What a brilliant publicity stunt ...
"HSBC, is offering mortgages to homeowners whose fixed rate deals with other lenders are coming to an end. HSBC says it will match existing deals for up to two years and for a fee ...Customers will need to have at least 20% of the equity in their home and the fee paid will depend on how much they want to borrow and over what period of time".
A fee, calculated as a % of how much you borrow and for how long, isn't that what some folks call 'interest'?* I bet the discrepancy between headline rate and AER will be ginormous.
Heck, if HSBC were really keen to do mortgage lending, they wouldn't have closed their subsidiary First Direct to new customers!
* Update, according to thisismoney, the maximum loan available under the scheme will be £250,000 and the maximum fee will be £5,000. Does that sound a bit like 'an-extra-1%-interest-per-annum-disguised-as-a-fee' to anybody else?
A grim document
7 hours ago
2 comments:
I wonder how many have, "....at least 20% of the equity in their home." With prices having fallen 2.5% last month fewer and fewer will qualify.
Still, it's a brilliant scheme for HSBC, although only lasting 5 weeks suggests it's a bit of a gimmick. Assuming house prices don't fall another 20%, HSBC will be risking little, earning a fat fee, and making the rest of the mortgage lenders look like cowards.
Sounds like a good scheme, for the bank.
I'm glad FD has closed it mortgate offers; as one of their customers I would rather they didn't dilute their core business too much. They didn't do mortgages until recently so no need to do them now.
Post a Comment