intelligent finance offset mortgage holders... anyone annoyed as I am??

[HerHonesty]

long one here i am afraid. last year we moved and got a new offset mortgage with IF.. moved all our current accounts, savings accounts, direct debits, everything... over to IF and generally offsetting works well for us...on a high fixed rate till june 2010, but hey you win some and lose some...

BUT

they are now saying they will not offer mortages anymore and are not bringing out any new remortgage products. So unless we stick with IF and move on to a variable rate, or just get another normal mortgage elsewhere, I've basically got to go through the whole bloody rigmarole (sp?) again, movingour current account etc etc...

anyway, I am on mat leave at the moment, would dearly love to sort this out now before I go back to work (going back fulltime) but we are locked in,and the thought of doing it next year whilst i am working just fills me with dread.

any point in writing to them asking them to release us without penalty?? probably not but just needed to vent spleen...

i

I think you will find you aren't alone in a month or two.The lowered IR were a bit of a false sense of security and this countrys mortgage and finance probs are as bad as ever.A few lenders are talking about raising rates and the nationwide already have.You are really stuck unless you find a hot broker with some special deals.Is the penalty to get out huge and what is their variable rate?

penalty is 4% .. with a 350k mortgage thats too much to swallow...

Its not not being able to secure a good rate now, its more the frustration of not being able to get on and sort things out.

If it was just a plain mortgage then it wouldnt be so bad, its just the thought of having to rearrange all the direct debits etc etc and inevitably there is are numerous F8ck ups and the hours spent on hold....

Why don't you leave everything where it is, nd just find a remortgage product when you need to. Then you'd only need to change one direct debit to pay your new mortgage provider.

yes, but then we would loose the offset benefits. which is not a problem, just very annoying.

and also IF is not the greatest current account to have - you cant pay in cash anywhere, or take out more than the ATM limit in a day. adn they are remarkably inefficient, keep losing cheques we do send in!

Ok so set up a new current a/c if (excuse pun!) you're not happy with IF. Have salary paid to new a/c, then transferred to IF by standing order the day after pay pday. You'll still benefit from the offset bit, but will have a new current account which will be one less thing to sort out next year.