to hate northern rock with a bloody passion and there being almost bugger all I can do about it

[ElfOnTheTopShelf]

I am with NR. I have been with them for six years. I have my bank with them, my savings and my mortgage. I have never missed a payment.
I am coming to the end of my fixed rate mortgage. I have had a letter saying they are unable to offer anything other than variable of 7.49 (standard Dear Customer letter).
So AIBU to be fecked off that they are offering new customers a fixed rate of 5.25 (lower than my actual fixed %) which has a line of "not avaiable to exisiting customers"
So I rang, and asked why.
They said they are not offering anything other than 7.49 variable to exisiting coming off their terms.
I asked WHY those customers cannot apply for their fixed (given that they can apply everywhere else for a fixed!)
Woman said "we've got to halve our debt"
So... they are forcing customers who dont want to pay 7.49 variable to go elswhere but they are still taking on NEW customers at LOWER % than other banks?!?!
Woman said they have more stringent application rules now... but why can I not apply to go through their more stringent application to see if I meet criteria in staying with them?
Its like being told you cant go on a good fixed contract with a phone provider because you have a pay as you talk phone.
AIBU?

anybody?!

leave them.
They are being unreasonable but it doesnt look like there is much you can do about it.
Sometimes you get a better "deal" when you ask to leave anyway.

Get hell away from Northern Rock, they are a sublime lender and if you still have any equity in your home I would run away as fast as you can whilst you still can.
They don't want you or indeed any other customers at the moment, I bet new customer have to have 10% deposits.

our previous mortgage lenders, who we had been with for 6 years, never missed a paymnet etc.. could not match the fixed rate we got elsewhere

there is no point getting all irate about it, see an IFA and find the best deal you can

Got my eye on this thread, as I am in same position Elf. Fix rate coming to an end, need to switch mortgage. Got my Financial Advisor doing the work to find a decent rate for me, I'm sure the old git is going to rip me off with his usual fee.

went to see a financial advisor and also went to one of the banks. The best deal we found was fixed at 6% (obv interest rate has changed now so not sure what it will be iyswim) and they're offering 5.29?

tiredsville, teh IFA we see does not charge us, he is paid directly by the mortgage company..

elf, the choice of deals will not be as good as it was, we fixed at 5.98 % for 3 years in septemebr, although we started looking in june for a deal...

seen the interest rate cuts and feel but no guarantee that the rate cut will be passed on , so i know on balance fixed is better for us, if the rates go up, then we would be stuffed

I think I will be switching to The Abbey as I can fix a decent rate, below 6%. Have to wait for reply at the mo.

sorry I have got a real sulk on
the letters we received said they were offering NO fixed mortgages at all which I was fine with, I'm peeved they're happy to offer to others!

Yes thought so you have to have 10% to get the new rate, have you got that equity ?
Personally I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole, they are very aggressive if you miss even one payment.

Its illogical, as I want to move away with them given they're aggressive, but I'm peeved that they wont even allow people to go through their application process.
We have about 10% equity in the house

I'm self Employed, so I need him fo complicated circumstances Lulu.

We are coming to the end of a fixed rate with NR too. Knowing this, and knowing that they would put us on their extortionate SVR we have been looking around for a while. I finally saw the deal we needed - life time base rate tracker +.49% - which was only available for a limited time in early oct, so we applied, got the offer in writing and will be much better off come Jan. You can go elsewhere - banks rely on people not bothering to shop around so they can rake in the money

Ours is ending 31 Dec. It was fixed at 5.4% but we have gone for a tracker (1.38% above base rate) with Nationwide.

I believe HSBC have the best tracker but we cant go with them because DH is self employed and wont have the accounts ready in time to prove salary etc.

Natoinwide now pulled their tracker. Eeekkk, I hope taking it out yesterday was a good thing.

Think it was a good thing pamelat which is precisely why they pulled it. I am very pleased with myself that for the first time ever we went for a tracker with nationwide in September 07 - just wish we had gone for a longer deal than 2 years.

Sublime lender? I thought it was sub-prime? Am confused now.

YABU - the whole reason that NR got themselces inot this is that they were too generous with 'their' money. Basically they now have to reduce their money owed (ie money they borrow from other banks to lend to you) and the only way to get customers to move to another provider is to stop being competitive. It works the other way too, when you need money in a bank you offer a good interest rate to get cusomers to invest their money with you.

No matter how good your history is with them you may find that you don't fulfil the customer they are now looking for - think about egg recently. GTo allow you to go through an application and be decline would be very wrong on their behalf, remember this decline would be recorded on your credit file for all other lenders to see.

It is crital to the furture of the bank to behave like this and may well even be part of the Gov/bank of England's deal to do this.