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
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Review of Halifax Mortgages

Mortgages, Mortgages & Mortgages

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

...another offer could be issued, taking us beyond the completion date of my house. We eventually got our solicitor to comprimise with them, if we would pay for a courier, they could dispatch the offer, have it brought back and then agree to release the funds. We did this at a cost of nearly £300 then they advised it was another 5 working days before they could relase funds. Again, thanks to our solicitor, it took 3 days as she said we'd be homeless and would be charging them for accomdation as no where in ANY of their literature that the timescales would be this long, in fact, it stated they could do everything within 48 hours of receiving paperwork. So, we exchanged contracts and got slapped with a bill for £2500 in fees from them, we were concerned that they had promised us this would be added on to the mortgage on our agreement in...

memphisto_chick 12.02.2006 · Read review
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Review of Mortgages Plc

First Direct Offset Mortgage

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

...a hefty £3000 penalty plus administration charge of £300. If I was to stump up the early repayment penalty fees I desparately needed to find a product that was going to make the switch 'worthwhile'. The First Direct offset Mortgage seemed to fit the bill. The offset base rate tracker 2.89% mortgage (1.89% above the base rate - 80%LTV) being offered by First Direct at that time seemed very attractive to me, despite the £799 product fee. Since then, due to cut in the Bank of England base rate, it was been reduced to just 2.39% making the interest repayments just under £400! I did my calculations and worked out that if I switched to the first direct lifetime tracker offset mortgage my mortgage repayments (interest only) would be reduced to £400. My current repayments were £900. With the difference- £500 - I could make overpayments...

Krazikas 28.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of First Direct Mortgages

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
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Review of Kensington Mortgage Company

It Works for me....sometimes....!

Advantages: Cheap. Good for buying presents.
Disadvantages: Sell a lot of titles you've never heard of....

...The Works is a discount bookstore which can be found on many high streets. I have browsed around a fair few discount bookstores, but have always found this store to be the best in it?s class. Overall, I tend to find that a lot of discount bookstores sell a lot of uninteresting titles, & books you?ve never heard of. The Works does also fall into this category, but seems to also sell more bestsellers than other stores (often current ones at that), covering a wide range of authors. Books are laid out according to genre & are for the most part stacked on shelves with the cover facing forwards, so that you can see at a glance what titles are in stock. The more popular fiction & bestsellers are laid out on tables at the front of the store, with reference books & childrens books being on shelves running down the sides & back of the store...

sambam000 13.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Works

  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

...next year’s holiday it is only fair that you should consider how to make your mortgage work ‘with’ you and not ‘against’ you! Think about it… this is the biggest financial decision you will ever make in your life and one you should spend time thinking about. [Caution! This is detailed in parts but I feel its really important to understand a mortgage product before committing and deciding which one is for you. Please fast forward >>to relevant parts as required, thanks] WHY I Chose Intelligent Finance (Mortgage product) -------------------------------- Having had several years previous experience stuck in a Fixed rate mortgage product - which basically means agreeing to pay interest at a fixed rate for an agreed amount of time often with built in restrictions, I was determined not to take out...

Connoisseur_Haggler 30.12.2002 (02.01.2003) · Read review
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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
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Review of Woolwich 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
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Review of Kensington Mortgage Company

Future Mortgages - a misunderstood lender

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

...buying process, and indeed, the mortgage process is actually not that complicated or difficult, unless you have inept people helping you. Trust me, I have dealt with many inept mortgage lenders, estate agents, brokers and advisers, they do unfortunately exist! I also read that when people were struggling with meeting their payments for various reasons due to sickness and reduced income that Future Mortgages were not interested in assisting you. My answer to this is as follows: I have come across numerous people who only show interest in getting their mortgage and house to live in and give no real thought whatsoever to actually protecting it once they have got it. People rarely consider that it might actually be a good idea to have income protection so that if they are unable to work due to sickness, accident, and disability they would still...

Pixie1979 05.01.2008 · Read review
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Review of Future Mortgages

Work It Out

Advantages: Cheap, random selection
Disadvantages: Random selection, rather hit and miss

...Student life requires budgeting, which often involves purchasing daily essentials in cheap pound shops or from chains like Morisons, Wilkinsons and the like. Unfortunately Oxford does not have many of these, The Works is about the only cheap shop there is ? though there are two or three of these (on in the Westgate Centre next to Sainsburys, one on Cornmarket Street and maybe one on the High Street). I don?t know how many branches there are nation wide; but I know there?s also a branch in Colchester, which is much the same. What do they sell? The Works is primarily a cheap book shop, but also sells stationery, art equipment and other bits and pieces from time to time. The books tend to be slightly obscure, but are often going cheap. There seem to be a lot of biographies of D-list celebrities, for example Ulrika?s Johnson?s ?Honest...

a-true-ben 22.06.2003 · Read review
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Review of The Works