Barclays bids to woo borrowers
THE GUARDIAN - 16TH SEPTEMBER 2002
Barclays Bank is enticing borrowers from rival lenders by offering them a remortgage package where the bank pricks up the bill for legal and valuation service. Borrowers have to take out its Base Rate Tracker mortgage, currently priced at 6.6% and guaranteed to be no higher than 0.6% above base rates.
But, as ever, beware big banks bearing gifts – the tasty deal is only for cash rich house buyers who borrow a minimum of £200,000 and have a down payment of at least £40,000.
For typical borrowers who have scraped together the usual 5% deposit and want a mortgage of less than £60,000, the bank is charging 7.1%.
Cheltenham & Gloucester is offering home loans fixed at 6.59% whereby borrowers can choose the length of the term from two, three, five or seven years.
Cardiff-based Principality Building Society is offering a mortgaged fixed at 6.49% until 31st December 2003.
Elsewhere, insurance broker Burgesses has worked out that an average borrower pay £500 a month towards their mortgage can save around £60 a year if they switch their payment protection insurance away from their current lender.
