The FINANCIAL — Barclays increases the loan to value on its popular Woolwich ‘Great Escape’ re-mortgage package and introduces a new range of deals from Tuesday 23 November, to help liberate even more borrowers, from standard variable rate mortgages.
‘The Woolwich Great Escape’ loan to value is being extended from 70% to 75% LTV. The successful tracker deal at 70% (LTV) remains at base + 2.18% (2.68%), at 75% (LTV) a tracker deal at base + 2.48% (2.98%) has been introduced. The tracker rates both come with the switch and fix option, but for those customers who would rather fix their rate straight away, ‘The Great Escape’ is now available with a fixed rate at both 70% and 75% (LTV). The rates are 3.28% (70% LTV) and 3.48% (75% LTV).
"All ‘The Great Escape’ deals are aimed at borrowers who worry it would cost them too much to move to better rates elsewhere. They come with no application fee, free legal work and valuation and £300 cashback to cover the cost of a borrower’s exit fee for leaving their present lender," Barclays informs.
Borrowers taking up a tracker deal will be able to switch to a fixed rate whenever they choose, without penalty, this ‘Switch & Fix’ feature has proved popular as customers to benefit from a tracker rate while base rate is very low now, but have the security of being able to switch to a fixed rate should they become concerned about future interest rate rises.
Andy Gray, head of mortgages for Barclays, said: “We’ve seen a huge demand for the Great Escape package since we launched a month ago with customers moving their mortgage from lenders including Lloyds, Santander, Nationwide and Natwest. We estimate the average customer is saving £1,150 per year through switching. We believe the improvements announced today will help stimulate the re-mortgage market further as borrowers with less equity in their homes will be catered for.”
“With base rate still expected to remain the same for some time, borrowers will continue to feel trapped on their standard variable rate, so now is the right time to be helping even more borrowers facilitate a move and save money, especially as this is one of the most competitive packages in the market. We predict there are 750,000* families who could benefit from our deals announced today.”
In addition to the ‘Great Escape’ changes, Barclays is also cutting the rates on some of its two and five year fixed rate mortgages by an average of 0.20%. The two year fixed rate at 75% LTV is cut by 0.20% from 3.59% to 3.39%, at 80% LTV the rate is cut from 4.38% to 4.19%. The five year rate at 70% LTV is reducing from 4.49% to 4.29% and 80% LTV from 5.39% to 5.18%. Barclays Loyalty mortgages are also being cut by up to 0.30%, offering better deals for Barclays current account customers.
With many SVRs at 3.5 per cent or more, customers could save £60 per month or over £700 annually on a £150k repayment mortgage. If their SVR is 4 per cent they will save over £1,200 annually. Below are examples of various savings on lenders SVRs:
A borrower on a standard variable rate of 3.50 per cent (e.g. Halifax) moving to base +2.18%, currently 2.68%.
A borrower on a standard variable rate of 4 per cent (e.g. RBS and Nat West) moving to base +2.18%, currently 2.68%.
A borrower on a standard variable rate of 4.24 per cent (e.g. Santander previously Abbey) moving to base +2.18%, currently 2.68%.
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