Mercantile Building Society was founded in North Shields in 1875. Today it has a network of 12 branches and 7 agencies throughout Northumberland, Tyne & Wear and County Durham. Mercantile is a mutual society with no shareholders to pay dividends to. It is committed to remaining mutual and helping people to save, invest and buy homes.
Mercantile presents a mortgage guide explaining the issues you should consider when you take out a mortgage. Issues such as which product to choose, how much you can borrow and the various repayment methods it offers. It also details the costs involved in taking out a mortgage other than the actual loan itself. Mercantile will lend up to 75% of the property value outside the North of England.
Mercantile have these types of mortgage:
Fixed Rate
Discount Rate
Buy to Let
Their Fixed rate mortgage is set for a period of 3 or 5 years. Arrangement and completion fees are applicable. After the fixed period your mortgage will convert to Mercantile’s standard variable rate. Interest is calculated on a daily and not annual basis. Mercantile’s fixed rate mortgages have different early repayment charges. For the fixed rate mortgage your repayments are constant for the specified period so your repayments will not change even if interest rates rise.
Discount rate mortgages are available on a 3 and 5 year basis. The rate of interest you will pay is lower for an agreed period of time. For the remainder of the mortgage term the rate charged is at their standard variable rate. This type of mortgage means that you can make lower payments in the early years of your mortgage. Early repayment charges are applicable.
Mercantile also offer a lifetime discount mortgage, for which your mortgage is set at a permanently low rate but it cannot be transferred to another lender.
The interest rate of Mercantile’s Buy to Let mortgage tracks the Bank of England base rate for a three year period. For the rest of the mortgage term the rate is set at the Mercantile’s standard variable rate. Interest is charged on annual basis.