Halifax - sly, rude etc...

woody252506

Has anyone else had bad experiences with the Halifax Estate Agents / Mortgage advisors?

Me and the other half are in the process of offering on a repo which is for sale with the Halifax.

We put our offer in late last week over the phone. We were told that we would have to go into see them personally to go over a "few checks" as it was been sold on behalf of a bank as it was a repo. Been FTB we went along with this and went to our appointment the day after.

It turns out that the only reason they wanted us in was to see their mortgage person in order for them to try and persuade us to use them as opposed to Natwest who we have our agreement in principal with. The monthly payment turned out to be almost the same bar a couple of pounds but the only bonus with the Halifax would be that we would save about £400 over the first year because of their half price council tax promotion.

Me and the gf were very angry that they had wasted our time by doing this and refused what they were offering and said we were happy with what service the Natwest had given us and we were sticking with that. The attitude of the woman was rude and she simply replied "oh, so your not wanting half your council tax paid" then promptly walked out to photocopy our AIP with Natwest.

She was then very rude in pointing out that with it been a repo, if our offer was accepted, Natwest would have to be quick to get things sorted. I would go as far as saying she was angling towards the view that us taking out mortgage with Halifax would mean they would be quick with things on both sides, but with anyone else they might well not be as willing to be quick in helping us get everything done in the 28 day period.

We could have gone along with the Halifax and saved a few quid over the first year but their approach and sneeky way of dealing with us means I have no trust towards them at all. Why couldnt they have done this over the phone when we first offered and not lied to us? Its made me very angry, especially given that they are probably in the worst position of all banks in terms of whats happened over the last year!:mad:

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

thriftymomma

Bit of a cheeky shot. But I suppose they are still after trying to make money. Sounds like you got a member of staff who could do with a few more interpersonal skills.
Take pleasure in the fact that she probably felt her time had been wasted also! LOL

_Andy_

Why not go with Halifax direct?

opinions4u

A selling estate agent does have to verify that a potential purchaser has the means to finance the purchase.

That said, any implication that you should raise your mortgage finance through them, in order to get your offer accepted is treading pretty close to being illegal.

At the end of the day, people buy from people. If the adviser you saw convinced you not to trust her, go elsewhere!

betmunch

I would be happy that she offered to save me £400!!!

However, implying that you would have a better chance of getting the house if you used her services is not on.

IMHO NatWest will be fine with the timescale for a repo

Cheers

nw_man

Get real people, most estate agents imply that by getting the mortgage from them, somehow the sales process will be better / smoother.

Been happening forever.

They are just more desperate right now.

Sammy85_2

My OH had a similar problem with a local estate agents a few years ago.

He was purchasing his first house. The agents refused to put his offer forward until he had seen their mortgage advisor, despite having a mortgage offer already from his bank.

He went to the appointment only for the advisor to look at his pay slips and ask why he needed to see him. My OH said he wasnt sure and the advisor was pretty annoyed about the agents wasting his time. His finances were excellent and he only needed just over 1x his earnings to buy the house.

Admittedly it was more a case of the agents not believing a 19yr old could afford the house, but they were rude about it and the written offer from the bank should have been sufficient to satisfy them.

I suspect they were hoping to get him on a mortgage through their advisor.

We're having to deal with the same agents now for the purchase of our new house, they're still just as bad.

woody252506

thriftymomma wrote: »

Bit of a cheeky shot. But I suppose they are still after trying to make money. Sounds like you got a member of staff who could do with a few more interpersonal skills.
Take pleasure in the fact that she probably felt her time had been wasted also! LOL

We did take some pleasure as we interupted her dinner, still it angers me that we had a wasted Saturday as we couldnt really do anything as the appointment was half way through the afternoon.

We offered on it a few months back, 25k under the asking price at the time and they were also rude then saying we would have to go much higher to get an offer accepted. They pretty much laughed at our offer at the time.

Now its dropped over 15k so is in the price range we offered at in the first place

Conrad

Natwest I have found to be highly inefficient and slow. Of course thats not to say the odd case will sail through quickly.

They are part of RBS, the lender at the eye of the credit crunch storm.
Halifax as an example do not ask fro Bank statements as a prerequisite, whereas the RBS group do, because they want to scrutinise them. An AIP is virtually worthless.

Booradley_2

Sales and marketing. Is anything more insidious.
I went to move my isa last week and they want to talk to me about house/car/life/travel insurances, mortgages, loans, shares etc, etc.
Any salesperson gets your details expect a call and a hard sell.

Boo


Boo

TEDDYRUKSPIN

Come on......... this world is run on money. Sales people need to make a sale. If they did not do this, all these companies will close down.

Go to asda and when you hit the check out, they always put the sweets there!!! Why? Whilst you buy the kids will moan and you will buy them!

Halifax? The advisor probably knew they had a cheaper or similar product. Attitude would be why should we allow another competitor to grab the money they could make?

This is normal.

The only abnormal thing is that the attitude of the Halifax estate agent is rubbish!!!! You did not buy into her due to her poor attitude, making you dislike her. To be honest, you made up your mind when you knew she was trying to sell you something.