First direct mortgages - any feedback?

JPV

First time buyer considering First direct tracker mortgage - trying to decided between 1st direct or Abbey. Any opinions / feedback re which company is best to deal with?

maninthestreet

First Direct.

Rafter

First direct have a much better reputation than Abbey for customer service, but both HSBC and Santander (their parent companies) are very large international banks.

Just make sure when going for a tracker that you could easily afford payments if base rate was 5% higher than it is today - otherwise you should really be thinking about a fixed rate to give you some certainty, even though you will probably end up with a higher monthly payment in the short term.

Good luck

R.

zedonk1

I remortgaged with First Direct and they were excellent.

They text frequently to keep you informed - would recommend. :T

notisis

Zedonk1 can I ask how long remortgaging with FD took? Sent off all our wage slips etc a couple of weeks back and today received confirmation of 1st Account being opened. Does that mean a formal offer is on its way?

zedonk1

notisis wrote: »

Zedonk1 can I ask how long remortgaging with FD took? Sent off all our wage slips etc a couple of weeks back and today received confirmation of 1st Account being opened. Does that mean a formal offer is on its way?

Hi Notisis,

We already had a 1st Account with First Direct, so we didnt have to send our wage slips as they could see what was paid into the account (I think!). The formal offer arrived very quick.

Hope this helped!

JPV

Thanks repliers - 1st direct definitely best rate but as Abbey said they could complete mortgage process faster I had to get other info to back up the choice! That has helped, I will try to be patient with 1st direct!!

I asked several serive advisors at 1st direct why they are unable to email through mortgage 'key facts' illustrations - eg I had some of these from a broker the same day I spoke to him. 1st direct send in post and takes up to '5 working days'. I think that goes against the grain of the internet banking service they offer and is quite frankly behind the times. I am now waiting for my mortgage illustration and application form to arrive in the post - with a 4 day bank hol weekend looming!!

notisis

Thanks Zedonk. Hopefully this means an offer is on its way shortly!

maninthestreet

JPV wrote: »

Thanks repliers - 1st direct definitely best rate but as Abbey said they could complete mortgage process faster I had to get other info to back up the choice! That has helped, I will try to be patient with 1st direct!!

I asked several serive advisors at 1st direct why they are unable to email through mortgage 'key facts' illustrations - eg I had some of these from a broker the same day I spoke to him. 1st direct send in post and takes up to '5 working days'. I think that goes against the grain of the internet banking service they offer and is quite frankly behind the times. I am now waiting for my mortgage illustration and application form to arrive in the post - with a 4 day bank hol weekend looming!!

Maybe a way of confirming that you do live at the address you claim to live at???