Internet bank withdraws mortgages for non-customers
May 12, 2008
The Internet banking arm of HSBC, First Direct, has recently announced the withdrawal of mortgage products to consumers that are not customers of the bank. The mortgages came off sale to non-customers of the bank at the beginning of this month, and the range that is being taken off sale includes its two year fixed rate offset mortgage. Customers that are with First Direct will still be able to access mortgage products even if they do not currently have a mortgage with the bank.
An official from First Direct said: “We’ve seen unprecedented demand for our mortgages since January thanks to our highly competitive pricing and the decision of other lenders to raise rates. As a result, we’re currently seeing applications running at five times our normal volumes.”
He added: “first direct won its reputation for its amazing customer service and our first priority is to ensure we give all our customers the level of service they expect from us. The flood of interest in our mortgages has meant we’re taking longer than we’d like to handle applications, especially from non-customers. Rather than increase interest rates dramatically to discourage new applications, we’ve decided to withdraw temporarily from offering mortgages to non customers until we’ve cleared the backlog. I’d like to apologise to customers for any delays they may have experienced and give them my commitment that we’ll not rest until we’ve restored first direct’s normal standards of service. We’ve made arrangements for our parent company, HSBC, to make available a similar two-year fixed rate to non customers to help them with their mortgage needs in the meantime.”
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