Nationwide hikes tracker rates
Tuesday, 22 Jan 2008 10:12
High costs of funding have forced Nationwide to hike the rates on its tracker mortgages.
The building society announced, as of tomorrow, it will raise the rates on all new trackers for loans on house purchases.
Its two-year tracker with £599 fee will be available at a rate of 5.68 per cent, up from 5.58 per cent.
Meanwhile the rate on its two-year tracker with no fee has gone up from 5.98 per cent to 6.08 per cent and the two-year £1,499 fee product will see its rate hiked from 5.48 per cent to 5.53 per cent.
Nationwide's Lifetime tracker, which also comes with no fee, will undergo a rate rise from 5.74 per cent to 5.89 per cent.
It has also raised the rates on these products for customers who are remortgaging or who require additional borrowing.
Matthew Carter, divisional director for mortgages at Nationwide, said with costs of funding currently so high it had "found it necessary" to follow other lenders who had recently increased rates.
Mr Carter said its products still remained competitive. "All our tracker mortgages also offer the facility to switch and fix from a tracker mortgage to a fixed rate deal at any time, without incurring early repayment charges, offering borrowers extra flexibility should their personal circumstances change," he said.
Nationwide said its fixed rates remained unchanged. The new rates on trackers are available from Wednesday January 23rd and the building society will withdraw all current products at the end of today.