A survey by the UK’s leading authority on mortgage and savings rates looked at a rate comparison of the UK’s top 25 high street lenders with the total annual interest repayment on a £50,000 long term variable rate mortgage over the year to the end of September 2001.
The results revealed an HSBC borrower with a typical £50,000 interest only mortgage paid £496 less in interest over the last year than borrowers with Halifax, and £80 less than borrowers with Nationwide Building Society.
Last year, the wholly-owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc, the world’s largest banking and financial services organisation introduced the HSBC Home Buyer mortgage by cutting interest rates by nearly 1 per cent and pledged it would never charge more than 1 per cent over the Bank of England base rate.
HSBC also automatically switched any borrower who would be better off on the new terms to the new mortgage benefiting over 100,000 existing customers.
Melanie Stewart, mortgage editor at Moneyfacts, said that HSBC’s new policy appears to be aimed at looking after existing borrowers rather than chasing new business with headline rates.
Clive Wood, head of banking & mortgages at HSBC, said: “HSBC has led the mortgage industry by cutting interest rates and delivering long-term value.”
“We are delighted that figures from Moneyfacts show we have offered the best value variable rate mortgages from any of the UK’s top 25 high street lenders.”
