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Hi folks, I'm in a bit of a mess with my mortgage and in need of some advice. I will try and explain the sequence of events:-
Dec 2007 - Credit crunch not yet quite hit and my wife and I move to a bigger house via a £150,000 mortgage with Santander, 5 year discount term, house worth £170,000. Repayments around £700 a month - both working, not a problem to find £350 each.
May 2009 - Baby arrives, wife stops working - should have seen this coming in hindsight, but oh well. Income nearly halved.
Sep 2011 - Credit cards maxed out, trying to keep on top of everything. Mortgage kept on top of but cards go into a DMP
Aug 2012 - Wife files for divorce out of the blue and leaves the home. I stay put in the house. The mortgage payments are killing me.
Dec 2012 - 5 year Mortgage discount term comes to an end - monthly payment hiked to £860 a month as now on the lender's SVR of 4.99%. Letter received from Santander inviting me to call them to discuss another mortgage offer.
Jan 2013 - Call Santander to request another discounted term - only to be told "computer says no" - NO offers will be given and I am to stay on the SVR. I ask to raise a complaint - the complaint was opened and closed within 7 minutes of me putting the phone down to them (was notified by text). Template letter then received saying they credit check existing customers even though I was not asking them for more money or any sort of forbearance. I was completely up to date with the mortgage and always had been, although it has since slipped to one month down due to the higher payments.
June 2014 - House is now in my sole name although wife is still on the mortgage as Santander refuse to remove her from it. She has agreed to this via a legal agreement endorsed by the court. I'm lucky in that respect, else I would have had to sell.
So, to summarise, even though I am not asking for anything more, and am an existing customer, Santander are denying me a more affordable deal. Obviously rates are due to start rising by the end of the year and they have basically turned me into a sitting duck ready to be plucked, cooked and repossessed when that happens, as another hike in repayments would be the straw that breaks me. Clearly, with a credit rating shot to hell, I have zero chance of moving elsewhere and I feel that Santander are exploiting that by forcing me onto their most expensive rate. It feels like victimization and irresponsible banking, but I don't know what to do about it.
It seems I am far from alone in this Santander exploitation:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...prisoners.html
Any advice from the kind people on here gratefully and humbly received.
Thank you,
GK
Dec 2007 - Credit crunch not yet quite hit and my wife and I move to a bigger house via a £150,000 mortgage with Santander, 5 year discount term, house worth £170,000. Repayments around £700 a month - both working, not a problem to find £350 each.
May 2009 - Baby arrives, wife stops working - should have seen this coming in hindsight, but oh well. Income nearly halved.
Sep 2011 - Credit cards maxed out, trying to keep on top of everything. Mortgage kept on top of but cards go into a DMP
Aug 2012 - Wife files for divorce out of the blue and leaves the home. I stay put in the house. The mortgage payments are killing me.
Dec 2012 - 5 year Mortgage discount term comes to an end - monthly payment hiked to £860 a month as now on the lender's SVR of 4.99%. Letter received from Santander inviting me to call them to discuss another mortgage offer.
Jan 2013 - Call Santander to request another discounted term - only to be told "computer says no" - NO offers will be given and I am to stay on the SVR. I ask to raise a complaint - the complaint was opened and closed within 7 minutes of me putting the phone down to them (was notified by text). Template letter then received saying they credit check existing customers even though I was not asking them for more money or any sort of forbearance. I was completely up to date with the mortgage and always had been, although it has since slipped to one month down due to the higher payments.
June 2014 - House is now in my sole name although wife is still on the mortgage as Santander refuse to remove her from it. She has agreed to this via a legal agreement endorsed by the court. I'm lucky in that respect, else I would have had to sell.
So, to summarise, even though I am not asking for anything more, and am an existing customer, Santander are denying me a more affordable deal. Obviously rates are due to start rising by the end of the year and they have basically turned me into a sitting duck ready to be plucked, cooked and repossessed when that happens, as another hike in repayments would be the straw that breaks me. Clearly, with a credit rating shot to hell, I have zero chance of moving elsewhere and I feel that Santander are exploiting that by forcing me onto their most expensive rate. It feels like victimization and irresponsible banking, but I don't know what to do about it.
It seems I am far from alone in this Santander exploitation:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...prisoners.html
Any advice from the kind people on here gratefully and humbly received.
Thank you,
GK
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