Impact of Intelligent Finance closing for mortgages??

marshallka

We have had a letter today from Intelligent Finance to say

As from 1st October, 2009 when you move home you'll no longer be able to increase your mortgage with us if you are taking your intelligent finance mortgage with you. If you are considering moving home and want to increase your mortgage loan, we have put in place a range of alternative mortgage products with "Scottish Widows Bank". If you are within your special rate period you can apply for one of these alternative products and there will be no early repayment charge.....

BUT Subject to Scottish Widows lending criteria

which is






We look at each case individually rather than sticking to any strict formula. And we also take into consideration whether you can afford the monthly repayments. But as a general guideline you could borrow:

• Single applicants - 3.5 times your basic salary
• Joint applicants - 2.75 times your combined basic annual salaries, or 3.5 times the higher basic annual salary plus the full amount of the lower
• Self-employed – typically we will lend you 3.5 times your net annual earnings, and it is also likely that we will request some information from your accountant.

Now "intelligent finance did a LARGE loan for us which was based on "affordability" and not basic salary and i think we are now very stuck.

Then from 1st April, 2010 you will no longer be able to

Apply for additional borrowing on your mortgage
Switch your mortgage to another intelligent finance mortgage product
take you mortgage with you if you move home.

If you want to borrow more money or transfer to another mortgage product after this date you can choose to remortgage to one of the alternative products (subject to scottish widows lending criteria) we've put in place with Scottish widows from 1st October, 2009. If you remortgage to one of these alternative products and you're still within your special rate period, we won't apply the early repayment charge and we will also pay our legal and valuation costs.




Now this is all fair well and done but the lending criteria are VERY different?? Also their loan to values are 75% maximum and ours is much higher.

As of April 2010 people are stuck with IF and their SVR by the sounds of it or move to somewhere else and there are not many lenders who actually loan as much as IF. I am totally confused? Surely now we are at a disadvantage with only having limited choice. Some cannot move to a Scottish Widows Product (their lending criteria is SO VERY different and LTV is 75% and we have a lot more), cannot loan anymore money (although we do not want to), and cannot move home without changing to either Scottish Widows (but they would not let us loan anywhere near what IF have done) or going elsewhere and paying a penalty.

We are on a tracker with them at the moment and at the moment a good deal but then when we come out of that one are we stuck? Who else does these large mortgages.... I almost wish we had never done this in the first place. We have always struggled.

psoley

You say you people 'stuck with IF and their SVR', this is what was agreed and signed into at the start of the mortgage. I think stuck is the wrong word. Maybe you should say:

'As of April 2010 people will move onto the SVR at the end of their fixed term (as stated in key facts and offer). If their circumstances allow they can opt to change mortgage providers'

marshallka

psoley wrote: »

You say you people 'stuck with IF and their SVR', this is what was agreed and signed into at the start of the mortgage. I think stuck is the wrong word. Maybe you should say:

'As of April 2010 people will move onto the SVR at the end of their fixed term (as stated in key facts and offer). If their circumstances allow they can opt to change mortgage providers'

That is what I also asked. What other mortgage provider does a wage to loan ratio of about 5+ times salary (cause that is what ours works out at) and also a LTV of 95%. Did we loan too much in the beginning I am thinking now as all we did was give IF our wage slips and P60's and they gave us a maximum loan. Could they now put their SVR up to whatever they liked. I am sorry I don't understand exactly how these things work.

psoley

marshallka wrote: »

That is what I also asked. What other mortgage provider does a wage to loan ratio of about 5+ times salary (cause that is what ours works out at) and also a LTV of 95%. Did we loan too much in the beginning I am thinking now as all we did was give IF our wage slips and P60's and they gave us a maximum loan. Could they now put their SVR up to whatever they liked. I am sorry I don't understand exactly how these things work.

Apologies for not understanding your entire post. I am no expert but have recenlty investigated the mortgage market as have just bought.
In the present climate I think there would little chance of a 95% mortgage with a 5x multiplier, but I do not know your full circumstances.
It maybe best to speak to a whole of the market broker to understand your options.

marshallka

psoley wrote: »

Apologies for not understanding your entire post. I am no expert but have recenlty investigated the mortgage market as have just bought.
In the present climate I think there would little chance of a 95% mortgage with a 5x multiplier, but I do not know your full circumstances.
It maybe best to speak to a whole of the market broker to understand your options.

Thanks for understanding. IF just seemed to reel you in then get you "stuck" with no way of escape as i see it. I have called them and the man I spoke to actually understood my predicament and has told me to call back after 1st October, 2009 when they should have all the terms of the new mortgages on offer from Scottish Widows but he did seem to think that the new mortgages would not meet anything like the criteria of their old mortgages too. He did say that this had been dealt with legally and that it should not disadvantage anyone but could see where I was coming from:rolleyes:. I feel we were loaned FAR too much money to begin with and that is why we never seem to get on our feet. We were always happy with IF and their deals but now they are not doing any deals to new customers and even old as of early next year.

Leon_W

Unfortunately it is just a sign of the times.

Yes, IF were VERY generous with their loan amounts but so too were many other lenders.

You'll find plenty of people "stuck" with the likes of Northern Rock, GMAC, Advantage, Birmingham Midshires, Abbey, Halifax etc etc all for various reasons. Tightened lending criteria, low or negative equity, change of job all effect what lenders are prepared to offer NOW as they don't live in the past.

There are growing hoards of people that will have to sit on the lenders standard variable rate and lump it I'm afraid.

Regards

roddydogs

Your original post gave me heart attack

---

i bank with them

marshallka

Leon_W wrote: »

Unfortunately it is just a sign of the times.

Yes, IF were VERY generous with their loan amounts but so too were many other lenders.

You'll find plenty of people "stuck" with the likes of Northern Rock, GMAC, Advantage, Birmingham Midshires, Abbey, Halifax etc etc all for various reasons. Tightened lending criteria, low or negative equity, change of job all effect what lenders are prepared to offer NOW as they don't live in the past.

There are growing hoards of people that will have to sit on the lenders standard variable rate and lump it I'm afraid.

Regards

I suppose you are right. They perhaps should have said "no can do" in the first place and then so many people would not be in the positions they are now in.

marshallka

roddydogs wrote: »

Your original post gave me heart attack

---

i bank with them

I have an offset mortgage but have never offset yet as we have nothing to offset.

ninky_2

marshallka wrote: »

That is what I also asked. What other mortgage provider does a wage to loan ratio of about 5+ times salary (cause that is what ours works out at) and also a LTV of 95%. Did we loan too much in the beginning I am thinking now as all we did was give IF our wage slips and P60's and they gave us a maximum loan. Could they now put their SVR up to whatever they liked. I am sorry I don't understand exactly how these things work.

none i suspect. do you have any equity in the property? did you buy the cheapest available property or the most expensive property you could afford as a result of the mortgage you could obtain?

if you have equity in the property and could find somewhere cheaper to live you could sell your current property and 'downsize' to something more affordable. this could potentially open more mortgage options to you as you would no longer be requesting such high income multiples.

what is the svr you will be going to? is it ridiculously high compared to other mortgages currently on the market?

Thrugelmir

IF , as well as Scottish Widows are all part of the LloydsHBos group.

Lloyds is under pressure to reduce its dominance in the UK mortgage market. To comply with the likely EEC ruling. its looking at selling off parts of the group.

With the fall in mortgage demand Lloyds doesn't need all the brands. Halifax, C&G, IF, Scottosh Widows etc.

3.5 times income is a reasonable mortgage multiple. More in line with historic lending rates. The days of 5 times are rapidly diminishing.