Halifax Mortgages

Advantages: good for 1st time buyers
Disadvantages: did not offer a good rate after fixed term ended, overcharge customers

...*This is the second review I posted on Ciao and have edited it as it needed more information and an update* For the purpose of this review I am writing about my experience of having a mortgage with Halifax and am not reviewing Halifax and it?s services as a whole. I am very much aware that for some they have had a great experience with them, but for me after being a loyal customer for such a long time. I felt that they had let me down and recently I realised that I had overpaid when my mortgage came to an end and successfully received a refund from them. Halifax is a leading building society and has been providing mortgages for many years. I had been a customer of Halifax for over 10 years as my parents insisted when I was younger that I had a Building Society savings account (at the time it was the Little Extra Club) so that...

sweetdaisy 21.10.2006 (19.08.2007) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Halifax Mortgages

Mortgages, Mortgages & Mortgages

Advantages: Not many unless you like parting with ££££
Disadvantages: Loads of errors, poor communication

...We have just terminated our Mortgage with Mortgages Plc at the end of our one year fixed deal. We had to go down the route of self certification as my partner had a job which paid heavily on commission, making it difficult for a high street lender to give us anything more than 65% loan to value. We went through a broker and he came up with a deal through Advantage Home Loans, a sub company of Mortgages PLC. The deal itself was OK, we had expected a higher rate for self cert candidates, it tied us in for 1 year. We thought the quote was good enough to continue with and we propmptly found a place and put an offer in, we got a quote again for the amouts we would be paying per month from Mortgages Plc, the quote seemed fine, we could afford it and it set out their charges which they informed us could be added to our final loan amount...

memphisto_chick 12.02.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Mortgages Plc

mortgage

Advantages: none
Disadvantages: very expensive and our always delaying by 2 months plus ? joining they interest rate drop

...hi every one heres the snag iv got 2 mortgages kensington & capital home loans kensingtons mortgage £233.000 im paying £833 a month capital home loans £296. 500 im paying £433.00 a month im also in a tied in for 3 years with kensington wich ends in december thank god £14000 charge if id of sold before my 3 year contract ended as plus they dont allow you un der no circumstances to be able to draw down off your property no matter how much equity you.v got also there lack off comunication . so in a nut shell big deposit ? high rates compared to other lenders? impossible to draw down ? and if you should lose your job ,and youv built a lovley extension on your house your shnucked, they cant even get repossetion prices.{1} my advice dont go self cert .{ 2} if you.v got a big deposit keep hold off it and rent why 'buying is dead money...

BOOTSO 02.05.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Kensington Mortgage Company

First Direct Offset Mortgage

Advantages: First Direct - great offset mortgage
Disadvantages: Too easy to access the equity in your home!

...The first thing that attracted me to a First Direct (a division of HSBC Bank plc) offset lifetime tracker mortgage was that it was listed at the top of the 'best buy' tables on moneysupermarket.com. A quick search revealed that it had also been voted the best lender for customer service in the Which? Money survey on mortgages 2008. This was the second year running that First Direct had come out on top. With a score of 90% first direct was 11% ahead of its nearest rival in the survey of 18 lenders. First Directs mortgages have won numerous awards over the years, the most recent being What Mortgage Magazine's winner of Best Direct Lender over 5 Years (February 2007). In January 2009 their offset mortgage was one of the lowest rates on the market. Although I was not actually looking to remortgage at this stage because I still had nine...

Krazikas 28.05.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of First Direct Mortgages

Kensington Mortgages

Advantages: You get what you need out of them
Disadvantages: Obscenely high interest rates, no reward for loyalty.

...I took over a mortgage with my partner in 2005 following her messy divorce and our of desperation with all the debts her ex left her. We were directed to Kensington via a local Broker, which I have now learnt to be probably more to do with their high rate of commision to the broker and little to do with our own personal circumstances. The most they would offer us was £60,000 despite the value of the house being £30,000 more. This was largely due to the absolutey massacred state of my partners credit rating because of the joint finances the ex left her paying..... and the fact I was only on a modest full time wage (NHS!) By the time all the kinks were ironed out, including removal of a charge on the house thanks to the cursed ex, we were relatively happy to have settled, had enough left over for the rest of the double glazing...

jedimasterlincoln 21.01.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Kensington Mortgage Company

  DESIGN your Mortgage INTELLIGENTLY....

Advantages: flexible, available for 95% mortgages, interest calculated daily, no arrangement fee, no indemnity premium, no tie in period, online/ telephone 24hrs
Disadvantages: lacks personal touch, not available for 100% mortgages, (mortgage deeds not stored), may not suit older persons i.e. up to 65 years due to age restrictions

...Buying a house can be one of the most exciting yet stressful things you may ever do and unless you have thousands stashed away in an offshore account or have just won the lottery, chances are you will have to apply for a mortgage to buy your dream home. There’s no time like the present if you are thinking of buying a property; Bank of England’s base rate has remained low at 4.0% for over a year; so, it could be a good time to borrow. The types of mortgages are endless; fixed rate, capped rate, tracker rate, ISA mortgages, cash back mortgages (ha ha, makes a mortgage sound like getting cash-back on your Switch card at Sainsbury’s!) variable rate, flexible etc, etc. I know looking at mortgages can sound incredibly boring but when one considers how much time people spend on buying fashion accessories or advance booking...

Connoisseur_Haggler 30.12.2002 (02.01.2003) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Intelligent Finance Mortgages

Woolwich Open Plan Mortgages

Advantages: Payoff chunks of mortgage whenever you want. Offsetting saving accounts, interest calaculated daily
Disadvantages: Can be tempted to borrow to the max

...We've had a Woolwich Open Plan mortgage for just over seven years. On the whole we have been very satisfied. The mortgage work by allowing you to set up a number of accounts and under Woolwich a number of saving pots, ie mini accounts that cannot be overdrawn, which can be offset agai9nst the mortgage. In simple terms this means all of these funds are taken off the mortgage total and interest is then calculated on the result. We set up pots for a new car, holiday and for a small inheritance, which was to be used by our daughter to help her through university. We also had a reserve that is an extra amount of money that we could borrow at the mortgage rate. In our case this was around £20,000. As you npay off the mortgage this amount increases. We now have an overdraft facility of around £70,000. While the acount...

odtaa 07.11.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Woolwich Mortgages

Future Mortgages - a misunderstood lender

Advantages: An excellent sub prime lender with very competative rates
Disadvantages: They only deal with brokers or mortgage packagers

...Having read every review on this site for Future Mortgages I immediately became disturbed at the reactions and negative feedback that so many people have had towards this particular mortgage lender. However, after digesting each review it became apparent to me that, although they are from personal opinion, and of course, we are all entitled to our opinions, I felt they were unfairly directed towards the mortgage company itself. Many of the complaints were focusing on the high rates and other criteria offered by Future Mortgages, but it seems that the fact they are a sub prime mortgage lender has been forgotten. Sub prime mortgage companies do offer rates higher and sometimes considerably higher than the high street rates as their customer base is made up of people with current or historical adverse credit history. Many people...

Pixie1979 05.01.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Future Mortgages

Mortgage Minefield

Advantages: Shopping around can save you loads of money
Disadvantages: As nobody knows what interest rates will do, it is all a bit of a gamble

...If you have ever bought a house and tried to wade through what the mortgage market has to offer, you will know how daunting it can be. There are so many different types of mortgage and special deals on offer that you can get bogged down within a few minutes of searching for the right mortgage for you. I have recently become obsessed with finding a new mortgage for myself after finding myself stuck in a high interest fixed rate mortgage. It wasn't until my sister-in-law came round for some mortgage advice last night that I realised quite how much I had learnt about this financial minefield. She wanted me to write it all down for her and having done this, I decided that other people may benefit from my hours of trawling the internet. So here it is. I am by no means a mortgage expert, but if you are just beginning a mortgage hunt...

jpass 28.01.2002 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Member Advice on Choosing a mortgage

A mortgage for life, whether you choose it or not.

Advantages: Always extremely accurate with figures
Disadvantages: Drag their heeks when you wish to move lender

...I am writing numerous reviews on mortgage lenders similar to this review as I am giving an inside respective on how certain lenders treat their customer and how their processes work in regard to repaying your mortgage. I do not own this product, but work to remortgage Preferred Mortgages loans on a semi-regular basis, and work with their parent company Capstone Mortgage Services a little more often. Unfortunately both Preferred Mortgages and Capstone Mortgage Services are quite notorious in my company, but not for many reasons. I cannot speculate on their rate or fees as it is much easier to note these down with the more common mortgage providers, but Preferred Mortgages is worth mentioning simply due to their difficulty when you wish to repay your mortgage. Preferred and Capstone both tend to drag their heels when it comes to...

heavenlie 28.08.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Preferred Mortgages