Advantages: Good personal service and good rates Disadvantages: No branch in my hometown of Walsall
About four years ago I received the annual statement from Sun Life Assurance regarding my mortgage endowment and, being an accountant, I did a few calculations to see roughly what the final figure would be at the end of the term. I was horrified by what appeared to be quite a shortfall in endowment to mortgage outstanding!
Since the returns from the policy were not going to be enough to pay off the mortgage at the end of the term I had a choice to either take out a further policy or change my mortgage. I decided to change my mortgage from an endowment mortgage to a repayment mortgage. I shopped around and found that the best deal would be with the Britannia BuildingSociety, as they would give me a discounted interest rate whilst I remained a member of my trade union, Unison.
I have also continued paying my policy with Sun Life ...
Advantages: Very efficient and helpful Disadvantages: No branches in London
The Newcastle BuildingSociety is great for mortgages. We have never had any problems with them and the service when I have phoned up with queries is very good.
We have had our mortgage with the Newcastle BuildingSociety for about 5 years (taken out via a broker) and have re-mortgaged with them twice since the mortgage was originally taken out. We live in London and there aren't any branches of the Newcastle BuildingSociety here but this hasn't been a problem since the call centre is so good.
The mortgage rates from the Newcastle BuildingSociety are very competitive. When we took the original mortgage deal out everything was dealt with very efficiently and the paperwork was done quickly. Since then when we have re-mortgaged, again all paperwork was done very quickly and efficiently.
I would definitely recommend ...
Advantages: They have all vanished Disadvantages: Interest credited to mortgage account annually
When I last moved house 5 years ago I took out a mortgage with the Bradford and Bingley BuildingSociety (BBBS). When I took out the mortgage it was a mutual organisation and generally I have always been in favour of mutuality over the listed banks. It meant at that time that the BBBS was quite competitive compared with those banks which had demutualised like the Woolwich or Halifax. They even had a loyalty bonus which meant after having a mortgage for a certain time you got a discount off their normal rates.
That has all changed now and the BBBS has become less and less competitive. When I agreed my mortgage it had a discount for the first 2 years and there were redemption penalties if we left them in the first 5 years. Increasingly I felt unhappy with this. When I took it out I expected the BBS to remain competitive but they soon ...
