Information for Members - Changes to the Bank Base Rate
In response to the Bank of England’s decision to reduce bank base rate by 0.50% on the 13th March 2020 and 0.15% on the 19th March 2020, the Society is pleased to announce that it will pass on the reduction in full to our Mortgage Standard Variable Rate (SVR). Therefore, with effect from 1st May 2020 the Society’s SVR will reduce by 0.65% to 5.30%.
In practical terms, what does this mean for customers who have a current mortgage or are in the process of applying for one?
Discounted Mortgage
Please refer to your individual mortgage offer for full details. Our Discounted rate mortgages, although linked to the Society’s SVR have ‘interest rate floors’. A ‘floor’ is the minimum interest rate that will be charged which means that the full SVR reduction may not be seen on your account. If you have any queries, please email customersupport@darlington.co.uk inputting “Discount Mortgage” in the subject header and quoting your name and eight digit account number in the email, and we will respond to you as soon as possible.
Fixed Rate Mortgages
For those borrowers already locked in to a fixed rate product, your payment won’t change, as this is the very nature of a fixed rate mortgage, your interest rate is fixed for a set period of time.
Tracker Rate Mortgage
For those borrowers and savers who have a product directly linked to bank base rate, your interest rate will change the 1st of the month following the announcement from the Bank of England. In line with the terms and conditions, the rate on our tracker rate mortgage will reduce by 0.65% on 1st April 2020.
Rest assured we are working hard to continue business as usual but due to current unprecedented operating conditions, we have been informed that physical mortgage valuations have been suspended until further notice. This means that producing your mortgage offer will take a little longer than usual. However, we will continue to process your mortgage application as normal and all underwriting approvals will be subject to a satisfactory mortgage valuation being received before a mortgage offer can be issued. Additionally, we are exploring alternative valuation methods where appropriate such as Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) and will keep you updated with our progress.
We thank you for your continued support.