Skipton Building Society hits new low!

[andy]

This is really disgusting!

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm ... eties.html


Skipton slaps extra £2,000 on mortgage interest bills

It is not often that a story breaks that fundamentally changes the view of a sector in the public's mind. The news that Skipton Building Society has decided to trigger its "exceptional circumstances" clause and raise the rate the society charges its mortgage holders from 3.5pc to 4.95pc could be one such moment.

Since the events of 2008 and the credit crisis we have been told time and time again that in the finance sector trust is everything. Well, if you are one of the 64,000 mortgage holders possibly affected by this "exceptional move", what are your trust levels in your building society today? You were told when you took out that shiny new mortgage that your standard variable rate would never be more than 3pc above the Bank of England base rate. Until, that is, the building society decides otherwise.


A whole heap of questions now follow. Who decides what is an "exceptional circumstance"? What is the legal definition? Were mortgage holders clearly told when they took out the mortgage that the society could act in this way? And what does it mean for the building society sector as a whole?

Building societies are supposed to be the "nicer" bit of the mortgage and savings sector, not like those rapacious banks blundering around with their ever-cleverer deals and tricks with the housing market.

But with the events of the last 24 hours they will have to work hard to retain that image. What the Skipton move shows us is that building societies have seen their business model wholly broken by two things - fundamental changes in the savings market and the era of ultra-low interest rates set by the Bank of England. Savers are flowing to banks which, desperate to rebuild their capital positions, are offering remarkable rates.

As a country we've always loved building societies - their mutual status somehow fits with our view of the good society. I wonder what mortgage holders at Skipton are thinking, as they are told that their mortgages are going up by as much as £2,000? These are people trying to juggle household commitments in a tough economic climate - did David Cutter, the aptly named chief executive of Skipton - consider them when he announced his handbrake turn?