Dunfermline mortgage customers locked out of Nationwide offers
Dunfermline Building society customers are not being allowed access to lower rate Nationwide deals.
After the UK's largest building society stepped in to rescue Scotland's largest when its losses become too large, members of Dunfermline are yet to receive the benefits.
When Nationwide fixed-rate mortgage customers come off their existing deal they currently go on to the lender's base mortgage rate (BMR) that stands at 2.5 per cent.
Meanwhile Dunfermline customers face an equivalent standard variable rate (SVR) of 5.19 per cent.
Stewart Hosie MP, Treasury spokesperson for the Scottish National Party, stated: "The Dunfermline deal has been sold by the government as the best deal for customers and workers, but that is already unravelling.
"While I welcome the fact that Nationwide customers will benefit from this new rate, why should Dunfermline customers be treated differently.
"It is clear Nationwide have taken on the mortgages only to rip customers off."
He added: "Nationwide have taken over the best parts of the Dunfermline business, and is even being guaranteed taxpayers' money to pay for the takeover - the least we should expect is an even handed approach."
Tricia Marwick, member of the SNP member of the Scottish parliament for Central Fife, said: "This is an outrageous move by the Nationwide.
"Mortgage holders with the Dunfermline will be very angry. When mortgage deals come to an end they should have access to the best deal in what is now one society.
"Retaining the Dunfermline brand is important, but that should not mean Dunfermline savers and borrowers suffer."
When Nationwide took over Derbyshire and Cheshire building societies, arrangements were put in place that when a customer's fixed rate mortgage expired, they moved on to a standard variable rate that mirrored the Nationwide BMR.
However, Nationwide maintains the deal to take over Dunfermline was quite different from the Cheshire and Derbyshire mergers.
Charlotte Sjoberg, nationwide spokesperson, said: "The BMR is only available for existing nationwide customers, and Dunfermline customers are not really existing customers.
"We have agreed to honour existing rates at Dunfermline and they will remain unchanged."
She added customers were not worse off because of the deal and had the mortgages they had signed up to.
Ms Sjoberg added the deals to merge with Cheshire and Derbyshire were negotiated over a number of months but the deal to take over Dunfermline, which was essentially nationalised at the time, was "only viable" with the current rates in place.
Dunfermline has confirmed the building society's SVR was not going to match Nationwide's.
A spokesperson said: "Dunfermline Building society SVR is currently 5.19 per cent and there are no plans to harmonise this with Nationwide BMR.
"This is the rate that Dunfermline Building Society's customers have been paying and the rate their customers would have been expecting to continue with had Dunfermline Building Society continued as an independent entity."
She confirmed the transaction is only viable if the Nationwide remain with the current product and pricing proposition.
"If the Nationwide brought SVRs into alignment, it would have made it impractical for them to complete the transaction on a cost effective basis."
She added Nationwide was running Dunfermline Building Society very much as a separate business.
"They we will honour existing savings and mortgage rates at Dunfermline Building Society and they will remain unchanged," she said.
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