Thursday 26th June 2008
While HSBC stepped in to try and take some of the heat off those home owners coming to the end of their fixed rate mortgage deals, there are fears that the rescue offer may not be as attractive as it first appeared. Even though the service itself seems sound and has been very useful to many home owners who would otherwise have struggled, the bank has now increased arrangements fees by as much 35%.
It now appears that those remortgaging homes under the £250,000 level, at the advertised rate of 4.79%, will be asked to pay an arrangement fee of £7,699 which is up from £5,000. However, for those who are looking to remortgage up to a value of £500,000 the fees are even higher, with a figure of £9,999 being quoted by the bank.
On the face of it the rescue package looks a very well attractive offer to many home owners but when you take into account the excessive fees being charged, the picture does change somewhat. It seems that no matter which way mortgage customers turn there is always some kind of catch to the best offers. For some people there may be no alternative to the pain of signing up to substantially higher mortgage rates, something which is not going to assist the housing market, or the UK economy, in the short to medium term. |
Mortgages
It has been announced that the central bank of Australia has cut base rates in the country by one full percentage point overnight to try and avert a banking crisis in Australia. While this move... 
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