Mortgage Advice for FTB

ashleypursglove

Hi All,

I have had an offer accepted on a property and need to get a full mortgage application asap.

I have shortlisted to 2 providers - Natwest and Nationwide. I was just wanting to know peoples opinions on which sounds the best and if anyone had any positive/negative experiences of either.

Below are the details for comparison. Both are 2 Year trackers.

Basically it comes down to nationwide being a slightly better rate, but costing considerably more in fees to set the mortgage up.

From my experience, Natwest have been much easier to contact when setting up the mortgage application appointments.

Im leaning towards Natwest but just wanted to get some other peoples opinions for peace of mind.

Regards

Ash

Natwest
Rate 4.69
Product Fee £0
Admin/Booking Fee £75
Basic Valuation Fee £182
Homebuyer Survey £376 ( inc basic survey )


Nationwide
Rate 4.63
Product fee £896
Admin/Booking Fee £99
Basic Valuation Fee £300
Homebuyer Survey £500( inc basic survey )

beecher2

First impressions are that they are 4% over base rate which seems incredibly high to me. What are the Early Repayment Charges and can you afford the rates if (when?) base rates increase over the next 2 years.

ashleypursglove

Thanks for the reply.

We are first time buyers with only a 10 deposit so these trackers are way under the 6%ish rates we could get on a fixed rate deal.

We can afford the current tracker prices with money to spare, and can afford the payments should the baserate jump by 2% before the end of the initial period.

Natwest have a 3% early repayment chanrge till end of the term
Nationwide have a 2.5% early repayment charge

optimus_prime_2

HSBC have a good lifetime tracker which is 3.99% over base, currently 4.49%, with no early repayment penalty and no exit fee. The product fee is £499 but this seems good as you can jump ship if the base rate did start to rise. Its available for 90% LTV too.

ashleypursglove

Optimus, We looked at that one but at the minute the way for us to get cheaper payments is to go with a 2 year deal then revert to the SMR of around 4% ( at the minute ), I just dont like the idea of a lifetime tracker.

Regards

optimus_prime_2

That is if the SMR is still 4% in 2 years time...Chances are that it will have increased.

ashleypursglove

True but then so will the baserate so the tracker rate will have increased also

suisidevw

Not going to recommend either of the products but will recommend Natwest. Faultless through every stage, all happened swiftly, lots of updates via text/phone call etc. A* from my experience.

MrandMrsWoo

ashleypursglove wrote: »

Hi All,

I have had an offer accepted on a property and need to get a full mortgage application asap.

I have shortlisted to 2 providers - Natwest and Nationwide. I was just wanting to know peoples opinions on which sounds the best and if anyone had any positive/negative experiences of either.

Below are the details for comparison. Both are 2 Year trackers.

Basically it comes down to nationwide being a slightly better rate, but costing considerably more in fees to set the mortgage up.

From my experience, Natwest have been much easier to contact when setting up the mortgage application appointments.

Im leaning towards Natwest but just wanted to get some other peoples opinions for peace of mind.

Regards

Ash

Natwest
Rate 4.69
Product Fee £0
Admin/Booking Fee £75
Basic Valuation Fee £182
Homebuyer Survey £376 ( inc basic survey )

Nationwide
Rate 4.63
Product fee £896
Admin/Booking Fee £99
Basic Valuation Fee £300
Homebuyer Survey £500( inc basic survey )

We can only speak of our experience of Nationwide.

As customers of Nationwide we have a Credit Card, Savings Account, FlexAccount and a previous loan all with them and all with perfect payment histories so for us it was only natural to head to Nationwide for our first mortgage. Like many (realistic) first time buyers we have a 10% deposit so decided to make an appointment with the Mortgage advisor at our local branch as the product we require is only available in that way.

So the first appointment went well we were told that on their affordability calculator we could borrow up to £184k with a 10% deposit. So happy with that and the reassurance that "I can't see any problems with your history" we started out search.

We found a house that we both fell in love with and decided that we should take a serious look so naturally we made another appointment with Nationwide to get a decision in principle before pushing on any further. The house in question is on the market for £152k so no problem,

We headed into Nationwide for our second visit pulling off all the detail we discussed before. The mortgage advisor apologised for running a little but she had just come off a call regarding the new affordability structure within mortgages but this should in "no way effect you". The details were entered onto the system and then all of a sudden a look of shock came across her face, she moved the screen towards her and a few minutes later revealed that under the new criteria we can lend a maximum of £78k.
Unfortunately she was unable to offer little reasoning and could not for the life of her explain why. No application was made, no searches were done but for some reason we just fell out of the box. Up to this point we have both been delighted with Nationwide services however to this day, on their website we can borrow £184k however when the numbers are crunched in the branch it is a different story.

Happily we called a broker and within 2 hours of walking out of Nationwide we had a decision in principle for much more than our house value and on the "normal" lending lines you see.

Unfortunately I don't think that Nationwide know what kind of customers they want for mortgages at this time. We speak with our advisor who has told us that in the last 4 weeks Nationwide has altered its lending criteria 3 times putting people in and out of acceptance all of the time, that for us is fine but I don't think this has been passed down the chain properly with all of their staff.

Good luck in your search!