Bank of China reassures its tracker passes on rate cuts

Bank of China (UK) has an advert on p.9 of Metro today promoting its Bank Rate + 2.3% lifetime tracker, available up to 75% LTV. If one assesses competitiveness purely on rate and ignores the criteria this rate is market leading for LTVs between 70.01% and 75%.

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Demand for mortgage tracker deals plummet

To promote lower rates from today on a third of its 2 year fixes (those with a maximum LTV of 80%) Santander has put out a press release headlined:

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Skipton…have they really done that?

The big news today is that the Skipton Building Society has increased its Standard Variable Rate from 3.5% to a staggering 4.95%, at the same time breaking contracts with thousands of their borrowers.

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4 out of 5 mortgages bought in December were variable rates

Variable rate mortgages accounted for more than four in every five (80.9%) home loans arranged by John Charcol in the last month of 2009. The John Charcol Index revealed that the proportion of fixed rates has fallen below 20% for the first time since August 2008. Click here for full details

Inflation rise above expectations…what now for bank rate?

There is a possibility that interest rates could rise sooner than expected after the latest inflation figures showed a larger than anticipated rise to 2.9% in December.

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One Third of US Households in Negative Equity

Rasmussen (One of the top USA polling companies) yesterday released its latest findings on what US consumers think about their housing market and it is not positive news.

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Fixed rates fall again

With Yorkshire Building Society announcing cuts from today across the board in its fixed rates, they become the latest lender to cut mortgage rates despite a static bank rate and swap rates at the top end of their recent trading range.

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Santander implies consumers don’t value the Abbey brand

Santander Group this morning sent an email to brokers confirming the re-brand of Abbey and Bradford & Bingley branches to Santander, and indeed the branch in Holborn near my office has already been rebranded.

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To fix or to track? Your thoughts please…

There is much debate in the industry and press currently as to the right course of action when it comes to picking a mortgage. At JC, we still believe that trackers are likely to be the product of choice for some time, but would be interested to know what others think. So please let us know