Advantages: quick service - good customer services - flexible mortgages - will lend over 100% to first time buyers Disadvantages: hidden costs
As a bit of background - I bought a house in late 2005 and after visiting an independent mortgage adviser I went through the options available to me. I had already seen the house I wanted to buy (£185,000), had no deposit and needed at least £10,000 on top of the mortgage to pay for building work and basic furnishings.
After providing all the details to the adviser he recommended NorthernRock - mainly because they were the only provider who would touch me with a barge pole.
NorthernRock were prepared to offer me 95% of the purchase price as a mortgage secured on the property, which meant they would give me £175,750 on a fixed rate for 7 years based upon an interest rate of 4.71%. In addition, they would also give me the option of taking out an unsecured loan or £19,250 that would be tied to the mortgage payments with an interest ...
Advantages: Easily understandable and good rates Disadvantages: Bit Slow
NorthernRock are one of the cheapest lenders around for mortgages and even if you have credit problems in the past they will still help you.
We took out a together mortgage with NorthernRock some three years ago and opted for the fixed rate. Obviously like all other lenders on fixed rate if you decide to move or sell up prior to the end of term then there is a retention figure to pay which in our case was as much as £3,000. Anyway they tell you all of this when you are offered the mortgage and it is all clealy stated in the paperwork that you receive.
Initially I was impressed with how helpful they were, but to my mind they were pretty slow on administering the mortgage which caused us some stress. From the time we applied to the time the mortgage was completed was in fact 4 months!. Now this could be unusual as we were ...
Advantages: None Disadvantages: They cannot be trusted
These guys will do their level best to cheat you out of your money.
They are an unprincipled bunch of swindlers who try to hide behind vague catch-all statements in their terms and conditions. Basically, outside of the legalese in which their terms and conditions are written, nothing that they say can be trusted, and event then you need a law degree to understand exactly what those conditions are and what they imply for the future. They will do all they can to blame you for having signed an agreement with them in the first place.
If you have any other choice of company you should certainly go with them. If you already have a NorthernRock mortgage you should make every effort to pay it off as soon as possible. The more time you associate with these scoundrels the longer they have their hooks into you. ...
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