Abbey is offering a new four-year fixed-rate mortgage with a maximum 85% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio at a rate of 5.99%. The deal is available at Abbey branches or by telephone, for both house purchasers and remortagers. A £995 fee applies and the Homebuyer Solution comes with a free valuation and £250 cashback on completion, whereas [...]
The commercial banking wings of Abbey and Alliance & Leicester were yesterday renamed under the Santander brand. Santander-owned Abbey UK Corporate Banking and Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank were rebranded Santander Corporate Banking. A total of 20 regional corporate banking centres will undergo the name change this year, including centres in Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Hull, [...]
Abbey is paying a 6% interest rate to its premium current account holders. The Santander-owned bank is offering the rate on balances up to £2,500 to customers opening the new Abbey Reward Account. To benefit from the headline rate, customers must deposit at least £1,000 per month into the account. Other benefits of the £10-per-month [...]
The much forecast rise in fixed rates is well underway with Abbey announcing that it has put up the cost of its fixed-rate mortgages by between 0.25% and 0.5%. Lloyds banking group has also increased the cost of some fixed-rate deals via its Cheltenham & Gloucester and Halifax brands. The lenders are following a trend [...]
Abbey credit cards will be rebranded under the name of Santander, Abbey’s parent company, from next week. The rebrand follows last month’s announcement that the UK’s three Santander-owned banks, Abbey, Bradford & Bingley, and Alliance & Leicester, will next year merge into a single bank and adopt the Santander global brand and name. All new [...]
Abbey is offering business customers a fixed interest rate of 3.2% on its 12 month Fixed Rate Business Bond, maturing 1 July 2010. The Santander-owned bank has also extended the offer period for its 9 month Fixed Rate Business Bond, paying 2.8% interest and maturing 1 April 2010. Both bonds are available to businesses with [...]
Britons appear confident that the Bank of England’s base rate has bottomed out at 0.5% and are therefore favouring fixed-rate mortgage deals. According to Abbey’s mortgage index, last month 60% of homeowners preferred the idea of a fixed-rate home loan, on the basis that it could offer protection from future rate rises. The figures compares [...]
In a move which will cost £12 million, Santander is to re-name its UK High Street banks: Abbey, Alliance & Leicester (A&L) and Bradford & Bingley (B&B). According to Santander, the move is aimed at saving £180 million from integrating the three banks. The move would also allow the UK business to use the “expertise [...]
Brits taking their summer holiday abroad this year will spend £73 million on debit and credit card fees, it emerged this week. Research by Abbey Credit Cards found that British holidaymakers pay an average of 3% in conversion fees every time they use an overseas ATM or spend money on their card in a foreign [...]
Abbey yesterday relaunched its Zero credit card, providing fee-free currency exchange and cash advances. The card is the only one currently available that offers these services for no fee. In addition, the Abbey Zero offers 0% interest on balance transfers for 12 months, and on purchases for three months. Roger Lovering, managing director of Abbey [...]
Santander’s UK banks have launched a new two year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4.01% gross p.a./AER. Minimum deposit is £30,000, and maximum deposit is £2 million. The bond is available in store from branches of Abbey, Bradford & Bingley, and Alliance & Leicester. Reza Attar-Zadeh, director of savings and investments at Santander UK, said [...]
Fixed-rate mortgages are set to grow in popularity because the base rate was held rather than cut last month, Abbey claimed this week. Research by the mortgage lender found that the number of people who believe the base rate has fallen as low as it will go has doubled in the past month. Meanwhile, the [...]
Abbey has launched a new range of fixed-rate mortgage products which it claims are the best it has offered in a decade. The Santander-owned bank said interest rates on three of its new mortgages are the lowest in ten years. Available at a maximum 75% loan-to-value (LTV), the new products include a 3-year fix at [...]
Credit crunched Brits are embracing a ‘no frills’ lifestyle in an effort to cut costs, new research has discovered. A study by Abbey found that six in ten (58%) UK consumers are more likely to fill their shopping trolleys with no frills products compared to a year ago. Flashy purchases are shunned as a waste [...]
HSBC is the best high street bank for customer service, according to mystery shopper research by Prophet. The innovation strategy consultants found that of the ten banks surveyed, only HSBC and Citi offer a customer experience ‘above expectations’. Barclays came in third place behind HSBC and Citi, providing a customer experience that met expectations. Lloyds [...]
Savvy savers should invest as much as possible in their individual savings account (ISA) to maximise their interest payments for the year, Abbey Savings said this week. Last year, only a third of savers earned the maximum possible interest by depositing all their savings in a lump sum at the beginning of the tax year. [...]
Internet-bank Cahoot has launched a new two year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4.01% gross/AER. Customers must deposit at least £30,000 into the bond, whilst the maximum investment is £2 million. The rate almost matches ICICI’s market leading offer of 4.18% interest, and is significantly higher than the average instant access savings rate of 0.63%. [...]
Credit card holders in the UK are needlessly paying out over £9 billion in interest payments every year. Research by Abbey credit cards found that many card holders are paying interest on their credit balance when they could save significant money by switching to an interest free credit card. Seven in ten (69%) Brits have [...]
Abbey launched a new ‘market leading’ credit card this week. The reissued Abbey Credit Card now offers 0% interest on balance transfers for 15 months and on purchases for three months. Interest after the introductory period rises to 15.9% APR. Abbey said it decided to release the card as a way of helping people better [...]
Abbey has launched a new issue of its instant access saver account, paying interest at 3% gross/AER. This is equivalent to 2.4% after tax. It should be noted that the 3% rate includes a 1.5% bonus for the first 12 months. Savers can invest anything from £1,000 to £2 million, and can make an unlimited [...]
Gender directive could slash men’s annuity payouts
The EU Gender Directive, which came into force today, could see men losing up to £10,000 from their annuity payouts, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Under the new rules insurers are no longer allowed to take gender into account when setting annuity rates and premiums on insurance products. Men previously enjoyed higher annuity rates than [...]
Home rental costs down in November
The cost of renting a house in England and Wales fell by 0.4 per cent in November, its first dip since March, according to a survey by LSL Property Services. Average rent was £741m during the month, returning to the level seen in September. However, it was 3.4 per higher than in November last year. [...]
Lloyds TSB halts sale of packaged accounts in branches
Lloyds TSB will stop selling packaged account in its branches from 1 January 2013, until its sales procedures are brought into line with those operated by sister bank The Halifax. Lloyds TSB is one of the main providers of packaged accounts in Britain, with around one in three of its customers choosing to pay fees [...]
Housing market recovery to continue next year
Recent improvements in the housing market should continue into next year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) Gross lending is estimated to have increased to £12.9 billion in November, helped by the Funding for Lending scheme which provides banks and building societies with lower-cost funding, which they are then supposed to pass on [...]
Newcastle Building Society exits interest-only mortgages
Newcastle Building Society has stopped offering interest-only mortgages to new borrowers, following the lead of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Nationwide, Co-operative bank and Coventry Building Society. The decision will not affect existing Newcastle customers and applications for interest-only mortgages received before 14 December will still be processed. Prior to the credit crunch, interest-only mortgages [...]
Less than half of Brits considered creditworthy
Fifty-seven per cent of UK adults are at risk of having an application for credit turned down by a mainstream lender according to a new report. The ‘Mind the Credit Gap‘ report commissioned by aqua credit cards suggests that even people with a good credit rating and earning more than £50,000 could have a credit [...]
Monthly incomes £22 lower in 2012
The average monthly income of UK households fell by £22 in real terms compared with last year, according to a survey carried out for the Bank of England (BoE) by NMG Consulting. People on lower incomes have seen their income eroded more than higher earners and households still have high levels of debt the BoE [...]
Savers dig deep to fund Christmas
New research from the Halifax suggests that savers are funding their Christmas spending with money set aside for other purposes. Thirty-seven per cent of 2,138 savers surveyed by the bank at the end of November had withdrawn savings in the last three months. The average amount withdrawn was £1,186, more than double the average savings [...]
Financial data at risk from unsafe passwords
According to a survey by the Payments Council the problem of having to remember a different password for several accounts means that many internet users are compromising the security of their financial data. Internet users have 22 password-protected accounts on average and many use the same log-in details for more than one account, even though [...]
Wonga launches Paylater loans on retailer website
Payday loan company Wonga has launched a new Paylater service on furniture firm Cotswold Company’s website. The service, which allows customers to “buy now, pay later” will be introduced on other retailers’ sites in the near future. Although the Paylater branding is similar to Wonga’s, the Wonga name only appears in the small print. A [...]
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