...
So here's an op on mortgage lender Nationwide instead, because who cares if everyone else has written about them. And hey, mortgages are the new rock 'n roll (okay, they're not but it's all I've got lined up).
A mortgage is the biggest investment most of us will make in our lifetimes. ... Read review
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A review by castlebinn on Nationwide Building Society Mortgages March 11th, 2002
Author's product rating:
Quality of Customer Service
Acceptable
Advantages:
mutual
Disadvantages:
could become a greedy bank
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
So I started an op on The Strokes, the must-hear band of the moment, after pinching their fantastic debut album Is This It? from my younger sister. They sound like my favourite band The Velvet Underground, and even The Dead Kennedys (saw them once, most violent gig I've ever been to, even the lead singer got clobbered by skinhead yobs.)
But I quickly scanned ciao to check if anyone had beaten me to it and they had and their ops were very useful and my enthusiasm went phut.
So here's an op on mortgage lender Nationwide instead, because who cares if everyone else has written about them. And hey, mortgages are the new rock 'n roll (okay, they're not but it's all I've got lined up).
A mortgage is the biggest investment most of us will make in our lifetimes. It's a loan, usually over 25 years, to buy a home. There are many types but the big two are investment-backed and repayment mortgages.
The former uses an investment product such as an endowment policy (a savings policy with bells and whistles) to pay off the loan after 25 years. Keep awake, this bit is nearly finished. You pay off interest every month.
Once the height of fashion, endowments have died out due to the not unimportant fact that they are a diddle. There is no guarantee you will get back what you paid and everyone and his wife takes a nibble (nearly rhymes with diddle) out of your payments in commission.
Much better to opt for a repayment mortage which chips away at capital as well as paying off interest each month.
Nationwide offers both types of mortgage and, drum roll, is a mutual. This means it can return excess profits to members because it doesn't have shareholders to please with dividends. It does this by having a low standard APR (the rate of interest you pay after any special deals end).
You might get a better deal from another mortgage lender for a few years but over the longer term Natiownide's mortgage should work out cheaper than most.
The first track is a blinder called Is This It? and it starts like an Oasis number and then...sorry. Nationwide mortgages have the following key benefits:
*Interest repaid daily - many lenders will only let you repay interest annually. Effectively you pay interest on money you have already paid back during the year.
*No extended redemption penalties - many lenders will clobber you in the pocket if you repay a mortgage early. (It's a shady area of the law and worth arguing with your lender to try to make them back down).
*CAT standard - conforms to the government's rules on fair charges, access and terms
*No compulsory insurance.
*Can overpay by up to £500 a month - will take years off your loan and save you thousands of pounds. Of course you need £500 a month spare, a problem.
*Can borrow up to 95 per cent of the property's value.
There are four main types of repayment mortgages available. Here's another list, but spot the deliberate mistack:
*Fixed - the APR is fixed for a number of years, usually two or five. The longer the fix the higher the APR. Useful if you think interest rates will rise. When the fix ends the APR reverts to Natiowwide's standard rate of 4.9 per cent.
*Base - the bogstandard mortgage which most borrowers will be on. Guaranteed to be no more than two per cent above the Bank of England's rate.
*Tracker - tracks the Bank of England base rate but will not go above a certain level (called a cap) for a fixed number of years. You have to pay a £150 fee to get this mortgage.
*We pay you - the lender gives you thousands of pounds taxfree and sends you on holiday. Might have misunderstood this one.
*Flexible - the weapon of choice for many borrowers in today's market. Allows you to repay early, enjoy payment holidays, overpay and take out credit at the same rate of interest as your mortgage (much lower thn a personal loan or credit card). Worth taking out if you borrow for things like school fees, holidays, etc.
Here's how We have just sold a house on the south coast and moved to the midlands with a tidy profit to use as a house deposit. We found a house (about 50 per cent cheaper than in the south) and made an offer £2,000 below the asking price, which was accepted.
Saturday - Get the Nationwide branch number out of the Yellowpages and phone for an appointment that morning.
11am - Interview with mortgage advisor who cannot talk about our specific circumstances but only on the products on offer. Fine if you know what you want.
11.02am - He asks why we chose Nationwide, how much I earn, what sort of mortgage we want, and have we any debts. Explains different mortgages and calculates how much Nationwide is willing to lend (three and ahalf times salary minus debts is the norm).
11.05am - I ask for a two year tracker mortgage because I don't think interest rates will go up quickly enough to justify a fixed rate deal.
11.30am - He runs a credit check on us. A sticky moment but the result comes back as credit worthy. Phew!
11.35am - Gives me an application form which I will return within a few days. It asks the same questions as the mortgage advisor. He says once the application form is received and approved the building society will carry out a survey (we have to pay £175 but it is refunded on completion of the sale) of the property. If that comes back okay, we will have the money in our acount within 15 days. Now that is fast.
Er...and that's it. Apart from the bigger deposit you can put down the better APR you will get. And Nationwide has just been given a slap on the wrist for not putting all its customers on the lowest APR - but it has promised to do so in future.
Oh yes, and you have to sign a declaration when you become a customer to say if Nationwide ever converts to a bank, your windfall will go to charity. Bugger.
Details on 0800 30 20 10 or www.nationwide.co.uk. Compare mortgages on www.moneysupermarket.com
Advantages: Mutual so best interest of customers(members) Disadvantages: Not fully flexible
...with no direct contact with Nationwide but I did set up to access our mortgage a/c online which is straightforward, you register and they send you relevant details.
Interest is calculated daily and you can make overpayments of upto £500 per calender month without incurring any charges for early repayment.
Any overpayments can be drawn back out when you wish which is a good way of saving as interest is calculated daily.
Tie ins last as long as ... ...up the phone and called Nationwide to see if they could match or better the Halifax offer. And they did! Saving me money on legal fees because the lender would not be changing, valuation fees as the house had already been valued and as an existing customer, they knocked £200 off the product reservation fee. I also was able to request extra money for home improvements and this was dealt with in a manner where I knew they were looking at our circumstances ...
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...been a customer of the Nationwide for over ten years, I have not missed or even been late with a single mortgage payment in that time nor have I ever gone overdrawn. So when it became time to move to a larger house we naturally turned to the Nationwide for our mortgage (mistake one).
I assumed that because the Nationwide was a building society as opposed to a bank they would be in the best position to serve my needs and offer me solutions to any ... ...this one, mortgage through the Nationwide and in between get a job transfer to be nearer to the house. Sounds simple, it should have been.
Everything was going smoothly, got the job, got the mortgage, sold our house, bid accepted for our new home. Wow we were going to be in our new home by Christmas, Yippee!!!!!!
Not so…….
Due to unforeseen circumstances the purchasers of our house had unexpected problems which delayed the process. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Large range of products, helpful patient advice, award winner Disadvantages: Interest rates can go UP as well as down.
...about my mortgage from the Nationwide is slightly buoyed by the low interest rate making it a good time to have a mortgage and the increase in house prices is helping too.
Before I even started looking at houses I looked for a mortgage as this is one of the options – and possibly the easiest one to do at the time, so I had a chat with my Bank – HSBC and Nationwide, and what really swayed me was that my parents had their mortgage with ... ...The people at the Nationwide were very helpful in going through the different types of mortgage with me and spent time giving me various quotes (much as HSBC had done) for different products and different loan amounts. They asked questions like “How much do you feel you need to know that your repayments will not change / go up” etc to try to match products to me.
In the end I chose a First time buyer mortgage because it gave a nice easy ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: some good products, low SVR, Disadvantages: Customer service is terrible
...I have had accounts with Nationwide for a number of years and up until now, have dealt with my local branch. I have always been pleased with the service provided, that was until I decided to take advantage of their internet/telephone service, Nationwide Direct. Below is part of a letter of complaint that I recently sent to the Nationwide Direct Customer Service Manager, expressing my discontent with the service I received (I apologise for the length ... ...my recent dealings with the Nationwide Building Society and in particular Nationwide Direct. Having decided to redeem my existing fixed rate mortgage in favour of a base rate tracker and pay a hefty redemption penalty, I contacted Nationwide by telephone to make the appropriate arrangements. I choose to arrange this by telephone, rather than in the branch due to the fact that I have a small daughter and find it difficult to attend appointments. The ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
I've always had a repayment mortgage. I was lucky enough not to be talked into an endowment mortgage, as I always thought that because as there was no guarantee of the endowment paying off what I owed, it was a bit risky. "Oh no sir, no chance of that". Better still, I took my repayment mortgage out with the Nationwide. Better because they have remained mutual, and so have had lower interest rates than most of the others, and better still because ...
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Advantages: over the counter transactions Disadvantages: little reward, especially for long term savers
...I joined the NationwideBuildingSociety ( a mutual buildingsociety) in 1973, originally with the prospect of obtainging a mortgage when I got married. I am still a member today. The interest rate I recieve on my account is around 1% (before tax). I also have an account with Direct Line bank (a non - mutual) and obtain almost the same amount in interest from Direct Line for £6 in one account than I do for £100 in Nationwide. Although its not quite comparing like for like, (direct line takes three days to transfer money to my account, and Nationwide is over the counter, it still shows the different interest rate that can be obtained. As a member of Nationwide for almost 30 years I do not consider myself to be a "carpetbagger", but I think it's time for Nationwide to convert to a bank, allowing me to be given a reward for the years...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Customer Service is second-to-none Disadvantages: Some good products, but no great products...
...be.
The staff seem reasonably knowledgeable about the Society business; all enquries are dealt with promptly, although not always effectively. Being a small Society in terms of staff levels, they are able to give a more personal level of customer service which, in this day and age, is quite refreshing.
The Society seems to be fairly competitive as far as mortgages go; they do offer some good products but, due to their financial size, seem to be frequently overshadowed by the likes of the NationwideBuildingSociety.
My personal advice, as uneducated as it is, is to 'shop around' for the best deal - be it for a mortgage or an investment. To be honest, NCBS will suit those whose desire for a 'personal' service from their account exceeds the desire for a higher interest rate - which, in the current economic climate, is probably quite...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Good interest rate and great service. Disadvantages: E-banking is complicated to set up.
...I have been with Nationwide for some time, in fact it is the Nationwide that my parents chose when they set up an account for me when I was a child! I use the Nationwide mainly for savings and have my current account with the HSBC.
Nationwide provide a myriad of different accounts. There are accounts for youngsters that start with a £1 deposit, current account, savings accounts, bonus savings accounts and more recently e-banking accounts. They also provide competitive ISA account (that tend to be ranked among the bets in the UK) and competitive mortgage rates that were recently the lowest of all the main buildingsocieties and banks.
The e-savings account that Nationwide offer is particularly interesting because of its high interest rate (7% at the time of writing). However, the process of setting this up is over complicated. You...
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