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Virgin Money Increasing rates with a few hours notice

Journalist: Justin Moy, Contributing Editor

ended 22. February 2024

Virgin Money are the latest high street lender to announce increases to many fixed rates from tomorrow (23rd February).

With just a few hours' notice given, it feels like we have been here before, with panic decisions needed to secure rates.

We asked Newspage brokers to give us a few words about how 2024 is turning into 2023 before their eyes.

10 responses from the Newspage community

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Rohit Kohli
Director at The Mortgage Stop
Another lender moving with the herd and hiking its rates up. Its also really dissapointing Virgin have found it ok to only provide four hours notice for these changes. There can be no valid reason for given all the conversations that happened in 2023 about acceptable notice periods.
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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
Here we go again, lenders giving borrowers and brokers a few hours to secure deals before rates increase, creating havoc for everyone, just like in 2023. These are small increases announced by Virgin Money, but we have quickly gone back into last year's tactics with last-minute changes. Lenders, please give us at least 24 hours' notice, so we can give proper advice.
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Ken James
Director at Contractor Mortgage Services
2024 has stepped into quicksand and we are dissapearing deeper and deeper into the abyss. How can it be right that a lender gives 4 hours notice, clients will be working and mortgage brokers may have commitments that they cannot change. This has to change ! for our mental well being lenders have to stop putting us in the fireing line with clients.
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Katy Eatenton
Mortgage & Protection Specialist at Eatenton Finance
It feels like Groundhog Day.. We have only just recovered from the stresses of last minute changes and rates being pulled. The confidence in the property market had returned, with buyers actively looking to purchase, remortgages coming back, rather than just PT's and 2024 feeling like we could return to pre Truss-gate, yet within a week we are getting little to no notice of rate changes. In times when the FCA is focussing on Consumer Duty and brokers doing the right thing for borrowers, lenders seems to be a law unto themselves.
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Ben Perks
Managing Director at Orchard Financial Advisers
Another lender increasing rates and pulling products with very little notice.
Giving brokers just 4 hours to secure a rate for clients leaves a very bitter taste.
With Swap rates taking a steep upward curve today, I think we will have several more lenders that will take sudden action and pull rates before the week is out.
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Craig Fish
Director at Lodestone Mortgages
Really Virgin? Your changes are marginal yet you can only give 4 hours noice. Coventry manage to give 48 for much bigger changes so why cant you. Its about time that something was done to stop this ridiculous and quite franky unethical behaviour.
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Elliott Culley
Director at Switch Mortgage Finance
Its fully understandable that rates need to be changed in accordance with market volatility, but it would be better for all involved in the mortgage process to be given more notice. This will ensurethe borrower enough time to make a decision and the opportunity for brokers to have these conversation with clients in a less frenetic environment.
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Gary Boakes
Director at Verve Financial
After spending 3 hours in a queue to just get onto the HSBC system after their price increase announcement today, it is good to see that Virgin are not giving brokers and clients time to submit any business with them today.
This is a prime example of lenders panicking that other lenders have increased rates, we don't have the capacity or funding to be top of the pricing charts so need to increase rates to ensure they are not overwhelmed with business.
From a business perspective i understand, but where is the fairness to the customers in what is already a challenging time.
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Gareth Davies
Director at South Coast Mortgage Services
With a total of 4hrs and 8-mins notice to get applications in. With their 20th century system it pretty much takes that long just to login.
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Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
Virgin Money gets caught nodding off as they increase their mortgage rates when the largest mortgage lender in the UK, Halifax, reduces theirs. We thank the guru's at Halifax for their initiative.