The One Account - Mortgages

The One account puts all your money in one place - your mortgage, loans, savings and current account - helping you to:

Cut the overall cost of your mortgage
The money in your current account automatically reduces what you owe on your mortgage, saving you interest. This can add up to thousands over the lifetime of your mortgage.

Pay off your mortgage early
Any money left in your account automatically goes towards overpaying your mortgage.

Get a better return on your savings - with no tax to pay
By paying your savings into the One account you can use them to reduce your mortgage and save interest on a daily basis. And because it’s interest saved rather than interest earned, there’s no tax to pay.

 Cut the cost of your personal loans and credit cards
You pay one mortgage-style interest rate for everything you borrow - no need for expensive loans and credit cards.

Find out more, get a quote and apply online

mortgage market shrinking

The mortgage market is shrinking under the impact of the continuing problems in the banking system, say lenders.
Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) show that new loans for home buyers fell to 50,300 in January, the lowest level for nine years.

sub-prime mortgages at risk

Sub-prime lenders are bringing more than half of UK repossession orders, despite accounting for just 6% of total mortgages according to a report out today by the BBC.

The research on sub-prime repossession orders was carried out by BBC Radio Five Live’s Wake up to Money programme, which looked at 1,200 cases going through 18 county courts in January 2008.

It found that more than 10% of the cases were brought by two sub-prime lenders owned by US investment bank Lehman Brothers.

However, it must be said that most court possession actions do not always lead to repossession because borrowers in trouble usually reach a settlement with their lender or sell their house to meet overdue payments.

Bad credit

Sub-prime operators say that it is only natural that default rates will be higher amongst their customers, many of whom have bad credit histories.

But the degree to which sub-prime lenders dominated the sample is surprisingly large, experts said.

Southern Pacific Mortgage Limited (SPML) and Preferred Mortgages - both Lehman Brothers offshoots - were named in 148 cases in the sample.

what interest rate cut?

The Bank of England announced on Thursday that it would cut interest rates by 0.25% to 5.25% after signs of a slowering economy. However, whilst banks benefited from the cuts immediately, some lenders are delaying passing the savings on to their customers.

The Uk’s biggest lenders which include Halifax, Abbey, Nationwide and Woolwich announced within minutes that the savings would be passed on to customers.

HSBC, however, will not pass on the cut to it’s borrowers on it’s standard variable rate until the 7th March.

Some borrowers will have to wait as long as three months for repayments to fall. BM Solutions, part of Halifax, has told customers they may have to wait until May. They will end up more than £100 worse off than those whose lender passed on the rate cut immediately. Northern Rock customers have to wait until the second month after a change.

mortgage problems increase shelter’s demand

Shelter England received eight times as many requests for advice about mortgage problems in 2007 than 2006, it says. The housing charity took more than 80,000 calls from homeowners concerned about falling behind with payments.

It wants mortgage lenders and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to set up a free dedicated advice line.

The figures were published after the FSA warned a million borrowers could struggle to repay their home loans during 2008.