Independent Financial Advisors for IT Contractors
Published on 6th June 2008
Amidst all the gloomy tales of mortgage funding drying up, HSBC caused a storm of interest recently with new market leading mortgages. 4 weeks on and the experience of many prospective borrowers has proved anything but a pleasant walk in the sun....
A blaze of free publicity surrounded the news that HSBC were bucking a trend that had seen other lenders increase interest rates in the face of credit crunch induced liquidity problems. Instead HSBC proudly announced that they had no such funding problems (although interestingly they have had to write down further loses on US Sub-prime lending this week to reach a total of $9 billion) and could therefore afford to come to the aid of UK mortgage holders with what seemed like fantastically low interest rates.
Now I can remember when, in the name of proving their non-commercial status, Blue Peter would never use the generic term 'Sellotape' and for years I can remember my sister pestering Mum to buy 'sticky back plastic' instead..........clearly the corporations rules don't apply when it comes to reporting the mortgage market because the BBC gifted hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of free publicity thanks to its extensive coverage of the HSBC rates. What has been the experience of prospective borrowers however?
Closer examination of the deals by our mortgage experts showed that the best rates were only available to those with larger deposits and many of the best rates suffered eye wateringly high arrangement fees. Still, headline grabbing they were and so some borrowers were tempted to get in touch.
Anecdotal evidence from clients soon suggested all was not as it seemed.
HSBCs branches were deluged and our own mystery shopping call hasn't been returned after two weeks of waiting. Even clients who have been able to get through have invariably been unable to satisfy strict lending criteria.
It's our opinion that the Marketing Manager behind the launch of these rates is a genius but sadly the bank hasn't been able to cope with delivery. It's been a master class in terms of publicity generated for the bank, the launch was timed to perfection and it left competitors and mortgage advisers alike scratching our heads as to how they were doing it given the problems that all other lenders were facing in the current market conditions. Sadly if something looks too good to be true, it invariably is. The experience of many prospective borrowers has been disappointment. Alternative schemes are out there and we will continue to scour the market looking for competitive rates but pride ourselves on delivery. We will only ever recommend a scheme that we know is achievable, in a timely fashion and only then after we've fully taken into account all fees and charges so that we can be sure of giving clients the full picture.
If you'd like to discuss our broker fees free remortgage and mortgage service using specialist lending criteria based on contract rate rather than accounts please call Simon, Mary, Emma or Suzanne on 0845 062 8888 or via the contact us form on this website.
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