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Northern Rock – encouraging new savers whilst discouraging new borrowers

As the Northern Rock situation continues to dominate much of the media and with changes across a number of their products this week, we thought a brief update might be of some help.

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• Savings: Rate increased from 6.30% to 6.49%.
• Savings: Rate increased from 6.31% to 6.49%. Bonus for 12 months also increased from 1.06% to 1.24%.
• Credit cards: Co-operative Bank backed Northern Rock Base Rate Visa will be withdrawn from sale to new customers.
• Loans: Northern Rock funded Eskimo Loans was withdrawn
• Loans: Northern Rock loan rates increased on 23.11 by 2% to 10.9% APR
• Mortgages: All 5-year 'Together' fixed rate mortgages withdrawn.
• Mortgages: 2 year 'Together' fixed rate mortgages withdrawn & replaced with rates increased by 0.30%.

The increases to Northern Rock's leading savings products today, including taking the top spot in the over 50s best buy charts with its Silver Saver Online, are a clear sign they are keen to win back some much needed savings balances. With so many competitive savings products available, it will be interesting to see if these latest rate rises are sufficient enough to lure savers back to Northern Rock.

On the other hand, the withdrawal from the credit card market, withdrawal of Eskimo loans and the increased rates on the Northern Rock loans would appear to indicate a reduced appetite for lending on an unsecured basis. While Northern Rock is not alone in the loans market, the withdrawal of its credit card to new borrowers, aside from the market wide increasing of fees, is the first sign of the credit crunch affecting this market.

Even Northern Rock's secured lending has seen a tightening of criteria and is currently bucking the market trend by increasing fixed rates.

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