when is anyones guess. 6 months ago it was anticipated to be March -May, now its looking likely to be June onwards. I read yesterday that Japan was even looking to start raising their rates again so who knows what's in store this year.
What is worrying is that I have seen many lenders over the past 2 weeks increasing their fixed rates. Every update I receive (usually 3 or 4 a day) is currently showing increases of around 0.2%-0.4% over all LTV's.
Also, whether you go for a 2 or a 5 year fix is really down to whether you can stomach a higher rate now knowing that in 2-3 years time rates should be lower than the current 5 year rates. If you can get a 3 year rate then go for that....but very few lenders do 3 year fixes.
So basically I would say sit it out for a few months & see what transpires. At worst sort out a product transfer with your existing lender (assuming they will let you cancel before it activates) but be prepared to go down to the wire as my bet is the BOE base rate will be lower in 6 months than it is today. But I'm no expect.
PS.
I'm off to a couple of investment seminars next week where hopefully I might get a better steer on where they see interest rates being by Q3/Q4.