FSA warns Nationwide & Halifax to ignore collar clause

The Financial Services Authority have warned banks and building societies such as Halifax which is part of HBOS and Nationwide that if they use their small print in the terms of their tracker mortgage contracts to avoid passing on this week’s inevitable rate cut they will find themselves in hot water.

Halifax has an option not to pass on any cuts below 3 percent, which would mean if you had a tracker mortgage with a 0.8 percent over base, and the Bank of England Base (read more…)

Category: Europe, Interest Rates, Mortgage News | December 2nd, 2008 | Comments (0)

Merrill Lynch Expects RBS To Earn Taxpayers £6 Billion

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) bailout by the Government could make the UK taxpayer £6 billion or more according to investment bank Merrill Lynch.

Merrill Lynch put a target price of 93p on the RBS shares value, this comes after Citigroup last week put the target price at 100p a (read more…)

Category: Mortgage News | December 2nd, 2008 | Comments (0)

30 year fixed mortgage rate drops: Time to re-finance?

If you are looking to take out a 30 year fixed mortgage rate you would be offered deals in the region of 5.5 percent and in some cases you may find even lower interest rate depending on your chosen lender.

You would need to match a certain lending criteria to qualify for the 30 year fixed rate mortgage deal that are being offered including a credit score of 720 or more, have a solid credit history and substantial deposit or (read more…)

Category: Mortgage News, US | December 1st, 2008 | Comments (0)

Hometrack: Sellers Get Only 88.9 percent of Asking Price

According to property research company Hometrack in November sellers had to take off almost 11 percent from the asking prices before they got a buyer, highlighting the property crisis is still deepening.

Just 18 months ago the asking price was dropped to an average of 95.7 percent to attract buyers according to (read more…)

Category: Europe, Mortgage News | December 1st, 2008 | Comments (0)

Royal Bank of Scotland Will Wait 6 Months Before Repossession Proceedings

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) chief executive Stephen Hester has vowed that homeowners who have problems paying their mortgage repayments and fall behind will be given six months breathing space avoiding any repossession proceedings until then.

Reporting in the FT, RBS new Chief Executive Hester said that because they recognize their customer’s (read more…)

Category: Europe, Mortgage News | December 1st, 2008 | Comments (0)

Mortgage Rates Slashed by Abbey, Barclays and Woolwich

Barclays (LON:BARC) mortgage arm, Woolwich and Abbey (LON:ANLA), owned by Santander the Spanish banking giant have slashed their rates for the second time since the Bank of England cut the key interest rate by 1.5 percent.

All of the main UK banks have come under criticism recently after they dismissed the urges by the government to kick-start the economy by passing the rate cut onto their (read more…)

Category: Europe, Mortgage News | November 27th, 2008 | Comments (1)

Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest Reduce Mortgage Rates

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest have reduced rates on a new line of fixed-rate mortgage products.

NatWest who is owned by Royal Bank of Scotland new range of products are offered to new customers looking to purchase a home with a Loan-to-value (LTV) of 60 percent to 75 percent, or 35 to 40 percent deposit of the property value, this basically knock’s most first time (read more…)

Category: Europe, Mortgage News | November 27th, 2008 | Comments (0)

Nationwide Building Society: Mortgage Update

A report out by Nationwide Building Society shows that the slump in house prices have slowed down in November, with house prices just falling 0.4 percent, this figure significantly lower than October’s decline of 1.3 percent.

The UK’s largest building Society also warns the housing market will continue to be strained due to the poor economic (read more…)

Category: Europe, Mortgage News | November 27th, 2008 | Comments (0)

Libor Plunges to 3.94 Percent: Will Mortgage Rates Follow?

The three-month Libor fell to its lowest level since December 2003 today, dropping lower than 4 percent to 3.94 percent.

The Libor rate is the banks benchmark rate to which they lend to each other, until now the Libor rate has been much higher than the Bank of England base rate. The banks have been urged by the government to drop their Standard Variable Rates (SVR) but the banks have blamed (read more…)

Category: Interest Rates, Mortgage News | November 26th, 2008 | Comments (0)

Northern Rock increase their interest rates

Northern Rock the bank that was fully nationalized this year by the UK government have gone against the governments wishes and raised its rates on its most competitive deals.

The state-owned bank raised its interest rates by 0.3 percent on its fixed rate deals, with its one-year fixed mortgage deal jumping to 4.19 percent from (read more…)

Category: Europe, Mortgage News | November 26th, 2008 | Comments (0)