OUR £15K LOAN FOR A WARMER HOME

JANICE and Steve Macleod installed a new energy-efficient air source heat pump last month using a deal from Nationwide.

Janice, 59, who works at her local NHS hospital, says: ‘We wanted to cut our heating costs and after our daughter bought a new-build home with a similar heating system we decided to investigate for ourselves – we were so impressed by its warmth.’

The pump extracts heat from outside air, even in cold weather.

However, at £17,000, it was an expensive outlay. The couple, from Fort William in Scotland, took out a £15,550 Green Additional Borrowing loan with Nationwide, with a rate of 0.75 per cent a year over five years.

‘The rate was so low it was crazy not to take it up. It’s only costing us around £300 in interest over five years,’ Janice adds.

The loan is substantially lower than their main mortgage with the lender, which is fixed at 2.7 per cent a year.