Double or quits in mortgage war

James Crosby, the chief executive of the Halifax, cut a Churchillian figure at the start of the "mortgage war" that began in February, when Halifax unilaterally cut its base rate by 0.75%. "The battle is now on for the hearts and minds of the consumer. It's a battle the Halifax is determined to win," he proclaimed.

But General Crosby appears not to have covered his flanks. Many hundreds of thousands of customers - Halifax has persistently refused to say how many - with discount deals were left attached to the old standard variable rate, and for them, Halifax's consumerist claims rang hollow.

In one of Jobs & Money's biggest ever postbags, directed not just at Halifax but also Nationwide and Abbey National, readers raged against what they saw as an unfair two-tier system.

The lenders argued that if they extended the new SVR deal to those people already enjoying discount deals, they would be giving them a "double bargain". It is a fair point. But angry customers saw it as a straightforward contractual issue; Halifax promised a discount off the SVR, and they couldn't just create a new SVR without offering it to all customers.

Halifax's lawyers pooh-poohed this point, but "consumer champions" shouldn't hide behind small print. This week the ombudsman lobbed a rather nasty grenade into the Halifax camp, which will force it (and an appeal is expected to fail) to compensate the discount holders. Halifax and Nationwide were right to take a consumerist line - but should have accepted all the costs that go with it, including, if necessary, a "double bargain" for some.