Advantage defended its position following several calls from brokers to Mortgage Solutions complaining of service issues. January’s rate rise saw many lenders rapidly re-price their ranges, which gave Advantage’s products, based on LIBOR as opposed to BBR, a competitive edge. The lender said this led to an increase of applications that it struggled to process.
Kate Huet, marketing director at Advantage, admitted there had been a delay in processing cases. “So many lenders pulled their rates very quickly, but we did not want to do that, “she said. “We went from around £20m a day to almost £100m. There is some delay in pipeline business, but we are doing everything we possibly can, and also letting every broker know when they can expect to hear from us.”
However, she refuted claims made by some brokers that the lender had given very little notice before pulling some of its exclusive products, and said: “We gave brokers a week’s notice we would be repricing our products, and then gave them until 28 February, and packagers until 14 March, to get their business in.”
She added: “We have now re-priced, and while our rates are still competitive we are not sitting half a basis point above everyone else in the market.”
In addition, West Bromwich has admitted it is experiencing problems with its intermediary website, which it has announced has been removed from service for “essential maintenance”. It gave no indication of when normal service would be resumed.
