Website: Standard Life
Phone: 0845 845 8450
A broad Standard Life mortgage offering with clear and fair terms, all offering flexible payments. Not much use for bad credit cases, but some original products for standard clients which may be interesting.
Standard Life are better known for pensions, but don't let that put you off- their banking division has lots of good mortgage ideas up its sleeve. All the products on offer are flexible (take a break or overpay if you want) and if you have a Standard Life bank account, you can benefit from offsetting too.
There is a wide range of Standard Life mortgage products on offer, including the usual discounted, fixed and buy-to-let options. A cash reserve mortgage is also available if you want to free up equity for other uses. But there are some clever additions. Firstly, you can choose to split your mortgage between fixed and discounted variable rates- this allows you to hedge your bets on interest rates. There's also a "regular bonus" product, effectively a loyalty scheme, which rewards you 1% of the outstanding balance every two years, directly off the borrowed sum.
Standard Life mortgage fees are moderate, with arrangement fees between £150 and £400, and there's no obligation to take out insurances with the company. Early redemption fees are fairly high (up to eight months gross interest, depending on the product). The site is exceptionally clear and easy to use, and this should be a benchmark port of call.
