There Are 10 Responses So Far. »

1. 

   Comment by Melvyn Hiles on 20 August 2008:

   I must correct your first sentence. Redstone are NOT a lender. I am unfortunate enough to have a “mortgage” with Redstone. The actual “lender” (originator) was Beacon Homeloans, who put up the money and immediately passed the mortgage on the day of completion to Redstone without informing me. Redstone are merely a shell company who hold the portfolios and collect the monthly repayments. This income is then passed on to their overseas investors. Redstone will not even try to help you if you fall into difficulties with your repayments, they are not set up to do so and will apply for repossession at the first sign of any problem. I would advise anyone to not even consider using this type of company. It is not worth it.
2. 

   Comment by Sarah Smith on 1 September 2008:

   I am in a similar situation, my fixed rate is now due to end and they are charging me 9% which will put my monthly paymnt from £440 to £722. They will not help me even though I have sent them my expenditure and income details

   Sarah
3. 

   Comment by Donna G on 3 September 2008:

   I too fell into the trap of having a Morgage with Redstone. I was Originally offered a low rate mortgage from Beacon Homeloans and the debt was passed to Redstone. ARE THEY ALLOWD TO DO THAT? sounds a bit fishy to me! I havent had any problems so far but after googling them a few times I found some bad stories about people who have borrowed from them before.

   I guess I’m gonna have to hope I never get myself into difficulties and re-mortgage at the end of the two year fixed rate deal with another company!! EEEEK!!
4. 

   Comment by Rachel B. on 25 September 2008:

   I recently transferred my mortgage to Beacon Homeloans…then suddenly it was with Redstone Mortgages without any notification (as per Donna G’s comment above). In June 2008 I received a letter from Redstone saying that they had miscalculated their interest payments and it would change after the fixed term expires. No figures supplied. I e-mailed asking for written details. 4 weeks later no response from their Director of Mortgage Administration - Arlene Rutter. Unable to get answers via their telephone number either (a call centre in Northern Ireland). I will be pursuing this…
5. 

   Comment by BTGNow.net on 3 October 2008:

   Thanks for the link! If you’re interested in interest rates, you may also want to check out my Inflation article, which you can find here: http://www.btgnow.net/2008/07/inflation-silent-but-deadly-part-1-inflation-and-the-cpi/

   =Shudder= Whole lot of scary stories here in the comments! Good luck to you all!

   You’re absolutely right that consumers should never extend themselves, but this can be problematic on their end: how should they know how much house they can afford? One of the problems with the whole sub-prime crisis was the predatory lenders bending the rules and using some very creative methods to show people that yes, you can in fact afford that 300k house working for minimum wage here’s the math.

   Common sense can only go so far for the consumer, at some point we have to make sure the experts we work with are trustworthy, credible, and regulated (ohhh I went there!).

   The last thing i will comment on is the “need” to get a foot on the ladder. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but I hope that the sub-prime crisis reinforces one thing: owning property is not a right. everyone has a right to a place to live, but some people may never be able to own their place of dwelling outright. It’s not fun to tell people this, but I think it’s something we have to take a serious looks at: either we’re serious as a society about helping the poor own their own homes safely, or we’re not. We’re uncomfortably in the latter situation, but hopefully soon we can move to the former.
6. 

   Comment by TaffR on 6 October 2008:

   Redstone are indeed an SPV set up only to collect (administer only) the mortgage which is now wrapped (locked) up on a portfolio or mortgages, rated by S & P (the credit crunch starts as house prices devalue).

   Beacon sold on your mortgage as you signed to allow them to do so….see the transfer or sell clause…. this only occurs in sub prime loans allowed by HM Treasury/FSA/CML.

   FSA rules allow them to sell on your mortgage.

   Beacon are one of many ‘lenders’ out there but in fact they are ‘orginators’ only with the full aim of selling on or meeting investors portfilio needs.

   HML in Skiptom administer the loans but are a debt collection only entity as the mortgage cannot be changed, amended or modified or unbundled from the portfolio and so therefore do not employ mortgage advisors which are required to make any new deal or allow arrears of any kind.

   They all play a lip service in this new tier of mortgage market placed upon us to give us all the impression (via letter heads etc) that they are traditional mortgage lenders, such as you have in the high street market.

   This means that Gordon Brown as Chancellor knew about this new mortgage market and the Treaury/FSA permited its clandestine approach to selling. Through the Freedom of Information Act we secured information on all commercial entities involved in the formation of the FSA for securitised mortgages and in these documents in fully stated that they convinced the Treasury NOT to tell the public about the sub prime financial instrument.

   All major banks were allowed to invest and set up SPV’s (Special Purpose Vehicle) to hold these mortgages off-balance sheet so that their savers would never know where their monies were being invested in.

   Repossession being the last resort therefore is not true or can be complied with as it goes agaisnt the investors interests and as others in the portfolio default on thier mortgages the portfolio value goes down.

   It makes a mockery of the above and where politicians today advise borrowers to seek advice from lenders when facing any possible repayment difficulties does not work in these markets and the contrary, it alerts them to take legal recourse only.

   They will repossess on arrears even though you have restarted payments and the courts cannot do anything about it.

   CAB, Shelter and others are all unaware of how this market works and everything relies heavily on the ignorance of borrowers, legal and charities.

   They have distorted the term ‘lender’ and very few knew this and before the credit crunch terms such as sub prime were relatively unknown.

   Gordon Brown boasted in parliament how his party has enabled 2.5m more people to own their homes but not today.

   It is not just to the adverse (which was the orginal intention) that these so called lenders provided mortgages to but also to the prime borrowers as banks restricted their credit more strictly to people to push them into this market where their earnings were greater as competition on the High St didnt allow for acceptable margins. They knew they could pick up these mortgages by the back door without any reputational hit and off-balance sheet too!!

   Make no mistake….labour allowed these predatory lenders into the UK market and turned a blind eye to thier activities.

   As long as there was equity in the property they would sell a subprime loan and it is a debt only not a mortgage.
7. 

   Comment by Audra Denton on 11 October 2008:

   Keep away from Redstone. they have repossessed me once and are trying again.
   They have ruined my life completely and are trying again.

   I dont know where to turn I am a single mother of two and they prey on the vulnerable.

   they are seeking a repossession once they have heard I am trying to refinance elsewhere.

   No matter what Keep away fro Redstone Mortgages. I will be contacting the FSA as soon as possible.
8. 

   Comment by Claire J on 30 October 2008:

   I to have a mortgage with Redstone and am in a similar situation. My partner and I agreed a mortgage with Beacon in 2006 which on the day of completion was sold on to Redstone. Since then they have started repossesion proceedings on us 4 times and are in the process of taking us to court again (hearing is 24th Nov). During these long 2 years we have had nothing but problems. Payments not being credited to our account, being charged for arrears we don’t have, being charged £100s for a debt councellor who never visited the list goes on. Redstone were fully aware that we had sold our house and were due to complete at the end of October. When questioned over why they had done this again they informed me that I had one month arrears and it was “their right” they then hung up on me. We have since paid the months arrears but unfortunatly our buyers pulled out so we are now chasing tails trying to find another £720 before Friday. We have submitted a complaint to the FSA so i guess it’s a case of trying to hang in there!
9. 

   Comment by tony on 8 November 2008:

   That all sounds a right nightmare, i was going to ask for a payment break in December but now i am not sure if i should or if they even do. Does anybody know!!
10. 

    Comment by Dee on 4 December 2008:

    I was foudn a mortgage through my broker whom we had always been very satisfied with before. They said my mortgage was with Beacon Home Loans. Then, before you knew it, suddenly, they shoved it across to Redstone Mortgages whom no one had really heard of.
    I had the circumstances of being made redundant in feb 08, fund a new job in aril o8 came to an end in mid may 08 9temporary work), found a new job june’8 and it ended through a bad boss - discrimination etc, in mid-july ‘08. Found my current job in Sept’8 and going well so far!
    Redstone were not very helful or compasionate. Still paying off one month’s payment and my regular current monthly payment.
    Keep clear - not a nice company.

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