Couple freed from Santander ‘mortgage prison’
Our buyer specialist will get Santander to decrease the home loan rate for a couple who felt trapped paying more than they could afford 
Photo: Alamy
We have complained about currently being a mortgage prisoner of Santander to Santander, the monetary ombudsman and the regulator. All to no avail. We had to remortgage in 2006 to conserve our house and our enterprise and then in 2007 came the economic downturn. We have by no means defaulted on any of Santander’s products that we have with them. However it treats us like this.
LB, West Midlands
You had borrowed £296,000 on your residence which in 2006 was valued at £395,000. There was a mortgage term of about 24 years. However, a lot more just lately your husband’s credit score score had suffered on his private credit score cards as his business had had a downturn. His contracts have been offered to other companies and so function he utilised to have went elsewhere.
Santander asserted that the loan-to-value, and other elements limited the mortgage merchandise offered to you to its regular variable fee. You felt stuck and annoyed.
I grew to become involved and, after a wonderful deal of toing and froing over a extended period of time, a compromise has been reached. You have now agreed that a third of the home loan can be converted to capital and interest rather than getting a single that was solely curiosity only. This means the bank has been ready to provide an improved rate of three.19pc fixed for two years across the whole of the mortgage. This contrasts with the 4.74pc you have been paying with the other arrangement.
This all implies you are paying out £1,207 per month rather of £1,169 per month but the benefit is you will owe much less as the mortgage debt is currently being diminished by £440 month by month. Santander has promised to preserve an eye on this when the special fee finishes in March 2016.
You say this is giving you an enormous psychological increase and has taken a good deal of mental stress off you.
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