My understanding is as BM are part of the HBOS group no collars will apply. They removed information about collars from the key facts documents a few years ago, in a bid to make them shorter. The Financial Services Authority, warned lenders recently that they risked breaking its rules if they applied collars that had not been drawn to customers' attention in the "key facts" mortgage documents.

As for rate cuts, my understanding is the 0.5% base rate cut will be passed on in Jan 09 and the 1.5% rate Feb 09, their explanation is: as mortgages are paid in arrears we need to give you 30 days notice if payment changes.

As for complaining to the FSA ..........you have to have exhausted the internal complaints procedure (BM) before lodging a complaint with the FSA. But on this particular subject, I doubt if you would have a complaint upheld.As for complaining to the FSA ..........you have to have exhausted the internal complaints procedure (BM) before lodging a complaint with the FSA. But on this particular subject, I doubt if you would have a complaint upheld.

Thank you mckens2. I'm glad somebody agrees with me. I am inclined to ask Martin Lewis about it.

We are in a similar position to the other posters re very slow pass through of rate cuts. We have a variety of B2L tracker mortgages with B&M at various dates in the month all of which are taking at least 60 days for rate cuts to come through. They are basically robbing all of us of at least 30 days interest without any justification for it.I have sent two e-mails of complaint about this , got nothing back. Trying to call is equally hopeless. The stuff about changing direct debits is a smokescreen, they already have everyone's DD details and can adjust payments at any time they choose.

I would also question the legality of their actions - our mortgages are clearly base rate trackers, not 'base rate when we can be bothereds'.

Is it advisable to complain to the Banking Ombudsman direct on this ?

Would appreciate any further thoughts from anyone.

I have one BM mortgage that has payments on the 18th and I'm expecting that to change from 18th December in respect of the 0.5% cut as that payment represents November interest and Jan 2009 for 1.5% cut. The rate change takes effect on the 1st of the month after the rate changes.

I haven't had written confirmation as yet of the payment change but am told letters are coming out now.

If your payment date had been between 1st - 8th of the month your payments won't change till Jan & Feb 2009 though.

I have a tracker with BM and I pay it on 13th of each month. My payment hasn't changed either, not the 0.5% or the 1.5%, so it looks like they're doing it to everybody. Is this legal since the tracker is supposed to follow the base rate not wait until it suits them to change the rate.

Something to watch out for is when your mortgage payment changes -

I've got two trackers with BM and its seems that if your payment date is between 1st - 8th of the month then your payment won't change for an extra month. BM say this is because they have to give 30 days notice of a DD change once the rate change takes effect, ie 1st November (-0.5%) and 1st December (-1.5%)

I'm still waiting for written confirmation of this but having spoken to 2 people at BM it appears that if your payment falls between 1st and 7th of the month like one of mine does then your payments won't go down in respect of the first 0.5% drop until 7th January 2009. This is even though the payment on 7th December relates to interest at the lower rate for November 2008.

It doesn't seem to make much sense to me but assuming that most people probably pay their mortgages during the first week of a month to coincide with payday its probably a nice way for BM to get some extra cashflow to invest for 30 days. If I'm still on trackers when the rates go back up I will definately be ensuring that BM follow the same practice.

To get around this call it might be worth asking BM to change your payment date to something like 10th of the month and do it quick so that you can get the effect of the 1.5% change during Jan 2009. However if you have already changed your payment date in the last 12 months you can't do it until the 12 months is up!

PS - According to my broker BM don't have a collar so at least the rates will continue to follow the base rate to whatever the base rate does.

PPS - What happens if your tracker rate should effectively goes below zero?

Just checked a few offers that are based on Buy to Let tracker rates and there is not a collar. This should pertain to a residential tracker also but check your offer documents where it describes the rate applied. It is important to realise that individual products that have collars were initially cheaper to arrange and had lower arrangement fees so are not necessarily worse financially than no collar trackers with much higher fees. What is interesting here is that the huge drop was to encourage lenders to reduce their rates and make re-mortgaging easier for customers. In light of the problems arising from lenders dragging their feet by not following the Bank of England we may not see the projected 1%. The recent posts on the forum are in relation to your question and I understand your concerns but if we all knew what was going to happen we would have fixed our mortgages over 5-10 years a couple of years ago?? Banks have caused this problem and the government should take this on board and start getting tougher on banks especially Northern Rock, who at the moment are setting the worst example for treating customers fairly.

Do Birmingham Midshires have a collar on their tracker mortgages?