- Nationwide Calls on Industry to Save Consumers
Two-Thirds of A Billion Pounds A Year -
Saturday, 12 March 2005 marks 12 months since the publication of Professor David Miles’ report on the UK mortgage market. The Miles Report recommended that mortgage lenders ‘make their full range of products available to all borrowers’.
Lenders should treat both new and existing customers fairly. By reserving the best deals for new borrowers, lenders are failing their loyal customers. As a result, these loyal customers are forced to look elsewhere in the market to get good value, particularly when they come to the end of a special deal. Lenders could be retaining these customers if they were to offer one range for all. This failure to act not only means that many lenders are losing existing customers but it is also costing UK consumers around £674 million a year*.
Nationwide’s mortgages have been available to all new and existing borrowers since 2001 and its fully flexible Base Mortgage Rate (BMR), is around 0.50% lower than the market average and around 0.75% lower than most high street competitors.
Stuart Bernau, Nationwide’s executive director, said: “At a time when UK lenders are making record profits, it would seem common sense to reward loyalty by making their full range of mortgages available to their existing customers. Unfortunately, despite Professor Miles' recommendations, this is not common practice and many loyal borrowers are still getting a raw deal. We believe this is unfair and, if some lenders are not prepared to treat customers fairly, we suggest consumers transfer to a lender who will.
