There has been a lot of talk recently about how mortgage arrangement fees have been going up, with some hitting nearly £2,000. What about an arrangement fee that is nearly £10,000? That is the fee Abbey will charge for its larger mortgages. Industry watchers say this is the first fixed fee to reach nearly five figures. Percentage-based fees have had the capability of reaching big numbers of course.

Most high street mortgage lenders provide mortgages up to £250,000, but this fee is applied to loans of between £500,000 and £750,000 with an interest rate fixed at 5.59% for two years.

James Cotton of broker London & Country said the fee would seem “ridiculously big” to most borrowers. However, Nici Audhlam-Gardiner, head of mortgages at Abbey, said the fee was acceptable, and that the money would be used to offset the cost of arranging the mortgage and enabling them to offer customers a choice.

Higher fees are increasingly added to mortgages with low interest rates which enable lenders to keep their secured loans high in comparison charts. Borrowers have to keep a close eye on all charges involved in mortgages – not just on the headline interest rates.

Other mortgage lenders charge 2% fees on loans over £500,000, which would make for charges of £10,000 and over. For example, Halifax is offering a 5.59% two-year fixed rate mortgage with a 2% over £500,000. On a £750,000 loan the fee would be £15,000. This makes the fixed Abbey fee seem very competitive.

Cotton said: “Borrowers have to do their sums and check that the rate and fee together offer good value. If you are after a big mortgage, don’t just assume you have to pay a huge fee.”

A spokesman for Halifax said: “For some loans, a fixed percentage arrangement fee is much better than a set arrangement fee.”

HSBC is one of the world’s leading banks and it has been well known for its huge credit card business. However, it has recently just sold part of its credit card business, including “Marbles” the well known credit card loved by many consumers.

The business has been sold to SAV Credit and it was sold for an impressive £385 million. The move will affect over 300,000 consumer accounts and whether it proves to be a popular decision will remain to be seen.

The reason given for the sale of these credit cards is that HSBC has actually developed its own branded card business recently. The Marbles credit card was said to be non-core and so HSBC did not see the need to keep it as well as their other cards.

It is not a huge shock to consumers however as Marbles has not been accepting any new business since April 2007. It has been losing out to more competitive credit cards and so to HSBC it was simply time to move things along.

The Marbles credit card continually had some market leading offers, which included 0% balance transfers and cash back.

Overall consumers do have mixed reactions to their accounts being sold on. On the one hand they are angry and worried about the changes which may occur. However there are some consumers who are also happy with the move and they feel it will bring positive changes as SAV Credit are a smaller company and they may have more time to develop the card into something better.

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