A word of caution (Nationwide Building Society)

Member Name: bateman

Product:	Nationwide Building Society
Date:	09/04/01 (267 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Mutual

Disadvantages: Not feeling very mutual

While we have had a mortgage with the Nationwide for two years now and have few complaints, the recent renaming of the "Standard Variable Rate" to the new "Basic Mortgage Rate" is not what we have come to expect from the leading mutual.

While on the surface this appears as a rather benign marketing tool, for us it is more significant.

As we have a discount mortgage, the "Basic Mortgage Rate" you see, does not apply to our mortgage, and unless we want to lose our discount, we must remain on the "Standard Variable Rate", 0.5% higher.

This subtlety has been missed by most, including "Your Mortgage" who incorrectly point out in their news item of 20/02/01 "Lenders Lock Horns" that "Nationwide has cut its standard variable rate to 6.49% for all existing customers" - wrong on two accounts - not the SVR, and not all customers.

This type of maneuver is exactly what we would have expected from the city blinkered banks (and the shadier ones at that), and to ourselves, and we are sure others in the relative minority who are affected, it seems that we have been short-changed by the Nationwide.

Having carefully selected a mutual mortgage, paid the arrangement fees, set-up Nationwide PEPs, signed away any benefits in the event of de-mutualisation (happily), what makes us least likely to continue with the Nationwide beyond the period of our discount is the feeling of distrust that has grown, and the uncertainty of what trick they might pull next.

Summary: