Can they do this...Amber Home Loans

[WILKINSS208]

Hello

Can anyone give me some advice please,

I have recently remortgaged, moving from GMAC to Amber Home Loans. I saved myself £230 per month by paying off my other mortgage and a loan.

I was offered my remortgage over 22 years at a fixed rate for 2 years. The payment was £911 per month. I have paid one payment.

I received a letter over the weekend stating my payment is now £917..£6 increase.

I called Amber Home Loans to ask how my payment had increased. They said every 3 months they review accounts and can adjust the amount if they like. Surely they cant do this, can they?

I was sold this stating that figure would not change for 2 years as fixed.

I have only been with them 1 month, so why review now if done every 3 months? Also, at this rate I could be paying over £1000 per month next year.

Can anyone help me??

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards

Sharon

[Penfold92]

It really depends what your offer said. Dig it out and read the Section on payments. It usually says 24 payments of ....then XXX months at £....

 

Sometimes depending on lender it will say 1 payment of then 23 payments of then XXX months at....

 

Does that make any sense? Have a read it is your best document. If the figure is the £911 as you think fixed for two years then "no" they can't change this if they feel like it...

 

If you could type up what it says there I (and others no doubt) will try to help,

 

Penfold

[WILKINSS208]

Hi

I am typing the offer which was in their mortgage offer which I signed for and returned:

 

What you will need to pay each month

These payments are based on a mortgage of £129,049.00 and includes the fees that are shown in Section 8 as being added to your mortgage. It is assumed that the mortgage will start on the 1 April 2008 (which it did):

 

26 payments at a fixed rate of 6.39% £911.49

followed by

238 payments at a variable rate, currently 7.8% £1,015.55

 

Also, states:

As the interest rate is fixed until 31/5/10, this means that your monthly payments will not charge if there are interest rate changes during this period.

The monthly payments shown in this offer could be considerably different if interest rates change.

 

So now what can I do?

[Penfold92]

They CANNOT change the payments...Ring and speak to someone else and ask why a fixed rate has been changed post completion of the offer, which clearly states £911.49...

 

Hope that helps,

 

Penfold

[jake44]

We were with Amber and they did the same thing. :o The rates are ' libor linked and change quarterly.............. !!!!! we found over the three years we had the mortgage the figure continually went uo and down ( more up ) We were recently offered a new deal recently as we are due to remortgage and guess what it was the same kind of deal !! I would never ever go down that line again .................

 

penfold...... Do you know if mortgage companies look at old defaults that are sitting on credit file ??

[Penfold92]

Hi Jake,

 

That is the way with LIBOR rates, they can change depending on the LIBOR rate, nothing untowards there, but your mortgage broker should have explained this to you...

 

As for old defaults, they are usually ignored by most non-conforming lenders, which means "generally" High street lenders won't lend to people with adverse credit, although Abbey will sometimes depending on how much, how long ago and if it was satisfied...The others as I said above will usually ignore defaults unless they are very recent and huge...Missed mortgage payments, bankrupcies and CCJ's do the most damage.

 

Don't know if that helps or not,

 

Penfold

[jake44]

We had a nightmare with amber , :o and an even worse time with the so called broker we went to !! He did not tell us that the mortgage was linked to the LIBOR rate, hence our mortgage was never stable. It also shot up nearly £250 per month when we went on the the SVR ........ Again we were stuck as the fees for early redemption are £6000 . We now have securitized mortgage , as amber sold the deal to redstone to administer !! Thankfully just a few months left.................

My reasons for asking about the defaults are that most of them are due to disappear in 2003........ leaving a few stragglers . I am trying to tidy up my credit file before remortgaging...... Our bank (BOS) have BM solutions that we could maybe try. For a half descent rate they accept 1 ccj but it doesn't mention defaults ???? maybe I am just being toooo hopeful ?

[Penfold92]

The mainstream product will allow 1 satisfied default upto £250...BM Solutions Near prime ignores all defaults. I understand they are not really doing much adverse (non-conforming) so really I suggest you find a local broker to discuss your position with and ensure they fully explain to you who they choose and why...

 

Penfold

[jake44]

Many thanks for your advice.. Problem is trying to find a broker who doesn't charge ??

[Penfold92]

Many thanks for your advice.. Problem is trying to find a broker who doesn't charge ??

 

And don't use an Estate Agents one! It is hard and with the market changing more brokers are charging...Worst case find one who will do it for the least amount...They should be declaring on their initial disclosure documents what they will charge so they should not be hiding anything.

Edited June 24, 2008 by Penfold92
spelling lol

[WILKINSS208]

Can I go back to my questions please, Amber nor Crystal Clear told me about this rate, they promised me this rate was fixed for 2 years and would not change.

What can I do?? Rang Amber and explained missold this remortgage. They are sending me a letter out explaining why gone up but I clearly not afford for this to go up. Fixed rate surely means FIXED AND CANNOT MOVE

[jake44]

Hi WILKINSS208

 

Re Amber mortgage :- We also assumed that we were on fixed rate !

we went to financial ombudsman to report the broker who sold us the mortgage and were more or less told that because we had signed on the dotted line that we had no claim. !!

 

We are due to remortgage and were offered a deal of 6.3% discounted rate for two years. Being VERY wary after the last time I checked all the paperwork and yet again it was a quarterly rate change .............!

 

Hopefully you will not be in the same situation , keep me posted on how you get on. ( our loan also suddenly changed mid way to Redstone mortgages........ ?? ) Seems that they are just administrators for Amber.

 

Hope this helps you . If you have any other questions please ask......

[WILKINSS208]

hi

mine states FIXED RATE not discounted rate and they are different. I am awaiting letter then will post details of that on here.

I am not letting them get away with it and the Broker I had have said to give them a ring if I am still not happy which I will do. I will also be contacting my local MR JUSTICE in the paper to see if he can help.

I borrowed £129K which is alot and my payments at £911 whiches states fixed for 2 years. They cannot change this surely!

[jake44]

Our loan with amber was FIXED for 24 months then libor rate for remaining 12 months.....................

 

The discounted deal is the new mortgage deal we have been offered by a totally different company.

[Penfold92]

Can I go back to my questions please, Amber nor Crystal Clear told me about this rate, they promised me this rate was fixed for 2 years and would not change.

What can I do?? Rang Amber and explained missold this remortgage. They are sending me a letter out explaining why gone up but I clearly not afford for this to go up. Fixed rate surely means FIXED AND CANNOT MOVE

 

 

Post 4, already agreed with you that it should and cannot change. Did anything get added post offer to the loan that was not there before? Arrangement fee a charge anything like that?

[WILKINSS208]

we had an arrangement fee, solicitor fees added to mortgage but that was included in the remortgage and included in the fixed rate deal. nothing in post today from amber so have to wait.

nothing was added to the remortgage after that offer no.

[Penfold92]

Then as I said before, should not change...Wait and see what they send you in the post.

[WILKINSS208]

ok thanks. keep you posted

[WILKINSS208]

hi

just got a letter off amber stating they have made mistake so payment back to £911 - good job i challenged this!!!!

thanks everyone xx